Issue 18 is now available from our current outlets and also available as a PDF download here.

Our latest rate card for 2008/2009 is now available for download as a 4 page, 600KB, PDF here.

Press Release
For Immediate Release
August 15, 2006

It was a risky dream two years ago when the Sydney-based music industry publishing team at IMMEDIA! introduced the new concept of a free, quarterly upmarket cross-pet publication into the Australian pet market, but 44 page, tabloid size 'Urban Animal' magazine is now a huge success. They plan to launch interstate, starting with Melbourne in 2007.

Publisher Phil Tripp and partner Editor Lisa Treen work out of a home office in Newtown with a staff of four humans, a pair of exotic parrots flying around the desks and Dalmatians dancing through it. They've had a hugely successful, 18 year-running music industry directory in print and online but decided to start a free consumer pet magazine-much like music street press in all major cities-after having seen one in New Orleans while on holiday in early 2004. Their logic was that pets, like music, are entertainment, but in a vastly growing market.

Knowing that there were no cross-pet magazines in Australia-just a few dog titles, a bird aviculture publication and no real cat, fish or other species-specific mags-they decided to take a $50,000 punt to create a new magazine that featured furred, feathered, finned, scaly and other pets. Their timing was perfect as it has grown immensely since launching in October 2004, matched by a huge increase of sales in the pet industry itself-from $3 billion then to $4.2 billion now. Because they are cross-pet, they attract a broad range of advertisers and readership.

Distributed free at pet stores, vets, groomers, boarding kennels, aquarium shops, pet friendly cafes, pet events & many other pet businesses in the Sydney region, they have expanded from 200 outlets when they started, to over 400 now as pet lovers and businesses embraced the magazine. Urban Animal also tripled its advertising base from a mere 17 in its first issue (six pages out of 32) to 55 in its present August 15-November 14 mag (18 pages out of 44). They print 40,000 copies, full colour gloss in Sydney for fast turnaround and better quality control, rather than cheaply offshore.

As Tripp analyses, "We didn't invent the media--we know of over 30 urban free pet publications in the US and Canada alone--we simply pioneered the concept here, but with a twist. We published the entire magazine on the Internet as PDFs at the same time we personally met our first 200 outlets as my partner and I drove our own deliveries with our first issue of 40,000 copies." It was that personal touch that overcame retailer suspicion and also started getting the publication known by major pet brands whose reps kept finding it everywhere. "We expanded our pawprint North to Newcastle, West to Katoomba and South to Wollongong, created in-store dispensers and displays, and kept our policy of no advertorials, no discounting on ads, no pet junk food products, no breeder ads and no ads for products that can harm or cause pain to animals. Keeping to those principles kept us clean."

It also meant Urban Animal was well established when the new breed of designer dog magazines hit the newsstands at $8.50 to $8.80, hoping to emulate the success of over-the-top overseas titles that pander to rich, indulgent, American upmarket dog owners. "We knew people would grab a free credible magazine at a reliable pet business and we also knew Australians weren't as celebrity-crazed and dog-decadent as the Yanks." Tripp continues. "Most newsstand pet magazines are so blatantly advertorial that consumers don't trust them and are so expensive that they're too often left behind on the racks as families contend with mortgage increases, petrol cost, etc."

Urban Animal has also attracted over 500 paid subscribers and their website at http://www.urbananimal.net gets massive traffic from readers in Australia and overseas. With its success in Sydney, plans to take the concept to Melbourne are being drawn up with a sharing of editorial and major advertisers but still giving local flavour for smaller businesses to invest. As Tripp concludes, "It's a concept that has legs--at least four--& we don't have to beg!"

For a sample copies, cover images, photos or interviews, contact Michelle Padovan at IMMEDIA! Public Relations
Email michelle@immedia.com.au, Phone (02) 9557 7766. Visit our website at http://www.urbananimal.net