Joel Barker and American Media Release Bridge to Future

             PRESS RELEASE

AMERICAN MEDIA INC.
4900 University Avenue
West Des Moines, Iowa 50266
Phone: 1-800-262-2557 or
(515) 224-0919 · Fax (515) 224-0256
E-Mail: whipwell@ammedia.com
Web site: www.ammedia.com

   
Contact: William Hipwell
Public Relations Manager
(515) 222-2778 or
whipwell@ammedia.com

For Immediate Release:

"Bridge to the Future" is What Joel Barker and
American Media Call New Leadershift Training Video
New corporate training video will help organizations understand fundamental
shifts in thinking about leadership and meet challenges of the 21st century.

WEST DES MOINES, IA, March 18, 1999 - American Media Incorporated, a leading producer of training products and services for the corporate training industry, announced today the release of its newest training video, Joel Barker's Leadershift: Five Lessons for Leaders in the 21st Century. Produced by American Media in partnership with best-selling author and futurist Joel Barker, the video was created to meet the growing need for business education materials that address the important topic of leadership.

"To be successful, leadership must exist at every level of your organization-from the CEO to the team leaders on the front lines" says Art Bauer, president and CEO of American Media. "Organizations need to ask themselves if they're staffed with the type of leaders required to meet the changes and challenges of the future. The key concepts shared in this new video provide organizations with tools to develop the quality leadership they must have at every level to be successful in the future.

In Leadershift, Joel Barker takes viewers on location across the United States, combining poignant historical examples with glimpses into the history of business to identify the qualities and responsibilities that will dramatically redefine and improve the performance of leaders in any organization.

"Change, vision, productivity, complexity and focus on the future. These are five key concepts that will differentiate good from great leaders in the coming years," explains Barker. "And anyone who wants to be a leader in the 21st century needs to understand and use these ideas."

Throughout the video, Barker incorporates examples from several leading companies, including Motorola, CitiCorp, General Electric, Data General and Microsoft, while weaving in current business challenges like the Y2K problem, to help viewers understand the fundamental shifts in thinking about leadership-and why these shifts need to take place in their organizations if they are to continue growing and prospering in the future.

In demonstrating the growing need for materials to help corporations develop their employees' leadership skills, Bauer cites the list of Major Issues Impacting People Management, an annual survey of 450 senior executives from around the world conducted by the Human Resource Institute in St. Petersburg, FL. Besides "leadership worries" topping the list, the study revealed that the leadership challenge facing most organizations isn't about identifying the company's next CEO. Instead, the challenge is about developing leadership throughout the entire company, since this is the only way a company can ensure it will endure.

And according to a survey by RHI Management Resources, Menlo Park, CA, almost half of all executives seeking candidates for management jobs list leadership as the top trait they want.

"Obviously, the topic of leadership has become increasingly important in recent years," says Bauer. "New technologies and the ever-changing social, political and business environment make our world a truly complex place. And in the midst of all this seeming chaos, the role of leaders is to find, recognize and secure the future."

Bauer is quick to dismiss the assumption that Leadershift speaks only to executive-level and upper management employees. "The tools and techniques described in the video can be used by anyone who must exhibit leadership qualities and use leadership skills in the course of performing their job, making it relevant for executives, managers, supervisors and team leaders at all levels in an organization.

For example, in one of the five lessons revealed in Leadershift, Barker explains how different leadership styles affect productivity, and how leaders can make the greatest positive impact in various situations. Viewers will find that the concepts hold true whether you're the CEO, a manager or supervisor, a front line employee leading a quality team-or a soccer coach, mother, father, pastor or volunteer for a charitable organization.

Barker summarizes the growing need for leadership skills in the opening minutes of the video: "More than anything else, organizations need leadership to succeed. How well an organization responds to the changes and challenges in the years ahead will be a direct result of the quality of its leaders and how prepared they are for the future."

Leadershift teaches viewers the following five Key Learning Points:
· Focus the majority of your efforts on the future.
· Understand the nature of fundamental change (paradigm shifts).
· Appreciate complex systems and how they work.
· Examine your leadership style to see how it affects productivity.
· Accept your responsibility as a leader to create a powerful, shared vision and build bridges
to the future.

Designed to be facilitated by a professional trainer in a group training session or used by individuals in a self-directed learning situation, Leadershift (30 minutes) sells for $895, and includes a Training Leader's Guide with training session agendas, discussion materials and pre- and post-training surveys, plus a Leadershift PowerPoint® Presentation Disk. Participant Workbooks and Self-Study Workbooks are also available. A preview of the video is $40, and 5-day and 30-day rental options are also offered.

For more information about this or any other American Media product or service, please call toll-free
(800) 262-2557 or visit the American Media web site at www.ammedia.com.

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To receive a review copy of the Leadershift training video,
or any other American Media product, please contact:
William Hipwell
Public Relations Manager
Whipwell@ammedia.com or (515) 222-2778