I was recently at the Magazine Street event in Edinburgh, and it was beneficial to see how many independent publishers are still pro-print. In general, it was all about the uplift in independent magazines. People are looking at ways to support independent print, how to have digital strategies that sell print, how to promote print magazines to the people that want to read them.

Initiatives like the Just Ask campaign are a part of that. I’m trying to get my publishers that I work with to include Just Ask messaging in their magazines. What I’m telling them is that the Professional Publishers’ Association and RN are really getting behind Just Ask again and you can put your faith in it.

Just Ask: Free support in the magazine category to boost your sales and increase customer loyalty

When the campaign first ran, magazines had branded coupons which readers could take to their local store to set up a shop save, and it will be great to see that option again. Those postcards are included in retailers’ PoS packs, but publishers can make use of them too. Retailers have  I think it’s really important, now, when businesses are giving less space to magazines. I went into a WH Smith recently and they’ve cut another three meters of display.

Just Ask is more important now than it ever was, and I support it absolutely, I think it’s a really great campaign.

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