OPINION: QUESTION TIME WITH....Tim Lucas - NatMags’ corporate chief says centralisation is not new

When he was a television buyer at J. Walter Thompson, the young Tim

Lucas was offended by the constant reliance on the F-word for

communication.

So he moved on to the more refined world of media planning at BBJ Media,

followed by McCann Erickson, where he managed the L’Oreal account -

ideal preparation for the Ab Fab world of women’s magazines.

Lucas is now corporate business development director at the National

Magazine Company, where he is responsible for central sales. This

comprises client development, new business, promotions, international

sales, classified and accounts for nearly two thirds of NatMags’

business.

The central sales function was initiated in 1994 and the press coverage

Emap and IPC have received for their new centralised structures rankles

with NatMags. Lucas is keen to point out that his rivals’

solutions-based group structures are nothing new. He concedes the

cross-media sales element is innovative - certainly for a company of

Emap’s size -but he is unsure of its efficacy.

Lucas is curious to see if the new Emap structure will work and

anticipates teething problems.

He rates Zenith’s Theresa Coligan highly but wonders how Emap’s incoming

magazine sales director will cope as she inherits a radical new

structure and a workforce suffering from culture shock.

Lucas predicts she will need a lot of support: ’Theresa will bring an

agency perspective, which is invaluable, but what Emap is doing is

massive and will require an awful lot of change management. It’s a

difficult job.’

Unlike Emap, NatMags and IPC retain magazine-title teams alongside their

central sales operation. Some commentators have suggested Emap’s teams,

although able to offer a fantastic basket of goods, might be too remote

from the individual brands.

Lucas is not surprised that Emap appears to have recognised this by

recently appointing a dedicated publisher for Elle. ’Just as we did,

they will face problems when balancing centralisation with access to

brands,’ he warns.

Lucas is keen to get closer to clients but admits not all agencies are

keen on owners cosying up to their masters. Those who are more secure in

their own relationships with clients are more relaxed.

His other concern is to get closer to agency planners. Lucas regrets

that he has far more conversations with buyers and believes owners have

a great deal to offer planners.

’Planners don’t ring media owners to ask how the medium works because

they are supposed to know.’ However, he thinks this may change with the

influx into sales of more agency people with similar mindsets.

Following the recent defection of some senior names to Conde Nast, it is

rumoured NatMags is not a happy ship. But having just returned from a

Champagne sendoff for the decamping House Beautiful publisher Jamie

Bill, Lucas rejects the notion that there is any animosity in the

departures.

He also defends the charge that NatMags is looking inactive while rivals

in the women’s market aggressively launch competing titles.

’Until 1990, every market for women’s monthly magazines had been created

by NatMags. Over the last ten years, our rivals have been trying to

usurp our domination and they have failed. Cosmopolitan is still number

one.

We publish four out of the top six women’s magazines and two out of the

top seven home interest titles. Our rivals had to launch lots of things

because they didn’t have any business and we did.’

Lucas also points to the imminent UK launch of Women.com, the part-owned

Hearst portal that claims to be the most visited women’s site in the

US.

This will provide an online platform for the UK magazine brands.

The autumn will bring increased competition for She from Eve and Project

Florence but Lucas is unconcerned by this. In fact, he is hoping they

will create a new advertising market.

’The mid-thirties market falls off the edge of most media schedules,’ he

says. ’The more magazines there are, the more it will become established

as a valuable market in its own right.’

This article was first published on Campaign