The Improbable Story of the Monitor…

by Jerry Parrotto, Publisher Sept/Oct 2013
The story of the Monitor can be traced back to 1974, when Molloy Associates, an executive search firm, made the decision to promote its business by using a tabloid newsletter to stay in touch with a pool of industry-specific candidates that would serve as a reservoir for its search practice. As the Monitor evolved, readers began clamoring for more informational content, which served as a magnet for advertisers.

The story of the Monitor goes back to 1974, about six years after entrepreneur Michael Molloy launched Molloy Associates, an executive search firm that served the equipment finance and leasing industry nationwide. At the time, Molloy reasoned that by having such a publication, he could create a higher level of awareness for the firm’s in-house search assignments, thus improving the odds that members of the leasing community would call in to inquire about posted alternative career opportunities. The end-game of course was to promote the notion among perspective employers that this added-value feature was reason to believe that Molloy was in the best position to deliver on-target candidates to complete critical job-order assignments.

Little known to many in the industry was that Ron Caruso, former founder of R.H. Caruso, Inc. and creator of the Equipment Finance Journal, was the first “editor-in-chief” of the Monitor. After about one year, Caruso left the Monitor to launch his own publication (EFJ) in 1977 in support of a recruiting business focused on — you guessed it — the equipment finance industry. So, for many years, in addition to the ELA’s Equipment Leasing Today (ELT) magazine, through about the year 2000, Caruso was the only other independent publication serving our industry. So while there were many other recruiting firms that served the industry, the Monitor, along with the ELT and EFJ, competed for print readers and advertising dollars.

I joined Molloy Associates in 1985 after spending the first 15 years of my career in banking, with the balance, beginning in 1974 (I know, an odd coincidence) in equipment leasing — IVB Equipment Finance, Citicorp Leasing and MetLife Capital. As an aside, it was a fortuitous accident that I found myself in the equipment finance space as my only credential for passage was, as a retail lender, I was able to convince the bank they needed to be in the automobile leasing business to compete against First Pennsylvania. New to the business, we partnered with NYC-based Equilease to provide the debt in leverage lease transactions. In the spring of 1977, my life and future career was to change forever. I got a call from Mike Molloy who, after much persistence, convinced me to interview with Citicorp Leasing for a management position in Chicago. It was my first experience with an executive recruiter, which additionally served as an introduction to the entrepreneurial world of Molloy Associates and Mike Molloy.

Eight years later, I would return to Philadelphia to begin a new career as a “headhunter.”

So in 1985, after another experience with a search firm that led me to Seafirst Leasing, which became MetLife Capital, I negotiated a deal with Molloy to acquire Molloy Associates in partnership with several of his senior recruiters and, along with it, his fledgling tabloid newsletter, the Monitor.

The executive search business turned out to be a good move since I could relate to most of the senior executives I had the opportunity to work with as well as the recruiting team I inherited because I was able to bring an industry-specific perspective to the process of recruiting. Molloy had clearly established the Molloy Associates brand, which helped immensely as the foundation for growing the business. However, what I didn’t count on was the recession of 1990-1991 and how the reality of a Sub-Chapter S structure could unravel a small business. With partners bickering over having to pay taxes on distributions that were being withheld to get us through this difficult period, Molloy, a 50% owner at this point, thought it best to unwind the business. I was able to convince him that the Monitor had an established following of readers and many would be willing ante up and pay to sustain their subscriptions. Fortunately, the premise turned out to be true and just as important was our sense of opportunity to push the publication to another level and get more serious about serving the informational needs of our constituents. At the time, you could write a book about what I didn’t know about the publishing business. Back on our feet, it was time to push the envelope and try to provide a benchmarking edition that would be a first for the industry.

The idea was born in an office in New York as I was waiting to meet with a perspective customer regarding our recruiting services. On the coffee table in the lobby was a copy of the Asset Finance Digest, a UK publication with the blurb “World’s Largest Leasing Companies” emblazoned on the cover. Naturally curious, I turned to the article and found a listing of 88 global companies — including all of the auto finance captives — many showing data that was clearly “estimated.” On the drive back to Philly, I couldn’t help but keep repeating the phrase “Monitor 100” over and over until it became an obsession. As an aside I was also thankful that Mike Molloy had the prescience to use a one word title for the publication, i.e., rhymes with Fortune 500.

It didn’t take long for us to figure out that it would not be easy because most of the Monitor 100 companies do not publish information on their equipment finance and leasing activity. And getting 100 or more to participate given such a daunting challenge seemed, at first, insurmountable. But when we reached out to our constituents and explained what we were up to, we were pleasantly surprised at the enthusiasm that came through to support the project. And so the Monitor 100 was born with the very first edition published in 1992 — a legacy to all folks who said “yes,” which served to perpetuate this annual event for 22 years.

Just as the recession of 1990-1991 spawned the birth of the Monitor as a serious publication so too did the recession of 2001 create the circumstance under which the Monitor’s sister publication, ABF Journal, was born. Conceived as a counter cyclical strategy to offset the negative impact on equipment purchases during a downturn, the ABF Journal found a niche in the asset-based lending segment where the informational needs of this community were seemingly underserved. It helped that many of these new readers worked alongside peers in the leasing industry, as both product specialties tended to be housed under one umbrella commonly referred to as specialty lending. So in the fall of 2001, the first ABF Journal made its debut at the Commercial Finance Association’s conference in New York. This was followed by the formal launch of the ABF Journal into the asset-based lending space in 2002 with its inaugural line-up of ten issues per year. And despite the ensuing recession of 2003-2004, we had established enough of a presence in both markets to bridge to the other side — over the next three years we enjoyed the benefit of being the only independent publisher in either market. But then the Great Recession hit and everything changed. It was a rough ride that was made somewhat tougher as the executive search business literally went away. However, because we added a serious second publication to go along with the Monitor and expanded our reach to include online, digital and email delivery of our content, we were able to adapt and weather the storm.

It’s important to note that the publishing business itself has gone through an evolution of its own with advent of technology and a changing demographic of its readers. As a print publisher, we’ve had to adjust and adapt to change, but one constant remains an imperative: the need to never compromise the quality of our content. We trust you’ve enjoyed this brief trip down memory lane. For me, it’s been a great ride and something I would’ve never imagined in my wildest dreams. I can only thank all the people I’ve had the pleasure to get to know along the way — it’s been a journey like no other.

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