IPC restructures titles around three target audience groups

Publisher gears up for wider industry shift by focusing on clients’ business needs.

IPC Media is going to focus on audience delivery and targeting after its restructure, according to industry commentators.

The consumer publishing company, which owns NME, Loaded and Marie Claire, has stated it wants to restructure its business around its target audience groups.

It is rationalising its structure to target three audience groups. These are men, mass-market women and upmarket women, where it had previously organised business divisions around subject areas and magazine frequency.

The men’s division is IPC Inspire and is headed by managing director Paul Williams.

IPC Connect will be the mass-market women’s division, headed by managing director Fiona Dent and include women’s weeklies, the goodtoknow network and IPC’s TV entertainment brands. IPC Southbank, headed by managing director Jackie Newcombe, will be the upmarket women’s division and cover fashion, beauty and home interest titles.

Vanessa Clifford, head of press at media buying agency Mindshare, says that IPC is gearing up for a wider industry shift towards audience targeting.

Gabrielle Rosetti, media manager at Arena BLM, adds: “I think it is a positive step but remains to be seen if all the sales staff will be able to sell their audiences and talk about reaching them cross-platform.”

While the restructure, which will take effect on 4 January, means a number of staff cuts, an IPC spokeswoman says no titles will be discontinued or merged. “It’s business as usual,” she adds.

Evelyn Webster, CEO of IPC Media, adds: “While our current structure has served us well over many years, it no longer reflects our clients’ business needs.”