The Race Is On.

Given that the feature I am working on at the moment is looking at the way lavish magazines can make their websites cutting edge, which usually means interactive, whilst retaining their product identity, Kim Hollamby's lecture to us this week was very interesting. (Oh dear that was a very long sentence. I ought to know better.)

Mr Hollamby is head of Electronic Media at IPC and thus he knows all about websites and that. However, more importantly, he also knows all about magazines and how they depend on their strong brand identity to retain their readership. Thus he pointed out how dangerous entering into online is for magazines. They have so much to lose if they get it wrong.

However, Hollamby had the statistics at his fingertips that show how important websites are to established magazines. "68% of readers use the magazine and the website and 54% of readers visited the website because they read the magazine," he said.

Thus these glossies really do have to get their acts together.

I am pleased to see then that my feature is relevant and newsworthy even if I did need someone else to make me aware of that fact.