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locallives
Freshbrook Parish of West Swindon
Under pressure Evangelical & The Lydiards
Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, URC
in the magazine market Church All Saints, L. Millicent (10.30am) (for
Worsley Road the village) &
We meet Martin Parrott from Westlea who buys magazines St. Mary's, L.Tregoze (10.30am)
Will give YOU (for Freshbrook & Grange Park)
Budget day at the end of November always pushing him to buy their a warm welcome Rev. Rob Buries 870244
is a long time ago, but an enormous new titles for the retailers. But the Sunday lOam Family Praise with Holy Trinity, Shaw (10.30am)
sigh of relief rippled through the retailer only wants the best sellers. children's Covenanter Movement Rev. Andrew Hethrington 770568
magazine and newspaper publish- Well known magazines do well and & creche Tooth ill Church (10.45am)
mgindustiy when the threat of VAT they only want the best new titles. 6.30pm Evening Worship and Rev. George Gibson 692620
on publications was lifted. A loss of However Martin cannot tell pre- Communion (also free church minister for parish)
over 1,000 titles and 5,000 jobs na- cisely which ones people will buy. Westlea Church (lOam)
tionwide was predicted if the tax If it sells, he won't have bought For details of mid-week meetings, Rev Peter Walker 872932
had been imposed. enough. But if people are not at- house groups and other Parish-wide:
activities, telephone the Rev. Ruth Walker 872932
" Church Office, Tel: 873050 Evening & other services as announced

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It allowed publishers to get back tracted by a magazine, then he will No Garage Prices or Waiting
to the ferocious competition in the have bought too many. No VAT to pay Please Telephone
battle to retain and attract readers to His purchasing decisions are of- Tel: 526656 or 827804
their titles. In the middle of the war ten influenced by the amount of ra- 876211 ANYTIME
locally is MartinParrott who is maga- dio and TV advertising a publisher
zine sales manager for'MS Group. plans to putbehind a new title. Other
He's responsible for purchasing promotions such as free gifts and
magazines for distribution in a 17 special offers also help launch a
mile radius around Swindon. Daily magazine.
he tries to balance the demands of "The magazine market is highly
publishers to get their new maga- segmented with several titles bat-
zines in front of the public and the tling it out in each area," said Mar-
needs of retailers to have the popu- tin. "Gardening titles were dormant
lar sure selling magazines on their until the BBC brought theirs out a
shelves. couple of years ago, then they all ERMIN
Martin often finds himself mak- improved to keep up. Food maga-
ing decisions about stocking new zines sell in fits and starts depend- WINDOWS
magazines two or three months be- ing on the time of the year, the com-
fore they are due to arrive. Often its puter market is clogged, car maga-
a case of using his mental crystalball zine sales are fairly constant, whilst For Conservatories and windows in uPVC
developed over years of buying ex- the women's market is up and down.
perience. The launch of Bella and Prima from or aluminium with hardwood surround
"Who said there's been a reces- Germany a few years back gave Brit- -
sion over the last three years," says ish publishers a big jolt and they've
Martin. "Publishers have been very had to improve their products to
active bringing out new magazines keep their readers."
to retain their share of the market In spite of the growing attractions
and to try and attract new readers of multi-channel cable and satellite
from other publications. TV, Martin believes that the written
"Apart from regular readers, there word has a healthy future. Like so
is a huge floating readership in dif- many of us he reads whilst the TV is
ferent sections of the market; the on. It's the only time he has to look
buying public are very fickle. The at theproducts hedeals withallday.
cover has to be striking to attract When not trying to predict what
people to pick it up; it's well known magazine the public will buy in two
that a photo of Princess Diana will orthree months time, Martin's cur-
help sales. The more specialist a rentpassionis restoringold cars. He Call Brian Smith on Swindon 824419
market such as computing, the more hopes to complete a Morris 1,000
likely a new title will pick up first Traveller in a few months which or Roy Wellington on
time readers to try it out." will be used as a delivery car for Faringdon (0367) 242080
Being in the middle of all this Blooms the Florist, the shop his wife
frantic activity puts Martin in a no Shirley opened in Westcott Place Ermin Windows, 87a Ermin St., Stratton St. Margaret, Swindon
win situation. The publishers are five years ago.