London Underground puts Tube magazine up for tender
The London Underground (LU) is searching for a contract publisher for its Tube magazine, which was launched earlier this month by John Brown Citrus Publishing (JBCP). JBCP has been invited to repitch.
The decision to launch Tube was made earlier this year following a successful trial of 8,000 Underground users (MW May 16). The first issue of the A5 magazine was distributed in April to 10,000 people who bought Travelcards online at ticket-on-line.co.uk.
LU account manager Mark Edwards says: “LU is examining other concepts besides a magazine, such as newsletters. This is the reason why Tube is up for pitch, because LU is searching for the right set of skills to help it, not only to produce a magazine, but also to find newer methods of distribution.”
LU will be distributing the new edition of the magazine in early February.
JBCP is currently repitching for the AA magazine contract it won last year from Redwood (MW October 17). In addition, the contract publisher has lost its UK Ikea magazine business to Cabal Communications, which has also scooped the pan-European work for Ikea.
Separately, JBCP is in negotiations with Ford to split its pan-European magazine account. It is understood that the account will be divided between JBCP and a rival publisher.
