In the realm of triathlon, many thought John Duke was a combination of Rupert Murdoch and Hunter Thompson. But the truth is that Duke was an entrepreneurial spirit who controlled a small fiefdom in a niche sport without the mighty corporate touch of a Murdoch. And while Duke had a wild streak and said outrageous things and portrayed himself as an Attila the Hun capitalist, in his dealings with athletes, coaches, advertisers and manufacturers, he had a far subtler touch that arose from an understanding and love of the sport. The fact was that the man hid behind an outrageous façade and actually helped out a number of down and out folks – even old enemies – in secret.
Duke was and is part of triathlon’s inner core - the group of remarkable people based in San Diego’s North County who founded and brought the sport into the mainstream. In addition to bringing Triathlete magazine into a dominant place in the market, he co-founded the Multisport School of Champions with Paula Newby-Fraser and John Howard, and helped fuel and nurture the professional careers of Ironman greats like Peter Reid, Natascha Badmann, Greg Welch, and Paula Newby-Fraser as the headhunter and allocator of big money Reebok sponsorships.
When the ambitious Falconhead group bought Triathlete, as well as its old rival Inside Triathlon, plus Competitor and Velo News, Duke was made head of the editorial division. Under Duke’s guidance, all four titles made profits during a severe economic downturn. But ultimately, his style clashed hard with the new corporate reality. CGI decided to move Duke from control of his babies and gave him a generous offer to start up a new sprint triathlon series.
Duke, who had presided over a painful series of cost-cutting firings to serve the corporation that might have served as a template for George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air, decided he would not take the offer. After some time to reflect, Duke shared his thoughts on his life and career and uncertain future with Slowtwitch’s Timothy Carlson.
Slowtwitch: How was Triathlete magazine doing when you took over in 1997?
John Duke: When I took it over in ’97, Triathlete was by far the number two triathlete magazine. It was losing half a million bucks a year. It was on the verge of bankruptcy. In October of that year I was in Kona sitting across from the Ironman finish line when Jean Claude Garot, the Belgian owner, said “You must run the magazine.”
ST: How far did Triathlete come in the 12 years you ran it?
John: I got back to California and got copy of the books and realized they were not able to pay me. Slowly but surely, I used my resources and friends in the industry, and got the magazine profitable. In 1998 Triathlete made $200,000 profit. Recently, Triathlete made over $1.5 million year net profit. I am very proud of what Triathlete has become and I am proud of the team that helped me make it what it is today.
ST: What started you on the road to magazine publishing?
John: While in college, I worked for Karter News – that’s go-karts -- and became editor and eventually ran the International Kart Federation. You never know how you end up with a job like that but the age of 23 I thought that I would be stuck with that kart magazine the rest of my life. I was so unhappy. One day Dick Day, the vice president of the Petersen Publishing Group, called and asked me if I wanted to run an automotive magazine – Hot Rod. I thought ‘Who’s kidding me?’ Turns out he was legit, and I became editor of Hot Rod Magazine.
ST: Were you a gear head?
John: I was not into hot rods at all. I was not a hot rodder, nor was I a karter. I looked for options and ended up doing some other things in the political arena. I became the executive director for a group of high performance warehouse distributors. There were a lot of challenges facing that industry at the time. The Clean Air Act and Air Resources Board were attacking pollution, and the high performance industry seemed on the brink of extinction. Then I got lucky. Ronald Reagan was elected President and our group found our agenda easier to move forward.
ST: So when and how did you discover triathlon?
John: I found triathlon at the same time as I was working in the automotive industry. How did I find triathlon? Ironically, I was going through my first divorce and my neighbor Jim Riley, who was one of the founders of Tinley performance apparel, lived across the street from me and told me if I did Ironman Hawaii, that would be a good way to meet women. I never fathomed what Ironman was, but the possibility of meeting girls was good enough for me.
ST: When did you do your first triathlon?
John: I did my first Ironman in October of 1982.
ST: Inspired by Julie Moss?
John: I saw the February race on TV – but after I signed up. When I saw the TV show and saw Julie crawling, I said ‘Oh crap. What have I signed up for?’ Regardless I continued to train in my own fashion. There was no knowledge base out there about how to train for Ironman. So I did what I thought I had to do. I had run just one marathon at that point. So when I got to Kona, I was totally unprepared with very low expectations.
ST: How long did it take?
John: I finished it in 12:24. I had done long rides and runs. But in hindsight I was grossly undertrained. I did the race on a $300 Nishiki and a borrowed helmet. I swam in Quicksilver board shorts. Every leg of the race I finished was a total surprise. When I crossed the line no one was as surprised as me.
ST: What was your reaction?
John: When I set out to do it, I was not committed to the sport. But the minute I crossed the finish line it made me a lifelong devotee. I had found something inside me I did not know existed. This is a common chord with people who get into triathlon. When I put myself versus an ultimate challenge, I found I had the ability to accomplish things beyond my reach. That has helped guide my life ever since. You always call upon the memory of that challenge when facing life’s difficulties.
ST: Was there a steady climb in Triathlete circulation from 1997 to today?
John: Yes. We got traction immediately once I built a staff of insiders. Prior to my tenure the magazine was staffed by outsiders with no understanding of the sport.
ST: So how did you make your pitch to run the magazine?
John: On my first day I went to La Jolla to meet with Scott Kyle and Mitch Thrower who had just purchased 50% interest in Triathlete. They wanted me to re-launch the magazine Winning, which had been a cycling title run by Jean Claude, to cover adventure racing [also triathlon, cycling, running, swimming] I told them: “You guys shouldn’t worry about adventure racing.” They said Triathlete is a very successful magazine. I said “It actually sucks.” Jean Claude Garot said “What sucks means?” “It means it’s a piece of crap. It’s horrible.”
ST: Once you had it, what did you do and how did you compete with IT?
John: Slowly but surely we changed the content. We added an authoritative narration and built the credibility. We went from there. At the start, we were in competition with Inside Triathlon, which was owned by Felix Magowan, who owned Velo News. Nobody there was a triathlete. They became number one because they were a legitimate publishing company but their triathlon staff and coverage was far from legit. I brought legitimacy and brought an authoritative voice. Year by year the quality of Triathlete got better and more focused. Ad sales got better. The triathlon industry was my family and my family supported me and I supported them. I think I helped build businesses. Graham Fraser and Triathlon North America is an example of one of many. We worked together and our businesses grew together.
ST: Tell us about your strategy of bargain rates for ads.
John: It had a lot to do with our success. When their ads helped their businesses, our clients helped us in return. At the same time I wanted to destroy Inside Triathlon, and became sort of Attila the Hun. I made deals with people for 100 percent of their ad budgets. I told them if they would give me all your advertising they would get (a favorable) X rate. But if I saw them place an ad in Inside Triathlon, they would get (an unfavorable) Y rate.
ST: Did bargain rates pay off?
John: All those deals were on a case by case basis, based on what they could afford to pay. The rates were not dramatically low. They were a dollar less than Felix charged. We had their circulation beat three to one. But they wanted to charge a higher page rate and had 1/3 the circulation. Those mathematics just did not work.
ST: The Multisport School of Champions training camps for novice and amateur triathletes played a big role in the growth of the sport. Did you foresee the large effect it would have?
John: The smartest thing I did in building the Multisport camps was to be friends with Paula Newby-Fraser. I could not have done it without her. She is the most famous triathlete of all time. The second smartest thing was to register the name – Multisports.com. No one thought to do it back in 1991. I had a dinner with her and John Howard at Roxy in Encinitas and we came up with a plan. Later Roch Frey and Paul Huddle, who are arguably the greatest coaches in this sport, joined us. They have both coached many Ironman Champions and thousands of our campers. Today we have a lot of competition. One of our biggest competitors is Mark Allen. He got his start in the field working our camps. He has since brought his business to a very high level with Mark Allen Online. But we worked with him in the early days. We were first and foremost and founders of the coaching space.
ST: How big is it now?
John: Nowadays it is very successful. Multisports.com was built on the backs of Roch and Paul. Paula and I gave them the launching pad, but they were the rockets.
ST: You used a lot of stars and they made connections with age group triathletes that had a huge ripple effect in growing the sport.
John: Some of the people we had in our camps: Peter Reid, Lori Bowden, Michellie Jones and, Greg Welch, really helped with the growth of the sport.
ST: You also were instrumental in getting very lucrative contracts for deserving triathletes with Reebok. You helped make the sport offer viable careers.
John: It all started when I worked with Tinley before they sold the company to Reebok. When Reebok purchased Tinley, they hired me to put together a Multisport program. We signed on as Ironman Hawaii footwear sponsors. Reebok got a lot of good press and achieved good traction in the triathlon market. Early on Pat Hambrick, Vice President of Marketing for Reebok told me it was great we had such good presence in Kona but she was tired of seeing other brands on the feet of the winners. They told me to find some winners. Well, I had this kid Peter Reid house sitting for me and watching my dogs. With Peter, I saw some talent. I said I will sign you to a global contract if you do well at Kona. He finished 4th and got that global contract and went on to win Hawaii three times and finished second twice. My other great find was Natascha Badmann. At the time she was a secretary to the president of Reebok Switzerland. She had a phenomenal race in Zofingen. I thought Christ this woman can win Hawaii the way she biked. The only trouble was she did not speak any English. I said if you come and race, we will give you a contract. She was not too keen on it because of her poor English. But she came and she finished second in Kona, and went on to become the second greatest Ironman woman ever (she won it six times). In my tenure at Reebok I brought in Michellie Jones, Greg Welch, Erin Baker, Christian Bustos and even Paula in the end. I gave Reebok the greatest triathlon program of any footwear brand. But they had track and field myopia – in the eyes of Reebok, a Multisport program was the stepchild to track and Shaq.
But once Reebok withdrew its Multisport program, Newton began a Multisport program. When Danny Abshire launched Newton, we signed on those athletes. And we also found another guy – Craig Alexander who now has two Kona crowns to his credit.
ST: Like Murphy Reinschreiber, you laid down the law to top triathletes that winning wasn’t the only thing in endorsements. That only got you in the door.
John: I only worked with the athletes who “got it”. Many of today’s triathletes never race for love of sport. They race for the money. I believe there are exceptions – but many entered the sport to be a pro. In years gone by, the athletes raced for the love of the sport and later figured out they could make a living. The athletes I worked with were gracious, appreciative of where their money came from and willing to go out of their way for sponsors. They did not suffer from a sense of entitlement. Most of the people I worked with made so much more money than most of today’s athletes because they knew that winning a race was just part of the equation - not the only part.
ST: Which makes for a long career.
John: Yes. For example, I believe Michellie Jones’ post racing career will find her to be a valuable contributor to her sponsors, such as Newton and 2XU. She is incredibly engaging with the consumers. Murphy Reinschreiber also made a lot of money for his athletes because he schooled them as to the proper way to be an endorser (not just an athlete).
(ed) Part 2 of the John Duke interview will follow in a few days.
