Landscape Juice

Leaf through Leaf Magazine

I get lots of emails from marketeers and editors asking me to publish their news and publicity. if it's commercial I tend to give it a wide berth or invite the sender to join up to the Landscape Juice Network and publish it themselves.

But because Susan and Rochelle have followed Landscape Juice for a while, and I like what I see, I thought I'd publish the first edition of their Leaf Magazine.

Although it's a US publication it has very much a British and European feel to it. See what you think

Good luck guys, I hope it goes well.

Open publication - Free publishing

Hort Week readership still in decline

Figures from the independent audit organisation, ABC, show that Haymarket Publishing's Horticulture Week continued to lose paying subscribers in the last twelve months.

Just 1,807 copies were sold at full rate with a further 2,674 discounted by up to 50%. The amount given away for free rose by 5%.

Total average net circulation fell from 7,323 to 6,802 in the period 1st July 2010 to 30th June 2011.

Here's a summary breakdown 2010/11 with 2009/10 in (brackets) and [2008/9]:

• Total average net circulation per issue: 6,802 (7,323) [2008/9 9,451]
• Single copy subscription sales at full rate: 1,807 (2,724) [2008/9 3,454]
• Subscriptions discounted between 50% and 100% of full rate: 2,674 (2,381) [2008/9 2,308]
• Controlled free circulation (non-requested) 2,640 (2,528) [2008/9 2,479]

Horticulture Week is published by Haymarket Business Media.

Pro Landscaper magazine to launch this summer

Jim Wilkinson is launching a new trade magazine this summer aimed at the professional landscaping market: Eljays44 Ltd is the publisher.

Jim was previously employed at Emap and Reed Business Information and has over twelve years in the B2B media sector.

From their Linkedin page: 

Pro Landscaper will provide researched and informative information to its audience. Its authoritative team of industry experts will interpret all new in landscaping and fill the knowledge gap. We'll give unbiased recommendations on the best products, show the techniques the top landscape designers use and help you to run a more successful business. It will, simply, help you do your job better. Specialties [sic] The bumper first issue of Pro Landscaper – out this Summer - will be packed with the latest products, fresh features, interesting projects, exclusive interviews and top tips. Join the LinkedIn group and be a part of this exciting launch!

Contact information: Jim Wilkinson Twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/Jimeljays Linkedin - Jim Wilkinson Linkedin - Pro Landscaper Linkedin - Lisa Wilkinson (director)

Website: http://www.pro-landscaper.co.uk

Haymarket Publishing post second consecutive loss

Figures obtained from Companies House reveal that owners of Horticulture Week, Haymarket Publishing, posted a loss in 2009 of £8.09m (2008 £8.29m) as the recession and changes to the advertising market impacted on their business.

Turnover dropped 19.3% from £145m to £117m and employee headcount was reduced by 114 leading to an exceptional restructuring cost of £3.8m - the UK and US operations bore the biggest brunt of the losses.

These latest figures are a clear vindication that traditional print media was heading for trouble and I'm convinced that their is still more pain to come.

Reality check: money can’t buy the ‘good life’

As more of us hanker for a taste of the ‘good life’, we need to realise that more satisfying, enjoyable and ecologically sustainable lives don’t arrive in the post, says earth-friendly gardening writer John Walker.

I don’t know about you, but I’m wholeheartedly sick of hearing about ‘the good life’. Ping goes yet another email newsletter: our motto is ‘Making the good life easy!’. In drops another catalogue with its sigh-inducing cover: ‘The good life, made easy!’. Yet another emailed advert from a company called Live The Good Life Ltd (proof positive that ‘living a good life’ is now well and truly commodified; like so much of gardening, it’s now something you buy, rather than something you do). Even the government exhort us to ‘get a slice of the good life’. And just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, a telephone conversation deals me the final blow: “Are you living the good life, then?”

Hort Week subscriber numbers fall nearly 23%

Figures from the independent audit organisation, ABC, reveal that Haymarket Publishing's Horticulture Week lost nearly 23% (2,128 copies) of its subscribers in the last twelve months - this is on top of the near 10% paying subscribers it lost in the previous audit period.

Total average net circulation fell from 9,451 to 7,323 in the period 1st July 2009 to 30th June 2010.

Here's a summary breakdown 2009/10 with 2008/09 in brackets:

• Total average net circulation per issue; 7,323 (9,451) -22.5%
• Single copy subscription sales at full rate 2,724 (3,454) -21%
• Subscriptions discounted between 50% and 100% of full rate 2,381 (2,308) +3%
• Controlled free circulation (non-requested) 2,528 (2,479) +2%

Toby Buckland rejoins Amateur Gardening

BBC Gardeners' World presenter Toby Buckland is rejoining the Amateur Gardening magazine.

As of the 26 June issue (out this Saturday, 19 June), Toby will become one of the magazine's weekly columnists, sharing tales from his home garden and allotment in Devon.

Toby, a professional nurseryman, was Amateur Gardening's Grow, Cook and Eat writer before
leaving in autumn 2008 to present Gardeners' World.

Amateur Gardening has had a long history of Gardeners' World presenters writing for the magazine including Percy Thrower, Peter Seabrook, Stefan Buczacki, Arthur Billitt, Alan Titchmarsh and Monty Don.

Embedding hyperlinks into printed media

There is no doubt, in the last three to five years, printed media has been ravaged by the relentless advance of the internet with many print titles either being consolidated or shut down as they fail to compete with the 'here and now' instant media.

The last two years especially, has witnessed a steeper decline with traditional media and publishing losing ground due to the major advanced in digital (especially mobile) media.

Traditional media companies are challenged with stemming the fall in subscribers and revenues, but there is little they can do to make printed media a more appealing medium - today's generations are attached in some way to the latest mobile media and they are demanding that technology provides for them.

Publisher Yell Group cautious on customer confidence

A little over three years ago, Yell Group - comprising of Yellow Pages directories, online advertising and specialist phone listings - enjoyed its highest ever share price of 639.50 pence but since the 16th February 2007 it has been downhill and today it languishes at just 29.60 pence: falling nearly 9% yesterday.

On May 18th 2010, Yell said that it made a profit of £46.8 million, compared to loss of £1.14 billion last year but what was telling, and obviously spooked the markets, was the shock departure of both its CEO, John Condron, and chief financial officer John Davis.

Digital media paywall draws nearer

As the Times and Sunday Times prepare to close their websites to the casual reader next month and start to charge its readers a fee, traditional and digital media world, as a whole, will be waiting with baited breath to see how it goes - it will be a pivotal moment.

Newspaper and magazine publishers have long argued that their content is worth a price - after all, they have writers, photographers and other staff to pay for - but it's at odds with the freedom mentality that grips the internet.