Jocko Potts, PMT Publishing, Mobile

Growing up in Mobile, I spent much of my youth attending and watching my two older brothers play sports. My dad was especially involved with Murphy High School’s track team, raising money for their booster club. It was called the Cinder Club because running tracks in those days were made of cinder that required long spikes on shoes to gain traction.

It was a family affair, and we spent most weekends involved in football and track. To raise money, we sold Christmas trees at Springdale Plaza. Dad served as an official timer at track meets throughout the Southeast. I viewed my older brothers’ friends as legends. Jocko Potts was one of the friends and he was the real deal. (He would shudder at this statement.)

Not only was Jocko a fast sprinter, but he quarterbacked Murphy’s football team, played basketball, excelled at baseball, and eventually earned a scholarship to play football and baseball at Mississippi State University. 

After one year of playing football, Jocko decided to concentrate on baseball, where he played shortstop and second base. In that era, Mississippi State had one of the top baseball programs, ranked number three in the nation most of Jocko’s senior year and they won the SEC Championship. 

As we sat down in his office at PMT Publishing in Mobile, I saw a large, framed display of his father’s military memorabilia on his wall. “My father was a bomber pilot in WWII  and on D-Day. crashed in Hastings, a village on the southeast coast of England. His plane, a B-26 bomber, had iced up before they crossed the English Channel on their way to Normandy.  At the time he had already flown 61 missions.”

He reminds me that the 1066 Battle of Hastings was the last time England had been successfully invaded by a foreign force. I sense Jocko is a well-read history buff with keen recall. Then he tells me, “I almost flunked out of college because I spent most of my time reading books at the library instead of attending class.” He had to load up on credit hours just to graduate, one semester late.

With a degree in marketing in hand, Jocko returned to Mobile after his dad passed away, to help look after his mom and younger brother and sister. He landed a job working with Timbes and Yeager Advertising, and he tells me that from 1971 to 1979, he learned a ton working there.  He says both gentlemen---Morris Timbes and Bill Yeager---were tremendous mentors.

While at Timbes and Yeager, he was a copywriter, and a media buyer for clients, and also cut his teeth on the creative side of advertising. The agency was considered the top political firm in the state, and this served Jocko well when he entered the publishing world.

“The agency experience gave me a better feel for how to sell advertising so our publications could pay the bills,” he explains.  His first publishing venture came when he purchased a local “alternative newspaper,” The Azalea City News. It was struggling at the time, but Jocko saw its potential.

“To resurrect it, we modeled it after the Texas Observer, whose editor at the time was Willie Morris.” Under Jocko’s tutelage, The Azalea City News grew to be the biggest weekly newspaper in Alabama. From 1979 through 1984, he found his calling doing what he loved. 

“We did a lot of different things in the paper, and had great writers and personalities like Eugene Walter, Frank Daugherty, Palmer Hamilton, Chris McFadyen, and others… we had the first female sportswriter in Mobile, Pat McArthur…a great editor in Becky Paul…we ran serialized fiction occasionally.  “We just had a terrific staff, including my wife Jane, who sold ads among other things, and really brought in the revenue. She was critical to whatever success we had and deserves a ton of credit.”

“When Hurricane Frederick hit in 1979, we had an excellent photographer named Alan Whitman, and Alan and I rode around the city in his Volkswagen Beetle to photograph the incredible damage. National Geographic purchased several photographs that he took that day.” In 1984, he sold the publication to a company that owned a group of community weekly newspapers.

Drawing from his previous advertising agency experience, Jocko worked as a press secretary for Sonny Callahan in 1980, during Callahan’s run for Lieutenant Governor. He also worked as South Alabama campaign coordinator on Judge Howell Heflin’s U.S. Senate campaign in 1984.  With his strong connection to politics, in 1985, Jocko launched Inside Alabama Politics, which became the number-one political publication in Alabama for 25 years. “You couldn’t go anywhere in Montgomery and not see people reading it.”

He tells me the secret sauce was hiring Bessie Ford, who had been a UPI political reporter for years before it was shut down in Alabama. “Inside Alabama Politics was middle-of-the-road as far as political leanings were concerned, and Bessie was a take-no-prisoners reporter. She’d make someone mad and call them immediately, and say, “I know you are mad. Chew me out now, and let’s get it over with and move on.” When Bessie retired, PMT Publishing sold the publication.

In 1985, friend Arthur Tonsmeire suggested to Jocko that he start a statewide business magazine, and PMT launched Business Alabama magazine in January 1986. Business Alabama is still going strong 38 years later.

With three primary publications, Business Alabama, Mobile Bay, and Birmingham Home & Garden, plus several annual magazines, PMT Publishing strives to provide “exceptional media to a variety of markets,” according to its website. But they are much, much more. Add events, expos, and consumer shows to the equation.

“Business Alabama is our largest publication, and these days it primarily runs out of our Birmingham office.”  Jocko laughs and continues, “When I called a friend about becoming the magazine’s first editor, he said, 'Isn't starting a business magazine in Alabama about like starting a citrus magazine in Alaska?’ Alec Harvey, a former journalism professor at Auburn drives the editorial side today.

In 1990, PMT purchased Mobile Bay magazine, now the second-largest publication in the company’s portfolio. Over the years, Mobile Bay has evolved into a beautiful lifestyle publication with several distinguished editors, writers, and creatives working hard behind the scenes to ensure its quality.

“It’s all about the staff,” Jocko says.  “Our last three editors, including Maggie Lacey, who is the Executive Editor now, have really lifted the publication, along with our writers, artists, and salespeople.”

The next publishing venture was Birmingham Home & Garden, started by PMT in 2001. Headed up by Executive Editor Cathy McGowin, a former Southern Progress editor, it is also a lifestyle and shelter magazine for the Birmingham metropolitan area. In addition to magazines, PMT Publishing occasionally publishes coffee table books and of course, is very active in digital content and social media.

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About 15 years ago, PMT launched Inspiration Homes, a concept built around the new construction of custom homes.   Events like consumer shows, business-to-business shows, and expos are an important part of the company, Jocko says. For example, for the past ten years, they have produced and managed the Southern Automotive Manufacturing Association (SAMA) convention. It moves each successive year, to different cities throughout the Southeast.

In May of this year, they will launch the first EcoWild Outdoors Expo at the Arthur Outlaw Convention Center in Mobile. This three-day event is a sign of the future. PMT has a dedicated event team and is focused on expanding its reach in the event business through these types of consumer shows.

Local and regional publishing, especially in today’s environment, has its challenging moments. “It’s been very, very tough at times,” says Jocko. “But it’s satisfying when it all works. We hang in there and try to produce quality publications and create value, regardless of the economy."

Not everything Jocko tried worked. “We purchased Alabama Magazine way back in 1988. Starting in the 1930s, it was a general interest publication with a lean toward politics. It was an economic disaster for PMT, and we shut it down after three years. There are certainly other notable misses as well.”

So, what is the formula for your longevity? I asked. “A terrific partner named Tom McMillan and great teams are by far the main things.  Tom has been very supportive since the very beginning and stepped up to help many times.  He has been great.”

“And our employees really make it all happen. We have about 27 employees, plus we work with 25 or so freelancers each month. Our team is good at what they do whether it’s writing, photography, sales, or producing our products. I think another reason we’ve stayed around is because we have tried new things. We always tried to create new revenue and not sit still.”

Jocko said he has been stepping back over the past few years and that he feels good about giving the reins to the team led by his son Stephen, and  Walker Sorrell in the Birmingham office.  “PMT is very fortunate in that we have a solid group of staffers who have been with us for significant periods.”

He goes on to say things have changed a lot in his career. “ When we first started, we used to make type out of pieces of hot lead,” Jocko laughs. “Hell, we used drawing tables, T-Squares, Xacto blades, and glue!  Technology has changed everything. We create entire publications on a computer today.”  

During the life of PMT, Baldwin County has exploded in growth, and this has been good for business, especially for Mobile Bay magazine. As our conversation comes to an end, our talk turns to the future.  “Mobile is in a very good place right now, including the growth in Baldwin County. And with the leadership of Mayor Stimpson, Jo Bonner at the University of South Alabama, and Bradley Byrne at the Mobile Chamber, and many others, there’s good reason to be excited about this area.” 

Spoken like a true champion! Thanks, Jocko. May your star continue to shine!

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