From: Everyone@itp.com [mailto:Everyone@itp.com] On Behalf Of Sue Walters
Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2007 4:59 PM
To: Everyone
Subject: ITP Newsletter - July
| ||
ITP Business | ||
It took some time for the AC to come back on, but ITP Business stayed cool under pressure and turned in another fantastic performance in June. The start of the month saw the hospitality team, armed with a 144-page issue of Hotelier Middle East, take the Hotel Show by storm. Buoyed by this strong showing, sales again breezed over target. In fact, it was a full house for the hospitality group, as ATN and Caterer also made their numbers with room to spare.
Though a (wo)man or two down, Neil Baker's team coped with everything that was thrown at them. New boys David Beaver and Daniel Prescott settled in quickly and have already brought their own unique touch to their respective publications. Neil Baker also found some time to start designing ITP’s six exciting second half launches.
| ||
ITP Consumer | ||
Women’s Weeklies
Nadine and her team on Ahlan! Arabic also celebrated this month with the news that the magazine will be going into Saudi Arabia. Congratulations to them and the circulation team on cracking this important market. From exclusives on Kate Moss's Topshop range to the local woman who spent Dhs2 million on clothes, Grazia's editorial team have proven their winning formula of style and scandal, as evidenced by great growth in newsstand sales. Thanks to Dani in Marketing for a great job on the readers' shopping evening at Debenhams in Mall of the Emirates, and congratulations to Natascha Hawke on her promotion to Picture Editor. Women’s Lifestyle For our Great Debate feature we tackled body image and Sarah from Production gave the readers the bodies they thought they wanted. We're just hoping she'll do our holiday snaps too. Fainting models - willowy model + 45degs = fashion editor running for water and a damp cloth. But who would have known it, the shoot still looked great guys. Well done to Penny McCormick for heading up this month’s issue of Wedding, as well as editing Emirates Home. Congratulations and thanks also go out to Stuart Robertson who styled this issue’s cover shoot. Thanks again to all the subs that chipped in to help out. Stuart has also has a busy month on L'Officiel, putting together huge amount of local material with the help of the local photographers. Well done too to the translation team of Rana Saliby and Fatiha Idrissi, who stretched their collective talents across L'Officiel, L'Officiel Hommes and Wedding Arabic. On a more personal level, welcome back this month to LO’s deputy editor, Mirvat Ghanem who has returned from her maternity leave. She now is the proud mother of her second daughter, Lamar. Time Out Group After finishing the gigantic Time Out City Guide for London, (with record revenues) the Time Out Guides team has tackled the equally mammoth Russian and Arabic City Guides this month. Well done to all concerned. Men’s Lifestyle Christine Burrows busied herself on the re-design of MEG, which should be making its debut in the next couple of months. Lastly, a big thanks to everybody that contributed to the ITP Golf Day on the 27th June and in particular Sarah Lucas. | ||
ITP Executive | ||
If June is when things start to slow down, somebody better tell the team at ITP Executive. CEO English managed to smash its target for the second month running, and is suddenly a $100k a month title. A great effort by Andrew Sullivan and Carmen Aston. Meanwhile, much of the sales and editorial team were busy in Riyadh for the Saudi Achievement Awards, where 350 VIPs celebrated 18 awards, in the presence of Saudi royalty. It is already being regarded as one of the most prestigious award ceremonies ever held. Editorially it was another strong month – exclusive interviews with Etihad boss James Hogan, Tatweer’s CEO and chairman and Mashreq boss Al Ghurair leading the way. While the titles continue to hit target every month, the team is now focusing on the second half – the launch of 4 new titles, and the arrival of 17 new staff by the start of August. These include 10 editorial, six sales and one on marketing. | ||
ITP Digital | ||
As H1 draws to a close, it has been another big month for ITP Digital and a strong end to the half. Top of everyone's agenda this month has been the ITP.net redesign, approximately six years overdue but proving well worth the wait. Led by Craig Willers and Meghna Jalnawalla the new design reflects the excellent strength and depth of ITP's regular IT coverage that makes it the Middle East's number one technology publisher. Since the relaunch ITP.net has experienced traffic levels usually reserved for the monster IT week that is Gitex Dubai. A huge well done to all of those involved. ArabianBusiness.com this month found itself in the centre of a storm – Gonu – and rose admirably to the task of covering the biggest natural disaster to hit this region in decades. The site became the home of acres of news coverage straddling many angles: hospitality, transportation, and finance. This was an example where all of ITP’s editorial teams got behind the Web and the result was dramatic. ArabianBusiness.com became identified as the source for the latest news on the cyclone and the site registered its highest-ever traffic - crossing 20,000 visits on two consecutive days. Thank you to all of the various editors, journalists and photographers who contributed to the excellent coverage. TimeOutDubai.com also showed it colours this month with Kate McAuley leading a quick, but highly effective redesign to the weekly newsletter. A big thank you also goes to Diana Milne for temporarily stepping outside her role as the Editor of Money Middle East and providing excellent coverage of the Paris air show - exclusively for ArabianBusiness.com. Commercially, ITP Digital ended the half with a record revenue month, led by TimeOutDubai.com's stellar sales performance. Stuart Morgan brought to a close a superb Q2 and took TimeOutDubai.com over the $100,000 for the first time, its highest monthly revenue to date – by a margin. Recognition must also go to Andrew Wingrove and Michael Smith for their contributions, and in particular to Gareth Jones, who between them contributed more than 50% of the original, shattered target. June was also the month that ArabianBusiness.com broke the $100,000 barrier. Strong contributions from Jason Bowman, Guillaume Massey and Diarmuid O'Malley meant that they did not miss out on the last month of the guaranteed commission for contributions. Meanwhile over at ITP.net, Colin Saldanha made the short transfer from IT print to join Karl Hougaard as the Web site begins preparations for its biggest, and most challenging months around Gitex Dubai. | ||
Spectrum Digital Print Solutions | ||
Spectrum welcome two newcomers this month to help strengthen our sales proposition. Print Management My thanks to the Spectrum production team for pulling several “rabbits” out of the hat this month most notably 130x 400 pp perfect bound books , files received from London at 4.30 am on a Saturday morning and delivered 11.30 pm the same day to the happy client ….In Abu Dhabi …that’s some doing ! Well done team. | ||
Production | ||
With a shortage of staff, numerous amounts of extensions and reallocating all of the Ahlan's to a new press we managed to get it all done, special mentions for the following people. | ||
Internal Vacancies | ||
Editor, ArabianBusiness.com Arabic All enquiries will be treated in the strictest confidence Editor, ITP.net All enquiries will be treated in the strictest confidence. Senior Journalist, ArabianBusiness.com ArabianBusiness.com is five months old and is already the leading source of high quality news, opinion and features for the Gulf’s business community. The successful candidate will be expected to be able to build on that success. If you think you are ready for the challenge of Internet journalism, can take flat page copy and make it a three-dimensional feature please apply, in confidence, to davidwestley@itp.com. | ||
New Staff - June 07 | ||
Clare Volland - Sales Manager, Retail News Daniel Prescott - Designer, ITP Business David Beaver - Art Editor, ITP Business Dmitry Dolzhanskiy - Photographer, ITP Business Farah Bernard - Administrative Executive, DMC George Varghese - Business Development Executive, Spectrum Jeanette Johana - Credit Controller Kashif Rehmat - SEO Specialist, ITP Digital Ladan Rahbary - Business Development Manager, Spectrum Panos Kostouros - Photographer, ITP Consumer Paul Brandist - Senior Designer, Men’s Lifestyle Sally Matthews - Fashion Assistant, Harpers Bazaar Sarah Maisey - Shopping Editor, Harpers Bazaar Ross Mackenzie - Production Co-ordinator Zeina Eid - Assistant Editor, Etihad Inflight | ||
© 2007 ITP |