Speaking at a PPA-hosted Charlotte Street Hotel event last night (16 July), PPA chief executive , told publishers and media buyers: "It has been a difficult time in the PPA’s history but things are already very different.
"Getting publishing CEOs, senior agency planners and PPA board members in a room together is itself a big step.
"When I took up this job six months ago, I asked chief executives of magazine publishing houses what they wanted me to do.
"They said they wanted me to get out there and start beating the drum again for magazines."
The PPA’s chief executive also said the magazine trade body had started to take its first steps to "putting magazines higher up the list when it comes to buying".
Mark Frith, editor of Time Out magazine, , gave a presentation on magazines and their marketing power to an audience which included MPG's Marc Mendoza, Mindshare’s Vanessa Clifford and Initiative's Jane Wolfson, as well as Condé Nast managing director, Nicholas Coleridge, NatMag chief executive, Arnaud de Puyfontaine and Bauer Media's CEO Paul Keenan.
Talking after his presentation, Frith said: "The obvious issue here is that the PPA has had a quiet year and a half, and you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.
"Magazines are strong. They are not going through the same issues that newspapers are – they’re pretty resilient. I’ve never seen a stronger magazine market and we have got to start shouting about that."
Matt Teeman, chairman of the PPA marketing board and director of advertisement sales at BBC Magazines, gave a presentation on the PPA’s plans for the next 12 months.
He said: "We are very conscious there has been a long period of inactivity and we want to put that behind us. We hope this is a start of a much more thorough and comprehensive flow of communication between us."
Teeman said the trade body had already answered an industry call for a better website with , which he called "repurposed" and "more accessible".
The trade body now plans to investigate how technology such as the iPad will affect the industry throughout the coming year.
He said the PPA's work would focus on the theme that "magazines lead the consumption agenda", adding "Magazines have a unique ability to cover the products and services of the future that their readers will want".
Charlotte Stockting, publishing director of Hello!, said: "It's fundamental that the media sees magazines as a centre point in terms of advertising. The PPA went off the boil and now it's time we show the industry we mean business again."
The event will be replicated in Manchester next week for the benefit of buyers in the north of Britain. IPC Look editor Ali Hall will replace Mark Frith as the guest speaker.
Barry McIlheney was appointed as CEO in February, with a brief to "restore the reputation" of the PPA, following Jonathan Shephard’s 17 tumultuous months in the job, which saw the exit of marketing director Phil Cutts, the resignation of deputy chief executive Nick Mazur, and loss of chairman of PPA marketing board, Paul Keenan.
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