Scott N. Flanders
Scott Flanders has been President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of directors of Freedom Communications since Jan. 1, 2006. Freedom Communications, www.freedom.com 1, is privately owned, with sales of $1 billion in newspapers, interactive media, and television stations; the 14th largest media company in the United States.
Prior to his appointment as CEO, Flanders was an Independent Director on Freedom’s Board for five years, and served as Chairman of both the Compensation and Nominating Committees.
He is the former Chairman and CEO of the Columbia House Company, the world’s oldest and largest direct marketer of music and video products, with revenues of over $1 billion.
Flanders joined Columbia House in September 1999, when he was recruited to be Chairman and CEO of the entity created through the merger of publicly traded online retailer CDNow and Columbia House. After determining that this merger was not in the best interests of the owners, he aborted the transaction in March 2000. AOL Time Warner and Sony Corporation, then 50/50 joint owners of Columbia House, asked him to lead a turnaround of the Columbia House business. By initiating significant management reorganization and a strategic shift in focus, Flanders returned Columbia House to profitability.
At the request of his Board, Flanders facilitated a leveraged buyout of Columbia House by The Blackstone Group in June 2002. In conjunction with the transaction, AOL Time Warner and Sony Corporation each retained minority ownership interests. In May 2005, Blackstone sold the company to Bertelsmann in a transaction which closed in July 2005.
In 1998, he co-founded Telstreet.com, an Indianapolis-based e-commerce company specializing in helping consumers shop for wireless products and services. He remained Chairman of Telstreet until the company merged with Buy.com in August 2000.
Flanders served as president of Macmillan Publishing, the world’s largest computer and reference publisher. The company’s revenues increased from $5 million to $500 million in fourteen years under his leadership.
His responsibilities at Macmillan spanned four of the company’s operating units: Macmillan Computer Publishing, Macmillan Reference Publishing, Macmillan Education and Training and Macmillan Digital. During his 14-year career at Macmillan, Flanders established Macmillan as the world’s largest computer book publisher and the first publisher of books about the Internet. Macmillan published hundreds of titles about the Internet, e-commerce and the leading Internet companies and was the first publisher to sell books on the Internet. When he left the company at the end of 1998, Macmillan ranked as the 10th largest publisher in America and the 4th largest Amazon vendor.
Flanders regularly participates in panels discussing the future of newspapers and new media at various events worldwide including the Mid-Year Media Review Roundtable in 2007. 2; 3. He often speaks about the media industry at such events as the International Newspaper Marketing Association’s World Congress in Paris in 2007, 4. His popular CEO Corner on Freedom’s Web site, 5, advises visitors and stakeholders about the future and changes occurring in the media industry, based on his experience, education and expertise.
He is a member of several Boards, with interests in media and technology including: the Newspaper Association of America’s Board of Directors (NAA); the Gazelle Fund, a mid-west oriented venture capital fund; and is a limited partner of Tri-Artisan Partners, a New York-based merchant bank. He is a former board member of the R.H. Donnelly Corp. (RHD). Flanders is also a member of the Columbia Business School Media Forum; and Board of Visitors of the Indiana School of Law. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, Calif.; is Vice Chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; and past Chairman of the Indianapolis Civic Theatre.
Flanders holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Colorado, received a Juris Doctorate from Indiana University and is also a C.P.A.