By Alyson Fixter
In the B2B equivalent of the battle between Nuts and Zoo, publishers
Emap and CMPi have gone head to head with the launch of two free weekly
magazines for quantity surveyors.
The first issue of CMPi’s QS News was sent out to about 20,000
quantity surveyors last week, while Emap’s QS Week was due to hit the
doormats of a similar number of readers on 27 April.
Emap claims
CMPi launched QS News as a spoiler for QS Week because the publisher
feared readers of its existing title, Building, would be lost to the
Emap launch.
Graham Harman, managing editor of Emap construct,
said: “Quite a few quantity surveyors read Building, so when we
announced our launch CMPi got very scared that we would take revenue
away from them.
“Our launch has been the result of a lot of
market research, including focus groups, while theirs has been about
reacting to our launch.
“Editorial content and relevance will win through in the end.”
But
a spokesman for CMPi hit back, saying: “The quality of the magazines we
produce speak for themselves, having won awards such as Business
Magazine of the Year and Editor of the Year, and we’ve used the same
level of resources for QS News.
“This area is one we’ve been
looking at for about a year and we decided to launch not as a spoiler
for Emap but because we think we can get more revenue from this than
our competitors.”
CMPi’s QS News is billed as the magazine that
will give quantity surveyors “a voice”, while Emap’s QS Week is
advertising itself as the title that “addresses the issues that matter
most to quantity surveyors”.
But QS Week may struggle to beat QS
News on the awards front, with the CMPi title set to sponsor the first
ever Motor Cycle News (MCN) has become the first magazine to register
as an official political party after editor Marc Potter signed up as a
parliamentary candidate for Peterborough.
Potter is campaigning
on a platform of safer roads for bikers and promoting motorcycling as a
solution to congestion and pollution.
According to publisher
Emap, other major parties in the Cambridgeshire constituency are
“running scared”, with one candidate even offering to adopt some of
Potter’s policies if he agreed not to stand. But Potter, who told his
opponent he would see him on election night, is standing firm in the
hope of improving conditions for bikers.
He said: “We don’t
expect to challenge for Parliament, but we do expect to raise awareness
of the issues facing Britain’s riders – poor roads, bad drivers and
speed cameras – and force these issues up the agenda.”
Emap also
claims the Electoral Commission was forced to carry out a review of its
rules and regulations when MCN requested to register as a party, but
the commission eventually accepted it as a legitimate political group.
The
MCN Party manifesto includes ensuring the protection of motorbikers and
other road users by making sure their interests are taken into account
in every aspect of transport policy, improving bike safety with changes
to the bike and car tests and allowing bikes to use bus lanes.
IPC is to reshuffle the prices of its TV listings magazines following the launch of new weekly TV Easy.
The publisher is selling TV Easy at 35p – putting it head to head with rival Bauer’s 30p TV Choice.
The
move will allow IPC to increase the price of its market-leading title,
What’s On TV, to 40p, just three months after it was cut to 35p in the
face of market poaching from TV Choice.
IPC tx managing director
Philippa Brown said: “TV Easy represents real innovation and fantastic
value. We now have the most compelling offer in the value sector of the
TV listings market.
Our long-term strategy is to grow all of the brands in the tx portfolio – this move is the next phase of that.”
The company is spending £10m on marketing and is also sponsoring the British Soap Awards on 11 May.
annual Quantity Surveyor Awards this autumn.
QS
Week is edited by Lee Mallett, previously editor of Property Week,
while QS News is launch-edited by Phil Clark, deputy editor of Building.
Jonathan
Newby, managing director of CMPi’s built environment division, said:
“Surveyors can now have the dedicated voice of the building sector
speaking to them for the first time – we think they’ll like what they
hear.
“The team is proud of what has been achieved with the launch of QS News.”
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
