Like his father before him, sales seemed to come naturally to Neil Hutton, Industry Liaison Officer for the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society. In fact, over his 35-year career, Hutton has sold advertising for just about every specialty group, a number of provincial publications, and “quite a few” national publications.

Hutton’s first choice of careers wouldn’t be sales, however, but a job as media supervisor for the advertising agency BBDO. Still, it wouldn’t be long before the self-professed “people person” gave in to his true desire to be on the other side of the desk, launching his career in publishing in media sales with a farming publication.
Nevertheless, tractors and trucks weren’t nearly as appealing as a job offer from National Business Publications where he was hired as a sales representative for Canadian Doctor, which was one of only six national medical publications in Canada at the time.

But the high point of Hutton’s career would occur when the Canadian Medical Association made him Director of Sales and Marketing. In those days, it wasn’t just about selling space, says Hutton. He observes: “You can’t sell somebody unless you know their product. In fact, I remember quite a few times telling clients their product wasn’t right for my journal and vice versa. The product manager would say ‘this is my creative’ and I would say that’s not the kind of ad you want to run in our journal.”

While at the CMA, Hutton would join a huge network of key industry movers and shakers. “I could walk into a room and know 90 per cent of the people,” he notes, adding “Most of the people I know I’ve known since they were product managers, and many have gone on to senior positions in the industry.”

Hutton’s sales savvy would eventually lead him to Keith Healthcare Communications where, as Vice President, he would stay for many years. He was a dedicated member of various committees including the PMCO. He served as treasurer for PAAB for 10 years and, in 1989, chaired a committee of doctors and representatives from HPB, advertising agencies, and pharmaceutical companies that produced the first PAAB code revision.

An avid golfer, Hutton says he immediately volunteered to sit on the golf committee of the PMCO, where as legend has it, the famous blue sports jacket was born. “In those days every time we went to Quebec, past winners of the PMCQ golf tournament all wore red sport jackets. So we came up with this terrific idea to get these baby blue jackets for the winner here.” Alas, it only lasted a couple of years, “then nobody wanted to wear one,” he laughs.

Reflecting on the time spent in the “trenches” of medical publishing, Hutton savors the memories. These days, he’s creating new ones, as Industry Liaison Officer for the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society, a job he’s been doing for the past seven years. He also runs NK Healthcare Media, a publisher’s representative business working with three publications: the British Columbia Medical Journal, DoctorsNS, the official journal of doctors in Nova Scotia, and the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia.

With no plans to slow down, Hutton maintains the reason he stayed in this “fascinating” industry so long is that “there’s always something new to learn,” not to mention the interesting people he meets every day. Moreover, “I’ve always believed and still believe medical publications are an excellent way to reach the physician.”

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