After folding Creme magazine recently, Bauer Media has continued to ring the changes and has resigned the publishing contract for Little Treasures magazine, with Tangible Media taking over as the publisher after the September/October issue.
Asaleo Care (formerly SCA Hygiene) owns the Little Treasures masthead, and Bauer has held the publishing contract since its launch in 1986.
“A big thank you to the team at Little Treasures for their dedication and commitment to the publication,” says Treasures marketing manager, Heather Greaves in a release. “We have enjoyed a long and successful relationship, and wish everyone at Bauer the best for the future. We also look forward to the continued publication of Little Treasures, offering advertisers a highly defined target market of mums to be and mums with babies 0-3 years old.”
Tangible Media publisher John Baker says Little Treasures is an exciting proposition and “is exactly the kind of media we excel at”. And it’s a tribute to the power of this owned media property that many are unaware it’s actually a content marketing platform.
“The word ‘iconic’ gets used loosely and too often to describe brands, but we believe it is deserving of this description and hope we can do it justice.”
Lisa Ralph, Bauer’s publisher of premium and specialist titles, says in a release that Little Treasures is “New Zealand’s most-loved parenting magazine” and has the highest readership in its category.
“We are immensely proud of the magazine produced and look forward to seeing the brand continue in good health. I want to thank the Treasures team for their excellent support over the years, and also the editorial and publishing team who have produced a great little mag that has provided so many New Zealand mums with support, ideas and a warm sense of community for decades.”
Little Treasures has been on the slide in terms of circulation, however, with the most recent ABC figures showing it had average net paid sales of 10,276, almost half the number from 2010 (it reached a peak of 43,586 in 2004).
Oh Baby! has gone the other way, increasing its average net paid sales from 6,973 in its first year in 2011, to 9,004 in the most recent figures.
On the plus side, Bauer and Little Treasures were behind one of the most innovative magazine campaigns in recent years when it created Ecostore’s personalised covers with the help of Special Group, Naked/Open and Salt Interactive. That campaign was shortlisted for the Warc innovation prize last year.
Bauer brought APN’s NZ Listener, NZ Woman’s Weekly, Simply You, Simply You Living and Creme into the fold this year (at a cost of around $7 million) and Bauer’s commercial director Paul Gardiner says it let this custom published title go because it doesn’t fit with its strategy, which is more advertising-led.
When asked about a rumoured restructure, Gardiner wasn’t able to comment, but it’s expected to announce some changes to its business in the coming days.
And in related nappie news, Treasures recently launched a campaign focusing on an over-excited, well-rested dad.
- StopPress is owned by Tangible Media
