IPC to launch two internet portals

overseen by Colin Reeves-Smith and Sylvia Auton, the respective managing

directors of the Southbank and Country and Leisure divisions.

Country Life Online will be aimed at those who aspire to live in the

countryside, as well as the one in five of the population who actually

do.

Auton said the site would build on the strength of magazine brands such

as The Field and Horse and Hound, as well as online brand

Country-Life.co.uk.

Property will be a major commercial driver. Ads and sponsorship will be

sold by the magazine sales teams, and staff responsible for e-commerce

will be recruited.

’We have our own branded goods and we will extend those and other

offerings on to the web,’ said Auton.

The homes and gardens portal - which has a working title of Your Home -

will take content from the recently merged home interest and gardening

magazine portfolios, as well as from outside sources. Reeves-Smith said

the homes market lends itself naturally to e-commerce.

The new site’s staff will come from within the Southbank group. Although

there will be a dedicated online sales team, specialist advertisers will

be served by the print teams. Support for e-commerce and group deals

will come from the IPC Electric sales unit, headed by Neil Perkins.

IPC Electric has poached Tim Hudson from Redwood, where he was associate

publisher of Skyview, to be commercial manager.

Perkins is hiring two online teams, one to sell the BeMe and

UnmissableTV sites and the other to sell the Uploaded and NME sites

(story, p6). Each will have an ad manager and four sales executives.

Separately, IPC revealed its first-half results last week. Ad revenues

were up 7.6 per cent to pounds 62.2 million and have remained buoyant

during the second half. However, circulation revenue fell 3.1 per cent

to pounds 106 million.