Going concern

Trish Connolly, CA
President & CEO,
Advanced Publishing Corp.

Company profile: Advanced Publishing Corp. helps publishers create and manage digital versions of their printed publications. The company converts the material into online formats that offer easy page flipping, search and other interactive features that re-create the experience of reading a real magazine. It also manages associated e-mail delivery and tracking of readers’ activities and demographics on the web. Started up by Connolly in 2003, the Saint John, NB-based company now employs eight people and recently opened sales offices in California and Connecticut.

Hot factor: The company is growing at a rate of about 20% a month, adding five publications a month to its roster. Advanced Publishing has already cornered a portion of the market for North American business-to-business publications — which is three times the size of the consumer publications sector — including 90% of industry heavyweight Hearst Corp.’s digital business publications. Other prominent customers are United Business Media Ltd., Dominion Enterprises and CAmagazine.

Cool Projects: Advanced Publishing is developing applications to bring interactive, colour magazine content to electronic readers such as Amazon’s Kindle, and mobile devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry, with plans to release new products at the end of this year.

In her own words: “Having been the CFO of a public cable television company for a number of years, becoming the CEO of a small startup has been a significant change in almost every way imaginable. I think the most fun has been seeing the progress from literally starting at zero — with no product, customers or staff — and seeing the result of hard work and perseverance.”

Rosie Lombardi