In 2013, Carnyx Group, publishers of The Drum magazine and website, achieved its most successful year ever.
Three years ago, Carnyx took the radical decision to increase profitability by abandoning a multi-title business model. The independent publishing company divested other titles and concentrated all resources on one, The Drum (a fortnightly business magazine covering the marketing / digital media sector) and created an eco-system of complementary products and services around it.
As a result, The Drum has grown from a regional marketing-focused magazine to become one of the UK’s leading independent media brands and an influential partner to the UK marketing industry.
2013 saw Carnyx’s vision come to full fruition with EVERY element of the business generating a net profit for the first time.
The group now consists of:
www.TheDrum.com – Having overtaken its key online competitors in 2012 to become the UK’s most widely-read marketing-focused website, TheDrum.com consolidated its position in 2013, increasing unique visitors by 99.8% (to 654,000 unique users per month) and page views by 40%. Online ad and sponsorship sales rose by more than 70%.
The Drum magazine – The print edition is published fortnightly as a high-end niche product, providing in-depth insight and analysis of the UK marketing industry. In 2013, print advertising and sponsorship revenues rose by 27% year-on-year and print subscriptions rose by 12%. In addition, The Drum was named ‘Business Magazine of the Year’ by the PPA.
Events – The Drum’s event team now organise more than 25 major industry events (awards and conferences) across the UK every year, including ground-breaking new events in 2013 such as ‘The Drum Live!’ during which an entire issue of the magazine was created in front of a live audience of 200 people! The Drum’s Events division saw turnover increase by 41%, with profits rising by 38%.
Recommended Agency Register (RAR) – Originally a printed editorial project for The Drum, RAR is now a fully-fledged business which helps clients to choose agencies. Revenues on RAR grew by 21% in 2013 with a net profit margin of 34%.
The Drum Network (formerly MiNetwork) - This membership organisation provides marketing agencies with business support services. In 2013, the network became profitable for the first time (with a net margin of 21%).
The Drum’s impressive cross-platform performance offers a textbook example of a traditional magazine publishing business adapting its strategy and existing skills to thrive in the digital age.
Across 2013, total group turnover increased by 37% YoY while total group profits grew by 152%.
Gordon Young, editor of The Drum, said: “At The Drum, we don’t believe in paywalls or, indeed, walls of any kind. We don’t want to stand apart from our readership, merely commenting on the industry; we want to be an essential part of it. We like the fact that we’re part of the ‘plumbing’, keeping essential information pumping like lifeblood between the agencies we cover and the client companies they service.”
With approximately 15% of TheDrum.com’s online readership based in the US, the title has serious aspirations of international expansion in the near future.
The Media Innovation Awards are designed to recognise innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in publishing and media businesses, both large and small. Launched in 2010 as the Media Pioneer Awards, and supported by InPublishing, they celebrate new ideas and experimentation across print, web, mobile and events.
Read about the rest of the shortlist here.
Winners will be announced and awards presented at the Digital Media Innovation Conference on 8 April.
