Emap is scrapping the role of publisher across its 50 magazines, a position held by around 30 staff, continuing a process that kicked off in April last year with the axing of its commercial directors.
It's the first step in planned savings of £20m in annual costs across the group over the next two years, in an efficiency review conducted by Boston Consulting Group that looks set to include further cuts to Emap's 4,500-strong UK workforce through more centralisation of production, and leaner editorial and sales teams.
Emap may see the title of "publisher" as too bound up in its magazine past and not relevant to the multi-platform structure it now sells to advertisers and audiences. In their place, Emap plans to move some publishers to other senior positions and is consulting with the rest. Further announcements are due at a trading update on 27 March.
Stevie Spring is chief executive of rival magazine firm Future, which went through its own overhaul last year, including selling off titles to address falling profits. "We're all facing bottom line pressures and the economic model is changing as competition converges," she says. "In any large organisation, you end up with some structures that send you down. Magazines are dynamic and you have to be light on your feet."
Unusual position
Emap's position was unusual, with duties assumed by publishers at other companies undertaken by multi-brand managing directors. There were no hard and fast rules about what a publisher did, or the magazines they covered.
Some publishers have left and were later replaced; other roles were phased out. In a possible indicator of Emap's next steps, FHM has been without a dedicated publisher since James Carter left in April 2005. His apparent successor, Rimi Atwal, took up a new role as business director.
Media agencies argue that the establishment of Emap Advertising as a separate entity was a turning point. Nik Vyas, group press director at ZenithOptimedia, says: "Publishers aren't agency-facing, and the trading, commercial and marketing aspects are dealt with by other functions."
Agencies want access to the right senior people, irrespective of their title, and Vyas says the removal of commercial directors has allowed ad directors to come out of the shadows. But problems could arise in the international fashion industry courted by Emap's Grazia.
"In Milan, ad directors don't have the cachet of publishers, because the industry needs a conduit between advertising and editorial," notes one rival publisher.
Jerome O'Regan, head of buying at BLM Red, agrees. "Scrapping the publisher role would be unthinkable at Conde Nast and it should be unthinkable at Emap," he says. "They're the ones with the gravitas to sort out problems, even if we only use them 10% of the time. They provide a comfort factor."
Strains in Emap's fashion credentials could make men's style magazine Arena even more vulnerable than its 29.9% sales drop in the past year suggests.
Emap says its review will not result in magazine closures. But Arena, and recently revamped but underperforming titles such as MaxPower, Top Sante, Car and New Woman will face increasing pressure. Mixmag and Bliss were sold to publishers unburdened by the overheads of magazine giants, and further divestments could go the same way.
"There have been magazines on life support for too long and if they have no way of yielding greater profits, they might be better off with a smaller publisher," one ex-Emap staffer notes.
Digital acquisitions
In terms of new opportunities, magazine launches would scare off shareholders until Emap addresses its teething problems with women's weekly First.
This leaves digital, which the publisher has thrown its weight behind with acquisitions including YoSpace and WGSN and new revenue streams on specialist websites.
The restructure aims to take this growth area into account by emphasising the cross-platform brand management nature of many senior roles. But, outside of websites for FHM, Closer, Zoo and Empire, Emap has a long way to go to prove it can translate its brands onto these platforms and has yet to launch its long-mooted site for Heat.
So, with Emap pinning its hopes on new media as the lifeline for its specialist and mass-market brands, it has a lot to prove to the City in three weeks' time.
EMAP: THE ROAD TO RESTRUCTURE
FEBRUARY 2006
- Smash Hits magazine closes
- Creation of Emap(2), a creative solutions division within Emap Advertising
MARCH 2006
- Slimming and Health Plus close
APRIL 2006
- Restructure of Emap Advertising: commercial director role axed. Digital sales director and four new head of market positions created
- FHM Collections closes
MAY 2006
- First launches
- Marcus Rich appointed group managing director of Emap Consumer Media London lifestyle magazines
SEPTEMBER 2006
- Rob Munro-Hall, managing director of Emap Australia, becomes managing director of men's lifestyle at Emap UK
- Paul Keenan, chief executive of Emap Consumer Media, widens his role to include radio
NOVEMBER 2006
- Boston Consulting Group is called in to oversee an operational review
DECEMBER 2006
- Dawn Bebe, managing director of Emap Elan, leaves the company. David Davies, managing director of Grazia and Emap Esprit, takes over Bebe's duties
- Teen magazine Bliss sold to Panini
FEBRUARY 2007
- Acquires mobile service provider YoSpace and launches new IPTV-based revenue streams for Empire, MCN and Total Golfer websites
- FHM editor Ross Brown leaves the company, while Arena editor Will Drew moves to special projects, as ABCs reveal further sales decline in the men's market
- David Pullan, strategic brand and marketing director, leaves the firm
- Publisher role is scrapped
- Home technology title Digital Living folded after two issues.