Customer publishing is the part of the industry most readers never think of as publishing. Membership magazines, airline and supermarket titles and the content agencies behind them reach millions of people, often with circulations that consumer titles would envy.
The purpose is different too. A membership magazine is usually there to keep members renewing, and a brand title has to show a return for the client paying for it. That creates a running question about independence, and the strongest titles tend to have an editorial identity of their own rather than sounding like the organisation behind them.
If there’s something customers don’t need more of today, it’s content.
Jackie Scully Customer media
The agencies have changed shape around this. They produce fewer print editions and more digital content, and put far more effort into distribution and income generation, while publishers' own branded content studios compete for the same budgets. Print still matters, though. Members continue to rank the magazine among the benefits they value most.
Below you'll find some of our best feature articles on customer and contract publishing, from membership magazines and in-flight titles to content agencies and branded content studios, alongside our latest news and industry commentary.
We asked Jackie Scully, managing director at Think, what does best practice publishing look like in customer media? This is what she said…
The National Trust is a treasure trove of historic and beautiful places, and, unsurprisingly, it has a huge membership. One of the benefits of membership is its highly regarded magazine…
Content marketing is all the rage, and companies like River, that have been doing it for over twenty years, are highly expert at it. River CEO Nicola Murphy tells Jo Bowman that while quality content is the bedrock of the company, it’s the marketing
Content has become mission-critical for many membership organisations. But, Mike Sewell asks, should this valuable asset be regarded as an exclusive member benefit, or used as a marketing tool?
Lots of publishers are now offering club style membership schemes, looking to generate extra revenue and deeper engagement. Dickon Ross looks at the membership model.
Ann Hartland, group business and strategy director, Cedar Communications, tells Ciar Byrne about how the customer media sector is managing the digital transformation journey.
What does the future hold for customer media? CPL One’s Sarah Simpson, looks ahead.
Spring hasn’t sprung until CRUNCH takes place, writes Richard Reeves, MD of the Association of Online Publishers, which recently held its first CRUNCH event of the year. The mood was suitably optimistic for a change of season.
The Association for Online Publishing has announced the shortlist for the 2020 Digital Publishing Awards – a celebration of best practice in innovative, creative and profitable digital publishing.
Collingwood Advisory has made three senior appointments, strengthening its team of entrepreneurs and strategic advisers.
Fake news is nothing new. What is new is the modern communications network that allows crackpot ideas to spread like wildfire. To what extent should serious media cover this nonsense, asks Dickon Ross.
After five years, 33 columns and almost 200 titles put under the 'Spotlight', Alan Geere shares what he's learnt from the experience. What works and what doesn't, plus some easy fixes that all editors and publishers should look at.
The ABC has expanded its validation services to include TAG’s Certified Against Piracy and Certified Against Malware programmes.
The shortlist has been announced for the Campaign Publishing Awards (previously known as the British Media Awards).
The PPA has announced the shortlist for its annual awards, which this year celebrate its 40th anniversary.
One such thing is digital editions, a route to market currently getting a lot of attention.
Covid-19 has presented publishers with huge challenges, including having to publish when the whole team is stuck at home. We grab five minutes with Russell Pierpoint, MD of Evolved Media, to find out how working from home can be made to work.
Hats off to salespeople everywhere. For many publishers, they still bring in the lion’s share of revenues, but now face the toughest of advertising environments.
The PPA Awards 2020, originally scheduled to take place on the evening of June 30 at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, will go ahead as a virtual event.
WoodWing and Wrike have announced new integrations to help publishers and marketing teams speed up their storytelling processes and remove workflow inefficiencies.
It’s a question every publisher that mails out copies is having to face. How do we wrap our magazines in an environmentally sustainable, yet affordable, way? Dickon Ross describes the journey his magazine, E&T, has been on.
Journalists love to create content, so why do some publishers make it so hard for them to do so? Unfit-for-purpose CMS and publishing platforms stifle creativity and leave content creators demotivated and unproductive. It needn’t be this way…
Artificial intelligence can do the heavy lifting of data processing, allowing publishers to increase output, become more creative and reach new markets. It’s a huge opportunity, says Rebekah Billingsley, though not without its potential drawbacks.
