Grouping publications makes sense to advertisers - Thought24 CEO

Jonathan Harris, CEO and co-founder of Thought24

“The feedback I have had from clients is firstly that a single publisher of magazines targeting the black female market is seen as a big plus, as we can offer them the opportunity to build a deeper understanding of and relationhsip with this important segment,” says Harris.

He says the grouping also allows his company to offer a complete solution - editorial, above-the-line ads, advertorials, promotions, competitions and digital - across a range of magazines. It also gives clients access to the results of proprietary research conducted in this segment of the market.

“Quite apart from that, clients will also save a lot on time…instead of having to meet with each magazine's representative in turn, one meeting does the job across the board,” he says. “The key though is to have a sales team made up of editorial specialists, each focused on helping advertisers undertsand how their brands can live within each of the titles, and not simply bundling titles together, which would ultimately commoditise them.”

Grouping these leading black female magazine brands under one roof creates a knowledge base in publishing which is unique in the South African magazine market, says Harris.

Naturally, the company's focus is on print, which - in the newspaper field at least - has recently taken a knock due to digital, but Harris believes that while magazines must obviously have a presence on the web and a clear digital strategy, provided you give your readers what they want, print is and will continue to be a viable and profitable medium.

“What we have found is that readers of women's magazines use online in a very unique way and haven't migrated away from magazines to the web in the same numbers as readers have in other areas, such as news,” says Harris.

“You can have it all, a strong title and a strong digital presence, but the whole thing comes down to your relationhsip with readers… if the publication does not have a strong base editorial presence, it will fail, whatever its medium, whatever its focus,” says Harris.

Media24 announced the acquisition on 6 April 2009.