Honoring their mom’s legacy, Eric Hoffman and his twin brother Brian Hart Hoffman, are leading Hoffman media to new heights, two years after Hoffman Media founder Phyllis Hoffman DePiano died. Eric is the CEO of the company and Brian is the COO. Eric brought the business to new heights and Brian brought the content to new heights. Between the two of them, Hoffman Media is a thriving magazine, video, events and book publishing business.
I had the opportunity to interview Eric Hoffman who is determined on focusing the business. We talked about the new book publishing venture, the new business model for the magazines, the events and retreats that Hoffman Media is hosting, and the video shows and programs.
Eric is very optimistic about the future of the business and places the biggest bet on his people. He places, in his words, “a lot of emphasis on our people and values our company culture, being a family business.” He is both happy and proud that it is a family business and that they have no outside investors. He told me, “Being family owned and being private and not having outside investors, it gives you a lot of latitude that, unfortunately, our industry, so many along the way, have been bought, sold, bankrupt, shut down, relaunched.”
As for AI, Eric is joining The Magazine Coalition in an advisory capacity and is working with Michael Simon to ensure that magazines receive what they deserve from the AI companies. Eric is quick to mention that “100 percent, we will never be creating content with AI.”
So, without further ado, please join me in reading what Hoffman Media is up to and enjoy my interview with Eric Hoffman, CEO, Hoffman Media.
But first, the soundbites:
On the new book publishing business: “Our imprint, 83 Press, 83 as a nod to 1983 when she (Phyllis Hoffman DePiano) started the company.”
On the event business: “For example, Bake from Scratch magazine alone will do over 15 events all around the world.”
On the magazine business: “In the core magazines, you’ll see that we still very much value print. We value our print media. But magazine revenue is only about 50% of the company’s total revenue now. Much in part to subscription, it’s still a very stable business.”
On the new offices in downtown Birmingham: “The creative center that we have now really does lend itself to thinking about the future of the business with digital, with video. Our test kitchens are second to none.”
On what should AI companies offer the magazine companies: “I do think that there are some clear opportunities for the publishing industry to flex that muscle and have the proper representation to let the AI world properly compensate but also let publishers then have a true path to partner.”
On a major highlight of his tenure at Hoffman Media: “I would say that 83 Press, our book publishing side.”
On the role his twin Brian plays: “What he’s done is taking his passion for travel and his passion for baking and really build something that harnesses all that.”
On what keeps him up at night: “What keeps you up at night is the several places in this business that can scale, well beyond where we are today. We are about 33 million in revenue and, my brother and I’ve set the target that we can reach to 50 million in the next five years.”
And now for the lightly edited conversation with Eric Hoffman, CEO, Hoffman Media:
Samir Husni: It has been a little bit over two years since your mom died and you and your brother, took the lead and moved Hoffman Media into new grounds. I know you’re a private company, but imagine you are reporting to a shareholder meeting. What would you tell them? What have you done in those two years?
Eric Hoffman: Sure. First, we very much honor her legacy. We place a lot of emphasis on our people and value our company culture, being a family business. I would say that the biggest thing that we’ve tackled over the last couple of years is focusing the business. We had 11 magazine brands.
We consolidated a couple of them, so we have eight magazine brands today. But what we found is that there’s significant growth opportunities in our book publishing business. Our imprint, 83 Press, 83 as a nod to 1983 when she (Phyllis Hoffman DePiano) started the company.
Our book publishing will be approaching close to 30% of our revenues this year. Then the event side of the business is just amazing. For example, Bake from Scratch magazine alone will do over 15 events all around the world.
We’ve got events in France, Sweden, Italy. We’ve got two next year in Japan. We’re seeing an amazing way to take the core magazine brands and build out the other revenue streams in a significant and very intentional way.
Going through the journey of losing her, it allowed Brian and I to really challenge the business model and figure out where do we want to focus going forward. In the core magazines, you’ll see that we still very much value print. We value our print media.
But magazine revenue is only about 50% of the company’s total revenue now. Much in part to subscription, it’s still a very stable business. We’ve pulled back a lot on the newsstands.
Newsstand used to be, as you know, a very large piece of our business. It’s not even 10% of the revenues now. We’re focusing a lot more on subscription.
Then on the digital side, we’re doing a lot more with video. We’re in our fourth year of a wonderful partnership with Williams-Sonoma. In fact, it’s Monday, so today is Baking School. Monday nights at seven, we do a live baking class. We film it right out of our studios in Birmingham and have several hundred attendees participate online.
It’s become a great brand builder. If I was to say, what have we done the most, I think focus keeps coming to mind. With that, 2024, we produced revenue growth and profitability growth, which is exciting.
Coming into 2025, we’re feeling great about the pipeline that we’ve got. I will say that even just in the core business, what we found is advertising is growing. We were up double-digit last year.
I think we’re tracking to beat that number again, probably up another 10%. We’re seeing advertisers are valuing the quality of the readership, which you and I have talked about for the better part of 18 years now. We’re seeing that shift to where people want high quality, they want engagement.
One of the things that Hoffman Media can bring to our clients is we’re great at the content business. We’ve been producing content for over 40 years. Now we’re able to turn the power of the publisher to the benefit of the client.
We’re doing a lot of interesting things like developing cookbooks for our advertising food brand clients. We’re doing video where we’re leveraging our test kitchens and our video teams. It’s been really exciting to see that shift.
I told this story the other day, and you’ll really appreciate this. When I joined Hoffman Media in 2007, the business was about the same size as we are revenue-wise today. Think about that.
We were 100% magazine, and probably 30% to 40% of the business was newsstand. But in totality, Cooking with Paula Deen magazine was over 80% of our revenues. We had private equity owners that owned half the business.
If you look at the 18-year progression of being with the company, not only Cooking with Paula Deen’s magazine sunset last year, so it’s not even in the business. We’ve shifted the business entirely to offset that. Along the way, we ended up buying out our private equity investors in 2012.
It’s just been a long but exciting journey. I must get you to Birmingham. One of the things we did coming out of COVID, we bought a building downtown Birmingham right in the heart of the city and redeveloped it.
The creative center that we have now really does lend itself to thinking about the future of the business with digital, with video. Our test kitchens are second to none. We’re using that.
We do a lot of consumer events in our space. We host advertisers in our space. It really gave us that thrust forward to lean into where we think the future of the business is going.
It’s been exciting. Mom got to see that project come to the finish line. We keep her office for her there every day. My brother and I, keep a lamp on her desk. It’s still there. Can’t touch it. Don’t turn it off.
Samir Husni: That’s great. You’re keeping up with the change. Change is happening faster than any time in our lifetime.
Where does AI fit in all the change that’s taken place? Do you use it? Is it a thief? Is it a helper? Where does AI fit in the equation of what you’re doing?
Eric Hoffman: I would say one is, I think we’re early in thinking about AI. 100 percent, we will never be creating content with AI. We’re fundamental believers in the power of our people, our creativity, our brands being authentic.
We always want that to be a pillar by which we stand on. But if you think about processes and things that can be automated, sure. There’re some things that we’re looking at.
But again, I would say we’re early in it. I have followed closely, in terms of the industry, just what’s going on. I know that Michael Simon and his team with the Magazine Coalition is certainly resonating very well with us.
We’re joining the Magazine Coalition. I’ve asked to help Michael in an advisory capacity to really get some momentum because I do think that our industry needs to have the proper representation. I think that the AI companies must accept that they’ve done things to violate copyright and learn off the backs of publishers.
I would say, I think enthusiast publishers that have very niche content that’s very deep in nature. I think there’s some things that will play out there. I think there’s been precedent with a lot of the larger publishers have already had settlements and licensing agreements put in place.
Gaining some traction there for the rest of the industry is important. I chaired IMAG back in the day when all the independent magazines association was together. I got to see it very young in my career, the cohesiveness of our industry, enthusiast publishers, independent publishers from across the country coming together and sharing in our learnings and having that representation.
I would say that some of that’s not as in place as it used to be with some of the consolidation with associations and everything else. I do think that there are some clear opportunities for the publishing industry to flex that muscle and have the proper representation to let the AI world properly compensate but also let publishers then have a true path to partner. That’s still early, but there’s something coming there.
I’m excited to help Michael and his team there. I think there’s a lot of action there.
Samir Husni: Is Bake from Scratch now the cornerstone of Hoffman Media? It just celebrated its10-years anniversary.
Eric Hoffman: Yes, Bake from Scratch is our most profitable brand. It is by far and away our most followed digitally on social media. I would say that when you think about just the quintessential enthusiast magazine brand that started with a newsstand special, we tested it, saw that we had something there, got the subscription side going. I give 100% credit to Brian.
He came up with this idea truly from scratch. He’s just plowing his passion and energy into that brand. It’s very reminiscent of how my mother started the business with her own interests and her own hobbies.
We have an annual cookbook. We have these events around the globe. We’ve got this Monday night video partnership with Williams-Sonoma, that is a real revenue generator, and the magazine. It’s the model by which we think about on a go-for basis, and how can we get our other magazine brands to replicate that. It’s incredible.
Kudos to Brian, Brooke Bell, our test kitchen, and our video team. Really the organization, everyone that touches that magazine has just done a fantastic job. It’s quality in everything we do. It’s truly every recipe, every video, every event, every page. It’s intentional and there’s a lot of good people that are spending time thinking about it and how to continually improve.
We’ve got seven other magazine brands, so I’m not going to say it’s the cornerstone, but it is our perfect business model and how we want to continue to grow the rest of the business.
Samir Husni: Are you continuing to shuttle between New Orleans and Birmingham?
Eric Hoffman: Yes. My wife and I and kids, we just hit eight years living in New Orleans, a city that we absolutely love. I’ll be in Birmingham next week, and then again, the following for a few days. So, I do make it back.
One of the benefits coming out of COVID is our people, we really wanted them to enjoy the flexibility of being able to do what we’re doing right here. So, we’ve embraced the meeting cadence and a lot of our communication away to where we can do video. When we do have in-person, it’s very intentional around strategic planning and kind of getting the whole team together. It’s great.
It’s not that far away. I love getting back. But yes New Orleans is home. Been here eight years. It’s a wonderful city. There’s no other place in the world like it.
Samir Husni: It sounds that the last two years has been a walk in a rose garden. Did you have any challenges, or it was smooth sailing?
Eric Hoffman: No, we had a lot of challenges. Unfortunately, mom passed away in July of 2023.
And frankly, the business was having a bad year. Our labor was running too high, cost in general coming out of COVID. We saw enormous pressure.
One of the hardest things I had to do that fall is to do the company’s first ever reduction in force, which you hope, as an owner and as an executive, you never have to go through that. I would tell any executive that. But it forced us to focus the company. We had to do some things to get the business profitable and having the right people in the right places doing the right things.
Systematically going through that, while it was tough, it positioned the business and in going into 2024 to enjoy the benefits of that and then be able to make investments in the growth side of the business. So, yes, certainly had some challenges.
Samir Husni: And what if you can pinpoint one highlight that was like the this is the best we’ve done in the two years? What will that be?
Eric Hoffman: I would say that 83 Press, our book publishing side, we were doing some amount of book publishing on a one-off basis.
Coming out of pandemic, we started doing some custom, authored work, mainly with social media influencers. Brenda Gantt Cooking with Brenda Gantt is an amazing business partner and she took a bet on us to be her book publisher. That jumped the business full into book publishing.
We followed that, by doing the Cajun Ninja’s book, social media guy out of Louisiana, saw great success there. Then as we kept looking at how we could grow, it finally became obvious that we needed an executive to own and run that that business. And so, we added Kristy Harrison to our team. She is a 20-plus year veteran of Time Inc. She joined us as a C-level executive to run the book business.
Back to my point on focus, now that we have that focus, we’ve got business development, outside sales and the pipeline is great.
We’ve got amazing projects coming out this fall and we’ve already got our 2026 pipeline well underway. That’s been fun to watch.
Samir Husni: I know you don’t travel as much as your twin brother Brian. I follow Brian on Facebook and he’s a jet setter. Last week he was flying back from Japan. He was in Paris a few weeks ago. And then before that, Italy and Sweden. Is it all for Bake from Scratch or he’s promoting the entire Hoffman media?
Eric Hoffman: The entire business for sure.
Several of our other magazines we have, are doing these tours as well. What’s great about all the countries you named is he’s going into these markets, capturing content that’s feeding the upcoming issue that is themed.
It could be Irish baking issue, or it could be French baking, whatever it is. But then we’re allowing that content to lead into releasing a retreat the following year.
Samir Husni: So, there is a system to what he’s doing. A method to the madness.
Eric Hoffman: Yes, exactly. But again, back to channeling that passion. What he’s done is taking his passion for travel and his passion for baking and really build something that harnesses all that.
We’ve thought about do we get into television? He’s got the personality. He’s got the opportunity. Are there longer show formats? Are there other retreats that we can do? When you look back, you think we’ve done like San Miguel, Mexico, we’ve done Paris, we’ve done Sweden, we’ve done Italy, and we are doing Japan next. It really is amazing to think about a business like ours right from Birmingham, Alabama, that’s doing these tours on a global basis. So it’s exciting to watch.
Samir Husni: My typical last two questions are, if I come to visit you one evening unannounced, what do I catch you doing? Cooking, watching TV, having a glass of wine.
Eric Hoffman: Well, Samir, today is Monday. In the Hoffman house, we have Monday night, steak night. It’s a family tradition we started probably three years ago and do just about every Monday night. Have a couple of ribeyes we share as a family, maybe one good glass of wine.
We love to cook. So, if you caught me at home, I’d be doing something in the kitchen for sure.
Catch me on a weekend, probably go out to dinner somewhere. New Orleans has obviously no shortage of restaurants here. Amazing food.
So, but yes, that’s tonight. Tonight’s steak night.
Samir Husni: And my final question is, what keeps you up at night these days?
Eric Hoffman: What keeps me up? I keep going back to focus. Being in a in a creative business, you must decide if you’re looking at the next big, great idea or if you’re looking at a shiny object.
Being good at saying no to things can get you further down the road. We’ve tried to do is. Get more intentional about where we’re going to place our bets and where we’re going to push for growth.
We’re way ahead of where we would have been otherwise. Trying a lot of things are good, being able to do it a calculated way.
What keeps you up at night is the several places in this business that can scale, well beyond where we are today. We are about 33 million in revenue and, my brother and I’ve set the target that we can reach to 50 million in the next five years. There’re certainly some places where we look and see that opportunity.
Scaling the advertising, the event business, the book publishing business. We’re looking at digital memberships to some of our brands. And so. It’s a good problem to have, but what keeps me up at night is how to focus the organization and do it the right way and how do you fund it? How do you do that?
We love the business. We got a long view of what we’re doing. And I think it’s great. Being family owned and being private and not having outside investors, it gives you a lot of latitude that, unfortunately, our industry, so many along the way, have been bought, sold, bankrupt, shut down, relaunched.
We’re fortunate that we, in some form or fashion, made it this long. And I think scale is important.
Buying power and having marketing teams, dedicated advertising teams, production and procurement and all the stuff that comes with it, it’s a good thing and we’ve got a lot of longevity, too, which I think is fantastic. My chief operating officer, for example, Greg Baugh, started at the company in 2004 and he has taken on a lot and helped execute in so many ways.
Then we hired Missy Polhemus, who is our first ever chief marketing officer, came back to us. She worked at Hoffman from 2008 to 2013, and then she spent the better part of 10 years in the tech space with some startups and then had a chief marketing officer job at a really big company. It was the perfect timing to join the business, not too long after my mother passed.
Also, we had never had someone fully sitting on top of our digital experiences, allocating marketing dollars beyond some of the traditional direct mail and insert cards. Now we’ve probably got half our budget going into new channels that she’s driving.
I guess it’s the focus and opportunities in front of me that keep me up at night.
Samir Husni: Thank you.
Mr. Magazine 