Move Publishing, the company behind Liverpool residential property magazine, Your Move, and the city’s listings title, Go Out, is launching Move Commercial at the end of April.
The company was set up by Dave and Kim O’Brien and Fiona Barnet in 1999. The company’s principal publication is Your Move, of which over 50,000 copies are distributed free of charge every fortnight, through a network of estate agents and retail and leisure outlets.
Move also launched a what’s on/listings guide, Move Out, in 2002 although the publication has since been renamed Go Out. The guide is published quarterly and the company claims total circulation of the free title at 60,000, distributed through a variety of outlets across Merseyside.
The new publication, Move Commercial, is billed as “Liverpool’s only magazine for property professionals.” The planned size is A4 and initially a quarterly publishing schedule is envisaged.
Michael Hunt, a journalist working on the new title said “Move Commercial will contain essential information for the reader on different sectors of the market including; industrial, retail, offices, investment, leisure, regeneration, planning and transport. The magazine will also cover current events, appointments, deals, news, profiles, current trends, trading gossip, financial news and statistics.”
The initial plan is to distribute 20,000 copies of the magazine, the majority to businesses directly. However, a substantial number will also be circulated via commercial property agents in Liverpool and across the North West and also through other professional firms in the region - lawyers, accountants, insurance agents and other intermediaries. Move is also planning to mail the magazine to selected property professionals nationwide.
The company is quoting an ad rate of £1500 for a colour page although it is understood that launch discounts are generally available.
The commercial property market in Liverpool is currently targeted by the two national trade titles Estates Gazette and Property Week, the Daily Post with its daily and weekly coverage and by Insider magazine.
Chris Hennessy, a director with property agents CBRE in Liverpool said his agency has no current plans to advertise in the new title but added that they would be keeping a close eye on its progress, particularly as there is “Considerable interest in and awareness of Your Move in Liverpool. If it becomes anything like the residential title which is essentially in your face wherever you turn, then that’s got to be good for the future of the magazine and indeed for Liverpool.”
Questioned as to whether there is sufficient demand in Liverpool, Hennessy is less certain, as he notes that the market is still “relatively small”.
However Dougal Paver of PR agency Paver Smith is adamant the time is right for the new title. “Just three or four years ago they may have struggled” he says “But the commercial lettings market is much stronger in the city and beyond the traditional central core.” He also believes that Liverpool’s office market is driven to a much greater extent by ‘internal’ (local) demand than it is in other large regional cities.
Paver adds that the annual uptake of commercial space on Merseyside has risen sharply in recent years, from the less than 200,000 sq ft of just a few years ago to a forecast 500,000 sq ft in 2007 (2006 – 430,000 sq ft).
Move Publishing is also taking the brand into new areas including, naturally enough, events. Their two key events are the business-focused Merseyside Property Awards (held in September) while this January the company staged its second consumer-led property show, Your Move Live.
Paver notes that Your Move’s launch seven years ago essentially decimated the Echo’s residential property market which, he says, is only now beginning to recover. “There’s a lot of loyalty out there to Move” he says “I think they’ll do very well.”
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