Michael Ovitz: preference

Transcript context

…They were the internet. It's correct, pre-internet. My thesis was that art directors of magazines and editors were always six months ahead. They had to be because it took three months to get a magazine out and a month to let it sit on a newsstand. They had to think six months in advance. I urged everyone at the agency to read. We had a list of 100 titles that they needed to look through every month. I subscribed to 200 magazines and I didn't read them all but I would sit and thumb through them while I was on the phone. I would read things like Golf Digest, Motor Trend, Automobile, Car and Driver. Why did I read those? I'll tell you why. When I met Paul Newman, I actually had something to talk to him about because Paul Newman loved cars. Now, could I talk for days? No, but I had enough to get through an hour. Whatever we read current events, we read women's magazines like McCall's, Redbook, Vogue, and Marie Claire. Why did we look at these? One, to see what fashion looks like. If you want to talk to an actress, you got to have some insight into the look, feel, and what people are thinking. It doesn't mean it was always right, but it gave us a firm overview of the editorial process by people whose job it was to predict the future. You're in the business of being able to relate to people and quickly build strong trusted relationships.…

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