ARMEDIA took over the management of Community Child Care Co-operative’s Rattler magazine in 1999, and transformed the magazine into an award-winning and successful publication.

ARMEDIA is proud to be associated with Community Child Care Co-operative, and we have produced the quarterly Rattler magazine since late 1999.

The problem

Rattler has been the flagship publication of the community-based children’s services sector since 1987 but, although the magazine contained high-quality material, it looked a tired and old publication.

The organisation was overstretched with its workload, and staff simply didn’t have the time to oversee the production. The magazine was running at a loss and, although Community Child Care would always ensure the magazine would be published, it was subsidising the cost of publishing, drawing on the financial resources of the organisation.

Rattler was usually released past its deadlines, the writing, design, production and printing was outsourced to different service providers, typographical errors came through in the final printing, photographs were too dark.

Instead of being joy to publish, Rattler had become an onerous production, and staff dreaded the looming deadline.

ARMEDIA proposes the solution

In 1999, ARMEDIA proposed to take responsibility for the research, writing, design, advertising and printing of Rattler, and established an editorial committee as a link between Community Child Care and ARMEDIA.

This enabled the staff at Community Child Care to focus on their core tasks – representing the interests of community-based children’s services throughout NSW, and specialising in early childhood education.

ARMEDIA, with it’s professional background in journalism and expertise in publishing, managed to find ways to reduce costs, and streamline the production process.

The results

  • Lower costs
  • Since the time it was outsourced to ARMEDIA, the cost for producing Rattler in 2007 is still lower than the cost in 1999, under the previous arrangements.
  • Increase in subscriptions
  • Since our first issue in early 2000 (Rattler No.53), subscriptions have increased from 1,100 in 1999, to 1,600 in 2007– the selling price of Rattler is $12, so this represents an improvement of $7,200 in the value of subscriptions per issue.
  • Increase in advertising revenue
  • Advertising revenue during this time has improved from $900 per issue to $1,800.
  • Professional recognition
  • ARMEDIA has taken Rattler from being a black-and-white publication, to an award-winning full-colour magazine. In 2005 and 2006, Rattler was awarded the Best Business-to-Business Graphic Design, and High Commendations for Best Cover Design, and Best Custom Publishing Magazine from Publishers Australia.
  • Increased revenue source for Community Child Care
  • In 1999, Rattler was a loss-running publication that Community Child Care was subsidising – it now provides a constant revenue source that can be directed towards other activities within the organisation, and means that Community Child Care can focus on it core functions.

Summary

ARMEDIA provided a one-stop-shop solution to Community Child Care, resulting in a better and more-professional publication.

Could the success of this Case Study be applied to any of your publications?

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