Bauer sales boss Tony Kendall has hit back at negative predictions for magazine ad revenues and says 2013 media agency data is off the mark for Australia's largest magazine publisher.
Kendall said that revenues would hold flat this year, that Bauer would launch at least one more new title and that the company would look to acquire more digital properties.
Kendall accepted that media agency bookings data, collected by SMI, was accurate. It showed a decline of 19.6% year on year as magazine revenues took a $73 million hit. But he said the year on year comparison was out of context given the closure of of Bauer titles Grazia, Madison, Burke's Backyard and Good Food.
“Taking [those closures] into account like for like sales were down 13%,” while direct revenues dipped “two to three per cent” over the calendar year, he told AdNews.
Some media buyers have suggested that the diversion of ad dollars away from print magazines has been overcooked, given the reach they build into a cross platform buy. Others have suggested that magazine ad dollars will see similar falls in 2014, although Starcom MediaVest's latest survey of marketers and media sales executives suggested a better year (-8.9%).
But Kendall said that from Bauer's perspective, even that prediction was off. “It doesn't take into account new magazine launches. Today we launched Yours and we will launch at least one more magazine this year, so there will be growth.”
After a “punishing” year for FMCG and retail advertising, Kendall said the category was showing signs of resurgence, and that retail bookings, from the likes of Harvey Norman, were “really strong”. He said fashion, cosmetics and homes were all picking up.
He predicted a flat year for Bauer and forward bookings across quarters one, two and three were “100% of last year”.
Digital revenues and audiences (via the Mi9 platform) were “strong last year and [look] strong this year.” Kendall said digital revenues would make up 10-15% of total Bauer advertising revenue in 2014 and could go beyond 20% in the coming years via growth and acquisition.
However, the former News Corp sales boss said that magazines would not migrate to digital platforms in the same way that newspaper had.
“Magazine content is not time sensitive in the same way that news is. You lean back and enjoy a magazines.”
But he said that reader apps and the growth of what called be termed augmented reality could complement the printed medium. He said Bauer's own reader app had notched up over 800,000 downloads and created “huge interaction”.
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