’Oh no - I killed Kenny!’ mugs Ashley Munday as he kicks over the
giant cardboard cut-out of South Park’s hapless hero. Munday is hurtling
over to the big colour television in the corner of his office to flick
through what’s on at 10 o’clock on a Friday morning - keeping an eye on
what drives his magazine.
Radio Times was 75 years old this year and Munday has been there for 14
of those years - nearly one-fifth of its lifetime. Not bad for someone
who looks about 17, as he sits there grinning infectiously, surrounded
by South Park cards and goodies (’adult merchandise is great - it’s the
future!’ he explains, but he’s obviously a huge fan as well) and
enthusing about his job at every turn.
And it’s a job for which he has waited long enough. Having started at
Radio Times in 1982 as a sales executive, he has scaled the
organisation’s hierarchy (glossing over, for the moment, a two-year
stint at TV Times in the mid-80s) to become its publisher. He’s taken
over from Nicholas Brett who was last year made the director of Radio
Times, Music, Audio and Arts Group for BBC Worldwide.
Because of his lengthy tenure at the magazine, some wonder if Munday is
able to look at Radio Times with an objective commercial eye, and if he
is as heavyweight as his predecessor, Brett. A quick straw poll around a
handful of press buyers largely shows admiration and affection, although
more than one accuses him of being an anorak - and they admit that if
they had been on the same magazine for ten years on the trot, they too
may find it increasingly hard to see beyond their belly button.
Munday’s toughest task to date was seeing the magazine through the
deregulation of TV listings in 1990. Until that point, Radio Times had
its market sewn up, and when every publishing Tom, Dick and Harry
entered the fray, some tough decisions had to be made. ’We had to choose
which route to take,’ Munday explains, ’and that’s when we really moved
it upmarket, appealing to both men and women.’
Although IPC’s What’s on TV overtook Radio Times after just two years in
the marketplace - the BBC Worldwide title has held on to the number two
spot ever since - Munday argues that it is less relevant to sell against
other listings titles, and instead pitches the magazine against the
national press.
And the ABC1 advertisers stuck with Radio Times, due in no small part to
Munday’s diligent communication with them throughout the deregulation
process. On top of that, the magazine claims to score the highest ad
revenue of any magazine in the UK today, not to mention having the ABC1
market more or less to itself.
The next task facing Munday will be the gradual inclusion of digital
listings, although he says that while the service is being used by a
tiny minority, there are no plans to immediately rush out a redesigned,
digital Radio Times. ’The speed at which we take on the listings will
depend on our readers. We need to address it in a slightly different
way. All the marketing hype has been about having more channels - our
readers see digital as providing more choice. We’ll see which way it
goes, and find out which elements of digital interest our readers.’
With a straightforward advertising background, Munday comes to the
publisher’s job from a different angle than the editorial route
travelled by Brett.
But, as Brett explains, Munday has taken a more traditional path.
’Ashley was the natural choice for the publisher’s job. He is Radio
Times’s stick of rock - it runs right through him. His commercial
background is a strong advantage, and he works very well in partnership
with Sue (Robinson, the editor).’
Munday’s first job in publishing was working for Haymarket Publishing on
What Car? magazine. ’The motoring editorial teams couldn’t walk around
the building in a normal fashion,’ he recalls. ’They’d scream around the
place as if they were driving hot rods, changing gears to go round
corners.’ He denies adopting that particular mode of perambulation
himself, though his excited ’vrooming’ as he tells the tale blows his
cover somewhat.
The vrooming and the hurtling are all part of Munday’s boundless energy,
and you can’t help but like him for it. His enthusiasm is so infectious,
in fact, that half way through the interview I seize this week’s copy of
Radio Times from his desk - resplendent with the gorgeous Grant Mitchell
on the cover - and hold it up in front of him: ’Look - this is yours!’ I
say, burning with envy and inexplicable pride.
Munday smiles and shrugs. ’Yeah - great, isn’t it?’
THE MUNDAY FILE
1981: Haymarket Publishing, sales executive
1982: Radio Times, sales executive
1985: TV Times, senior sales executive
1988: Radio Times, group head
1994: Radio Times, advertisement director
1998: Radio Times, publisher.
