Media & Marketing: Believed to be one of the world's biggest selling magazines, the Reader's Digest has decided to increase its presence in Ireland, where it already has monthly sales of almost 26,000 copies. The company has appointed public-relations company Eulogy to bolster its position here.
Reader's Digest Association, its US-based parent, was purchased recently by an investor group led by Ripplewood Holdings, a private equity firm, for $1.6 billion (€1.23 billion). Reader's Digest went public in 1990, but had been controlled by a charitable foundation set up by the company's founders until 2002.
It has struggled in recent years as its direct-marketing and book sales businesses have been challenged by the boom in online book sales from companies like Amazon.com. Circulation of its flagship magazine in the US has declined from 12.6 million in 2000 to about 10 million now.
DeWitt Wallace founded the company in 1922 in an apartment underneath a speakeasy in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. Its circulation grew rapidly and peaked at about 17 million in the 1970s. The company used its large database of subscribers to become a significant direct marketer of books, music and video in the 1960s.
A spokesman for Eulogy said it would raise the profile of Reader's Digest among "brands, marketers and agencies, promoting the benefits of the trusted publication and its loyal readership to the media community".
Formula One figures move up a gear
While many sports are suffering from declining viewerships, Formula One has managed to drive up its numbers.
Global viewing figures for this year's Formula One are up 3 per cent on 2005, according to the latest viewership report from consultancy Initiative Sports Futures. About 73 million people around the world watched the Brazilian Grand Prix on October 22nd, while the Bahrain and Monaco contests were watched by 56 million and 55 million viewers respectively.
Kevin Alavy of Initiative Sports Futures said: "There is no other annual event - sporting or otherwise - which begins to come close to Formula One in terms of its global reach and appeal. A cumulative global audience across a season of nearly one billion viewers speaks for itself."
However, its popularity is not replicated in Ireland, where GAA, soccer and rugby have a stranglehold on viewing. In 2006, Grand Prix races on UTV in Ireland averaged 45,000 viewers every week, up 3,000 from 2005. Setanta also broadcasts the races, but rarely attracts above 3,000 viewers per race.
When RTÉ last held the rights to the sport in 2004, audiences averaged at 92,000 for RTÉ and 29,000 for UTV. This would suggest that moving the sport away from terrestrial TV has definitely dented its popularity.
Advertising sector in good health
The Irish advertising market would seem to be in rude health, at least according to the 2005 accounts of DDFH&B, one of the country's largest agencies. Lillington Ltd controls DDFH&B and several smaller agencies.
It produced a group turnover of €25 million, up from €21 million the year before. The pretax profit on this was just short of €1 million, up from a small loss the year before.
Rising costs would appear to be a problem in the industry, based on Lillington's profit and loss account, where they rose from €14 million to €17 million. DDFH&B's clients have been semi-State bodies like Bord na Móna and Bord Gáis, and private companies like TV3 and Fyffes.
Emmet Oliver can be contacted at eoliver@irish-times.ie
