Sam Holdsworth, former editor-in-chief and writer of Billboard, died Might 18 of a coronary heart assault. He was 72.
Holdsworth, who was additionally co-founder of Musician journal, was a part of a consortium that purchased Billboard Publications Inc. (BPI) in 1984 from the Littleford household in a transfer that led him to turn out to be Billboard’s writer.
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The consortium was helmed by investor Boston Ventures and an inner BPI administration group fronted by Holdsworth and Jerry Hobbs in a transfer that was seen as a non-disruptive technique to preserve BPI — which included Billboard, Musician and Amusement Enterprise, amongst different titles — intact. Hobbs, who had served as government vp of BPI and Billboard’s writer, turned president/CEO of the brand new entity, whereas Holdsworth turned writer of Billboard after which writer/editor-in-chief. BPI had bought Musician in 1981, which introduced Holdsworth into the corporate.
“As writer, Sam had a beautiful calming affect on throughout him in an in any other case irritating publishing surroundings. I’ll all the time respect the religion he confirmed in me and his willingness to delegate essential duties to his trusted administration staff,” Ken Schlager, who served as managing editor beneath Holdsworth, tells Billboard.
“He and Jerry Hobbs introduced Billboard into a brand new period,” says Adam White, who was Billboard‘s editor-in-chief when Holdsworth turned writer, earlier than leaving in 1985 after which coming again as worldwide editor in 1989. “For that alone, he ought to be remembered.”
Holdsworth and his childhood pal, Gordon Baird, based Musician journal in 1976. “He was the brains and style and I used to be the mouth and power…Our early days as {a magazine} for varsity music packages had been so rocky, till Sam proposed a pointy left flip after our first 12 months to jazz and rock,” Baird wrote in a chunk printed Monday (June 10) in Massachusetts’ The Gloucester Occasions. The 2 had met in Gloucester 70 years earlier as tots, as their moms had been greatest mates.
With its new route, Musician shortly turned a must-read for music aficionados and artists alike and was capable of appeal to top-notch music journalists who appreciated the belief Holdsworth gave them to steer their very own items. “Sam was capable of cajole them in to writing main items at a fraction of the value [that Rolling Stone paid writers],” Baird continued. “The photogs adopted. Musician took off. Readers got here to us, report firm publicists got here to us, Paul McCartney got here to us, Springsteen, Michael Jackson, George Harrison, Bono, Clapton and Steely Dan got here to us to be interviewed. Sam’s system was the music first and the approach to life a distant second.”
When BPI approached Holdsworth and Baird to purchase Musician, “Sam was completely visionary and bargained for half the acquisition value in Billboard inventory,” Baird added.
“At the moment, I used to be accountable for the expansion and growth of Billboard and its quite a few ancillary merchandise,” Hobbs says. “After a lunch in NYC, we shortly determined the match could be one and in early 1981 our partnership started when Billboard Publications acquired [Musician]. Little did we anticipate our relationship could be so fruitful, thrilling and long-lasting. Furthermore, that it’d evolve right into a lifelong private friendship.”
Hobbs had discovered the right accomplice to assist notice his objective of buying and increasing BPI to incorporate not solely music properties but in addition these dedicated to movie and theater in addition to artwork and design. “Throughout my first 12 months working with Sam, his skills, character and entrepreneurial spirit turned obvious,” Hobbs says. “I spotted I’d want a accomplice to assist orchestrate a deal, increase the funds and execute on a plan we’d develop to take the enterprise ahead.”
Hobbs and Holdsworth’s plan modified how Billboard moved ahead with a mannequin that also works immediately. “We had been eager to develop information to enrich and broaden the data we’d collect for our publications and the audiences we served,” Hobbs says. “In impact, we’d make the most of Billboard because the mannequin for our new enterprise. Not like most different B2B publishers then who had been primarily depending on advertisers for his or her income, we wished to create and personal services and products that our audiences could be prepared to pay for to obtain.”
In 1994, Dutch writer VNU acquired the American titles, at which level Holdsworth left Billboard and moved along with his household to New Mexico. He later turned a part of an funding group led by JP Morgan Companions. One among their acquisitions was Ryko Company, which included the Rykodisc label; Holdsworth oversaw the corporate till Warner Music Group purchased it in 2006. “He was superb at wanting past the previous and round the nook,” says Baird, who talked to Holdsworth hours earlier than he died. “He was additionally good at being the in proper place at the proper time for a few of these label buyouts and gross sales, some of them got here to him.”
Holdsworth continued to work with investments, in addition to paint and write, from his farm in Silver Metropolis, N. Mex. He was engaged on the farm when his coronary heart assault occurred. On the time of his dying, he was managing director of Sword, Rowe and Firm, a New Jersey-based funding banking and Mergers & Acquistions agency, in keeping with his LinkedIn profile.
As Hobbs says, Holdsworth possessed a uncommon mix of each artistic and enterprise acumen and had a discerning eye. “‘Sam was, certainly, a Renaissance man. He exhibited an alluring mix of the necessary traits: authenticity, creativity, curiosity and resilience, the sine qua non components that draw folks in,” Hobbs says. “And he by no means confused probably the most with one of the best.”
Survivors embody Holdsworth’s spouse, Betsy, and his three kids.
