Sly Bailey: A smart cog in a big wheel

After Sly Bailey addressed IPC Media staff about the company's agreed take-over by AOL Time Warner last Thursday, she failed to make it to her desk the next day.

It was, said those who work closely with her, the first day she had taken off sick since becoming the chief executive of the magazine group 20 months earlier – and certainly had nothing to do with the champagne with which they had all toasted the deal.

They speculated about the toll recent months must have taken, months in which tough negotiations with the Americans were on one minute, off the next, as details of what, given regulatory approval, will be a £1.15bn deal were finalised. But they were absolutely confident that back behind her smoky-grey glass desk on the 17th floor of King's Reach Tower was where she would be by the beginning of the next week. Apparently, Sly Bailey is never ill. The thought of her taking more than one day off work was inconceivable.

And sure enough she was indeed back, cool and coiffed, dressed in a sharp black business suit, yesterday – for her first interview, not only since the announcement of the sale, but also since being elevated to the top position in December 1999. But she wanted no talk of stresses or strains. "The culmination of all that hard work was a pretty amazing feeling. We all felt elated," she says of the deal.

And as if to underline that her weekend of out-of-character sickness need not be taken as a sign of weakness, she adds: "But here we are on a Monday – and we have to stay focused."

Anybody who imagines that Bailey would ever take her eye off the ball for a moment has clearly never met her. The woman who left school to work as a shop assistant, started her media career in advertising sales and 15 years later was appointed chief executive is focused, if nothing else.

She was 38, and little-known outside IPC, when given the top job by Cinven, the venture capitalists who led the £860m management buyout of IPC from Reed Elsevier in 1998. Bailey was part of the original buy-out team, and chief executive was the job, she says, that she had always wanted. When it came her way it was as much of a surprise to her as to others. But it has certainly lived up to expectations. The past 18 months, she says, have been "slam-dunk astonishing".

"I feel such an important part of my role has been about delivering a successful exit for the business. This is the right home and the right exit," she says of the deal which, once the regulatory hurdles have been cleared, will see IPC Media nestling within Time Inc, the US's leading magazine company and the publisher of Time, Fortune and People.

The deal is undoubtedly a welcome exit route for Cinven, which, like all venture capitalists, had wanted a quick return on its investment. It had given Bailey three years to make such a move.

The strategic benefits for AOL Time Warner, in terms of expansion into Europe, are clear. But the advantages in the deal for IPC Media are less obvious. The company currently publishes some 100 titles in the UK, includingWoman, Family Circle and Horse & Hound, magazines so established that they almost feel like part of the social fabric; prime youth brands such as NME and Loaded; and the country's top-selling title, What's On TV.

Bailey says that the take-over by the US corporate will give IPC Media "the structure and ownership to build the business for the future".

She adds: "The past three years under Cinven have been a very good three years for the business, and we're very proud of that, but the relationship with a venture capitalist is a transient one. It's always a question of when, not if, you'll exit. This is the securing of a long-term future for IPC Media – and the right home.

"The great thing I saw about the Time Inc people is that they run the business in exactly the same way we do, in that they're passionate about this idea of decentralisation. That's something I've been working on for the past 18 months. It wasn't where we've come from, it wasn't the Reed Elsevier's way of doing things, it wasn't the business I inherited, but I just don't think you can run a modern media company in that very centralised, hierarchical way that perhaps we did in the past."

Nevertheless, she acknowledges that the move will, indeed, come with its challenges. "Clearly, we are all going to have to re-integrate into corporate life," she says. "In a way, the past three years have been very different for us as a stand-alone business. Now, there will be new parameters and new ways of working.

"But," she adds quickly, "the discussions I have had lead me to be very comfortable."

Bailey says that the important thing is to play IPC Media's new position as a small cog in a big wheel smartly. "So that you can use all of that leverage when you want to, and you can make it work for you. So that people still feel that they're in a business where they're very close to where the decisions are made, where ideas are developed," she explains.

She says, though, that she cannot elaborate on this; now is not the time to be making rash statements about the future. "We need to take our time, look at the core business and how we build on that and then take a look at other, new opportunities."

She is adamant that IPC Media will remain focused on its core business – magazines – and advocates caution in talking about cross-platform opportunities, saying that she won't be coming out with "the great visionary statements" of some media companies.

And though she talks about synergies with Time Inc, she says it remains to be seen where these lie.

During Bailey's time at the helm of IPC Media she has shaken up its strategy ("we weren't clear about where we were going and why"), its structure and its people. She has had little time for sentimentality, closing titles such as Melody Maker and Women's Realm. Some say she has been impatient for results – for example, she closed the re-launched Nova before it had time to establish itself.

But she has also proved brave, launching new titles in familiar IPC areas such as the women's market (Your Life), as well as into new terrain for the company (Web User). She has overseen the launch of many brand extensions as well as huge online investments.

"It's fair to say that I made decisions quickly," she says. "You have to be decisive. Is that brutal?"

For the past 20 months Bailey could be brutal, if she so desired. She has been the numero uno. However, with the take-over expected to be approved in four to six weeks' time, she will become answerable to Time Inc International's president and chief executive officer, Michael Pepe – a culture shock that she says she is prepared for, and by which she is unfazed.

"It's important for me to prepare myself. There may, and could, be differences," she says. "But differences don't necessarily mean difficulties."