Female Focus


Page 33


FF - Your Magazine Female Focus Celebrates 23 Years


Twenty-three years ago this month, Frank and Jackie Laird published the very first edition of Female Focus. Since the conception of the magazine, the distribution has increased tenfold to over 40,000 copies available from over 1,000 pick-up points between Oliva and the Mar Menor. This continued growth is I am sure, due to the simple fact that Frank and Jackie were able to recognise a niche in the market, the vast untapped area of female readership. According to various studies women make 70-85% of the most important household buying decisions!


strived to support the community, and looking back at


that October 2003


‘If the consumer economy had a sex, it would be female. Women drive 70-80% of all consumer purchasing, through a combination of their buying power and influence. Influence means that even when a woman isn’t paying for something herself, she is often the influence or veto vote behind someone else’s purchase.’ Source:- www.forbes.com.


‘Women account for 85% of all consumer purchases including everything from autos to health care.’ Source:- she-conomy.com/facts-on-women


I would like to quote from a poem that was written by Frances Cregan, a local author of poetry who wrote this especially for Frank and Jackie back in 2003 when the magazine was celebrating its tenth birthday, a year after Frank passed and we as a young family took over the Female Focus.


Can you cast your mind back to nineteen ninety-three


When Female Focus first appeared Absolutely FREE, A long awaited brainchild Of Frank and Jackie Laird, They both produced a magazine When no one else dared, We’d had our local papers Written in our native tongue, But never a ladies magazine For the young and not so young, Women’s magazines from Britain Had always cost the earth, But now we had a local one That didn’t strain our purse, Sadly, now this couple are not here to share this day, For both of them in recent years Have sadly passed away, But they left us a legacy And the magazine remains, As younger members of the family Take over the reigns.


Supporting the readers. Having come though several recessions over the last 23 years we have of course seen many publications, especially magazines, come and go. At Female Focus Publications we have always


edition (unstapled and mostly in black and white as colour was so expensive), it was then, 13 years ago, that we started the free reader classifieds in Female Focus. We were the very first publication to give away adverts to readers on the Costa Blanca. No-one had ever heard of free adverts in a free publication until then!


Supporting the charities I honestly believe no free local magazine gives back more to the community than Female Focus. Just last month we once again bought a TV to raffle with all proceeds going to the MABS Cancer Care Charity raising an amazing 750€. We are doing the same again (for the third year running) for Emaús, see the facing page and page two for further information. You only have to look through this edition to see all the free space we happily give to support local charities, many of whom perhaps could not afford to advertise their events on such a large scale... imagine what 40,000 fliers would cost and then you still have to distribute them.


Thank you for making it possible As a free magazine, none of this of course would be possible without the advertisers who we rely on for their support. It is them who have propelled us forward, making us the largest, oldest English language free magazine in Spain. Many of the advertisers have been with Female Focus for more than 2 decades and their loyalty is so very much appreciated. Looking back over the last 13 years at the issue from 2003 we have many clients in today’s magazine who were in that issue and some were even in the issues from the very first year, 1993. So please support the local community by supporting the local businesses in your area. Since then of course Female Focus Publications


have expanded their


publications to now include three other magazines:- The QF Focus and The Professionals Vega Baja and Marina Alta editions, all of which have proved to be very successful and again, not possible without the loyalty of our advertisers. We also publish online at female-focus.com and have a very


useful and popular online Business Directory which gets hundreds of visitors every month.


www.female-focus.com


Of course, a big thank you must go to you the reader, who make all of the hard work worthwhile. Your lovely comments about the magazine make us very proud.


It was you in your thousands who recently voted Female Focus the third best expatriate magazine in the World, in The Ex-pat Survey Consumer Awards TESCA 2016. Female Focus came in after the Economist and Expat Living Singapore proving we are the most popular English magazine in Spain! Pretty good for a freebie!


To celebrate our 23rd year we are giving away 500€ cash to one of you. Just spot the FF logo on one of the pages inside this issue. For further information on how to enter see page 23.


Last but by no means least, my heartfelt thanks to the Female Focus team, many of whom have been part of the team for over a decade, for their continued hard work and their loyalty. Hopefully we have carried on in a way that Frank and Jackie would have been proud.


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