Senior executives from some of the UK's leading publishers give their reaction to the February 2017 ABC Consumer Magazines Report.

Rob Munro-Hall, group managing director, Bauer Magazine Media UK said: "Bauer Media has once again strengthened its position in the market as the UK’s No.1 publisher by continuing to innovate and launch. We have seen our biggest titles extend their lead in competitive and challenging marketplaces. We have launched new magazines that have established themselves as products that both readers and advertisers want. We’ve also continued to build out our successful brands across multiple platforms extending their reach and relevance to their audiences."

Nicholas Coleridge, managing director, Condé Nast Britain said: "For the sixth period in succession, we see the luxury print sector holding pleasingly steady, at a time when our digital audience is growing exponentially."

Kevin Costello, CEO, Haymarket Media Group said: "Our latest ABCs prove the enduring strength of Haymarket’s consumer portfolio and how our titles continue to attract engaged, valuable and specialist audiences.

"Whilst it’s been a challenging year for any brand reliant on traditional print revenues, our consumer brands have tackled these challenges by diversifying not just into digital but events and retail. The launch of theWhat Car? new car product, Classic & Sports Car’s show and the success of What Hi-Fi?’s retail platform are great examples of our brands continuing to reach audiences in more creative ways.

“In this financial year, digital will overtake print as our single largest source of revenue and we will continue to capitalise on our highly-engaged, specialist audiences."

Anna Jones, CEO, Hearst Magazines UK said: "Once again Hearst has delivered an exceptional set of ABC results, and I am pleased that we have the market leader in all of our monthly magazine competitive sectors.  Seeing year-on-year growth from many of our key brands, at a time when we continue to grow across multiple platforms, is hugely encouraging.

"These results also show that our dynamic approach to distribution continues to yield impressive results. Targeting consumers in the places we know they are spending their time has been invaluable in building a highly engaged audience."

Tom Bureau, CEO, Immediate Media Co. said: "Immediate is enjoying growth across all its major platforms, and – as these results show – our magazines continue to perform exceptionally well. Our world-class content teams are creating premium magazine brands which are inspiring the passions of millions of super-engaged consumers every month. And the strength of our subscriptions business underlines the value of the long-term relationships we forge with consumers.

"Our absolute focus on underpinning award-winning content with a fully integrated technology infrastructure allows us to develop and deliver innovative products and services to our growing customers base. From sector-leading online marketplaces like hitched, to engrossing live experiences like the upcoming BFI & Radio Times Television Festival, to our newly-launched TV shopping channel Sewing Quarter, we’re creating richer ways to engage our customers."

Marcus Rich, CEO, Time Inc. UK said: "Time Inc. UK brands are some of the most-loved and best-selling magazine brands on the UK newsstand and we continue to develop and evolve our print products to fuel our consumers’ passions.

"In 2016 our brands ran over 150 events, directly engaging with more than 300,000 consumers. Digitally we reached more consumers than ever before and last year saw traffic to our sites grow by 8%. Correspondingly, we saw double digit growth in our digital advertising revenue. Our content is available on 14 different platforms and we produced over 2,000 pieces of video content across our websites. All this demonstrates the growing and varied reach of Time Inc. UK’s brands.

"We continue to deliver new and exciting opportunities for our commercial partners to engage with our audiences and 2016 saw us deliver innovative campaigns for advertisers including Apple, Google, eBay and VO5. This year we expect our new TV production arm to come to fruition, as well as further expanding our already highly successful retail activity and our portfolio of events."

This article was originally published on PPA.co.uk, February 9th 2017… Read the original article here