Lost the plot? He did everything right it seems, made a fortune. Major success story
Well...yes he did make a fortune, when the mag was catering to the hardcore BBing crowd. You might remember that he completly reworked the concept of the magazine to be more about "Fitness," and shortly thereafter it completly went in the toliet. Phillips soon sold EAS, ditched the mag, and is still probably swiming in a sea of cash.
He lost it in the sense that MM2k would still be a powerhouse, if they never deviated from that course. Also most of the people that worked with Phillips had nothing but good things to say about him in the early days of the mag....it wasnt untill he was out of his mind on coke, and got really full of himself, that he pissed of TC, Duchaine, Poliqioun, etc.... Of course by that point it didnt matter....
The point of all this is that we need SOMEONE with enough visibility that can operate in this industry in an out-of-the-box fashion. Be that Magazine or web...who can step up to the plate?
M!