Ian Hyland: ‘When you take Windmill Lane to America, you have near instant name recognition'
The businessman has owned many media titles – but Windmill Lane Pictures could be his jewel in the crown
Yesterday at 21:30
The recent news that businessman Ian Hyland had bought Windmill Lane Pictures felt – to me anyway – like a piece of the early 2000s come back to visit. It reminded me of other similar announcements of Hyland's growing stable of magazines, and of a time – much-missed – before the words 'traditional' and 'legacy' attached themselves to print media.
Hyland made his money in publishing, acquiring the previously Smurfit-owned Business & Finance magazine in 2002, and then the Vincent Browne-founded Magill in 2004. He sold Magill back to Browne in 2017.
Over two-plus decades, he developed what was originally a traditional magazine publishing business into something that was very event-focused, including the Dublin Tech Summit. (Established in 2017, DTS attracts 10,000 tech entrepreneurs to Dublin each year – and in fact gets underway on May 8-29.)
In the US, he has Ireland INC, a business networking hub, which hosts a range of events, including Ireland Day at the New York Stock Exchange, an annual event established in 2011.
The Windmill Lane acquisition comes not long after Hyland bought Quartet Books, an independent book publishing company based in London, set up in 1972 and with a back catalogue of some 2,000 books, including titles by Auberon Waugh, Brian Sewell and Isabella Blow.
We're re-publishing The Palestinians by Jonathan Dimbleby
So what exactly is it about these long-established brands that appeals to him?
'Most media formats have changed,' he says, over coffee in Dublin's Westin Hotel. 'But book publishing hasn't really. Quartet was quite bohemian, something that goes back to the original owner, Naim Atallah.
'He passed away during Covid in 2021, and then the business was in some trouble. I was contacted about it, I looked at it. What interested me about it was the scale and breadth of its legacy. With 2,000 titles, there's lots of different areas of potential.'
Quartet, he says, will do two titles in the UK this year, two in Ireland, one in the US.
'We're looking at 10 titles in 2026, and on from there. Phase one, we're focused on non-fiction, because it was far easier to plan commercially. We're re-publishing The Palestinians by Jonathan Dimbleby, first published in 1979. Jonathan is updating that.'
Hyland is all about the enhanced potential of what too often now gets called 'content', plus the potential of the bigger international markets – particularly the US, where he has been active for a long time, including as chair of Ireland INC.
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'Quartet attracted a lot of attention from international production houses because of its titles. The possibilities there were obvious.
"We weren't a producer, but we had an interest in doing this ourselves, in creating documentaries – in fact, we had already started one, around the history of Irish America – and then the opportunity of Windmill Lane Pictures came up.
'My recognition of it is as a stunning brand,' he says. 'When I hear Windmill Lane, I think of U2, Brian Eno, Salman Rushdie's contribution, the graffiti walls...'
Hyland is chairman of Windmill Lane and has appointed business journalist and author John Walsh as head of content.
Walsh recently co-produced The Irish Question, directed by Alan Gilsenan, and Gilsenan will edit Windmill Lane's first documentary – dealing with the future of the US-Ireland relationship.
Hyland will now hire a team of full-time and freelance talent, with a particular focus on content commissioning, commercial/partnership and communications, and ultimately he will seek a CEO to steer Windmill Lane to its next chapter.
During the early 1990s, the recording and visual sides of Windmill Lane split and went their separate ways.
Windmill Lane Pictures moved more towards post-production – which meant that first Covid and then the Hollywood writers' strike had an impact.
'It came up, we contacted the folks, who were in liquidation, and we came to an agreement to buy,' says Hyland. 'The brand has an incredible legacy. When you take Windmill Lane to America, you have near instant name recognition.
'While respecting that, we need to take it to the next chapter. Modern-day production and distribution platforms have changed and expanded. There's the potential with short films, YouTube platforms...
'Some of that potential we will create ourselves, some of it will find us. We're not in the business where we rely on the phone ringing. We're creating.'
On the back of Donald Trump's announcement of 100pc tariffs in the US on 'foreign films' and the 'Make America Film Again' plan proposed by California governor Gavin Newsom (that a $7.5bn federal incentive be aimed at US domestic film production), Hyland travelled to the US recently to engage with officials and potential partners in Washington, DC, New York and California.
Asked about the impact of such tariffs and incentives, Hyland has a considered response.
'While there are many trading challenges faced by global business on the back of tariffs, it's vitally important for us to explore any opportunities by engaging with the US, given its importance to the film industry. In so doing we can build an agile and creative film production business.'
Hyland also confirmed that, as a 'statement of its intent', Windmill Lane will incorporate in the United States.
I wasn't good enough. So I went into newspapers
So what did he want to be when he was growing up, I ask.
'Art was my first interest, I went to the college of art and design. After that, I was looking for an ad agency job – but it never happened. I was never offered one, I wasn't good enough. So I went into newspapers.
'I started at Irish Press, moved to the Sunday Press, and then went to London with them, which was wonderful. We were selling 475,000 copies a week at the time. I was very conscious of being Irish in London. It was a tricky time, even in the mid-1990s, but if you came with a media card in your hand, it made it a bit easier.'
He gravitated towards 'the commercial side, the marketing side' – and when he left the Press, planned to move to the States.
'I took a job with the Smurfit-owned Business & Finance magazine, planning to stick around for a year while my visa came through. I stayed longer, but ended up leaving and coming back when they divested – and I bought that title in 2002.
'Then I bought Magill magazine – which I still wake up in a cold sweat thinking about. I bought it from Mike Hogan, who'd bought it from Vincent Browne. I had a vision of a stable of magazines – but we're Ireland, we're too small. Though we built a great convening business with Business & Finance.
'I spent most of the last years since the mid-2000s in the States, promoting Irish business and international businesses there.'
What does he make of all the recent drama between the US and the rest of the world?
'The book publishing business is unaffected – tariffs aren't really relevant. But uncertainty shakes confidence.'
Still, he adds, 'It's a catalyst that has presented itself to Europe to pull together. Ireland is a very good European. We have always been close to the United States. So where do we find our new role? Are we a convener, when it comes to Europe, for America? Are we a convener for Europe when it comes to the US?
'And, in fact I think filmmaking, the creative world – in a weird kind of way – can be stimulated by this kind of stuff. There are stories to tell, and there are people who want to hear them.'
And what of the voices that say we should have nothing to do with America under its current administration? That we should hold ourselves aloof?
'It's the White House – and whoever the office is led by, we have to respect that, if they got there by election.
'America is very important to Ireland. And I like to think Ireland is important to America, in a number of ways. I'd be hopeful that we can all find a way forward. I think if you based your future on personalities, we'd all have problems. I think we need to work with each other.
"I'm reminded of something I heard at John Reynolds' funeral – he was a good friend of mine. I remember his brother finished his eulogy by saying: 'We only have each other.'
'I think that goes for a lot of things. And it goes for what we're dealing with today.'
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