Metro Media Publishing launches local edition of The Weekly Review
Metro Media Publishing, which at end of last year joined forces with Fairfax, has announced it is expanding the distribution of The Weekly Review magazine in Melbourne with a new local spin off.
The new title will be called The Weekly Review South East.
The company is also upgrading the real estate section of The Greater Dandenong Weekly.
The announcement:
Melbourne’s local media industry continues its rapid change with Metro Media Publishing (MMP) launching its fourth high-quality The Weekly Review magazine in the inner south-eastern suburbs.
At the same time, MMP has also made changes to one of Victoria’s oldest mastheads, The Greater Dandenong Weekly, converting its leading real estate section to high quality gloss.
The Weekly Review South East, which was delivered to approximately 65,000 homes in Elsternwick, Glen Eira, Caulfield and Bentleigh, is the second new The Weekly Review publication launched since MMP merged with Fairfax Community Network Victoria in July to create Melbourne’s largest local multi-media business. The Weekly Review Bayside, which is distributed to about 70,000 homes from Port Melbourne to Beaumaris, was launched on July 25. MMP also publishes the largest and most successful lifestyle and real estate magazine, The Weekly Review Stonnington and Boroondara, and The Weekly Review Ivanhoe and Valley. In just over two years since its establishment, MMP has become the dominant media player across a wide range of Melbourne’s most affluent suburbs.
The Managing Director of MMP, Mr Antony Catalano, said the launch of The Weekly Review South East into Caulfield and Glen Eira was an exciting development in MMP’s growth, and represented an expansion of its highly-successful business model.
“There has been very strong demand from agents for us to expand The Weekly Review into the Caulfield and Glen Eira areas,” he said. “It is a new territory for MMP, and one where we can provide a compelling offering to advertisers and readers. There is no doubt it is already the best quality product in the market place.”
The Greater Dandenong Weekly, which is distributed to 90,000 homes in Melbourne’s outer south-east, this week carried a 32-page gloss real estate lift-out for the first time, reflecting MMP’s commitment to delivering higher quality products to consumers.
Mr Catalano said post its merger with FCNV, MMP developed the first truly integrated offer in the market, bundling its national portal reviewproperty.com.au and its own dominant midweek magazines and newspapers with The Saturday Age and domain.com.au.
“MMP’s complete sales solution is clearly the best in my 20 years in the residential property market and the response has been very, very positive,” he said. “Our on-line division grew revenue by $1 million in its first five weeks of operation, and we expect to generate $20 million in on-line earnings this financial year.”
Mr Catalano said with the support of the Melbourne real estate industry, MMP had brought genuine competition to the market by creating new products offering greater value for buyers and sellers.
“The response of our competitors has been neither subtle nor unexpected, with reports from our agent partners that large cash and other incentives are being offered as inducements for agents to sign long-term contracts,” he said.
“Unless these inducements are returned to vendors – and make no mistake, if the intention was to reward vendors it would be done by reducing advertising rates – it is a breach of the law and we intend to alert authorities to any and all breaches of fair trading and competition law.”
Mr Catalano said MMP was well advanced on other product launches, with three further editions of The Weekly Review to be launched within eight weeks.
Source: press release
