Profile - Burley tackles the digital conundrum

Cosmopolitan, which celebrates its 35th birthday this month, and Good Housekeeping, which reaches the grand old age of 85 this year, both saw period-on-period growth, outsold only by Conde Nast's precocious over-performer Glamour in their market.

"We're obviously very pleased, particularly as we were one of the only publishing houses that saw increase overall [of 3.6%]," Burley reflects.

Their stablemates at ACP-Natmags - Best, Real People and Reveal - had less impressive results however, with the weekly market struggling to hang on to readers with the same success as the glossies - up just 0.5% period on period, despite three launches in the past 12 months.

The real life titles in particular seem to be having a hard time - ACP-Natmags' latest launch, Real People, was down 2.2% period on period - with the celebrity titles the real growers in the sector.

Objective achieved

But Burley, who nurtured the launch of Reveal as chief operating officer of ACP-Natmag before moving to her current role, is loyal to her previous charges. While she concedes the market "may have reached a particular level", she insists: "I'm not sure one can say there's only life in the celebrity space. There's opportunity in both spaces - the challenge is finding new ground to access the less celebrity-focused person."

She is adamant the company has achieved what it set out to do - grow share in the weekly hothouse. "If you were talking to Colin [Morrison, chief executive of ACP-Natmag], he'd say 'job done'," she says. "It's a phenomenal success to establish a three-magazine business in two years, selling nearly one million copies a week."

But while she still has one eye on the weeklies, her attention now is on the monthly titles, which include powerhouse brands such as Cosmo, Harper's Bazaar and Good Housekeeping.

As well as bolstering the print editions, her challenge - along with every other magazine publisher - is to ensure their longevity by cracking the digital conundrum.

The last year has seen a concentrated strategy to establish an online presence for titles across the portfolio, including Good Housekeeping, Country Living and CosmoGirl!, which Burley describes as "complementary assets to the brand". Harper's Bazaar, Prima and Esquire are next on the agenda.

"It's not the magazines online; it's additional services for the core readership," she says, adding that the websites should also bring the brands to a broader audience, which in turn will hopefully translate into a sales boost for the print editions.

There is also the launch of Project Celia, an e-zine for teenage girls in the mould of Dennis' Monkey. It is a clear attempt to hang onto teen readers in a notoriously difficult sector, with CosmoGirl! down 23.8% year on year. "I should clarify that it's a test - part of a broad strategy in the teenage space," says Burley. "We have CosmoGirl!, which we're very committed to, the website and the e-zine - they will work in synergy."

Last autumn also saw the acquisition of Netdoctor and Handbag, along with associated websites such as Getlippy.com and Gomamatoday.com, which gave NatMags "scale and a whole bunch of experts".

"Handbag as a brand fits beautifully with our portfolio," says Burley.

Strong credentials

Getlippy, for example, will become the online partner for Company, the young women's title that has dropped nearly 7% year on year.

Burley is confident that the relationship is the key to turning around the print title's fortunes.

"Company has always had very strong credentials. What's been missing perhaps was the website offering to complement it," she says.

Another key outcome of the Handbag acquisition is Engage, the cross-portfolio, cross-platform sales team headed by James Hayr, formally of Emap2.

Burley insists the publisher was later than some of its rivals in developing such a team for purely practical reasons.

"There's been a huge amount of activity from other publishers who had multiple platforms; we didn't have a lot to talk about digitally until last year," she says. "Suddenly we had something of scale to offer."

With the formation of Hearst Digital, headed by Handbag boss Nancy Cruickshank, NatMags does now have a sizeable digital force.

Just how intrinsic that is to the publisher's future is revealed by Burley's assertion that: "Nancy and I talk a huge amount - our destinies are interlinked."

Unsurprisingly, Burley is vague about new launches, except to say: "Project Celia is a huge opportunity. It's a magazine, but in a different format; we have to be quite fluid about that. The big thing is what the consumer wants. If you start with that premise, it will lead you to an answer."

Jonathan Durden, page 24

CV

2006: Managing director, NatMags

2004: Chief operating officer, ACP-Natmag

2001: Group publishing director, Woman's Home & Lifestyle, NatMags

2000: Publishing director, Future Publishing

1999: Publishing director, Financial Times Business

1997: Publishing director, Gruner and Jahr UK

1996: Advertising director, Cosmopolitan, NatMags

1995: Advertising director, Company, NatMags

1992: Advertising manager, Daily Express

1990: Deputy ad manager, NME and Melody Maker, IPC; Sales executive, Daily Mirror

1987: National account sales, Bristol United Press.