BBC Magazines revamps commercial team

LONDON - BBC Magazines is set to close its centralised sales team, handing more commercial duties to its individual titles and making 10 redundancies from its 100-strong sales team.


The company's second major commercial restructure in two years will result in most sales being divided up among individual magazines.


There will be a sales team for the Radio Times, Top Gear and Lonely Planet titles, as well as teams for its youth and children's, food and gardening magazines. The brands, however, will continue to cross-sell across the portfolio.


Previously, the centralised team was structured into classified, inserts and brand solutions teams, which sold across the portfolio of titles.


Sales staff were briefed on the proposals last week by Matt Teeman, BBC Magazines director of ad sales, and there will be a month's consultation before the new structure is up and running. It is thought a number of senior roles will be axed in the restructure.


BBC Magazines is the latest publisher, following companies such as IPC and Condé Nast, to rein in its cost base as it looks to streamline its operations in the current tough economic climate.


Teeman, who has also briefed media agencies on the changes, said: "The new structure is a proposal at this stage.


"We believe that structuring our business along verticals is the most cost-efficient way."
In July last year, BBC Magazines axed seven senior management roles from its ad sales teams.


Last week, BBC Magazines launched its much-anticipated travel magazine Lonely Planet after delaying the launch over a dispute with a rival title.


BBC Magazines had planned the launch for 21 November, but opted for 28 November after a claim by Wanderlust editor and publisher Lyn Hughes that BBC Worldwide had deliberately targeted the title by launching Lonely Planet magazine on the same day as Wanderlust's 15th anniversary issue.

Marketing Magazine
2nd December