Periodical Price growth in Russia in 2012 broke records of the previous two years      Jan. 13, 2013

Note from the Press Distributors Association of Russia (PDA) regarding Hurricane Sandy      Nov. 6,  2012

Russian Periodical Media Landscape June 2012      June  2012

PBAA Presents to Chinese PACE Professionals - PR Click for Presentation      June 27, 2012

January 8, 2013

Timeless Collectability will be the mantra for 2013. In the magazine world, 2012 brought about the death of two print weeklies (one originating in 2012 and the other from 1933), along with their less-than-promising resurrection online. It also redirected our insights to the value of diversity and print’s need to be a collectible force. Continue reading

Third quarter 2012 sales showed improvement over 2nd quarter  results, but were still down compared to last year same period, continuing the downward trend that the industry has experienced over the last few years.  While overall dollars are off by nearly 8.0%, the weekly category, newsweeklies and especially celebrity titles, continue to lead the decline. Continue reading

Dear Lisa,

We watch closely with the great concern and anxiety over the hurricane "Sandy" strikes, which bring great destruction and accidents to American people.

Please accept our sympathy and condolences.

We are confident that the U.S. citizens will overcome these difficulties with resilience and courage. We are really worried about you, your family and all your friends. Hope everything is well and you all were not victims of the flood.

We have a lot of friends and business colleagues in the U.S. and hope that they are ok. Pass them the word of our sincere support.

We wish you stay strong and courageous.

Kind regards,

Dmitry Martynov, President/PDA
Alexander Oskin, Chairman/PDA

UPDATED 11/19/12: PBAA NEWS:  Grocery Headquarters Magazine, Catalina Marketing, and Time/Warner Sales and Marketing recently made a presentation at a PBAA member meeting: Driving Sales at Retail - Magazines, Digital Technology and more.  Over 50 industry professionals were in hand to hear "There ARE positive results!"  Continue reading

Lisa Scott, CEO of PBAA, USA
reports on the Forum Day at Distripress Glasgow 2012

With an attendance of more than 400 delegates the annual Distripress Forum on the first day of the congress was again a very well attended trade conference. A total of 20 speakers and moderators shared their expertise and experience with fellow delegates.  Continue reading

Also don't miss out on the various presentations of this years Forum Day available on our youtube channel.

An example of a print ad that will be part of new People magazine ad campaign to encourage single copy sales.

People magazine is addressing a slump in single copy sales – issues sold one by one, in venues like newsstands and supermarkets, rather than by annual subscription — with what executives are calling their most comprehensive advertising campaign to date.  Continue reading

Shopkick, a shopping application that rewards shoppers for walking into stores and interacting with products, has teamed up with CVS/pharmacy to roll out a first-ever offering of walk-in and other rewards at a retail pharmacy, Shopkick announced on Tuesday.

The program kicks off with a special offer, kicking $5 back to shoppers who visit participating CVS/pharmacy locations with the Shopkick app.

“The CVS/pharmacy partnership with Shopkick is another exciting step in our ongoing efforts to expand our mobile capabilities for our digitally minded customers,” stated Rob Price, CMO for CVS/pharmacy. “We’re looking forward to working with Shopkick and to delivering on our goal of creating the most personalized and accessible shopping experience for our customers.”

CVS/pharmacy customers will receive Shopkick’s cross-retail currency “kicks” for walking in to 1-of-150 stores throughout the San Francisco Bay area, and will receive special offers and opportunities to interact with partner brands throughout their shopping experience. CVS/pharmacy customers will also receive additional kicks when they make a purchase with a MasterCard or Visa card through Shopkick’s “Buy & Collect” program.

CVS/pharmacy customers can also redeem kicks for CVS/pharmacy gift cards in the Shopkick Rewards Mall.

“Adding CVS/pharmacy is a big addition for Shopkick users since many CVS/pharmacy customers typically shop several times per week, whether picking up a prescription or shopping for other household or beauty needs. Now customers can earn even more ‘kicks’ rewards for those visits and purchases,” stated Doug Galen, Shopkick’s chief revenue officer. “CVS/pharmacy is the latest top player in Shopkick’s rapidly expanding Partner Alliance. It’s incredibly innovative for the category, and we’re thrilled to have CVS/pharmacy on board.”

To provide rewards to shoppers actually walking in stores, the Shopkick app detects a Shopkick signal, emitted from a patent-pending device located in each participating store and picked up by a shopper’s smartphone handset. Because the store is focused on rewarding actual visitors, it then delivers “kicks” via the app, which can be collected at all participating partner store locations. Kicks are redeemed for in-store gift cards, song downloads, movie tickets, Facebook Credits, donations to charities and more.

Because Shopkick is able to accurately detect actual presence inside participating stores, partner retailers ensure that marketing dollars put into the Shopkick program are being spent to reward customers who are physically present in the store, translating into higher value rewards for the shopper, Shopkick stated.

Launched in August 2010, there are now more than 6,500 individual stores across multiple retailers and 300 of the country’s largest malls that have deployed Shopkick’s technology. In addition, at more than 250,000 other stores across America, Shopkick offers smaller rewards for interacting with products from brand partners. Even more rewards can be earned for making purchases at participating partner retailers through Shopkick’s Buy & Collect program.

Shopkick is available for free on the iPhone from the App Store and for Android from Google Play.

Stopping the tailspin at retail at retail needs immediate action from all the players in the supply chain.  

By and large, media coverage of magazines' retail sales declines since the start of the recession has been big on assumptions (the always-reliable "digital is killing print" angle) and short on factual context.  Continue reading