Senior executives from some of the UK's leading publishers give their reaction to the ABC Consumer Magazines Report for the six-months from January to June 2012.
Bauer Media
Paul Keenan, Chief Executive
"Bauer’s multi-platform brands continue to perform well and are reaching new audiences through innovative new digital launches, an integral part of our strategy to deliver content to consumers whenever, wherever and however they want it. Our magazine brands are influential amongst consumers, as evidenced by the Anatomy of Influence study, and with our consistent focus on investment in our products and brands, the reach and relevance of our brands will continue to grow.”
Condé Nast
Nicholas Coleridge, Managing Director
“It is encouraging to see so many of our titles rising in circulation, boosted by the growing number of consumers who choose to read their magazines in digital form. Print, meanwhile, continues to perform more robustly than many in the industry predicted. The result is one of our strongest circulation sets for several years.”
Dennis Publishing
James Tye, CEO
"It is impressive to see The Week continue to grow its overall print circulation as well as its iPad sales so dramatically over the last 6 months. I’m also encouraged to see that, where current auditing regulations allow, we are beginning to realise significant sales across our portfolio via the iPad. Nowhere is this more obvious than Men’s Fitness, which posts a substantial YOY increase.”
Haymarket Media Group
David Prasher, Managing Director of Haymarket Consumer Media
"I am delighted with the exceptional performance of FourFourTwo on the newsstand for the first half of 2012. Such growth in a particularly challenging marketplace is a remarkable achievement and shows that a maintained focus on and investment in high quality, specialist magazines, pays off. In our other sectors, despite a tougher newsstand environment, we are maintaining or improving a competitive position and widening the gap between our titles and their main competitors. On top of that, our brands are experiencing ongoing growth of their online and digital audiences and revenues."
Hearst Magazines UK
Arnaud de Puyfontaine, Chief Executive
“Hearst UK is committed to publishing great content and making this available to our consumers on the platform of their choice, be it print, websites, mobile, apps or digital editions. And amid these challenging economic times, our strategy is paying off as witnessed by this latest set of figures. The majority of our brands continue to perform in line or ahead of their competitive markets, while a number of them have posted growth both for print ABC and print and digital combined sales. We have also released a truly impressive debut ABC for our newest brand, Women’s Health. Great testament to our strong brands and talented teams.”
Immediate Media Co
Tom Bureau, CEO
“In such a tough economy, I am delighted that Immediate Media Co's magazines continue to perform strongly, delivering high quality targeted content to our consumers and outperforming our key competitors. Our vision is to build the leading special interest content company, with magazines at the heart of a cross media strategy so it’s great to see trading so stable, with growth in a number of areas. After a period of restructure post-deal, and as we scale our multi-platform capability, we are building an exciting business.”
IPC Media
Sylvia Auton, CEO
"The on-going recession continues to affect the entire magazine industry. At IPC we remain focussed on editorial and publishing innovation and are seeing some improving sales trends in our women’s lifestyle, fashion and celebrity brands, and our home interest portfolio remains resilient. I believe that the quality of our content is the strongest it has ever been, so it remains for us to ensure that we get this content into the hands of our consumers across the plethora of platforms now available to us. The majority of our brands are extending their offerings beyond print, interacting with millions of consumers every week through tablets, mobile, online, social media, brand extensions and live events.”