Who’s Martin Porter (and Should You Care?)

Martin Porter is a writer

Back in the eighties, he was working out of his apartment in Brooklyn Heights, making a living generating articles for GQ, Premiere, Rolling Stone, PC Magazine, and others. His Simon & Schuster book on home video was selling nicely too. But he wanted to get out of the house.

So he started coming up with ideas. A Buyer’s Guide Series for Video Magazine. Custom Publishing for Ziff Davis. Ad campaigns featuring endorsements from Bonnie Raitt and Aerosmith. And he created his own magazines: Car Sound, AutoMedia, Surround. Then conferences and awards: the Surround Conference and Surround Music Awards. He hired some incredibly bright, talented people, and built MP&A Editorial. He sold the company to United Business Media, parent of CMP Media. in 1999.

This was his MBA in business. In fact, CMP even sent him to study at the London Business School. He survived the dot-com days with an intact series of web sites, Creative Planet. He redesigned eleven titles, launched new titles in the custom installation market (Residential Systems), sports television market (Sports TV), developed custom projects for CEA, Sony, Harman and others. He figured out how to beat a declining B2B ad environment. Oh, and he exceeded budget every year. How? By redefining the nature of B2B publishing.

2005. It was time to move on. It was time to get back to the creative roots that had been so graciously accommodated during his five-year stint at CMP. Porter wanted to make some investments…and he had ideas.

So, it’s another day, and another idea.

©2005 -2015 Martin Porter Associates