Planet Rock features highly innovative covers
The Publishing Conundrum
Bauer UK Managing Director of Sport and Entertainment Patrick Horton enlightened the Empower delegates with a penetrating and thorough overview of how the magazine market is interacting across multiple platforms and facing the challenges that lie ahead.
Patrick went on to highlight that publishers are having to balance how much they focus on now and how much on the future. 85% of Bauer total profit still comes from traditional media.
“We are all trying to figure out what we are doing now and for the future”A key learning was the importance of print and this more than ever was highlighted by the commitment to quality and the investment in the recent launch of Planet Rock Magazine. Patrick was emphatic that publishers need to invest in their magazines to balance competition from non magazine alternatives like Netflix subscriptions. He knows what he is talking about as recent editions of Planet Rock have been selling for up to £70 on Ebay owing, in part, to their highly desirable front covers
““the Newstrade is the most cost efficient route to a sale”.
It’s Not Dead Just Different
Kevin Petley – Business Director HELLO! appraised the Empower delegates on a what it takes to maintain dominance of a major weekly title for 30 years.
Highlighting the strength of magazine publishing in the UK Kevin warned against listening to unbalanced commentary regarding the future of print. Echoing Patrick’s comments on print revenue in comparison to other mediums Kevin pointed to the recent ABC data for HELLO! as evidence that magazines can sustain healthy paid for circulation.
Indeed Kevin through his board members hip of PPA is a passionate advocate of magazines in print and outlined the PPA campaign “Press Pause” where the industry is taking an approach to highlight the value in readers taking time out to relax and read a magazine.
Drawing on his considerable experience across the magazine publishing environment Kevin tackled the vast ranges of titles that are listed in many larger outlets and questioned the ultimate value in category performance of so many “me too” products. Kevin posed the question should magazines follow the confectionery category by working together to focus on “count lines” as this has proved to be a winner for Mars, Cadbury’s, Nestle and the retailers.
Its All About the Supply Chain…Dummy!
Module facilitator and Managing Director of Wessenden Marketing highlighted the recent News & Mags wish list released by the Major Grocers. He identified that 2018 will bring significant change to our environment and brands need to be ready.
Jim highlighted the increasing dependence upon revenues from circulation as advertising revenue becomes more fragmented across alternative media platforms. Reflecting upon the pressures that exist and will exist on the supply chain Jim reminded delegates that “optimising the supply chain can only come from understanding the supply chain” and this was not fully understood across all publishers.
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