Printing and Publishing Industry Veteran Mark Harris Passes at Age 69
Mark Harris
Mark Harris, owner, and founder of NPS Media Group, passed away last week at the age of 69. Mark worked in the magazine industry his entire career starting out at The New York Times Publishing Company in the late 1970’s, working on newsstand distribution. He quickly rose the ranks to an Executive level position as VP of Business Development at Curtis Circulation Company. True to his entrepreneurial spirit and savvy business acumen, Mark had a vision to fill an important void in the industry. Along with his business partner, Bob McIlwain, he became a very early adopter of the consultant services approach to the industry. In 1991, National Publisher Services, Inc. (NPS) hung its shingle as a newsstand marketing consultancy.
Over the decades, Mark established NPS as a premier publisher service outsourcing firm and agency. The NPS business model was met with a positive reception from the publishing community and was quickly replicated. One of NPS’s first clients was Reiman Publishing, which grew to substantial levels in the mid-1990’s before selling off its brands to Reader’s Digest. The other notable early client was WWE, The Magazine, which had a thriving newsstand presence in the 1990’s. Quickly, Mark learned that publishers had a need for other consultative and outsourcing functions, and NPS began to offer support for circulation management, which now represents the majority of NPS’s business.
A passionate businessman, Mark took NPS to new heights in the late 2000’s establishing a joint venture with USA Today to launch a successful SIP newsstand business. The inaugural issue covered the life of Michael Jackson and generated north of 350,000 units sold. Mark and NPS were first to market, and this effort led to a multi-year magazine business partnership with USA Today spanning more than 100 newsstand releases. Mark had good instincts, understood the market, and was highly motivated to expand his company to new heights.
Fry Communications, a magazine and catalog printer in Pennsylvania, became equal owners with Mark in NPS in 2010 as part of its investment in its “Fry Family Network” of services for its publishing clientele. “We were so proud to partner with an industry giant like Mark,” said David Fry, “and to make his expertise available to our customers. As the market changed over the last 15 years, he was constantly innovating to find new solutions for content owners. He was incredibly creative and hardworking. And just helluva of a lot of fun to work with. He’s going to be missed by so many people."
As business partners, one of their first acts was to acquire Circulation Specialists, Inc. (a full-service subscription marketing agency) and Evergreen Marketing (a boutique list management and brokerage company, and subscription agency for UK-based publishers looking to grow in North America). In 2012, with this acquisition, NPS rebranded itself to NPS Media Group, which is the current name of the company today.
Since 2012, Mark has owned magazines and websites, served as President & Publisher of a company acquired by David Fry (I-5 Publishing), and continued to establish several joint ventures where NPS would handle all publishing operations, including editorial, print production, sourcing of paper and manufacturing, and ad sales management. Mark, andhis partner David Fry, understood the need to offer publishers all the services that many small media companies could not staff properly with industry experts.
Mark has left an indelible mark on the publishing industry. With his experience as a publisher and key service vendor, he recognized the need to help small- and mid-sized publishers gain access to better intelligence, resources, and benefit from economies of scale. NPS grew from a small, 3-person team to its current state of 35+ employees.
His business approach always boiled down to creating a simple win-win-win scenario, where all parties involved achieved benefits, and that simple motto served him well all these years. Mark leaves behind a successful publishing services company in very good hands and under the leadership of his original business partner, and co-founder, Bob McIlwain.
David Fry remarked, “Our commitment to NPS is unchanged. Mark filled out the company with experts up and down the organization, and we’re confident that Bob and the team will continue serving its clients as before.”
The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions.
