Bobit Business Media (BBM), originally Bobit Publishing, was founded in 1961 with the launch of Automotive Fleet in Glenview, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. Prior to founding the company, Ed Bobit was working for McGraw-Hill’s Fleet Owner magazine, selling ad space in the Midwest. During a conversation with Al Fitzpatrick, Studebaker fleet sales director, Fitzpatrick mentioned they didn’t make heavy trucks and that he wanted to sell to car fleets. The light bulb lit.
Bobit researched the market that offered few available statistics and found some encouragement among advertisers. In 1961, he presented the idea for AF to McGraw-Hill, but the management team wasn’t convinced the market was viable.
“I kept researching this segment, convincing myself it was an opportunity to fill a need. I borrowed $5,000, left my job, rented a one-room office, and somehow got my family (the sixth kid was on her way) to believe we'd survive,” Bobit recalled.
Bobit resigned June 30, 1961 and prepared to launch his charter issue of AF within a matter of four months.
He recruited Roy Wiley, the automotive editor for the Chicago Sun-Times, and together the two would work until wee hours — supplying the copy, working on the imposition, proofing, sending in corrections, developing the layouts, and generating the final “dummy.”
“For months, I’d pick Roy up at the newspaper offices downtown on the night of closing. He’d bring his portable typewriter, get into the back seat and create copy from files I brought along or that he had. By the time we arrived in Pontiac, Ill., some 90 miles away, he had somehow nearly finished. We closed at the printer with the second shift,” Bobit said.
Operating on a meager budget and having to travel back and forth from Chicago to Detroit to generate business with the manufacturers, Bobit quickly learned some cost-cutting strategies. Scheduling appointments timed before or after lunch to avoid shelling out for expensive business lunches, to using lobby phones in agencies instead of pay phones, and skipping the motel charge by driving straight home after the last 5 p.m. appointment also helped save some cash.
With the timely assistance of Howard Cook, Ford’s fleet director, AF became a reality with its first issue in November 1961. Instead of placing Ford’s fall announcement in CCJ, a well-established trucking magazine, Cook decided to give the insert to Bobit for the charter issue.
“Remembering now, I must have been just short of begging Ford to appear in this first issue,” Bobit said. “[Cook’s] decision 'made' the issue. Chrysler and Plymouth followed, and the rest is history.”
Seeking warmer weather, the company moved to Southern California in 1977 and established an office in Redondo Beach. Today, BBM publishes 19 magazines and has developed 12 conferences and expositions, along with 40 websites and 29 eNewsletters that meet specific market needs. The company occupies over 50,000-square feet in Torrance, Calif., with 15 regional offices throughout the U.S.
BBM Milestones and Achievements
1961:
Automotive Fleet and Bobit Publishing are born in Glenview, Ill.
