BOATMAGS.com, New Operating Title for D&B Publishing

BOATMAGS.com, New Operating Title for D&B Publishing

Specialist marine magazine publishers, D&B Publishing Ltd have announced BOATMAGS.com as their new operating name, effective immediately.

Doug Dukeson, Co-director and marketing manager for the company, says that the name BOATMAGS.com better reflects what the company does. It is also part of a strategic move to position the New Zealand based company as a leading marine magazine publisher in Australasia.

“With our three existing magazine titles (Pacific PowerBoat, Pacific PassageMaker, Alloy Boat, and the soon to be release Pacific RIB) we felt we needed a corporate a name that better reflected the diverse, yet specialist marine magazines that we produce.” he added.

Formed in 1996, D&B Publishing started with just one title, the trailer boat based Propeller magazine. Two years later they added Launch & MotorYacht, (later changed to MotorYacht) a magazine to cater for the larger non-trailerable boats and in 2011. Pacific PassageMaker was split off to service the offshore and local big boat cruising market.

During that time the company produced a specialist sailing magazine, Pacific Yachting, and also a dedicated Chinese language version of China Yachting for the Asian market.

“When the Global Financial Crisis hit home we went into a period of consolidation. We discontinued both our yachting magazines, preferring to concentrate on the New Zealand and Australian markets with our powerboat based titles.” says Dukeson.

With the boating industry hit hard the company made the decision to combine Propeller magazine and Pacific MotorYacht into one stronger title, Pacific PowerBoat. Pacific PassageMaker was retained as an annual publication.

In 2013 on the back of a strengthening marine market, the company released Alloy Boat, a magazine based solely on trailerable aluminium boats.

“This is unquestionably the strongest and fastest growing sector of the New Zealand marine market and with over 65 manufacturers in the country and a massive interest in fishing, it’s a sector that we felt we could not ignore.

After only three issues, sales of the magazine, both in New Zealand and Australia have exceeded predictions, and Dukeson says that the current three editions a year will likely move to a quarterly in late 2015.

Again recognising the strength and growth in the local economy, the company is about to launch their first bi-annual Pacific RIB magazine, a publication aimed 100% at the inflatable boat market. Release date is late October.

“With four titles now and a huge redevelopment of our website and online presence BOATMAGS.com is certainly appropriate and identifies who we are.” says Dukeson.

BOATMAGS.com have acknowledged the importance of working both print and online together. Online subscriptions are proving to be increasingly popular.

Further developments of the BOATMAGS.com website are underway. New sections of the site will be launching in time, and include; a dedicated marine online shopping site, a brokerage system, and more.

For more information see www.boatmags.com

ENDS

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