Randy Gale

Vice President of New Media

Weider Publications Inc.

Who says geeks can’t be body beautifuls? Certainly not Randy Gale of Weider Publications, which publishes Men’s Fitness, Shape and other fitness magazines.

Gale oversees Weider’s Web sites, which unlike other, more prominent pages on the Internet, actually generates significant revenues.

“I’m trying to appeal to a general level of consumer,” Gale says. “If people can’t figure out how to get around on my site, then what good is it? If you build the most gorgeous store in the world and nobody can find the front door, then who cares?”

Weider gets its Internet revenues mostly through banner ads, though Gale is looking to start selling nutrition products online as well.

By making many pages non-scrolling (that is, allowing readers to see the full page on one computer screen), Gale can assure advertisers that their ads will be seen right away, and not be buried several screens away, where many Web surfers don’t go. Also, banner ads are smaller, allowing for two of them on a page.

“The bottom line is, he’s an integrator, not a technophile,” says Robert Landes, chief executive of the Internet development firm Guidance Solutions, Weider’s partner in one of its new nutrition products ventures. “When you bring creativity and technology together to create business, I think that’s something Randy has been at the forefront of.”

Before coming to Weider, Gale, 42, worked as a producer and writer of children’s television programs, and as a manager and producer of road shows for pop stars, ranging from the Beach Boys to Bruce Springsteen. “I have a real eclectic background,” he says. “I like to make things from nothing. When I got into the Internet business I didn’t know anything about it, but I’m a fast learner and I’m a research hound.”

Gale initially came to Weider to consult on the production of fitness videos; since then, the company has produced and distributed 27 tapes, as well as a Shape magazine audio series. Gale also did marketing work, cutting licensing deals and raising the magazines’ public visibility.

“I brought a lot of that into the company because I’m not from the traditional publishing area,” Gale says. “When this next area, the Internet, came up, my belief was that this was where we needed to be. The growth is too significant (to ignore).”

R.W. Greene