Celebrating 100 years of the Professional Publishers Association

Last night I was delighted to attend the PPA’s centenary dinner, celebrating its long history representing the media publishing business.

Part of the post dinner entertainment was the announcement of the PPA cover of the century; picked from a short list of member titles.  A tough decision with so many iconic designs to choose from. Time Out and the Beano came close, but the Radio Times with a Dalek cover was the clear winner from the public vote.

I feel sure the cover splash will retain central importance for many publishers, but the next hundred years will of course see a very different publishing landscape evolve.  Today’s publishing businesses – or media brands – are increasingly focused on digital subscriptions, SEO, tablet apps and video channels as they work hard to replace the decline in print revenues.

NLA media access is excited to have a role delivering one of those alternative sources of revenues.  We have recently been recommended as a partner by the PPA for the secondary licensing of magazine content, deploying years of expertise gained licensing the newspaper industry.  Demand has been high, with 77 PPA publisher members switching to NLA media access in the first wave in October 2013 - and a further 78 joining early next year. 

We admit, extended collective licensing is somewhat less glamorous than producing cover art!  But it generates an increasingly important revenue stream and we are pleased to extend our services to magazine publishers, in addition to our newspaper clients.

David Pugh