The PacMags translator
A press release can be a thing of beauty.
It can certainly be a way of disguising bad news as good.
So Dr Mumbo salutes the writers of today’s announcement from Pacific Magazines…
Allow Dr Mumbo to translate as we go…
Pacific Magazines has announced a proposed restructure for its Young Women’s’ titles Girlfriend and Total Girl, with respective editors Sarah Tarca and Amanda Nicholls continuing in their roles while some editorial staff will work across both brands. Other editorial roles will remain specific to their title.
PacMags is merging the two teams from Girlfriend and Total Girl. Kinda.
Both editors will work with the editorial team across print and digital. Mychelle Vanderburg will continue as Publisher.
Geez. Hopefully they’ll play nicely together.
“While each title is successful and has a clear positioning, there are efficiencies in bringing the editorial into a shared unit, where there are synergies, particularly with our ongoing digital content focus,” said Pacific Magazines Director of Magazines, Peter Zavecz.
They’re merging the teams to save money.
“More Australian tweens buy Total Girl each month than any other tween girls’ magazine, while Girlfriend’s readership of 236,000 proves is it a must-read for Aussie teen girls. We will be building on each title’s strengths.”
Circulation of Total Girl was down 16 per cent in February; Girlfriend down by 23 per cent.
He said the company will be holding individual discussions with staff today with the priority to share the proposed structure and, where possible, redeploy two staff whose positions may be identified as being redundant.
Two staff are going to lose their jobs
Zavecz also announced today that health and lifestyle title Prevention will be increasing the breadth of its content delivery and the focus on its burgeoning digital footprint, with the magazine becoming bi-monthly from the October issue.
Prevention will be published half as often
“The 40+ audience is an exciting and growing space for us and we are responding to the way we know Prevention’s audience consumes its media.
They’re not consuming Prevention in print – it’s down 7.8 per cent.
“Bringing greater variety into the mix allows us to engage with them in a more flexible and integrated way and enables us to be more agile.
The survivors will be expected to do more with less.
“Our digital touch points are expanding rapidly across apps, social media and the Yahoo!7 platform.”
They’re on Twitter.
“Also, a growing stable of books, e-books and events means Prevention is in the perfect position to deliver rich content in a way that fits seamlessly into our readers’ lives.”
We hope our readers will look at us online.
“Editor Jacqui Mooney and her team have a growing and loyal audience, and the change in frequency will allow them to continue to deliver the most relevant and engaging content and to explore a whole new range of opportunities.”
Without the inconvenience of publishing a magazine every month the staff will have lots more time on their hands.
“There will be one staff redundancy as a result of the change in frequency.
Yep. There’s another job loss. Nearly sneaked that one in, didn’t they?
“As part of this process, staff will be trained across any skill sets required for the new roles and for the positions moving forward,” Zavecz said.
Unless they’re made redundant.
This press release is sitting on the BandT website home page, word for word as above, but masquarading as a news story. Theyve even given their journalist a byline. Look and laugh: http://www.bandt.com.au/media/.....-magazines
Have they stopped publishing news now?
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Hi Anonymous,
That’s not a journalist byline – that’s the PR person who posted it, in this case on behalf of PacMags. I believe B&T’s new direction is what they would describe as a content aggregator.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
ROFL!!!
“Become a B&T member
Receive our daily newsletter featuring news and more
Receive a free 3 month subscription to B&T magazine (worth $29.85)
Submit your very own industry news to be featured online”
Translation: sign up now for FREE to publish your press release to the dregs of our readership from when we published actual editorial and charged money for it.
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If you want to be written about in the magazine now you have to buy an ad. Mind you, full page ads are going for 650 bucks so you might as well. RIP, b&t.
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Given that News limited is threatening to sue The Mail for nicking stories I’d be careful about how many stories B&T is taling from the Australian
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Incomprehensible drivel. It makes you weep for the future of the English language. Thanks for the much-needed translation Dr M.
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Today bandt has cut and pasted a story from behind the Australians paywall http://www.bandt.com.au/media/.....-voiceless
They don’t seem to understand copyright law. Hey seem to think its oak because they say where they stole it from.
Image here for The Australians lawyers in case they try to edit it later http://imgur.com/2W8SPuz
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Brilliant.
This could be a fun twitter account idea to strip and rip BS PR releases.
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Aaaah.
Makes one yearn for the Good Old Days when B&T published their expensive media guide contacts book thingammy.
All out-of-date, riddled with errors and fundamentally useless.
They don’t make ’em like that anymore.
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Does Google Panda 4.0 mean the end of B&T?
https://econsultancy.com/blog/65097-does-google-panda-4-0-mean-the-days-of-pr-newswires-are-numbered#i.yblue5tefi3qcl
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Embarrassing and spineless sums it up. Thanks for the translation Dr Mumbo.
Pacmags PR take note – if it’s bad news, just say it and be done with it. Crouching all your statements in bizarre corporate speak doesn’t fool anyone.
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