Magazine Publishers of Australia has slashed its activities, with magazine marketing campaigns now scrapped, and future annual MPA Awards unlikely.
The body for magazine publishers will cut marketing activities such as advertising campaigns, to instead focus on the dissemination of data collected from its members.
MPA chairman and Pacific Magazines CEO, Nick Chan, said the MPA had taken advice and decided that running advertising campaigns was not a worthwhile endeavour.
“A lot of work is being done all the time and the MPA is the central body to collate the data,” said Chan.
As for the annual awards organised by the MPA Chan said the awards in their current format could be seen as cynical, as ownership of magazines has consolidated in recent years. “The awards were created to acknowledge the editorial excellence of the magazines, but with the consolidation of the market it has become too internalised.”
He said the MPA committee would discuss the awards and the need for regular fee paying at the next meeting to be held in the next two weeks.
Chan said there was a healthy fund already in place and it would be pointless to collect more money until the fund was used.
Former MPA executive director, Helen Kingsmill, left the organisation early last year to pursue other career opportunities. She was never replaced and is unlikely to ever be replaced following the decision to scale back activities. A co-ordinator will remain at the organisation’s North Sydney office.
The news comes on the back of dismal Audit Bureau of Circulation results for many magazines, with weekly publications particularly feeling the pinch of consumers halting discretionary spending.
The MPA members include ACP, Lovatts Publications, News Magazines, Pacific Magazines, Reader's Digest and Time South Pacific.
