Big Three womens’ mag publishers become Big Two

Big Three womens’ mag publishers become Big Two

By Pattrick Smellie

Sept. 1 (BusinessDesk) – Australian-owned rivals APN News & Media Ltd. and ACP Media Ltd. have become virtually equal forces in the battle for the woman’s magazine reader, after another Aussie publisher, Pacific Magazines, sold its key womens’ titles to APN.

Publisher of the New Zealand Herald newspaper, APN will double its share of the womens’ magazine market in New Zealand to 41.6% of available readers, or 1.55 million people weekly, by adding the New Idea (12.3%) and That’s Life (7.6%) titles to its New Zealand Woman’s Weekly (21.5%), according to Nielsen ratings between July 2009 and June 2010.

That puts APN on a level-pegging with ACP, publisher of Metro and North and South magazines, which commands 38.5% of the available readership with Woman’s Day (21.5%) and the Australian Womens’ Weekly (17%). ACP is the local arm of PB Media Pty Ltd., once a part of the Australian Packer family’s empire,

APN also picks up Girlfriend magazine, adding a title in a segment where it is not currently well represented.

All titles would be retained, APN said in a statement to the advertising industry. The purchase will be used to aggregate advertising packages for marketers seeking to connect with women readers.

“In effect, this means that the big three magazine publishers in New Zealand have morphed into the big two,” said John Buckley, the general manager at a media buying agency, media360.

The purchase is through APN’s subsidiary, New Zealand Magazines, which also publishes the Listener, among other titles.

(BusinessDesk)

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