A Message of Support to our Universal Media Co
Advertising Partners

In light of the unprecedented global emergency caused by the COVID-19 virus, we wanted to share some important information with you about the steps we are taking to support our staff, valued clients and media brands during this time. The below has been thoughtfully implemented to enable our business to run as usual and to give you access to our strong audiences – as your business needs them.

Business As Usual:

Our first priority has been to our staff, who now all work safely from home, ensuring that should stronger isolation measures be implemented, our teams are already operational from home and prepared.

This means we can assure you that all of our magazines and other media products will publish and run as scheduled.

• Our niche magazines that appeal to our readers’ greatest passions and interests will also start to address their current concerns and needs to ensure our editorial environment and the brands we present stay useful and indispensable to our audiences.
• Our social, email and website media products now communicate in real-time to maintain meaningful conversations with the communities they serve.

As a media company, we are motivated to keep producing quality content that readers trust, and embrace the important role we now play in keeping special-interest communities together. We are connecting them to their passions and reducing the challenges of isolation.

Audience and Sales Channels:

All of our audience and retail channels remain strong and running:

1. Digital communications: Like many publishers, we are experiencing higher levels of online engagement at this time. This particularly applies to website traffic, email open rates, eCommerce and social media.
2. Supermarket, newsagent and convenience store supply continues: While airport sales have reduced and supermarket sales have dramatically increased, primary newsagent sales remain steady, with good results from regional areas and diverse news plus businesses. Fortunately, newsagents are also likely to be considered an ‘essential service’ should further lockdowns take place.
3. Subscriptions and online direct sales: This is the primary channel for many of our readers and all subscribers will continue to be serviced. Some of our carriers have reduced delivery days so we have escalated communications to ensure expectations for delivery are set and met.
4. Digital edition sales continue: There has been an increase of activity via Apple News Plus and all other channels remain stable.

Media Sales Consultations and Operations:

Our media sales consultants are some of the most creative and informed marketers in the industry. They will continue to be available to you so that we can help our clients plan for the new work-from-home, self-isolation and coming growth periods. We are, however, moving to more phone- and teleconference-style operations.

Fundamentally we remain here and available to help businesses communicate and build pipelines for future business and sales. While we know that things will get worse before they get better, it is imperative that we all still plan.

This is routine for long-term businesses such as education marketers planning for 2021 enrolments, or home renovation/construction businesses that might be working with a customer nine months before purchase. It may be less crucial for other businesses that work to a more short-term pathway to purchase. In either case, we are here to help.

In this period, we have already helped many businesses build marketing programs around eCommerce, or transfer focus from bricks and mortar retail to web. In 2019, 40% of our marketing programs were digital – this makes Universal Media Co bigger than most digital agencies.

Many of the sectors we work with have seen cancellation of major events, but we are well placed through magazines, e-newsletters, websites and social media to keep your important marketing messages alive. The inbox is now the pre-eminent channel to reach buyers and if you haven’t yet gone ‘digital’ – now is the time!

Plan and Prepare, the Emergence Period Will Come:

While these are unprecedented times for us all, it is natural that all businesses must plan and prepare for a downturn. We must all also plan and prepare for the upswing when markets start to re-emerge. The challenges that we are all facing now are significant, but won’t be forever.

Please continue to stay in touch with your sales consultants, editors and online producers at Universal Media Co. We remain committed to working with you and to providing you with ongoing support during this period.

We wish you and your teams (and families) all the very best in navigating safely and successfully through the coming few months of uncertainty, and we are here to assist you come out the other end with some new business opportunities to help drive your business recovery.

Our Management Team Is Available:

• Janice Williams Publisher – 02 9887 0316
• Martin White Commercial Manager – 02 9887 0642
• Marcus Hucker Associate Publisher – 02 9887 0310
• Emma Perera – 02 9887 0387