[PICA Awards] Are the Picas at risk?
By Louise Marsland in Marketing, Media24, PICA Awards | 3 comments
In a critical year for the magazine publishing industry, the prestigious Mondi/Magazine Publishing Awards (MPASA) were merged with the MPASA Pica awards for magazine publishing excellence. The new awards, sponsored by Sappi and other new sponsors, have been revitalised and rebranded, retaining the name Pica, but with streamlined categories according to international standards.
As an industry editor who was part of the rebranding and merger exercise on the Pica Awards committee this year, I can tell you that we looked at content excellence, excellence in publishing, the integrity of the process and how a magazine brand is built. And the first criterion? Does the magazine entered have an ABC certificate?
An ABC certificate verifies a magazine’s circulation; it provides credibility. It’s the measurement that media directors and clients, the marketers, the advertisers use, when deciding where to put their money.
We should be grateful, as one media director put it to me, that the ABC processes and Media24 processes in place do work and that these irregularities affecting some of our best-loved and most prominent media titles were picked up and made public. That there was no cover up.
But nonetheless, it leaves a stench in the industry. The judging for the Pica awards started this week. One has to wonder if further Media24 titles are affected after the news that the Touchline media division may also be infected and that there are senior resignations in this regard. That could mean that further titles are withdrawn from the Pica’s.
What a sad sham that will be in a year when the industry has come together to celebrate magazine journalism and publishing excellence, extended the brand into a publishing conference with international magazine luminaries coming and a whole advocacy programme, sponsored by Sappi, to promote magazine publishing as a medium.
Those I feel the sorriest for are the journalists and editors who uphold the ethical standards of journalism and reporting within their excellent publications and have little or nothing to do with signing off ABC certificates or any of the admin that goes into distribution.
One hopes that there will be complete transparency in this whole media mess, so that the industry can once again hold its head up high among advertisers and clients and their peers.
One also wonders if the sponsors for the Picas will stay the distance. The ball’s in the ABC’s court.
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Neill Thompson | Oct 4, 2007 | Reply
Everyone affected needs to separate reality from sensationalism. Everyone affected is everyone who hears about this unfortunate event, from media directors, to planners, to readers.
We all need to realise that this is the result of a few individuals, and not the entire industry, nor the PICA Awards contenders, nor even the staff of the handful of magazines to which we refer.
A few individuals who work for a few (let’s face it, we are talking 12 magazines out of hundreds of available titles.) Read this as ‘there are thousands of media staff who have done nothing wrong’.
Let’s celebrate the rest of the industry and enjoy the PICA Awards. Let’s enjoy our magazines and the high quality editorial content. Let’s allow the ABC to conclude their findings.
Let’s not have the media at war with itself - the ultimate losers will be our readers - the very supporters of our profession.
I take my hat off to Media24’s handling of this and wish them all the best and a speedy recovery once they are able to rid themselves of the ‘rot’.
Rory Macnamara | Oct 15, 2007 | Reply
Perhaps editors should sign off the ABC certificate together with the publisher. This used to be the case years ago.One other thing that the ABCthrew out, now in hindsite proved to be wrong. It makes sense as the editor/journalists are the ones creating the readers interest.It also serves as a double check against unscrupulous publishers! Perhaps what is also needed is the BPA (opposition to ABC in most countries of the world)to come to SA and create an effective opposition to the ABC. At least this will avoid their (ABC)spluttering and incompetent response to Chris moerdyk’s correct comment.
As for the PICA’s they lost credibility some time ago when publishers started manipulating the categories. When I started the PICA’s with the help of the Marketing and Agency/PR sector no more than two publishers were on the committee just to avoid the manipulation that subsequently took place. Indeed an effort has been made to right this wrong this year and the MPA deserves credit for that.The Media 24 saga will not affect the awards, the industry did that themselves! Hopefully, from this year we will see an honest attempt to bring the PICA’s back to the high standard they used to enjoy and bring back some recognition to the trade, technical and profesional publications for which the PICA’s were established.
Louise Marsland | Oct 15, 2007 | Reply
Rory, you make a lot of sense. No doubt the ABC, particularly the current Board, needs to do some serious navel gazing to regain the trust of the industry, as does the MPASA and the Pica Awards.
As someone who sat on the Pica Board this year, it is all our fervent hope that the rebranding and refocussed awards will be a huge success and reward all the editors, journalists and publishers who have produced excellent work.
There’s a conference for the first time this year to elevate the profile of magazine publishing and look at the issues in the marketplace.