Steve began his publishing career as Special Sections Art Director for The Saturday Evening Post at Curtis Publishing in 1978 after spending his college summers (1975 - 1977) living in a Black Hills cave and selling paintings to tourists at Mt. Rushmore, SD.

While holding an art director position on the Post, Steve also held the position of Director of Art & Production for The Country Gentleman through 1981. While at Curtis Steve also helped produce several books including the Ball Corporation History, Norman Rockwell Bible, "Everything" books, and John Connally. Steve also worked for Denver Magazine, Colorado Homes & Lifestyles, and Commtek Publishing as Director of Art & Production.

While at Commtek Steve helped manage the successful growth of the "number one fastest-growing publishing company" and the "23rd fastest-growing privately held company" in 1983 and 1984 according to Inc. magazine. While at Commtek the staff grew from 20 employees to well over 200, two magazine titles grew to six along with a show daily newspaper, a newsletter, and an almanac. Steve managed Commtek’s production department that was the beta site for the CompuGraphic 9600 typesetting system and became the first in the magazine industry to output full-page composed type. Also while at CommTek, Steve designed a computer program in 1983 that integrated all costs from prepress through postage for planning and budgeting publication costs. Again, another first in the industry.

In 1985 Steve began his own consulting business, Frye & Associates, by designing cost-management systems for other publishing companies, such as, Penthouse, Omni, Harvard Business Journal, John Deere, and Resort Condominiums International. Since then, Frye & Associates has set up systems in over two hundred titles, including Parenting, Sunset, Walt Disney Adventures, Science, Discover, Saturday Night, Canadian Living, Modern Maturity, Christianity Today, and TV Guide.

Steve also negotiated printing, paper, and distribution contracts for the Boy Scouts of America, Smithsonian Institution, The National Wildlife Federation, The Lions Club International, The United States Golf Association, Warren Miller Entertainment, Habitat for Humanity, The Council on Foreign Relations, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, WordPerfect, Scott USA, Inc. Magazine, The Sporting News, Consumers Digest, Soldier of Fortune, Inside Sports, TWA’s Ambassador, Continental’s Profiles, and AARP’s Modern Maturity...a $500 million account.

Steve has performed personnel & workflow analyses and other services for such prestigious organizations as Worldvision, Time, Inc., Ducks Unlimited, UST Smokeless Tobacco and the Washington Post. He also was involved in the launch of such magazines as, Vibe, Seed, Line 56, Mehndi and most recently, Success.

Steve managed the production department of one of his clients, Parenting, for four issues in 1993 while interviewing candidates for the position of Production Director. While at Parenting, Steve managed the magazine’s conversion to selective demographic binding.

Steve also was the principal designer of the PICA program at Publishers Press Printing Company. This system allows their customers the ability to plan, map, budget, track circulation, and order magazines directly from their own desks. It is contract-driven and produces accurate proforma invoices and ordering instructions. Steve has also designed paper management programs for individual paper merchants from Gould Paper, Alling & Cory and Zellerbach Paper Corporation.

As an industry expert, Steve regularly speaks at various publishing conferences. Since 1986 Steve has been a regular speaker at the PrintMedia, Book Business and FOLIO: International Publishing Conferences on such topics as Analyzing and Negotiating Printing Contracts; Press Checks 101; Industry Buying Trends-Projecting the Future of Prepress, Printing, Paper, and Postage; Utilizing Push Technology on the Internet; Budgeting Production Costs; and Buying Paper. He also has spoken at the Western Publications Association, Association of Business Publications, QuebecorWorld Printing Company, Cadmus Printing Company, Publishers Press and the Magazine Production & Design conferences.

Steve currently writes a regular column for Publishing Executive magazine entitled "Manufacturing Master." He has also written several articles for Folio:, Book Business:, Printing Impressions:,HOW and Editors Only magazines on analyzing and negotiating printing contracts and is regularly interviewed as an industry expert for various other trade books and magazines.

Steve was also the industry consultant for the Blue Team, which developed the first electronic magazine. This state-of-the-art technology was launched in 1998 with such clients as Ziff-Davis, National Geographic, Journal of Science, Harvard business Journal, Vibe, Drum, and Publishing Entrepreneur.

In 1985 Steve was awarded the Magazine Illustration Annual Award of Excellence from the Communication Arts for an Editorial Series. He currently is a member of the PrintMedia Advisory Board for both Book Business and Publishing Executive magazines.

Steve holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration/Marketing and is listed in the Who’s Who National, West, and Entertainment versions.