The £4m Swanley, Kent-based printing and mailing house purchased the rights to publish Facilities Management Journal (FMJ), Cleaning Hygiene Today, The Flooring Magazine and supplements Women FM and Month in FM in mid-May after publisher Diamond Media’s parent company Sparta Press, went into administration. KPM was already providing fulfillment services for all five magazines. The key acquisition was FMJ which boasts a circulation of 4,000 printed monthly magazines and 12,000 online subscribers. In creating KPM Media, ten existing staff transferred to a new unit purchased by KPM in March. Around £75,000 was spent on investing in new equipment and software for KPM Media, reported managing director Nigel Copp. He said that a boosted turnover of around £750,000 by the end of year one would come not just from revenues generated directly from the newly acquired titles, but also from offering editorial and creative services to existing customers. “Normally we’re taking briefs a bit further down the line, but now we can look at newsletters or leaflets and offer those services out as an additional creative element; some of the smaller companies we work with, some of the charities, are always interested with help in that area,” said Copp. Copp qualified though that it would take some time before this new venture really delivered its full potential: “This is something that will take a while to move forward. I don’t think it will deliver massive growth in year one but thereafter as we develop the publishing strand hopefully this will add a significant amount to our turnover.” He added that the acquisitions would also eventually boost the business once the company began to leverage subscriber list data. “We are concentrating on building the client relationship and trust at this stage. Once we have done that, and only then, as a second stage we will look at offering our other services to customers on the magazine subscriber lists,” he said. The purchase of the Sparta Press magazines was made as part of an overall two-year investment plan. This resulted in the company trebling its floor space to 1,115 sqm last year and growing this to 1,860sqm this year. As part of the most recent growth it also doubled its enclosing capacity in 2012 and this January the company invested around £100,000 in a Ricoh Pro C901 digital press. Copp added that he was also in discussions to acquire another DM company in the near future....

Printed.com and Goodprint generated sales of £2.31m in the first quarter, and accounted for the bulk of the £24.3m turnover group’s sales and profits in the period. The two operations added more than 17,800 new customers in the three months to the end of May. The firm said its challenge was to continue to attract and retain customers while restricting its advertising budget to no more than 27% of sales. The integration of Goodprint, acquired by Tangent in a £10.2m deal last October, is now delivering better-than-anticipated savings, said the company. The group has also appointed Steven Grout as chief executive of £10m turnover digital marketing agency Tangent Snowball. This is part of the change in management announced at Tangent’s year-end along with plans to refocus Tangent Snowball on higher-margin business. Grout has an agency background and joins from Targetbase Claydon Heeley, where he was CEO. He has worked with a number of major brands, including British Airways, Heinz and Pfizer....

The £4m Swanley, Kent-based printing and mailing house purchased the rights to publish Facilities Management Journal (FMJ), Cleaning Hygiene Today, The Flooring Magazine and supplements Women FM and Month in FM in mid-May after publisher Diamond Media’s parent company Sparta Press, went into administration. KPM was already providing fulfillment services for all five magazines. The key acquisition was FMJ which boasts a circulation of 4,000 printed monthly magazines and 12,000 online subscribers. In creating KPM Media, ten existing staff transferred to a new unit purchased by KPM in March. Around £75,000 was spent on investing in new equipment and software for KPM Media, reported managing director Nigel Copp. He said that a boosted turnover of around £750,000 by the end of year one would come not just from revenues generated directly from the newly acquired titles, but also from offering editorial and creative services to existing customers. “Normally we’re taking briefs a bit further down the line, but now we can look at newsletters or leaflets and offer those services out as an additional creative element; some of the smaller companies we work with, some of the charities, are always interested with help in that area,” said Copp. Copp qualified though that it would take some time before this new venture really delivered its full potential: “This is something that will take a while to move forward. I don’t think it will deliver massive growth in year one but thereafter as we develop the publishing strand hopefully this will add a significant amount to our turnover.” He added that the acquisitions would also eventually boost the business once the company began to leverage subscriber list data. “We are concentrating on building the client relationship and trust at this stage. Once we have done that, and only then, as a second stage we will look at offering our other services to customers on the magazine subscriber lists,” he said. The purchase of the Sparta Press magazines was made as part of an overall two-year investment plan. This resulted in the company trebling its floor space to 1,115 sqm last year and growing this to 1,860sqm this year. As part of the most recent growth it also doubled its enclosing capacity in 2012 and this January the company invested around £100,000 in a Ricoh Pro C901 digital press. Copp added that he was also in discussions to acquire another DM company in the near future....

The pilot issue of iLove magazine has just been sent to 13,500 carefully-targeted readers, ahead of plans to up the monthly circulation to 700,000. The fashion and beauty title is the brainchild of Digital Space, which has offices in Northampton and Ilkley. The firm has been working in the print-to-mobile arena for a number of years and has produced a variety of cross-media projects with major magazine and newspaper publishers. It has now decided to create its own product. “Print, as a mechanism for triggering a response has far greater value than most people put on it,” said director Adrian Fleming. “We have taken a piece of print and overlaid the sort of analytical values you’d get on an insightful web page.” The firm has partnered with Royal Mail to create a database of 702,000 women who meet its target audience criteria of being in the 18-44 age group, living in certain key locations, and being comfortable using technology to buy products. “It’s probably the most sophisticated consumer database for women in the UK,” Fleming stated. “We don’t sell the magazine, we send it to people for free and with our partners at Royal Mail we have defined the perfect target market.” Digital Space has meshed its own technology with digital watermarks. Via its app readers of the magazine can access additional content, such as videos and ‘how to’ advice, as well as buying the products featured. “Readers can literally hold their phone over the page and a button says ‘buy’ on every single product,” Fleming added. “There are mathematics in every image, so if the same picture is on the cover and an inside page, we can tell which one the reader has gone through to the online content. “This is a completely different approach, we are thinking in three dimensions.” Digital Space will use this feedback to hone the content. Fleming claimed the way iLove was able to connect with brands would prove a key differentiator in the hugely-competitive women’s magazine market. He said the new venture represented a seven-figure investment for the business. The 52pp pilot issue of the sub-A4 format, saddle-stitched title has been printed by Polestar. Fleming anticipates that pagination will increase to around 120pp when it is rolled out to the full 700,000 circulation in September. A subscriber promotion involving a Chanel handbag is currently running on the iLove website ilovemagazine.co.uk. Fleming spoke about interactive media and marketing at last month’s Fespa event in London....

The achievement comes less than a year after the commercial printer revamped its press fleet with the installation of a pair of new five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster XL presses, an XL 106-5 and an XL 75-5 plus coater, at its Shoreham facility. Heidelberg ISO 12647-2 certification involves a comprehensive programme of equipment optimisation and testing, according to Gemini Group managing director Steve Cropper. “The colour management programme and testing took about three days and we did have to lose about eight hours a day in production on each day. However, we regard that as an investment because we will reap the benefits in reduced waste and even better colour quality and consistency moving forward,” he said. “The ISO 12647-2 certification is a sales tool but also enhances production disciplines. With Inpress Control, sheets are automatically checked and inking altered, eliminating the need for operator intervention and ensuring consistent and provable results.” Companies that attain Heidelberg’s ISO 12647-2 certification become members of the press manufacturer’s ‘Colour Club’ and are listed on the Heidelberg UK website so that print buyers can check the authenticity of their colour credentials. “There is a real advantage in undertaking this certification process with the press supplier. We have benefitted from sound, practical advice,” added Cropper....