Focus Magazine

History of The Company

LIBERIS PUBLICATIONS S.A. was founded in its current legal status on the 2.6.1986 (Official Gazette 2324/11.6.86 S.A.s and LTDs Issue) by Antonios Liberis, with the goal of becoming involved in the sector of publications and presswork.

In the course of all these years, the company has had a spectacular development, dynamically moving in the sector of publications, launching new and successful magazines that conquered the top ranks amongst their competitors. In addition, by concluding strategic alliances with large foreign companies of the sector, the most noteworthy of which being the participation of the Groupe Edipresse, the Swiss publishing group in the share capital of the company since 1998, and by founding or acquiring shares in new or well-established companies in this market, this company has fortified it position in the Greek publishing market and now expands its activities in new sectors.

Today, it is one of the largest publishing companies in Greece, chartered in the stock exchange and heading a group of 2 companies (Mother company and Libecom S.A.). This group employs in total approximately 400 employees, with activities covering a broad spectrum in the media field, from the publishing sector - where it holds a leading position with 24 publications in the Greek market.

In addition, the company holds 50% of DESMI PUBLISHING S.A., a company with experience in the field of publications and 10.05% of the daily and periodic press distribution company ARGOS S.A.

In March 2000, the second international collaboration of LIBERIS PUBLICATIONS with GRUNER UND JAHR/MONDADORI publishing houses was put into effect with the publication of the scientific magazine FOCUS. This magazine aspires to make the reader become more involved in issues of science, technology, the environment, as well as historical issues. The way, in which all the topics are presented, in conjunction with impressive graphics and photos, has made this magazine not only impressive, but also easy to understand.

Environmental analysis

Marketing environment

Doing a brief environmental analysis we have to examine the 6 basic forces that affect the environment

Ð'* Political forces

Due to the fact that the specific magazine doesn’t have any political articles with the only exception towards its tendency to protect the environment is not affected by political forces in Greece.

Ð'* Legal forces

There aren’t any real limitations that affect this specific magazine especially due to the fact that European legislation is currently stronger than the national one as we observed after the last periods legal adventures

Ð'* Regulatory forces

Regulatory forces are quite relaxed in Greece for mass media, newspapers and magazines.

Ð'* Social forces

The last 15 years we observed a drastic turn on social preferences towards scientific magazines that are targeted in individuals that are seeking new scientific knowledge without being experts themselves.

One of the first newcomers in the Greek market was the “focus” magazine. Being the first in this market they took the biggest market share, by introducing a simple and interesting approach to scientific evolution for scientific and non-scientific readers.

Ð'* Economic and competition forces

The economic growth that the country experienced the last decade gave the advantage to increase spending on scientific magazines from the consumers.

The stable pricing policy and the high quality of the information that “focus” offered to the public created a loyal consuming force. Last couple of year’s recession didn’t have any drastic effect on sales due to the fact that the target market is mainly based on educated middle to upper class consumers.

On the other hand competitive forces changed drastically the last year. Newcomers in the market like the “science” magazine are creating a threat to the dominance position of “Focus”. The basic advantage to face this threat is the big variety of topics that “Focus” covers and the more scientific image that the “science” magazine is using on its marketing strategy up to now. Another diversified though competitor is “National Geographic” which covers a narrowed area of topics.

Ð'* Technological forces

Technological changes are extremely fast in the 21st century and although Ð'«FocusÐ'» is not a purely technological magazine give enough information to its readers helping them stay on top on new products and new technologies. Since adaptation in the new environment and access on state of art information in essential to the 21st century homo digital

Target markets - Market Objectives

The “Focus” magazine is well positioned in the Greek market. The target market is as following:

Ð'* Males - Females (15 - 45)

Ð'* Medium upper class

Ð'* Medium to higher educational level

Ð'* Young Professionals

Ð'* Living in major cities

More than 78% of the sales are coming from this market segment. The rest 22% are mostly younger or older readers with lower to medium educational level belonging to a lower to medium social class that have a tendency and an interest in accumulating new information on science and technology.

The target market has an approximate size of (170000 – 230000 potential readers), the “focus” magazine has a target of 4% increasing sales annually and 6% increase monthly repurchase.

Swot Analysis

Strengths

Ð'* Big market share

Ð'* Strong brand name

o “Focus” is a magazine that is published in many countries around the world. This is synonymous to the credibility and the ingenuity.

Ð'* Loyal

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