New team to capitalize on circulation and traffic growth
New team to capitalize on circulation and traffic growth
Nov 16, 2005: Knapp Communications has significantly boosted its resources to take advantage of the growing circulation for IDM magazine and increased traffic to the www.idm.net.au website.
"The appointment of new editorial and advertising sales staff means the magazine and website are set for further growth in 2006," says publisher Gerard Knapp.
The new Editor of IDM magazine is Tim Smith, a highly experienced IT journalist with extensive experience in information management. Tim's most recent position was as IT manager of the Australian Caption Centre.
"We're delighted that Tim has joined IDM," said publisher, Gerard Knapp. "His most recent experience as an IT manager for an information-based organisation, including the implementation of a storage area network, coupled with his extensive background in publishing, means he can really understand and communicate the issues facing Australasia's IT professionals."
Originally from the UK, Tim started in IT publishing in 1988 after he left a highly-paid position at the London Stock Exchange 1988 to join UK-based Future Publishing.
He held a variety of senior positions in publishing before coming to Australia in 2000 where he moved into IT practice, networking and integrating CRM and data storage systems. He went back into publishing to launch the consumer title, PC Active.
Following its launch, he joined The Australian Caption Centre as IT manager. This position provided insight into the ongoing challenges faced by real-world IT implementations in environments as diverse as live broadcast, intellectual rights management, still image/video storage and retrieval and web application creation and use.
"The opportunity to combine my Australian working experience with my lifelong passion for publishing was too big to miss," Tim says. "The question in my mind was not if I was going to edit one of the Asia-Pacific's most respected and long lasting IT magazines, but how soon I could make that happen. I am looking forward to taking IDM even further in the coming years".
Working alongside Tim is journalist Greg McNevin, 26. Greg started his writing career at Macquarie University (where he completed a BA Hons) by writing reviews as a means to obtain new computer games. He moved on to consumer electronics where an interest in film, photography and IT saw him write guidebooks on Digital Video and HTML. In previous positions, he has worked as a tech support guy, a portal manager for a children's website and an adventure sport gear consultant.
"How could one turn down an offer to join such a sexy team with big sexy brains! I am thoroughly chuffed to be able to learn from highly experience people and contribute to the quality publication that is IDM."
Liam Tung has also recently joined Knapp Communications as an advertising account manager. Liam (29), had worked in account management at News Limited and is keen to develop a more detailed understanding of all aspects of magazine and internet publishing.
"Joining Knapp Communications was a great decision. It's independent, readers find it a valuable source of information, and we've got strong relationships with our customers. Learning from such talented, experienced people is a real bonus and I think we'll really be able to push IDM to new heights in 2006."
Liam will be working with highly experienced advertising manager, Constantine Nicholas, who's been with IDM magazine for over five years.
Circulation, traffic growth
The latest Circulation Audit Board figures showed a five percent increase for IDM magazine. The audit of the six months until September 30, 2005, shows an average copies per issue of 10,677, an increase of almost 500 copies on the previous audit. This is the highest circulation figure recorded for the title, published continuously since 1994.
The circulation growth is a result of IDM presence at leading IT end-user events, as well as incentive-based subscription initiatives.
Traffic to the IDM website continues to grow, and monthly page impressions are now hitting 300,000. Traffic in 2004 (1,805,477 page impressions) was over double that of 2003, and the growth is continuing in 2005.
Further, Knapp Communications will be introducing sophisticated new online advertisement management technology to the IDM site. This will offer improved targeting and accountability for online advertisers.
The 'Ad Serve' system, developed in Adelaide by Economic Outlook, has been extensively used for several years on the Knapp Communications-owned website www.cyclingnews.com, the world's leading cycling website (online since 1995) that is on track to serve over 340 million page impressions in 2005.
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