Exclusive: Marketing to go monthly from April as The Drum prepares magazine redesign
Marketing is to begin publishing its magazine on a monthly basis from April, meanwhile The Drum will unveil a redesign of its own publication next week.
It is understood that Haymarket has chosen to move from a weekly publication to a monthly issue as part of its restructuring strategy, announced earlier in the year, which included the appointment of Campaign editor Clare Beale and meant the departure of Noelle McElhatton.
Insiders have said that the Haymarket owned title will aim to place more emphasis on online news having struggled in recent years to come to terms with a fall in print led advertising.
As Marketing announced that it was going monthly, The Drum magazine announced that it was continuing to invest in its printed magazine with a new redesign.
The development comes on the back of other pressures in the sector which also saw the closure of the likes of Design Week magazine and NMA.
However, it is not an experience which has been echoed at The Drum, which has increased pagination, invested in new paper stock and launched a series of new supplements covering the digital marketing industries, including search and performance marketing.
Said editor Gordon Young; "We are confident print will remain a key part of our proposition well into the future. The trick is to understand the different roles online and offline fulfill. People actually consume a printed product in a very different way to online and that is why we believe both channels have a vital role to play."
He added that the redesign of The Drum would aim to be “more an evolution than revolution. We will be tidying the magazine up to create a fresher, cleaner contemporary style, but readers will still recognise it as The Drum."
The new format will launch next week, to coincide with the publication of The Drum Design 100, which includes the top 100 agencies in the UK based on financial criteria, as well as client and peer reviews.
At the time of writing Haymarket had not commented following The Drum's request to do so.
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Alongside a monthly magazine, a tablet version of the magazine will also be released.
Claire Beale said: "Marketing has never been more vital as a lever for growth; everything is marketing. So, as well as informing and entertaining marketers, we aim to give them the tools and the confidence to build their careers and reposition their role at the heart of good business."
Richard Watts, group publishing director of Haymarket Brand Republic Group, added: "Marketing has always been the key source of must-have information for leading marketers. We now have different ways to make its essential mix of news and views available to members of the marketing and communications communities."