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Thursday, 16 April 2009 15:24 |
Holyrood magazine is Scotland’s leading political and current affairs magazine designed entirely with the purpose of reaching Scotland’s key movers and shakers with its award winning and thought provoking editorial.
The magazine is read by the country’s key legislators and is distributed to all Scottish parliamentarians, civil servants, Scottish Government agencies, political parties, all 32 local authority chief executives as well as individual departments within the councils, trade unions, health boards and trusts, educational organisations, voluntary organisations and non-governmental bodies. It is also read by government and public affairs executives throughout Britain and frequently quoted within the Scottish Parliament as a source of reliable information and political debate.
Using a mix of controlled free circulation, primarily targeting the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Government, local authorities and Scottish representatives at Westminster and Brussels we ensure that we are one of the most well-read magazines amongst the country’s body politic. Holyrood magazine is the most widely read publication amongst MSPs, according to independent research by IPOS Mori, while also reaching a range of commercial, academic and voluntary organisations across the UK.
Elected Members of the Scottish Parliament and Scotland’s Local Authorities, civil servants and officials don’t always agree but when it comes to reading Holyrood magazine almost 30 per cent of our readers perceive it to be of greater influence than any daily newspaper - 63 per cent believe that the magazine is either essential reading throughout or offering something unique while 32 percent read articles and features relevant to their areas of interest. As a privately owned commercial company, all funding for Holyrood magazine comes from sales revenue – principally from advertising sales and subscription income, and through our successful range of policy conferences, all of which tie in closely with the issues raised and discussed in the magazine, giving delegates the opportunity to consider a specific topic in greater detail. Crucially, Holyrood Communications, the publisher of the acclaimed magazine is financially and editorially independent of any other organization which allows for freethinking and true debate.
During the last two years there has been a period of unprecedented political turbulence both in Scotland and at Westminster which Holyrood magazine has been at the forefront of responding with a fresh design and a rethink of how to cover and present the key needs and demands of our particular readership. As other media has drowned in the political confusion, Holyrood magazine has remained focused on what its readers required; old fashioned journalism that reports on the business of parliament, insightful features which provoke debate and inform policy makers, in-depth political interviews which offer a unique insight into the person behind the politics and a stand alone Tracker section which reports on the day to day timetable within the Scottish Parliament. We also cover fringe events at political party conferences filling a gap in political coverage within the mainstream media which is normally restricted to reporting on the big name speeches. This has contributed enormously to wider political debate in Scotland.
The editorial team has also responded to the thirst for more specialist knowledge with the regular production of Holyrood supplements which satisfy the more in-depth knowledge required by particular constituents of the readership such as those involved in education; local government and health. Again, in response to the needs of readers, the magazine has refocused some of its editorial and dedicated pages to each ministerial portfolio along with an increased parliamentary legislative tracking section which allows readers to keep up-to-date with how legislation is proceeding and also have an at-a-glance view of what is being discussed in the Parliament and finally broadened out the editorial content to be less Scottish Parliament centric to reflect the wider constitutional debate. All of these changes were made to satisfy the demands of the magazine’s audience and were all implemented without prejudice to existing quality of editorial content. Indeed, the 10th anniversary years of the Scottish Parliament has also been a seminal year for the magazine and illustrated that without doubt it is a publication that can easily adapt to changing requirements.
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