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In 1994, when the Internet was not yet a household word, Patrick McGovern told a Globe and Mail reporter that the coming trend in computer technology was “groupware,” where people interested in the same subject would trade information electronically.

In comments that now seem highly prescient and enormously understated, he said that in the few situations where “computer conferencing” was already being used, “we find [it] has been a source of major productivity increases.”

Mr. McGovern, the founder and chairman of publishing and research conglomerate International Data Group, has created a fortune over the past four decades by making accurate calls about the technology business, and he's still at it.

At 68, he presides over an empire that generates $2.7-billion (U.S.) in annual revenue and employs almost 14,000 workers. He started IDG as a consulting firm in 1964, and launched its first publication, Computerworld, three years later.

IDG now publishes hundreds of technology-related magazines, including MacWorld, PC World and CIO (a magazine for chief information officers). It has hundreds of websites, owns market research firm International Data Corp., and runs dozens of conferences around the world. Recently IDG has moved into the venture capital business, funding startup tech firms in China, Vietnam, India and the U.S.

Mr. McGovern's career has spanned the computer age, beginning at a time when the industry was centred on room-sized mainframes and continuing through the launch of personal computers, the Internet, and into the cellphone and iPod era. He's managed to tap into new markets at just the right time, often creating publications where advertising just poured in over the transom.

“I remember when we launched PC World in 1982, I called [the publisher] two weeks after the launch to ask if they were getting any advertising,” Mr. McGovern said. “He said they had 120 pages signed up. I said ‘How do you sell that many?' And he said ‘We just try to answer the phone by the third ring.'”

Now, IDG is shifting its emphasis from print to the Internet. In 2002, the company got more than three-quarters of its revenue from print, but that will drop to 35 per cent by 2010, Mr. McGovern predicted. Online revenue, by contrast, will rise to 50 per cent from 11 per cent over the same period.

“We've reached the tipping point where the growth in online is much higher than the loss in revenue from print,” he said.

IDG's focus these days is on international markets, particularly in Asia. Mr. McGovern was one of the first U.S. entrepreneurs to set up a joint venture in China, just as the Chinese government was trying to figure out how to boost the country's IT knowledge and skills.

ComputerWorld's Chinese edition, launched in 1980, garnered 30,000 paid subscribers in its first week, Mr. McGovern said, and quickly became the biggest computer magazine in the world. An initial $250,000 investment has generated $54-million in royalties and dividends.

Now, IDG sells a range of its own computer publications in China, and also distributes Chinese editions of magazines such as Cosmopolitan and National Geographic.

The Chinese operation was so profitable that in 1992 IDG decided to begin investing in some small high-tech ventures started by local entrepreneurs. It's put money into about 200 companies so far, and recently expanded its venture capital activities to Vietnam and India.

Being an early investor is key, Mr. McGovern said. “You go into an emerging market where you're one of the early players, and you get the best entrepreneurs. They work 17-hour days, seven days a week.”

On the technology front, Mr. McGovern sees the next frontier in cellular phones, which he says are evolving into “handheld multimedia computers.”

With as many as three billion people expected to own cellphones within a decade, he sees a huge potential market for IDG. One application already being tested involves selling data to customers through their cellphones. For example, when an IDG client goes into an electronics store to buy a printer, they'd be able to use their phone to tap into a database to get comparative information, including consumer ratings and price comparisons from competing outlets.

The money rolling in from these ventures enriches Mr. McGovern personally, as he still owns about two-thirds of IDG. The rest is held by current and former employees.

He said he has no intention of retiring in the near future, but he's spending more and more time on his personal foundation, which built a $350-million centre for interdisciplinary study of the human brain at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — where he studied neurophysiology in the 1950s.

Computers are really the “amplification of the human mind,” he said, so it's crucial to understand how the brain works. “We hope to make major advances in curing mental illness and brain disease.”