Frank Magid (September 1, 1931, Chicago, Illinois — February 5, 2010, Santa Barbara, California) was an American marketing consultant, widely known for introducing the "Action News" format of evening local TV news, and was an original developer of ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

''. Fox, Margalit (February 9, 2010)
"Frank Magid, Creator of 'Action News,' Dies at 78"
'' The New York Times''. '' Time'' magazine named Magid "the nation's leading television news doctor" in 1977, and he became the namesake of the term "Magidized". After serving in the Army during the Korean War, Magid earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Iowa, paying his tuition and living expenses with proceeds from the

GI Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

and a variety of part-time jobs. While in an organic chemistry class, he met Marilyn Young, a chemistry major from Waterloo, Iowa. The two wed in 1956, and moved to

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids () is the second-largest city in Iowa, United States and is the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River (Iowa River), Cedar River, north of Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City and north ...

, where his wife had taken a job as a junior high science teacher. While a junior professor of social psychology, anthropology and statistics at the University of Iowa and Coe College, Magid launched his own company, Frank N. Magid Associates in 1956, selling his first research study to Merchants National Bank in Cedar Rapids. A year later, he left teaching to devote his full efforts to the fledgling business. He built the company into the world's largest research-based strategy consulting company focused on media, entertainment and communications, which it remains. Media executives and on-air personalities frequently noted that the face of television was largely created not in the media centers of New York and Los Angeles, but in Marion, Iowa, where the company was based. Magid retired as CEO of Frank N. Magid Associates in 2002 and was succeeded by his son, Brent, but remained chairman of the company until his death. Frank Magid died, aged 78, from lymphoma in Santa Barbara, California. He was survived by his wife, two sons, four grandchildren and a brother.

References

External links

''Cedar Rapids Gazette'' obituary

Frank N. Magid Associates
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magid, Frank 1931 births 2010 deaths American entertainment industry businesspeople United States Army personnel of the Korean War Deaths from lymphoma in California People from Cedar Rapids, Iowa Businesspeople from Chicago People from Santa Barbara, California University of Iowa alumni University of Iowa faculty Coe College faculty 20th-century American businesspeople