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IN PUBLISHING (Mar/Apr 2010)
"How much is customer service worth"
Customer service matters. That is an unchallengeable fact of our modern consumer-focused world. Yet how much is it worth to the bottom line? And which aspects matter most to magazine subscribers particularly in terms of affecting their intention to renew?.....The Subscriber Service Survey was developed by Wessenden Marketing who continue to run the whole project. It has grown from its start-point in 2007 as an internal Dovetail initiative with five of our own clients into an annual, industry-wide project. Now in its third year, it has input from PPA and involves 45 publishers with 440 of their titles, and polls the views of over 110,000 active magazine subscribers. This makes it the biggest co-operative publisher project of its kind in the UK and one of the largest customer service surveys in any industry. Click here to see the full article.

RETAIL NEWSAGENT (January 2010)
"Report shows rapid fall in indies share of mag market"
The full impact of the rapid decline in independent retailers’ share of the magazine market has been revealed in figures from Wessenden Marketing. In the third quarter of 2009, the independent sector’s market share fell from 30% to 27.8% compared with the same period in 2008......”The independent sector’s market share decline shows no sign of slowing down,” said Jim Bilton managing director of Wessenden Marketing, which published the results in Circulation Briefing. “Yet magazines are still massively important to the independent retailer and they still have a place in the consumer’s mind....”

IN PUBLISHING (Nov/Dec 2009)
"Subscription Marketing 2009"
The Subscription Marketing 2009 survey run by Wessenden Marketing and InPublishing and sponsored by CDS Global, has produced fascinating insights into the current state of subscription marketing practice in the UK publishing industry. Wessenden’s Jim Bilton summarises the key findings.....Click here to see the full article.

MEDIABIZNET (Nov 26 2009)
"Research provides publishing insight"
UK publishing expert Jim Bilton addressed publishers in Sydney and Melbourne last week refuting the perception that magazines "are all heading to the cemetery". Jim Bilton, managing director of Wessenden Marketing & Brandlab Research, which has just completed two landmark studies of 190 UK publishers who between them manage thousands of newspapers and magazines. He shared the findings of the surveys - called 2009 Publishing Futures and Subscription Marketing Practice - at a breakfast briefing “Survival of the Fastest”, hosted by Australia Post..... Click here to see the full article.

THE GUARDIAN (November 16 2009)
"Subscriptions offer a lifeline to nationals"
October was a surprisingly good month for national newspapers. Let me explain. The total market declined in the first half of the year by -5%. This rate slowed in the summer to -3%, but then speeded up again in September to -5.1%. So October's -3.7% year-on-year fall is something of a relief, especially given that comparisons are with a period of intense DVD promotions....Click here to see the full article.

THE GUARDIAN (October 13 2009)
"Lily Allen beats Barack Obama and Beth Ditto for best magazine cover"
A Q magazine cover featuring Lily Allen and a pair of panthers has beaten Barack Obama and a naked Beth Ditto to win the top prize at the inaugural "Maggie" awards for best magazine cover of the year. The Bauer Media music title's April 2009 issue was the overall winner of the online awards, in which more than 30,000 people voted........ Judging panel chairman Jim Bilton, a magazine industry veteran and managing partner of Wessenden Marketing, said: "A stunning image, strong cover lines with clear typography and an excellent 'greatest' list prominently highlighted all adds up to a winning cover creatively and commercially, producing one of the highest copy sales of the year. Lily wasn't a core artist for the Q readership and had heavy media coverage at the time. The solution – add panthers and a creative photo shoot – produced a truly memorable result which is our favourite cover this year.".....Click here to see the full article.

IN PUBLISHING (May/Jun 2009)
"Publishing Futures Survey Results"
The Publishing Futures survey run by Wessenden Marketing and InPublishing and sponsored by Wide Area, has produced fascinating insights into the current and future state of the publishing industry. Here, Wessenden's Jim Bilton summarises the key findings...... Click here to see the full article. Click here to view a video of a presentation of the overall results.

WHAT'S NEW IN PUBLISHING (May 28 2009)
"The future of publishing"
PUBLISHING FUTURES 2009 is the biggest survey of the UK publishing industry. With the economic turning point felt to be 2010/2011, recovery still seems a long way off.......

JOURNALISM.CO.UK (Jun 29 2009)
"An industry still essentially in profit"
The publishing industry is in remarkably robust health according to a new survey of 190 companies, encompassing 911 consumer magazines, 855 B2B magazines and newsletters, 413 newspapers (both regional and national) and a total of 1,056 individual websites.......

MEDIA WEEK (Jun 2 2009)
"Publishers look to online revenue to increase revenue."
According to a survey of UK publishers, PUBLISHING FUTURES 2009 from Wessenden Marketing, revenue earned around online paid-for content is set to rise.........

THE MAGAZINE BUSINESS WEEKLY (June 5 2009)
"Publishers predict 2010 recovery."
Almost 60% of UK newspaper and magazine publishers think business will improve next year, according to an industry-wide survey undertaken by Wessenden Marketing........

PAIDCONTENT:UK (May 27 2009)
"Publishers still afloat. They're just naive about the web."
On the surface, the media business is in trouble, but behind the turnover figures, the industry is essentially still in profit according to new research from Wessenden Marketing.....

THE GUARDIAN (April 13 2009)
"Newspaper sales steady despite airline turbulence"
Airline copies are as claimed by the publisher and are subject to further verification." That is ABC's non-comment on the ongoing Dawson inflight affair. The auditors are still crawling over the wholesaler to assess apparent irregularities in the supply of newspapers for inflight reading. Yet beyond that investigation, the March ABCs are actually quite positive......Click here to see the full article.

THE GUARDIAN (April 13 2009)
"Cycles, trends and wobbles"
The consumer magazine business is currently grim - but not necessarily for all the obvious reasons. The underlying fundamentals of the industry started to weaken well before the recession, and the worsening economy is only one part of a complex mix of cycles, trends and wobbles. Cycles are relatively easy to spot as they keep on recurring.............Click here to see the full article.

IN PUBLISHING (Mar/Apr 2009)
"Customer service matters"
Late last year, Dovetail undertook its second annual Subscriber Service Survey through Wessenden Marketing, which they opened up to non-Dovetail clients. As a result, 68,000 subscribers across 330 titles took part, making it the largest customer care survey the UK magazine business has ever seen......Click here to see the full article.

THE GUARDIAN (January 26, 2009)
"Newspaper site-user figures are part of a complex picture"
Has the newspaper industry's desire to publicise the biggest numbers it can lay its hands on led to an obsession with simplistic metrics? The global monthly unique user figures, published each month by ABC, were recently dismissed as meaningless, vainglorious and deliberately confusing ......Click here to see the full article.

THE GUARDIAN (January 12, 2009)
"Circulation slide has not yet become a freefall"
Gloom has turned to doom in the newspaper business. Commentators have been queuing up to analyse the death throes of the paid-for printed news model. Yet the year-end ABC figures confirm that while this is a tough market, it is not as apocalyptically bad as many are suggesting......Click here to see the full article.

IN PUBLISHING (Jan/Feb 2009)
"Magazine Week 2008"
Now that the dust has settled on Magazine Week, what is the final assessment? Jim Bilton, the project manager for Magazine Week 2008, reviews the event - its aims, activities and learnings......Click here to see the full article.

IN CIRCULATION (September/October 2008)
"The Customer Journey"
The PPA and Royal Mail commissioned Wessenden Marketing to map out scenarios for the future of the magazine subscription by looking at how other industries approach the customer journey and applying those insights to the magazine business. Jim Bilton summarises the main findings.....Click here to download full article (PDF format)

IN CIRCULATION (July/Aug 2008)
"How gift subscriptions work"
Gift subscriptions are growing in importance for consumer magazine publishers of all shapes and sizes. One of the leading magazine shops, ISUBSCRIBE, recently commissioned Wessenden Marketing to look into this whole area....... Click here for the full article.