E-News for the travel industry
July 2008

Welcome to our first bi-monthly trade newsletter which aims to highlight the many ways we can help you get your product booked by more families across Australia.

For 12 years now, Holidays with Kids magazine has remained the leading authority in Australia on family travel and 2008 is our biggest year yet, with our magazine now being released quarterly for the first time instead of twice-yearly.

Strong growth in the family holiday market meant our previous two issues a year were bursting at the seams. But despite moving to quarterly editions and our intentions of restricting the number of pages, our latest issue was our biggest ever - a bumper 212-page publication that just grew and grew.

There has been much talk in the media about the effects of rising interest, food and fuel costs on the family holiday budget but the desire for Australian families to spend quality time away with their kids as often as they can remains strong.

As you'll see below, the distribution of Holidays with Kids magazine has grown dramatically, with readership now well beyond 600,000 for each issue. We are by far the most read travel magazine in Australia.

As your committed partners in the family holiday industry, we hope you find our new regular news bulletins helpful in the planning of your marketing activities and we look forward to supporting you in the growth of your business throughout the rest of 2008 and beyond.

Cathy Wagstaff
Editor and Publisher
Holidays with Kids magazine

We're Everywhere!

Just like children spread their toys everywhere, the distribution of Holidays with Kids magazine is now more far-reaching than ever before, with some exciting news to announce:

We're taking off!

We're very excited to announce that Holidays with Kids magazine is now available in Virgin Blue lounges across Australia and on every outbound flight for Garuda - the only non-airline magazine aboard their aircraft.

And from September 2008, Holidays with Kids magazine will also be available onboard all outbound flights for Emirates from each of the airline's Australian ports.

And - to top it all off - our magazine has been selected for the first time by US distributors, Barnes and Noble, for sale in the USA.

Our aim is to get Holidays with Kids into high traffic places where frequent travellers with higher disposable income will see your product. Not only are more people now reading our magazine but more of the right sort of people are picking it up - parents keen to book a family holiday in Australia or overseas. Check out the full and growing distribution list at the end of this newsletter to see where our magazine is now available.

Holidays with Kids is, officially, the biggest circulating travel magazine in Australia that reaches both consumers and travel agents, and the only family travel magazine in Australia audited by CAB (visit www.auditbureau.org.au and select 'who are the members of CAB' for an up-to-date list of all CAB audited publications).

Get Holidays with Kids for just $1.80!

If you'd like to give your valued customers a free copy of Holidays with Kids magazine, we have a great bulk purchase deal which provides you with a box of 28 magazines for just $50 - that's about $1.80 a copy, or an amazing 75% off the magazine's retail price.

Many of our industry partners, including 50 Travel with Kidz travel agencies across Australia, are already providing copies to customers.

Bulk copies of the magazine are also available as part of many of our advertising packages. To order magazines as a distribution partner, contact us today on 02 9410 2555 or by email: admin@signaturemedia.com.au.

Inaugural Ski Magazine a Snowballing Success

Two months ago, in May 2008, we launched our very first Ski and Snowboard edition of Holidays with Kids magazine and we were snowed under by the positive feedback we received!

This big 100-page 'flip' publication, attached to our normal autumn issue, was the first ski magazine focusing on families ever published in Australia and, possibly, the world. Strong support by the industry and media and glowing comments from consumers and advertisers showed us there was an untapped niche for a family-oriented snow holiday magazine.

So from 2009, our Ski and Snowboard edition will be an annual stand-alone magazine. Which means we will be publishing five times a year (unlike our children, we don't sleep at Holidays with Kids!).

If you'd like more information about our next ski edition in 2009, contact us on 02 9410 2555 or by email admin@signaturemedia.com.au

ET Finds 'Space' for Holidays with Kids

Rugby league legend and TV star Andrew Ettingshausen - or ET - as he is popularly known - is set to become the latest celebrity to become an ambassador for Holidays with Kids magazine.

The former Cronulla Sharks player and father of four fronts his very popular TV fishing, outdoor lifestyle and travel show, 'Escape with ET', which is screened nationally on Channel Ten. ET will become a celebrity reporter for the magazine and help generate more publicity for the publication. Cross-promotions with Andrew's TV show will significantly boost exposure for the magazine and build subscriptions.

ET will join current ambassadors Symantha and Kieren Perkins who write for the magazine and help lift the profile of Holiday with Kids and your brand in the public domain. The Perkins family are in Broome at the moment on assignment for Holidays with Kids.

Holidays with Kids in the Headlines

Holidays with Kids magazine’s success as Australia’s top authority and source of information for family holidays continues to grow as our profile expands.

Our new pro-active public relations program has generated considerable press for the magazine as well as numerous radio segments and multiple stories on Channel Nine’s top-rating Getaway program.

Recent stories on the magazine, our top 10 awards and special offers and promotions offered by our industry partners have appeared recently in scores of publications including the Sun Herald, Courier Mail, New Idea, Real Living magazine, House and Garden magazine, Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times in Perth, Sunday Mail in Adelaide and Brisbane and the West Australian.

And we have also launched a great 12-month subscription campaign with NRMA’s Open Road magazine in NSW, which is read by more than one million people. Double-page spreads in each issue will significantly boost subscriptions for our magazine and increase readership.

More great publicity is on the way which helps all our advertisers extend their reach and gain the maximum value from their spend with us. And if you’d like to be part of our PR program via prizes, deals or special offers, please contact our PR representative, Andrew Mevissen, on 0431 883 057 or amev@bigpond.net.au

*To see more of our recent publicity, click here

Meet the Team

Mitch has the Itch to Help You get the Right Pitch!

We welcome Mitch to our talented team of friendly, committed and hard-working staff at Holidays for Kids magazine. Mitch is a young advertising executive eager to help you stitch up a marketing package that both meets your budget and aims to exceed your expectations in terms of customer bookings.

"My chief aim is to help the magazine's clients achieve strong, effective and affordable exposure that works for them," explained Mitch.

When not helping advertisers, Mitch enjoys socialising with friends, travelling and investing in the stock market
(ask Mitch for some tips!).

Special Advertising Offers with the Leader in family Travel

Contact us today for a range of cost-effective advertising packages that offer you access to more families ready to travel than any other publication in Australia.

Book a schedule over four issues of Holidays with Kids and you will receive free exposure on our very popular website holidayswithkids.com.au, which scores 4.2 million hits and 840,000 page views per month, with 33,000 online members.

Take advantage of our unbeatable reach in the family market and the online and PR campaigns that stretch your dollar even further.

We are about to launch an exciting new consumer newsletter, which will be mailed monthly to our huge and growing database.

For information about advertising in this newsletter or our affordable web and magazine combo packages, ring us on 02 9410 2555 or email us at admin@signaturemedia.com.au

When should we publish? Our readers tell us!

Our readers and online members have overwhelmingly told us they want to read Holidays with Kids soon after each school holiday period so they have enough time to plan for the next school holidays.

We asked readers and online members in an extensive survey if they preferred seeing a new quarterly edition of the magazine six weeks before school holidays, 2-4 weeks before school holidays or after each set of holidays and 86% of respondents chose the last option.

We sincerely value reader feedback so all future editions of Holidays with Kids will appear soon after each set of school holidays. Parents today are busier than ever so they obviously appreciate time up their rolled up sleeves to plan for their next trip.

Next Issues

The deadline for material in our next issue, out in early August, is fast approaching. This edition will focus on a range of winter escapes around Australia and overseas. Subsequent editions of Holidays with Kids magazine will be released in October and January, 2009.

To contact us about our upcoming issues, ring us today on 02 9410 2555 or email us at admin@signaturemedia.com.au

What our advertising partners are saying: