A group of publishers concerned about the Government’s plans to put its public sector information and recruitment advertising online, threatening magazines and newspaper supplements that rely on the revenue, met for the first time last week.
The Industry Action Group, set up by The Digital Content Forum, agreed that it would support trade bodies lobbying against the Government’s plans to move its advertising to state-owned outlets. It would also work to increase awareness of the plans and their potential damage to existing publications and develop arguments for Govern-ment consideration.
There are 2,500 publications linked to the public sector and several of the country’s biggest trade and professional titles, such as Nursing Times, Nature and The New Scientist, could be threatened by the plans.
The Periodical Publishers Assoc-iation is pooling information from publishers and the IAG is to meet again next month.
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