BBC Magazines Celebrates Half A Million Subscriptions
BBC Magazines has reached the milestone of half a million subscribers to its range of publications, marking a record-breaking response to increased investment by the company in subscription marketing.
The number of customers now holding an annual subscription to a BBC title are up from 370,000 last September, when the Corporation’s magazine arm announced an increased focus and optimistic targets for its subscriber base over five years.
Commenting on the success of the subscription drive, circulation director Chris Gadsby, said: “Having successfully developed subscriptions strategies for some of our magazines, we recognised the opportunity to make a step change in our approach to selling subscriptions through a cross-the-board investment and, less than a year later, this is paying dividends.”
The huge boost to annual subscriptions has been achieved by a combination of selling strategies, from investment in cross-selling, where current subscribers are offered another subscription at a special rate, to finding new routes to market, including working with third parties. The Corporation is also reaping the rewards of its largest ever direct marketing campaign for subscriptions, targeting more than 600,000 potential customers.
Among the BBC’s best performing subscriptions are BBC Good Food, which is now read by over 100,000 subscribers, BBC Top Gear, which increased subscriptions by 46% year on year, BBC Good Homes and Gardens Illustrated, which have both grown by an impressive 38% and newly launched Easy Gardening, Olive and Songs of Praise magazine, signing up 30,000 subscribers between them.
As part of the Corporation’s increased focus on subscription sales, Jess Burney was appointed as the company’s first subscriptions director in March, overseeing the new selling strategy. She said: “This is a fantastic result but we’re far from standing still. With a target of 600,000 by 2007, we look forward to even bigger and better results.”
Elsewhere, BBC Magazines continues to roll out new titles to maximise on television tie-ups, launching the first Antiques Roadshow magazine this autumn. The new magazine will have an initial print run of 100,000 and will be available for seven weeks with the possibility of an extension if sales are high.
Publisher Brian Whittaker explained the attraction of developing an established television brand into magazine format. He said: “The Antiques Roadshow is very much a great British institution, with a huge, and very loyal, following – and the magazine is the ultimate way of extending viewers’ enjoyment of this.”
Last month BBC Magazines unveiled the most comprehensive research study to date into consumer attitudes, centering on public opinions of its extensive gardening portfolio. The study is an extension of a similar study carried out in 1998, designed to inform future editorial, marketing and advertising sales plans for the Corporation’s gardening products (see BBC Seeds Research Into Gardening Readership).
BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk
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