Craig Millar leaves TV to tackle magazines

"It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator's skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen." - William Bernbach, Bill Bernbach Said, 1989.

When Craig Millar walked into the head office of Associated Magazines in Cape Town, he brought the male ratio up to 10%. "I¹ve always enjoyed the company of women so it seems natural to me to work alongside women. While it matters more to me that the people I work with have the correct approach to their work as opposed to what their gender is, I have worked extremely well with female leaders of industry, like Lee Walker at M-Net, for example."

It's rare to find a marketing and sales expert who is able to live his brands so fully, but Craig¹s career has always been a case of steeping himself into an area of media in order to understand it and then doing the work. In 1989 after completing his Marketing Diploma at Damelin College, Craig travelled for about 8 months. He toured Europe with rock bands like Pink Floyd and Serge Gainsborough, working as a rigger. While on tour, he met some South African record execs who asked him to contact them on his return. Returning home to South Africa, he spent the next 7 years in that industry working his way up from PR to label/manager and eventually became the general marketing manager for Polygram Video Division (now Universal). A brief spell with Peter Gallo followed, before Craig moved to M-Net, where he spent 4 and a half years working at marketing the station and its content. "My time in television was a huge growth period. I thrived on the challenges, and especially enjoyed being there when reality television launched in South Africa. Big Brother and Idols were two of my projects and, together with a fantastic team we put together M-Net's most successful series to date," says Craig.

While both television and magazines provide entertainment and information, magazines occupy a very different place in people's lives with a much more lasting effect. It is this that attracted Craig to his new challenge at Associated Magazines. Worldwide, public interest in magazines continues to grow. Last year, 745 new magazines were launched (world wide), a figure that is up from 702 new launches in 2001, which suggests a healthy growth for the industry.

Associated Magazines has already experienced healthy growth this year with the acquisition of Marie Claire, the frequency of O: The Oprah Magazine to a monthly and the frequency of Baby & Me to six issues a year.

"People buy magazines for the precise purpose of reading the product and, having put down their money for it, they concentrate on getting the most they can out of it. Once advertisers and media shops truly understand this, the sky is the limit. The selling process is the same for TV and magazines -- there are just a lot more noughts at the end of a TV contract," says Craig.

Craig plans to spend the next six months understanding magazines completely, building the Associated Magazine brands further and identifying new opportunities. "Magazines are about people and there will always be a market for that. Our magazines are like being in the 'relationship industry'. These great brands that we own are vehicles that deliver product messages to the masses. Our industry is no different to television or radio in this regard, it is built on basic fundamentals such as trust, knowledge and good governance, and with this understanding we will continue in the life cycle that is the magazine business. As long as we remember those fundamentals our brands will continue to deliver for both the advertiser and the consumer."

Craig Millar steps into the deep shoes of Volker Kuhnel as Volker changes his focus to new projects at Associated Magazines. "If I had just one wish, it would be to be able to tap into Volker Kuhnel's brain and syphon his fountain of knowledge of this industry. I know that he will always be there for me in case of emergencies, but it is daunting to think that I am expected to pick up on his legacy and move forward with it," says Craig.

To strengthen the management team further, Associated Magazines recently appointed circulation and production managers. "I'm looking forward to working with the teams at Associated Magazines. With the strength that we have in our people and our brands, we're ready to go out there and convince media planners, advertisers and clients of the potential that magazines have to offer as advertising destinations. I believe that, despite all the work done in the past, magazines are still completely underrated as a medium of consumption."