Michael Lonier

As someone who was interested in photography and the media from a young age—he began experimenting with a box camera in grade school and even started his own neighborhood newspaper as a child—Michael Lonier dreamt of becoming a photographer for Life magazine. Shortly after completing graduate school, in the late 1970s, he landed at Time Inc.'s production office in Chicago just in time to work on the rebirth of Life (which had shuttered about six years earlier) as a monthly. While not working behind a camera for the storied magazine, he did begin a decade-long tenure at Time Inc., just one facet of an accomplished career in production that has earned him an induction this year into the Publishing Executive Hall of Fame. "Each stop [in my career], I have been fortunate to be driving significant innovation and organization change," says Lonier. "I've known Michael a very long time, and his breadth of experience has enabled him to clearly understand most facets of the … media business," says Kit Taylor, COO, New York Magazine. "His broad perspective helps him to provide comprehensive solutions and strategic plans." At Time Inc., Lonier spearheaded the transition from two-color shipped film and Nylo plates for converted letterpresses to run-of-press, full-color for Time, Sports Illustrated, People, Fortune, Money and Life. Additionally, his department moved from buying out conventional film-based prepress to producing it entirely digitally, both text and graphics, transmitting data via a shared HBO satellite bandwidth to 10 domestic and six international locations. "The competitive lift this gave to our news business in the 1980s was enormous and brought forward the era of digital prepress for the entire publishing industry," he says. In the 1990s, Lonier and his wife, Elaine Fry—vice president of manufacturing and production at Forbes Media LLC and a 2006 inductee into the Publishing Executive Hall of Fame—started their own company, Yuey/Lonier Inc., a technology and operations consulting firm, and soon thereafter, a division called The Color Bureau, a digital prepress and photo studio. Clients included The New Yorker, Boys' Life, IEEE, Hearst and Reader's Digest. Lonier then moved on to Thomson Reuters Healthcare, where his achievements included developing a concise database for a new, PDA-based mobilePDR (Physicians' Desk Reference) product, and relaunching a dozen medical magazine websites. Moving Beyond the Traditional Today, Lonier serves as chief information officer and vice president of operations at The Deal LLC, a financial information provider, where he has worked for five years. According to Lonier, The Deal hired him to integrate print and digital so the company could begin to move beyond the traditional business-to-business model. "Since then, we've transformed the business from a traditional, diversified b-to-b to a high-value enterprise information service," he says. Among his initiatives that led to this transformation, his department adopted PDF-X-1a workflows, rebuilt and virtualized its back office and color production systems, built a marketing database from a legacy subscription file, and installed new enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management systems. One of the biggest challenges Lonier currently faces in his work is one he feels is facing the industry as well—understanding project management, including what it is, why it's needed, how it works, and who does what during any stage of a project. "In my job, I have to be a broken record about keeping project management discipline, and finding the right approach for each project," he says. "Publishing is … a tough, competitive business," Lonier adds, "a daily battle to keep innovating, adding product functionality, system support and better workflows." If Lonier's career thus far is any indication, he is bound to be on the front lines as that publishing battle wages on. "Michael has always approached challenges with a high-level view, making certain that he and his colleagues fully understand the desired end result," says Taylor. "… [Then] he begins to drill down and find the appropriate short-term and/or long-term solution. … He has a good eye for talent and knows how to best use the skill set of those around him. "Michael is deserving of this honor because he has consistently contributed very thoughtful, strategic and diligent technical support to every enterprise with which he has been associated," she adds. PE

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Michael Lonier

Janet Spavlik

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Janet Spavlik