Sean King takes up APA chairmanship

An Association of Publishing Agencies product story

Edited by the Marketingweek Marketplace editorial team Jul 26, 2007

Sean King, director at Seven Squared, has taken over tenure as Chairman of the Association of Publishing Agencies from Jason Frost, managing director and co-founder of Publicis Blueprint.

Sean King will occupy the role until June 2008.

The customer publishing industry has grown significantly over the course of Jason Frost's two-year term as Chairman and has seen a phenomenal amount of growth and development.

The Mintel research report valued the market at almost GBP680million for 2005.

However in addition, the market has expanded with customer magazine content now being used across podcasts, in-store TV and online, to name but a few.

Last year alone saw a 16 per cent increase in the number of new titles entering the market - making spend on the medium in 2007 estimated at around GBP788m.

Frost's tenure has also seen a number of new initiatives introduced by the APA to further the customer publishing industry.

These include the introduction of APA Insight, a programme designed to boost research into and understanding of the medium; the recent inaugural Olive Creative Awards showcasing the vitality of today's titles; and APA ASK, the new business service which has already added an extra GBP30million in revenue to the industry.

Sean King, incoming APA Chairman commented: "It is a truly exciting time to be involved in the customer magazine market as the medium is invaluable part of the marketing mix for numerous brands; now many organisations are now looking to build on this engagement by diversifying their titles and extending content across other channels.

"The APA works extremely hard to represent the industry and I look forward to encouraging further developments in one of the most engaging media available to modern brands".

Julia Hutchison, COO of the APA, added: "Sean has a tough job ahead of him as industry expectations are high; over the past two years we have witnessed unparalleled growth of the medium and the APA has launched a number of new initiatives to add value to the industry.

"We look forward to working with Sean and are confident that customer publishing will continue to flourish given his wealth of understanding and expertise in the market".