NatMags ties travel ad sales to challenge national press

The National Magazine Company is centralising travel advertising sales to compete harder with the national press.

The initiative, to be run by NatMags’ head of international sales Keith LeGoy, marks the further centralisation of advertising sales within the magazine industry.

NatMags will release travel feature lists a year in advance for all of its magazines as part of an effort to help simplify the planning and buying process across its titles. It has also segmented groups of magazines to match certain travel market sectors.

LeGoy believes travel is an area ripe for NatMags to expand its present 1.5m in display revenues. “More than 70 per cent of holiday destinations are chosen by women,” he says. “But standard TGI data will show that 77 per cent of women are light or non-readers of the mid-market and quality press.”

He also believes the relaxed atmosphere in which magazines are read is more suited to considering holidays than newspapers.

NatMags now has a centralised sales department of 27, while competitor Condé Nast has been selling property and personal finance advertising in all its titles from a single sales point for the past two years.

Large advertisers and their agencies are increasingly negotiating with publishing houses as a whole to squeeze rates using their bulk-buying power. NatMags, which maintains its individual sales teams may still sell travel ads, is trying to balance the strengths of its brands with the industry’s centralising trend.