Despite intense competition in the form of competing titles from the UK and from the ever-increasing number of newspaper supplements on the market, Ireland's magazine sector continues to punch above its weight in the circulation, readership and advertising revenue stakes.
According to industry estimates, upwards of 25 million indigenous Irish magazines are sold every year in Ireland. And, according to recent research conducted by the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland, EUR239m in advertising revenue was generated by the 320 Irish titles represented by the Periodical Publishers Association of Ireland in 2007, putting the sector in third place - behind only national press and television - as the country's most popular advertising medium.
Imported UK titles have traditionally had a huge influence on the development and dynamic of the indigenous magazine market in Ireland. Superior resources and vast economies of scale have historically allowed them to dominate large sectors of the local market by muscling out would-be local producers through their heady mix of high-quality production, design and editorial at affordable prices.
In recent years, however, this dominance has been challenged by indigenous publishers who, recognising they could not compete with UK offerings as they then stood, undertook a blanket review of their titles and engaged in a strategic rethink, which resulted in a greater investment in state-of-the-art design and production techniques. The strategy of boosting the quality and local focus of editorial content and presenting this to Irish readers at lower cover prices has paid off and the local industry is in the best shape it has ever been in.
But while strategic management certainly accounts for a large proportion of its recent success, the rub of the green or Lady Luck has also had a bearing. The strength of the pound against the euro since the early part of the decade raised the euro cover price of UK titles, which provided an opportunity for Irish titles to capitalise along price lines. The booming advertising market, fuelled by the economic transition of the same period, also provided a welcome revenue source for Irish publishers to reinvest in their titles.
A combination of these factors, backed by ongoing marketing support, thus encouraged Irish readers to look again at what local titles had to offer and this has, in turn, worked to put the sector on a firmer footing. The results have been impressive, with dozens of new indigenous titles appearing in the past five years and the sector's share of the advertising cake rising to record levels.
The home-produced women's magazine sector has been the best performer of this new order. Long-standing titles Image, U, Irish Tatler and Woman's Way have enjoyed sustained growth, while new entrants such as Prudence, The Gloss and the teenager-focused Kiss have also done well. All are confidently positioned either as first-choice solus purchases or as complementaries to popular imported titles such as Cosmopolitan, Best, Marie Claire and Glamour, plus Woman, Woman's Weekly and Woman's Own.
Notable successes
Elsewhere, there have been notable successes in areas such as gardening, food and drink, technology, TV (the RTe Guide continues as Ireland's biggest-selling magazine), business, interior design, politics, pop music, personal finance and celebrity magazines. In these sectors, Irish titles are, for the most part, leaders in their respective categories.
These publications have prospered on the principle that locally relevant content, properly presented, attracts eyeballs. Local advertisers are happy they have more impact in local publications because Irish readers are in no doubt that, unlike UK imports, the ads are targeted exclusively at them.
But the rising tide has not raised all boats for local players and there are literally hundreds of special-interest sectors - from abseiling to zoology - that remain exclusively serviced by UK or US titles. One particular area where the indigenous sector has failed has been delivering a successful home-produced men's magazine. This has been a cause of frustration for advertisers, who are seeking such a male haven to showcase their wares.
While Irish men do read men's magazines, no Irish publisher has managed to find the winning formula. The last indigenous men's magazine of any note was Himself, which launched a decade ago, but closed down within two years, having never really found the right voice to engage an Irish male readership. However, the absence of indigenous men's titles has presented an advertising revenue opportunity for those UK titles prepared to make advertising space exclusively available for the Irish market - IPC Ignite has recently announced that it intends to pursue this strategy.
Irish magazines have had it good for the past decade, but the industry consensus is that no one will be immune from the global economic downturn. Analysts are already predicting that growth in ad spend in 2008 will not be as high as in previous years (4% in 2008 compared to 8% last year).
Claiming a share of ad spend has been difficult for many titles and reduced spending could affect the sector before others. Newer entrants still have difficulty finding their way on to the media schedules of leading brands and the relatively low frequency of publication for many titles means it can be difficult to offer the sort of coverage brands crave.
Another key issue affecting the consumer magazine sector is the way readership data is collected. It is collected as part of the Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS), which deals primarily with newspaper readership, but also assesses a small number of magazines. Several publishers have withdrawn from JNRS in protest over the way it computes figures for paid-for magazine titles, arguing that the system favours newspaper supplements over paid-for titles. The industry is considering a readership survey of its own.
Another key challenge for the sector is to make the proper transition to the online world as Irish consumers' media consumption habits increasingly go digital. Irish magazines have been slow to invest in online services and that tardiness has been due to the slow rollout of broadband and the dearth of information on the digital media consumption habits of Irish consumers.
Thankfully this is changing, but this wait-and-see approach to website development has allowed overseas titles to steal a march on indigenous magazines in the digital space. Although some publishers have the ball rolling, the challenge will be for Irish magazine publishers to direct resources into developing compelling products that will woo Irish readers in the new media age
MAJOR PLAYERS
Major consumer magazine publishing groups in the island of Ireland
- All About Publishing
- Ashville Media Group
- Business & Finance
- Buy and Sell Group
- Dyflin Publications
- Harmonia
- Image Publications
- Mediateam
- Mac Communications
- Minjara
- Mount Media
- NI Homes & Lifestyle Magazine
- Osnovina
- Page7 Media
- RTe Publishing
- Zahra Publishing
- Tara Publishing Company
- Trader Publishing
Source: Periodical Publishers Association of Ireland.
Read more from the Ireland Supllement
Agencies - Global networks are taking on the indies
Television - Irish TV is well on its way to digital
Newspapers - Irish newspapers battle for ad spend
Radio - The future looks bright for radio
Magazines - Indigenous titles punch above their weight
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