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The Marcus Morris Award
The Marcus Morris Award, the highest accolade in magazine publishing in the UK was established by the PPA in and endowed by The National Magazine Company in 1990. The award recognizes and commemorates the exceptional career and outstanding contribution to the UK magazine industry of the Reverend Marcus Morris OBE.
It honours an individual who has made a significant and longstanding contribution to the magazine publishing business, through extraordinary leadership, skill and understanding in unifying the editorial, advertising, circulation and business aspects of magazine publishing into a successful enterprise; or one who is presently making notable contributions to he magazine industry.
The recipient of the PPA Marcus Morris Award receives a silver trophy- a replica of the emblem of the Eagle comic, founded by Marcus Morris in 1950. A citation and honorarium of £1,000 are also presented to the recipient.
Roll of honour
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2006 - Sally Cartwright OBE
Director-at-Large of Hello! magazine.
Cartwright, the seventeeth PPA Marcus Morris award recipient, was commended for: “building on the tradition of Marcus Morris, bringing a whole new genre of magazines to the UK market based on solid business skills and catching the mood of the moment.”
Sally Cartwright has been at the helm of Hello! magazine during the period which has seen the celebrity magazine sector come from nowhere to take the UK publishing market by storm. Hello!, the daughter publication of the Spanish Hola!, launched in 1988, is credited with creating the whole celebrity magazine marketplace in the UK, still the fastest growing sector in the magazine industry with almost a dozen titles to choose from with a combined weekly circulation of around 4 million copies.
Cartwright has been with the magazine for 17 years, during which this whole new genre of magazines has been developed with an influence reaching into tabloid newspapers, women’s glossies, television schedules, with even the broadsheets running celebrity stories on their front pages.
She began her career in publishing within the circulation marketing team of IPC, gaining an excellent grounding in the publishing skills which were to stand her in good stead for her later career at Harmsworth Publications where she was managing director.
In addition to running the magazine, Sally has also found time to contribute to industry issues: she is an ex-chairman of the PPA, the first woman ever to hold the post, and was awarded an OBE in 2001 for her services to the industry. She is active in a number of industry areas, and chairs the International Federation of Periodical Publishers (FIPP) Environment Committee, speaking at international conferences around the world on the subject of print media and the environment.
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2005 - Tim Weller
Chief executive and founder of Incisive Media plc
Tim Weller has demonstrated a passion for business and professional media that has seen him grow his business from employing 13 people in an office with a hole in the roof 10 years ago, to a company with revenues of some £24m in the six months to June 2005. His energy, drive, resilience and will to succeed has led to the spectacular growth of Incisive and established the company as a leading player in the business and professional media sector.
Incisive Media is now a fast growing specialist business information provider operating in eight core markets, financial risk management , retail investment , insurance, mortgage, capital markets/financial IT, marketing, photographic, legal and private equity. The Group delivers key information to defined target audiences across a variety of platforms including magazines, conferences and exhibitions, websites, newsletters, contract publishing and databases.
Tim started his career in sales at VNU Business Publications in 1982. He left to join Centaur Communications in 1985 becoming a director of Centaur Publishing in 1987. In 1994 he joined Reuters as managing director of Reuters Publishing and it was here that he researched his idea for Investment Week. Having realised Reuters were unlikely to move into publishing at the speed he liked, he founded his own company.
The company – City Financial Communications – launched Investment Week in 1994 and in 2000, it merged with Timothy Benn Publishing to form Incisive Media. He floated Incisive Media in December 2000 and since then, the company has accelerated its growth through a number of acquisitions and new brand launches.
Tim was voted PPA Publisher of the Year in 1997 and 1998, and Entrepreneur of the Year – London in 2001 in the highly prestigious Ernst & Young awards alongside fellow entrepreneurs Charles Dunstone of Carphone Warehouse Group plc and Stelios Haji-loannou of EasyGroup. Tim was the first publisher to be recognised by these awards.
Speaking at a view from the top session at PPA’s annual conference last year, Tim summed up his positive approach to the business calling on publishers to: “Focus in on your own. Stay true to your readers and don’t look over your shoulder. Everyone should be a little proud of their achievements – and shout about them.”
Tim has described himself as honest, approachable and someone who always says what he thinks. Work is a passion for Weller and he has developed a hugely successful company from scratch in a relatively short period of time. According to those who nominated him for this prestigious award: “No other individual has achieved as much in business publishing.”
Like the Reverend Marcus Morris, Tim Weller’s focus, drive and understanding of what drives successful brands has left an enduring legacy for the UK magazine sector.
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2004 - Alan Urry
Alan Urry was commended for his keen understanding of the UK magazine distribution system, combined with a gritty determination to succeed and to ensure that readers are getting what they want from their magazines, tenets shared with the Reverend Marcus Morris. Urry's career in publishing took him from the sales and distribution side to become the managing director of H Bauer, one of the ground-breaking companies in the field of mass-market magazines. Bauer, with Urry at the helm, has been one of the key influences in shaping the way magazines are sold in the UK, investing heavily in low cover prices to establish a level of sales and using permanent sale or return to build market position. |
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2003 - Michael Heseltine
Michael Heseltine - Chairman of the Haymarket Group was recognized, like the Reverend Marcus Morris, for the importance of offering readers high quality, targeted editorial. He first acquired Man About Town in 1957 re launching it as the UK's first glossy men's mag. After Haymarket was born out of his initial firm Cornmarket press in 1964 he then went on the acquisition trail as well as launching titles such as Management Today. Following a thirty year political career he has returned to the group as chairman, where he has set in train an ambitious programme of international investment to the extent that now more than 25 per cent of Haymarket's turnover comes from outside the UK. |
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2002- Sly Bailey
Sly Bailey was commended for her vision in creating a brand-focused, media neutral business at IPC Media. She recognized that consumers, as well as advertisers, were becoming more sophisticated in their understanding of brands. Under her direction, many IPC brands were expanded across new and complementary media platforms, whilst retaining editorial innovation and excellence as core principles at the heart of the business. |
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2001 - Terry Mansfield CBE
During Terry Mansfield's 40 year climb from advertisement representative to managing director of the National Magazine Company, chairman of COMAG and a vice-president of the Hearst Corporation he has exemplified how a nose for business, original thinking and enthusiasm brings success in our industry. Throughout his career Terry Mansfield has made it his mission to find the best people and develop talent for the industry. |
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2000 - John Bird
John Bird is the man behind the publishing phenomenon that is The Big Issue - the magazine sold by homeless people so they can earn an income and regain their self esteem. Following the launch of The Big Issue in the UK in 1991, 'street publishing' now spans the globe and The Big Issue has been instrumental in setting up papers in Western and Eastern Europe, South Africa, Australia and America. |
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1999 - Tony Elliot
Tony Elliot can be described as one of the originators of the phenomenon of developing a magazine title into a recognizable international brand. He single handedly launched Time Out in 1968, with £70, during a summer vacation from Keele University. Thirty years on the Time Out Group has an annual turnover of more than £20m per annum. |
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1998 - Michael Potter
Michael Potter launched Redwood Publishing with Christopher Ward in 1982. Twenty years later the company employs 260 staff and has a turnover of more than £50m. "He is largely responsible for the growth of contract publishing", said Christopher Ward, "he has personally launched more than 50 magazines….If he has any regrets, I suspect it is that he hasn't launched twice the number". |
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1997 - John Brown
John Brown has, as managing director of John Brown Publishing, embodied much of what magazine publishing is about in the 90's. His pioneering approach has been watched by others and then emulated by them - making him a worthy recipient of the Marcus Morris Award. |
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1996 - Graham Sherren and Anthony Nares
Graham Sherren and the late Anthony Nares have made an immeasurable contribution to the face of business magazine publishing in the UK. Together they formed a powerful partnership, blending unique creative and business acumen with an entrepreneurial spirit. |
Graham Sherren
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1995 - Joan Barrell
Joan Barrell has been behind the success stories of some of the key titles in UK magazine publishing. She was commending for combining an obvious commercial expertise with a detailed understanding of the editorial product. She was a board member of The National Magazine Company and an active ambassador for magazines within the UK advertising industry. |
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1994 - John Mellon
John Mellon's vision in steering IPC Magazines during a decade of change were commended by the PPA board. Having prepared the company for the challenges to it's core weeklies' business, he used his vision and courage to transform IPC's share of the TV listings market, before moving on to bring the same set of high standards to Reed Business Publishing. |
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1993 - David Arculus and Robin Miller
PPA board felt it was impossible to separate the contributions which David Arculus and Robin Miller had made to the UK publishing industry through their years at the helm of EMAP. They created an entrepreneurial climate for the company which has enabled it to grow into a formidable publishing empire. |
Robin Miller
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1992 - Chris Anderson
The founder of Future Publishing has been hailed as one of the great entrepreneurs of the industry. He built the company from it's roots in 1985 into a key player, introducing covermounts and being among the first to go to the Macintosh page make-up while still realising the importance of getting the editorial product right. |
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1991 - Felix Dennis
Innovation and the readiness to take risks along with his undaunted enthusiasm for the magazine publishing business were qualities which Felix Dennis shared with Marcus Morris. From early beginnings on Oz he pioneered microcomputer publishing on both sides of the Atlantic. |
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1990 - Nick Logan
Publishing for the teenage market has been the outstanding success story of the last decade and Nick Logan has been attributed as the man behind it. He had the idea for the runaway success story which Smash Hits was to become during the 1980's, and followed this with the mould-breaking The Face. |
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The Reverend Marcus Morris OBE
The publishing career of the Reverend Marcus Morris OBE began in 1950 when he launched the incredibly successful Eagle comic. He published three further comics with Hulton Press and remained Editor of them until 1959.
Morris then moved into editorial management in women's magazines, serving as editor on Housewife, prior to being named editorial director of The National Magazine Company in 1960, becoming managing director in 1964.
During the next two decades he successfully merged Queen and Harper's Bazaar into Harpers and Queen in 1970; launched Cosmopolitan in 1972; purchased The Antique Collector in 1974 and launched Company in 1978.
In 1977, together with the Conde Nast Publications, he formed COMAG, be combining the two circulation departments. Prior to his retirement in 1984 he was deputy chairman of The National Magazine Company for two years and chairman of COMAG. In 1983 he was awarded the OBE.
Marcus Morris died on 16 March 1989. |
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