Media ShopTalk:   w/c 2 November 2009

One of the perks of working in advertising, and media specifically, is that one gets copies of most magazines free of charge!   But over the years the media owners have had to cut down on vouchers copies as, let’s face it, magazines cost a lot of money to print and they would much rather one buys a copy than gets a copy for free! And whilst the media owners whinge that client X is not advertising in their magazine and that’s why you’re not entitled to a voucher copy, what they do sometimes forget is that tomorrow that media person may well get a new client that is absolutely right for that title!   In most instances the well known consumer magazine the media person knows well, it’s the niche / specialist titles that become the problem. Over the years Mike Leahy has spent many a long hour forming data bases of magazine and newspaper titles, keeping records of rate cards, ownership, circulations etc.   

Today the system is web based and Media Manager is a media person’s best friend when trying to find out which publication covers a specific area,  which sector of the market a title is aimed at, an indication of rates, print order and circulation (although these are best confirmed with the media owners themselves) and a whole lot more information! Leading on from the Magna report which was sent out with last week’s newsletter and the report of an additional 4 magazine titles that have been closed by Conde Nast, the question of how many SA magazine and newspaper titles have been closed this year was raised.  In consultation with Mike, he has kindly shared with us his monitoring of name changes, new titles and dead/suspended titles from January – October 2009.   

This information is purely from information that has been supplied to Media Manager and therefore may not be 100% accurate but is the most reliable source that we have. The facts: Number of name changes: 22 Number of new titles: 151 Number of dead/suspended titles: 146 So in theory there are 5 more magazine or newspaper titles available in the market place from January – October 2009.   However let’s take a look that publications that have been closed down over this period, those titles that most or at least some of us recognise! January:  TopBike and NAFCOC Today February: MMS Magazine, MyWeek (13 editions), Procurement & Supply Chain Professional, Kulula.com Kids Comic, Acumen, Computing SA March: All regional editions of Agri, Enterprise, Enterprise Directory of Black Professionals, Best Life, Highveld Living, A number of Get It editions, The Rugby Annual, Teenzine April:  CRC Business Bulletin, Manwees, African Packaging Review, Movie & DVD Magazine, Camera & Image, Mining and Manufacturing Systems Magazine and Musicmaker May:  Finesse Meisie, JoziWeekly, SA Provinces, Cities & Towns, 2 x Urban News editions June:  Real Simple, Y Magazine July:  YNot Magazine, Convergence, August:  Quad 4 Fun, Business Wise Quarterly, Funk Magazine, MoneyWeek Monthly Digest, Top Huis, Link Supply Chain Management September:  Golf Punk, The Green Magazine, Primary Matters October:  Camp Rock (Disney Enterprises) In essence, the majority of title closures are smaller, niche publications or newspaper titles that would only get a very small percentage of the advertising spend in any case.   

A number of newspapers and newspaper supplements have been merged into the mother brands or merged to form newspapers covering a greater area.   

These are all cost cutting moves which does make sense.  

The few, more well known magazines that have been closed are operating in environments where there are a number of alternate titles to use to reach these readers.   

And of course the closure of Best Life was purely due to the fact that mother brand in the USA was closed and therefore the local edition was forced to close too. The new titles are however an area that perhaps should of concern for advertisers.  

 Of the 151 new titles, about 98% of these are very niche titles which we believe will find surviving in this economic climate extremely difficult.   

The more mainstream titles such as Woman’s Health and Destiny Man, due to the media owners who represent these titles, will probably have a better chance being more successful than the others. A client’s budget is planned so that they get the best exposure and achieve specific business objectives.   

These days the good old “tried and tested” media selection is usually implemented  with a couple of changes here and there.   

The luxury of any kind of increase in annual budgets are very slim and therefore the opportunity to support new titles is practically non-existent! When we come out of the recession  - whenever that may be, it will be an interesting exercise to do the same analysis and find out who has survived.

Until next week!

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