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Magazine publishers should explore markets abroad
Magazine publishers who regard the internet and other emerging media as a threat should explore markets overseas, a British entrepreneur and politician has said.
- By Daniel Bardsley, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:32 May 3, 2009
Dubai: Magazine publishers who regard the internet and other emerging media as a threat should explore markets overseas, a British entrepreneur and politician has said.
Lord Heseltine, Chairman of the Haymarket Group and a former British Deputy Prime Minister, said opportunities for the magazine industry "have never been greater".
He also told delegates that publishers should try to generate extra revenue by organising conferences or selling DVDs linked to their publications.
Heseltine founded Haymarket the UK's largest private magazine publisher in the 1960s and returned to the board in 1997 after a lengthy political career that included spells in government under Prime Ministers Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
In a talk titled Plus Ca Change, Heseltine said, "There has never been a period of such human change" as the past 40 years.
The growth of commercial television, the emergence of videos and DVDs and most significantly the development of the internet have all posed challenges for publishers.
"People talk about threats. Why is anything a threat? It's because someone else has seen the opportunity. If someone else has got an opportunity, why don't you get there first?" he said.
He said television had initially been seen as "potentially very damaging" to the printed world.
"What people didn't take into account are the other factors that are incomparably more important than the threats," he said.
World economic growth that averages three to four per cent per annum, coupled with "an explosion" in education, meant that for magazine publishers the number of potential readers was larger than ever before, he said.
"If a publisher cannot see the opportunities offered by an audience with its appetite whetted by television, they shouldn't be in the business," he said.
"We thought if our magazines can satisfy one of the richer and more mature markets in the world the United Kingdom why can't we produce the same thing in perhaps 80 different markets in the world? You can if you go for it," he said.
Haymarket's titles are now published in 30 languages in 80 countries, either directly or under licence. One magazine is published in nearly 30 international editions.
"The growth is exponential. It shows what can happen if you enter into relationships and make things happen," he said.
In a further drive towards expansion, Heseltine said the company's car magazines, instead of just testing and photographing vehicles for articles, now filmed them and produced videos and DVDs. "If we have a magazine on urban regeneration, we organise conferences or produce directories as well.
"We produce content and we use any outlet we can find, and we also try to licence the content with partners who will preserve or enhance our reputation.
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