Mag publishers finally set for united awards as Magazine Week gets underway
Australia’s magazine companies will for the first time hold a united industry-owned awards when the country’s major publishers participate in The Publishers Australia Excellence Awards on Friday.
The event is the culmination of Magazine Week, which began today.
Publishers Australia had previously been made up of Australia’s smaller publishers, with the organisation’s annual Bell Awards (now rebadged as the Excellence Awards) the longest established magazine awards in Australia.
The MPA – whose members are ACP, Pacific Magazines, News Magazines, Lovatts and Reader’s Digest – has previously held its own seperate awards. But last year the MPA joined the board of Publishers Australia, opening the way for its members to enter The Excellence Awards for the first time.
Entries have come in from all the major magazine players, with key new categories up for grabs including consumer magazine of the year above 50,000 circulation and launch or relaunch of the year above 50,000 circulation. In total there are 27 awards categories.
The Magazine Week conference takes place on Thursday and Friday. It includes a Mumbrella Question Time featuring Publishers Australia chairman Geoff Hird, MPA chairman Nick Chan, who is also CEO of Pacific Magazines, Peter Russell, the GM of marketing at Fisher & Paykel and Simon Davies, head of print at media agency OMD.
In a further sign of the growing closeness between the two magazine organisations, former MPA CEO Helen Kingsmill has been working with Publishers Australia on the conference.
Mumbrella editor-in-chief Tim Burrowes discusses Magazine Week with Geoff Hird:
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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