By Claudia Siron

With magazine circulation and ad revenues dropping in recent years, surviving brands are finding ways to tap multiple revenue streams. Pacific Magazine’s head of entertainment Emma Nolan shared with Mediaweek some of the new brand projects and why the approach towards diversification is critical in the publishing industry.

“New Idea is an incredibly strong brand, and it’s been one of the most successful magazine brands when it comes to diversification on all platforms,” said Nolan.

See also:
Pacific’s Emma Nolan on New Idea’s regal royal read

From the numbers Nolan has shared with us, the brand seems to be heading in the right direction with strong engagement for their social and digital offerings. “New Idea has a total footprint of just around five million touch points every month across our platforms. Our audience is highly engaged with our content. In August, we reached 1.72 million people and that was 55% growth year on year. New Idea visitors had over 6.84 million page views and 1.5 million video views.”

Nolan told Mediaweek that New Idea has been producing original video every day for the brand extension New Idea Food. Although the publishing industry is definitely turning digital, it doesn’t mean magazine brands need to put everything online when specific content is valued enough. New Idea Food has recently expanded from online to a print offering.

“It gives food lovers 360 degree access to the New Idea Food brand across print, digital and podcasts. The content in the magazine features the best from the New Idea test kitchen and also the most clicked-on food stories from the website,” said Nolan.

“The 116 page print version of New Idea Food offers more than 90 recipes to feed the family and entertain friends; we have step-by-step cooking, masterclasses, quick and easy meals, helpful food hacks and hints, in-season produce ideas and reviews.”

Podcasts have become a popular way to engage existing audiences and draw in new ones. Nolan told Mediaweek the array of podcasts New Idea offers includes New Idea Royals, Real Talk, New Idea Investigates, The Baby Whisperer from Practical Parenting, Trolley Watch, The Flawsome Mum, and their very latest – Ghost Files. “Probably the most successful diversification has been launching the Royal Monthly brand extension – It’s already smashing circulation,” said Nolan.

Nolan revealed how New Idea decides on what topics should be made into podcasts: “We have a really clear idea of the content which captivates our audience, and that’s everything from crime to reality TV to parenting to ghost stories. Probably our most popular podcast is New Idea Royals.”

Nolan added there are a lot of plans instore for the brand. “We are launching another bi-monthly print magazine – but it’s too early to talk about that yet. We’re also planning an upgrade to the digital experience for our website. The aim is to optimise the user experience and revenue by removing friction and focussing on the right benefits.”

Nolan added that although a lot of the content has moved online, magazine covers are still very important. “Magazine covers are still critical to drive sales with our print product. Australian women buy a copy of New Idea every three seconds, providing mass reach of scale to a highly engaged audience.”

The news came as SMI released the first combined view of the Australian and NZ media agency advertising markets, revealing the value of advertising inventory sold in both countries totalled A$8.1 billion in 2018/19 and has grown by 19% or $1.28 billion in the past 10 years.

The figures were included in SMI’s first Trans Tasman Ad Spend report, which was created to mark SMI’s 10 year anniversary this month and was launched at an industry breakfast in Sydney this week.

SMI AU/NZ managing director Jane Ractliffe said numerous advertisers invested in media in both countries, so the report was created as a key reference tool to make it easier for agencies and their clients to understand the changes in advertising demand and media share mixes across both markets.

“Of all the countries in which we publish ad spend data the Australian and NZ media markets are the most similar, but at any time there’s never complete uniformity so this report provides a top line view of the common trends,” Ratcliffe said.

And so far this year both countries are also reporting lower advertising demand for the first eight months of this year, with the AU market back 4.9% and the NZ market back 0.5%. In NZ, monthly ad spend fell for 12 consecutive months but has now moved back to growth in the past three months.

“It’s clear in our empirical data that extended periods of lower advertising demand are followed by strong bounces as business confidence recovers and pent up demand leads to bursts of above- average advertising expenditure,” Ractliffe said.

“If you look at SMI’s global ad spend data from 2010, in that year the US advertising market grew by 18%, the UK market by 10%, the NZ market by 11% and the Australian market by 17% as they all bounced back from periods of low demand.”

Ractliffe added the Australian market was through the worst of the downturn having recorded 11 consecutive months of lower demand and next week’s final August results would lift that number to 12.

“Now the only question is when will the bounce-back begin, and our forecasts indicate that will happen before year-end and possibly as soon as October,” Ractliffe said.

“The recent tax cuts, an expected cut in interest rates and the fact that October 2018 was a month of weak demand (back 7.7% on October 2017) all combine with SMI’s own forecasts to deliver a month of higher advertising expenditure,” she said.

SMI also released its first Product Category ad spend forecasts at the event which showed that of the categories spending more than 30% of their media budgets in Q4 three of the largest – Retail, Home Furnishings, Clothing/Fashion Accessories and Consumer Electronics – were all likely to grow their Q4 ad spend against the same period last year.

SMI’s forecasts show that in the year to December Retail ad spend will grow 1.4%, Home Furnishing/Appliances ad spend will lift 0.7%; ad spend from the Clothing/Fashion Accessories advertisers will be up 1.5% and the value of ad investment by Consumer Electronics advertisers will be up 3.8%.

With extensive radio experience, across multiple markets and roles, McClung joined Nova 919 in 2006 as assistant music director in Adelaide. The following year he returned home to Perth to take up the role of assistant music director.

Over the next 11 years his career progressed from music director to the dual programming role of assistant program director and work day announcer. In November 2018 McClung moved to Sydney to take up his most recent role as Nova 96.9 operations manager.

Paul Jackson, Nova Entertainment’s chief programming and marketing officer said, “We are delighted to appoint Dave as program director for Nova 93.7. He has a thorough understanding of the Perth market as well as the Nova on air and programming team locally and around the country. Over the past 13 years, Dave has gained extensive programming experience, across multiple roles within the business in Perth, Sydney and Adelaide. He is highly respected by the Perth team and is a great example of our focus on internal development and promotion. We look forward to Dave taking on this new challenge and leading the Nova 93.7 programming team.”

McClung will commence in the role on October 28. 

In the 29 AFL Grand Finals held since electronic measurement was introduced for FTA TV ratings data in 1991, Richmond has played in one, winning the Premiership in 2017.

In that same period GWS Giants played in none of course, having only entered the competition in 2012. They have played plenty of finals over the past couple of years though ahead of their first Grand Final appearance this weekend.

Teams from outside of Victoria have a huge impact on audience numbers. A team from outside of the state has featured in 19 of the last 29 Grand Finals.

Five times in the past 19 Grand Finals the combined national audience passed 4,000,000 average viewers – the most recent in 2016 for the Bulldogs v Sydney. Sydney played in four of those five matches.

In those years the metro viewing audience has passed 3,000,000 three times, the most recent also in 2016 for the Bulldogs v Sydney game.

The biggest regional audience was 1,234,000 for the Collingwood v Brisbane game in 2003. The regional audiences have passed 1,000,000 five times, the last time also for that Bulldogs v Sydney match.

The biggest Sydney crowd watching an AFL Grand Final was 991,000 in the 2005 match against West Coast. The following year when both teams were again in battle the number dropped to 759,000.

Biggest TV crowd for AFL Grand Final
2005: 4,443,000 for Sydney v West Coast
(Metro 3,386,000, Regional 1,057,000)

Follow @MediaweekAUS on Twitter for a full breakdown of AFL figures on Sunday morning

By Andrew Mercado

Seven’s big reality shows this week, The All New Monty: Ladies Night (Sunday) and The Real Dirty Dancing (Monday and Tuesday), have more than a few things in common. Both are based on hit movies about dancing, hosted by Todd McKenney, include cancer awareness (testicular, breast, pancreatic) and then climax with a huge performance at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre.

After two versions with men stripping, now it’s The All New Monty: Ladies Night (Sunday on Seven) and it’s an obvious next step for a property that has already been a movie, play, musical and reality TV series. The Full Monty seems in no danger of slowing down and neither does Dirty Dancing, a franchise that includes a TV spin-off series, movie sequel, telemovie remake, stage musical and several reality TV versions.

The latest is The Real Dirty Dancing and it is heaps of fun, thanks to a really likeable bunch of celebrities. Most are fans of the classic flick (or in the case of AFL legend Jude Bolton, married to one) and therefore get a big kick out of recreating classic movie moments and learning some real dirty dancing. Taking everyone to the original movie location in Virginia, US, makes this about as authentic as you can get.

If those are the A-grade reality hits, then Bride and Prejudice: The Forbidden Weddings (Wednesday on Seven) is B-grade bogan nonsense. It’s predictable, badly acted, and the only thing I took from it was that neck tattoos seem to be on the rise.

New Aussie drama Secret Bridesmaids’ Business gets off to a much better start with three episodes in a row (Sunday to Tuesday on Seven). Think Big Little Lies but in a Mornington Peninsula vineyard, with another sisterhood (led by Abbie Cornish) uniting to fight a creepy guy (Alexander England). It’s slick and quite the slow burn, but only if you can get past the unconvincing sex scenes.

Saskia (Katie McGrath), a bisexual lawyer with an ever-changing accent, picks up a tattooed Asian chick at a fast food van and takes her home for a shag in the bath. It’s rare to see lesbians on Seven, but maybe that’s because they a) have always been a little coy in this area and b) maybe not quite over the great scandal of 2009, when The Daily Telegraph got outraged about two girls kissing on Home and Away.

It’s taken a long time for two girls to kiss again, but Willow (Sarah Roberts) wasn’t into it … or was she? Given Zoe Ventoura is Summer Bay’s new doctor, let’s hope she doesn’t just end up helping everybody without getting a love life. And let’s hope Dr Alex isn’t one of those lesbians that just needs a good man (or River Boy) to set her straight.

Thursday Week 39 2019

By James Manning

 • Seven News 896,000/884,000
• Nine News 706,000/737,000
• A Current Affair 590,000
• ABC News 615,000
• 7.30 507,000
• The Project 235,000/394,000
• 10 News First 330,000
• The Drum 178,000
• SBS World News 133,000

Breakfast TV

• Sunrise 275,000
• Today 189,000

Seven

Home and Away wrapped its week with 561,000 after 578,000 on Wednesday.

The Front Bar went out live in southern markets and an hour later at 9.30pm in Sydney and Brisbane. The program was broadcast from the Espy hotel and had hosts Mick, Sam and Andy hosting guests upstairs with the rock band Picket Palace working their magic downstairs. One of their tunes was about Matthew Richardson who joined them onstage. They then closed the show with a tune about Andy Maher who also joined them onstage. Nova’s Fitzy was enjoying the back half of his week in Melbourne with a spot on The Project on Wednesday and then he appeared on The Front Bar with Giants supporters. The episode did 526,000 with 324,000 in Melbourne, close to what The Footy Show did in that market on Wednesday. The Front Bar Grand Final edition last year did 228,000 in Melbourne.

Nine

After five nights of week 39, Nine is trailing Seven 20.4% to 21.2% in primary share, and 28.0% to 30.1% in combined channel share. However Nine could be well-placed for a weekly win with NRL Preliminary Finals in primetime Friday and Saturday. The Saturday game featuring the Storm, which should boost Melbourne numbers.

While the AFL still thinks fans won’t take to a night-time or even twilight Grand Final, Nine will also get the NRL Grand Final in primetime on Sunday next week.

Last night A Current Affair was just under 600,000 followed by RBT on 497,000.

Medical ob docs followed in some markets with Paramedics on 183,000 and Kings Cross ER on 151,000. Other markets saw the Brad Pitt war movie Allied.

10

Gogglebox kept 10 in double figures with 558,000 watching after 759,000 a week ago with a better lead-in. It still managed to rank #1 under 50 and all key demos.

Earlier in the night The Project was on 394,000 followed by Jamie’s Ultimate Veg on 334,000.

ABC

Escape from the City has been an unsung hero for the channel on Thursdays with week-after-week audiences on or above 400,000 on a night where big crowds are hard to find. Last night the episode visited the south coast of NSW with 415,000 watching.

A Vera repeat then did 302,000.

SBS

Going Places with Ernie Dingo completed its current season with 142,000 after 7.30pm.

Gourmet Farmer lifted the audience slightly to 142,000.

The numbers then again lifted ever-so-slightly to 147,000 for Inside Kensington Palace.