Empire magazine is going from strength to strength based on the sales data I have seen. It is certainly performing well in my newsagencies. We use it as a beacon brand to draw shoppers to the movies area of our magazine display. We promote titles round it which need support to find sales.
Building sales around a strong title is what we call our honey pot strategy, a strategy we us in several magazine departments to drive sales of weaker titles by using strong titles. It is terrific to have strong title like Empire in an otherwise challenged magazine segment.
I have newsagents who question me about our level of engagement aboout magazines. They say that for 25% all magazine publishers can ask for is for the titles to be put out on the shelves. My view is that right now magazines are a key point of difference for us. Embracing this is crucial is we call ourselves business people. The key is to leverage the magazine traffic into a more valuable shopping basket. This is the pay-off for the work.