Mail on Sunday backs Event mag with £3m launch

By Louise Ridley, campaignlive.co.uk, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 09:24AM

The Mail on Sunday is to replace its Live supplement with Event, a culture and celebrity-focused magazine which launches on 14 April backed by a £3m promotional campaign.

Mail on Sunday: readies launch of Event magazine

Geordie Greig, editor of the Mail on Sunday, is putting his stamp on the title a year after joining from the London Evening Standard, where he was also editor.

The 80-page Event will target men and women, an expansion of Live’s 60 pages. It will include a seven-day guide to TV and radio in a 22-page ‘Critics’ section, which replaces the review section in the main paper.

Live magazine was launched in 2005 as the male companion to You, the paper’s women’s magazine.

Event will be edited by Live’s editor, Gordon Thomson, a former editor of Sunday Times digital and Time Out London.

The supplement will retain some of Live's contents, including Piers Morgan’s column on life in Hollywood. New writers include Chris Evans on cars, Deborah Ross on TV and Tom Parker Bowles on restaurants, while the ‘Desert Island Pics’ section will showcase pictures from key moments in a celebrity’s career.

Greig told Campaign: "This is big investment and an increase in the number of pages for our readers. It’s much bigger magazine than Live in every way. It’s a modern one-stop shop for everything readers will want in today’s modern culture – film, art, TV, celebrities and interviews."

The new offering will be printed on a higher quality 55 GSM stock paper in a larger size to Live, similar in proportion to the Daily Mail’s Weekend supplement.

The launch is being supported by a £3m ad campaign by M&C Saatchi with  £2m to TV advertising and £1m on other promotions across Associated Newspapers brands such as wraps on Metro.

Rosemary Gorman, the group advertisement sales director for Mail Newspapers, said the new supplement would be an "exciting new opportunity for advertisers who want to Say It On A Sunday and interact with consumers during the most precious part of their week."

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This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk