It was the hottest Silicon Valley rumor in years: Steve Jobs would return to troubled Apple Computer. But the rumor wasn't fact until 8 p.m. on December 20 of last year, when Lorry Lokey's company, Business Wire, transmitted an Apple press release to the media. Then it became headline news worldwide.
Making headlines wasn't always as fast or easy. Back in 1961, businesses sent their news releases to newspapers via messengers or mail. Lokey (lo-KAY), who had worked for United Press and in public relations for General Electric, thought there had to be a better way. Why not lease Teletypes and install them without cost in newsrooms? He would make his money by charging clients--any company that issued news releases--for the distribution.
"When I began," Lokey says, "my one employee and I shared a 9-foot-by-12-foot room. We had one phone, an electric typewriter and a clattering Teletype connected via leased line to every Bay Area daily newspaper. Each of them had a Teletype I'd installed there."
The copy, written by the client companies' public relations people and edited by Lokey, was transmitted at 60 words per minute. Today copy is zapped through modems at 9,600 baud--or 8,400 words per minute.
Since its founding 36 years ago, the company has grown from him and one employee with $36,000 in annual revenue to 265 employees, 19 offices (two overseas) and $48 million in revenue. In San Francisco alone, 85 employees transmit as many as 700 releases a day. The business offers digital transmission of photos, specialty wires (such as sports, entertainment and health), and multiple fax distribution. It also has its own World Wide Web site and receives five million Internet hits a month from people searching its files.
"Business Wire is consistently innovating and anticipating technology changes," says Roy Verley, director of corporate communications for Hewlett-Packard.
A major part of Lokey's success rests on his generous employee benefits package, including one of the first in-house child-care centers in San Francisco. "If you remove employees' financial problems," he says, "the result is a group of experienced staffers who will stay forever. Business Wire's interests and theirs are the same."
Lokey, now 69, still puts in some 30 hours a week at the office. And then he adds another 15-20 hours at home. He says he's far too young to retire.
Harry Press, '39
