Consumer awareness a big, outstanding challenge

Ron Sellwood is one of the many sensible voices in the magazine industry. The president of the Circulation Management Association of Canada wrote a letter to his members in a special issue of The Circulator keyed to the MagNet magazine publishing conference, being held this week at 89 Chestnut Street in Toronto.

One of the industry's biggest challenges, he says, is that while the industry recognizes that it is "a big team effort", the improvements that the industry is making, in data collection, in integrating all the aspects of publishing from creation to distribution, most of this is little appreciated by the consumer:

Not to be too pessimistic, it seems obvious to me that, if the magazine industry is to survive, our job as industry professionals is to bring back the hidden member of our team, to get the buyer back on the bus, once and for all."