ASDA was named Magazine Retailer of the Year in the large multiple category while GT Retail took the small multiple category (up to 100 stores) at the ceremony hosted by PPA CEO Barry McIlheney at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) on The Mall.
Best Sales or Marketing Initiative of the Year went to The Co-operative Group for its Panini World Cup Collections project, which boosted sales by 32 per cent in 2010 compared with the previous World Cup in 2006.
In the individual categories, Morgan Ould (pictured with PPA's Barry McIlheney) of WHSmith High Street was named Magazine Category Champion of the Year for her work in driving the company's Magazine Ordering Service (MOS) as an alternative route to market for niche and specialist titles and partworks.
The final award of the day went to Simon Toplis of D-Cipher who received the Outstanding Contribution to Magazine Retailing accolade in recognition of his achievements on the M&S account, where he used his expertise to spearhead a number of successful sales initiatives such as the new 'shop within a shop concept'.
The MagSell awards followed the PPA Retail Forum, which gave multiple retailers, publishers and leading figures from the magazine supply chain a platform to discuss the magazine category at retail.
At the event the PPA unveiled a new retail-focused section of its website which features a short video on the Power of Magazines. Barry McIlheney said: "The PPA has a greatly renewed focus on retail in 2011 and it's a two-way process; it's a dialogue not a monologue."
Speakers at the event included Phil Melling of Frontline, COMAG's Charlotte Macleod and Suzanne Pullum of Marketforce, who discussed the work of the PPA's Retail Marketing Group (RMG). In addition, Jim Bilton of Wessenden Marketing presented summarised results from research conducted among retailers to assess their views on the magazine supply chain, and Simon Kanter of Haymarket Media Group dispelled many of the popular myths about the future of print magazines in a presentation entitled Magazines and the New Generation.
The Retail Forum was concluded with a panel discussion featuring David Cooke of Menzies Distribution; Adrian Hughes of IPC Media; Elizabeth Newman of Sainsbury's; and Frank Straetmans of Frontline.
More information on the event, including the presentations, are available from the new retail section of the PPA website.
About PPA
The PPA says: “The PPA protects and promotes the interests of print and online publishers of consumer and business media in the UK. The PPA has around 200 publishing companies in its membership, which collectively produce more than 2,500 consumer and business magazines and journals as well as digital media, data products and events.”
