Media Week

Its average circulation in the period was 220,957, which included 38,560 bulks and 51,548 overseas sales. Four months into his new role, managing director Simon Kelner (profiled on page 10) has decided to cut the number of bulks and overseas copies, something he says is long overdue - there were about 7,000 fewer in September.

It is one of a number of changes Kelner has instigated since he took the managerial reins from Terry Grote, who retired in April. He has cut marketing spend, upped the cover price to £1 and restructured the management team, among other things.

Most of these moves made sense, and the newly redesigned full-colour paper is looking good. Kelner even admits that his mate and new Independent editor Roger Alton is producing a better paper than he did. The viewspaper front pages have quietly been consigned to history - again, not before time.

So far, so good then. But the improvements are a long way from being reflected in extra copy sales or ad revenues, although Kelner has taken over at a time when the economy is in meltdown, so he can use that as an excuse for a certain amount of grace.

The paper has established a distinct culture for itself in the UK. It has innovated in many areas and claims credit for inventing newspaper promotions such as posters, booklets and language courses, many of which have been copied by its rivals.

It would be a shame if it ceased to exist, but there is no room for sentiment in media businesses, especially in the current economic climate. Kelner cut back on marketing in September, but claims to have some new and innovative promotions in the pipeline.

A lot hangs on these. Kelner himself says The Indie can't afford another year of 12% circulation falls, so if we are sitting here in October 2009 contemplating just such an occurrence, it may well be that the paper will have withered just a little bit too much to survive.

C4 chairman Luke Johnson was never a fan, but the writing was on the wall for the digital radio initiative when the Channel 4 Radio speech station was mothballed, for that was the big driver behind the whole venture. It was part of a dream to take on the BBC and the reason seasoned BBC Radio 5 Live executive Bob Shennan was hired this year. But lately, Shennan must have been sitting at C4 wondering what was going on. Producing E4 Radio was not quite what he signed up to. And, tellingly, C4 never actually signed transmission contracts with Arqiva.

National sales director Simon Daglish, who is still on gardening leave from Global Radio and hadn't even started at C4, will also be bemused by the latest turn of events. Shennan and Daglish are likely to be among 15 job losses following C4's decision to pull the plug on the ill-fated venture last Friday and save £10m in 2009, one week after a digital radio summit where Nathalie Schwarz and Global Radio chief executive Ashley Tabor attempted to hammer out a deal to combine the companies' two digital multiplexes into one entity. Schwarz's future at C4 may also be in doubt.

It's easy to be wise in hindsight and no doubt former GCap Media chief executive Ralph Bernard will afford himself a wry smile after constantly predicting there isn't the demand in the marketplace for two digital multiplexes. But the latest turn of events is still regrettable and, as a radio man through and through, I'm sure Bernard will share that regret.

The C4 venture was ambitious, but it was born of a genuine desire to put digital radio on the map and create something in the commercial sector to rival the BBC's dominance in speech radio through Radio 4 and 5 Live. After Global's shrinking back from digital radio earlier this year, the fare emitting from the near eight million DAB radio sets in the UK is looking distinctly second rate.

And it's not a case of talking ourselves into a recession: our sector doesn't operate in a bubble and the wider economy affects our industry in many ways.

So, apart from deifying BBC business guru Robert Peston, what does the global financial crisis mean for media and what should our industry be doing about it?

First, there are obvious implications for media agencies with clients in banking, property, financial services and motoring - all areas where brands could disappear, merge or pull in their horns.

Then there are the media owners and advertisers whose businesses are predicated on significant levels of debt and exposure to the financial sector. Debt will be increasingly difficult to service and cheap credit a rare commodity.

ZenithOptimedia's latest advertising expenditure growth forecast for 2008 - released today - revises its prediction for the UK market down from 2.4% real growth to a 2.1% real decline, principally due to the worsening economic climate. Taking online out of the equation - tipped to expand 21% in 2008 - market decline will be 5.8%, compared to June's prediction of a 2.4% fall. Apart from online, only cinema can look forward to immediate growth. Many media owners have already streamlined and restructured for the new environment. Media agencies will follow suit.

Zenith forecasts that ad spend will be 0.9% of global GDP in 2009, compared to 1.04% in 1990 and 1.05% in 2000. The Publicis network's EMEA chief executive Steve King suggests ad spend levels are more sustainable than in previous downturns, which show those brands that keep their nerve and continue to advertise and those media owners that keep focusing on quality will profit in the long term.

One thing's for sure, leaner, meaner and fitter media businesses will emerge. It's time to concentrate on fundamentals, stay strong and avoid the temptation to cut the engines of sales growth that will enable brands to come out the other end fighting.

Magazines are no different and the PPA has designated this week as Magazine Week. The weeks are largely symbolic, rather than business-critical, but they do offer an excellent opportunity to focus on the unique selling points of a medium that, as a magazine editor, are obviously close to my heart.

Magazines are a fantastic vehicle for advertisers to reach a huge range of general and specialist target audiences in an environment where readers actively seek out and engage with advertisements. Media Week has done its bit to mark the week by shining the spotlight on the seven ages of the magazine reader in this week's feature (see page 24). The article shows there is a magazine and a target audience of responsive readers for every conceivable brand or advertiser.

Also live today, at Media Week TV (www.mediaweek.tv), is an interview with two senior magazine executives - IPC Connect's managing director Evelyn Webster and special interest media group Future's chief executive Stevie Spring - that sheds more light on the magazine world and how it is set to develop over the next few years.

Both women accept that the current economic climate will put pressure on their advertising revenues, but say magazines are robust because of their extra engagement and ability to offer an escape from the realities of everyday life. From a copy sales point of view, there is an opportunity, because in a downturn, treat items such as magazines tend to do very well.

Spring emphasises that magazines offer something for everybody and an environment where readers enjoy ads as part of the experience. Webster notes that magazines reflect the interests and passions of all UK men and women, and that nothing can beat magazines for engagement.

Amen to all that. In a week of continuing doom and gloom in the world of finance, let's take a few moments to celebrate magazines and the unique environment they offer to advertisers.