KIRKMAN ON ... PUBLISHING COMPANIES.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

The new world order has demanded reappraisal of traditional publishing businesses as companies such as IPC and Emap begin to tag themselves as content providers in a bid to enhance their value.

This is not a lie: magazine publishers boast yards of content and have built many strong brands, but the basis of their business remains advertising. The content that allows FHM to land on the doorstep with a thud is fuelled by advertising -- take that away and it cannot exist on sales alone. Without advertising there would be no content.

There have been rumours recently that both Telewest and Yahoo! have been stalking IPC and Emap. It is easy to understand the …