Mirror Group Newspapers has put an extra 10p on the cover price of
Saturday’s Independent, taking it to 60p. The company says the money
will be ‘invested in the product and promotional activity, to ensure all
parties benefit from increased circulation’. Unlike other publishers,
MGN claims, it’s not punishing retailers for increased costs, but
instead is putting an extra penny in their pockets.
CIA Media Solutions in Manchester has promoted Simon Bartle, Tony
Jervis, Mick Style and Dawn Offland to its board. Three new senior
managers have also joined the company: Steve Blakeman, the head of press
from Poulters in Leeds (a Campaign ‘Faces to Watch’), Joanne Marshall
and Emma Greenhough.
A relaunch of Auto Express is expected, following its sale by United
News and Media and Axel Springer Verlag AG to Dennis Publishing. The
acquisition is the biggest in Dennis’s history and launches it into the
motoring market. With circulation falling 18.3 per cent (to 75,015) in
the first half of the year, the title is close to losing its lead over
the rival weekly, Autocar.
TDI has created Ireland’s biggest ‘moving’ billboard by painting four
carriages of a Dublin Dart train with a Guinness ad. The 295-foot ad was
applied using a new vinyl print technique to a train that runs 18 times
a day between Howth and Bray. Guinness has also taken all ad sites
inside the train.
Gruner and Jahr is making media-planning information for all IT titles
available on the Internet, via the G&J Communication Office. A visit to
http://www.co.guj.de will reveal data on formats, rates, circulation,
closing dates, surveys and clippings as well as news about G&J titles
and the German media.
The Diner’s Club has relaunched its Premier-published customer magazine,
Signature. The redesign follows July’s successful launch of an Air Miles
reward scheme and reflects the card’s changing core membership to
frequent business travellers.
At 24, Sarah Fisher, the newly appointed boss of 19 and Mizz, has become
IPC Magazine’s youngest publisher. She was formerly the assistant
publisher of Woman and Home. Her appointment is part of the publishing
restructure of IPC’s South Bank Group, which puts one publisher in
charge of each of its three market sectors. Andrew Taylor assumes
responsibility for the specialist titles, Wedding and Home, Parenting,
Our Baby and Hair. A publisher for the women’s titles, Woman’s Journal
and Options, has yet to be appointed.
Midland Independent Newspapers, the publisher of the Birmingham Post and
Evening Mail, is targeting new drivers with Drive On. Launching on 14
November, the magazine will be produced for the Driving Standards
Authority and handed to every successful test candidate. A one million
circulation is predicted.
Punch magazine has appointed SMS, the regional re-presentation company
for magazines, radio and the Internet, to represent the title to
advertisers and agencies outside London and the South. At the same time,
SMS has picked up the contract to handle regional sales for Classic FM.
The first mobile phone title, Mobile Choice, launches next week. The
100-page A4 magazine is published by Noble House Publishing and will
have an initial monthly print run of 40,000. Advertisers in the first
issue include Cellnet, Orange and One-2-One.
Andrew Neil, the former editor of the Sunday Times, has been confirmed
as the editor-in-chief of the European Press, the publishing company
owned by the Barclay brothers. Neil’s brief will cover the Scotsman,
Scotland on Sunday, the Edinburgh Evening News and the European.
