In September 2002, a new title in travel retail publishing – The Moodie Report – was unveiled via a simple six-page PDF. This month we celebrate our 17th birthday, closing our 2018-19 financial year in style by posting the best results in our history.
But it’s not the financials that matter most to us. We have always been driven by the quality of our content, which, we’re pleased to say, is looking better than ever, especially with some exciting developments in the pipeline.
The Moodie Davitt Report (we changed our name in 2015, see below) was one of travel retail’s pioneering digital players and a true disruptor of the business journalism model.
From the beginning, The Moodie Report rejected the traditional high subscription fee, print magazine model that had dominated travel retail publishing and instead made its content available to all under the tagline ‘Fast, Factual, Free’. No passwords, no padlocks, no ‘subscriber-only’ content.
Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie, who put together that first humble but content-rich PDF, pledged to change the traditional media formula. In an age where industry stakeholders had to wait for the mailman to deliver the latest industry news, The Moodie Report used the then-fledging digital media channel to take its content to the travel retail world. Top content, rapid fulfilment, maximum industry penetration were the mantras. They still are.
With former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair set to speak at the TFWA World Conference in Cannes next week, it brings The Moodie Report full circle from its first issue. The main story of that first edition was the likely invasion of Iraq by western forces, with Blair’s pivotal involvement becoming the abiding legacy of his term in office. “No question about it, war is in the air and many travel retailers are preparing for yet another drastic downturn in business,” we wrote at the time.
Six months on from the first PDF, The Moodie Report website was launched with the informal tagline ‘The website that never sleeps’ – a tagline we still take great pride in today thanks to our round-the-clock coverage and unrelenting desire to break news first but always accurately and responsibly.
Another six months on and the first print edition of The Moodie Report, then sized like Reader’s Digest, was launched in October 2003. The print edition, like the website, soon went on to become the clear commercial leader in the travel retail media market, assuming that status in 2005 and never letting it go.
In 2011, The Moodie Report eZine made its debut, a pioneering multi-media format that together with its sister title, The Moodie Report Print & Online magazine, again redefined the way travel retail media was produced and read.
The online magazine platform lent us scope to build our coverage of related airport commercial revenues. The Foodie Report, recently reborn as FAB, has given an unrivalled insight into the F&B side of airport operations since 2011. Meanwhile, Sight Lines, which launched earlier this year, explores the constantly changing world of airport advertising and communications and is already proving an editorial and commercial success.
In 2016, the magazine was rebranded as The Moodie Davitt Report to reflect the outstanding contribution of Dermot Davitt to the company. Since then, the business has seen significant investment and continues to evolve its team, its platforms and its content.
A stunning new eZine platform launched in 2018 has lent enhanced visual quality, driving the birth of the Spotlight Series, now our fastest-growing division. A new series of e-magazines each dedicated to a major launch, opening or other milestone in the travel retail world, the Spotlight Series has already covered topics as diverse as CDF-Sunrise’s new stores at Beijing Capital International Airport, Delhi Duty Free’s US$10 million upgrade and (today) P&G’s launch of New Zealand skincare brand Snowberry with Aelia Duty Free in Auckland, with many more on the way.
Heavy investment in staff, travel and technology has been key to our success. The Moodie Davitt Report now has twice as many full-time staff as any rival travel retail title, supported by the best freelancers in the business. Specialist roles include Chief Technology Officer (Matt Willey), Senior Retail and Commercial Analyst (Min Yong Jung), Events & Corporate Social Responsibility Director (Mike Oldham), Design Director (Kiran Ghattaura) and Fashion, Beauty & Social Media Editor (Hannah Tan-Gillies).
We have also sought to innovate beyond the written word. The Trinity Forum, conceived in 2003, has grown to become the world’s most influential airport commercial revenues conference (since 2006 a partnership with ACI and ACI-Asia Pacific). This was followed in 2011 by the FAB Conference & Awards, the only event dedicated to the burgeoning world of airport food & beverage.
This year, we unveiled The Moodie Davitt Business Intelligence Unit (BIU), led by Senior Retail and Commercial Analyst Min Yong Jung, a complement to our Moodie Insights joint venture led by ex-Diageo executive Craig Mackie in Bangkok. Exciting plans for the BIU will become reality in 2020.
As in much of the wider world of travel retail, our Corporate Social Responsibility programme is integral to what we stand for. We have been proud to support (and sometimes lead) the industry’s many charitable efforts – from the Alpha Sri Lanka Tsunami Relief Fund to Hand in Hand for Haiti and many others.
Our regular Asia-based charity dinners have raised critical funds for several worthy causes. These have included cleft charity The Smile Train, which was the beneficiary of our first dinner in 2007, and Friends-International, the recipient of the US$250,000-plus raised at this year’s Duty Calls dinner at Jewel Changi Airport.
In 2015, we launched The Moodie Davitt Report EGB Cancer Research Fellowship, a five-year, US$225k commitment to cancer research in association with London’s Royal Marsden Hospital, honouring loved ones of our own team who have been lost to the disease.
Our latest pair of charity initiatives are in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October and The Estée Lauder Companies Breast Cancer Campaign. This October, we are urging the travel retail world to turn pink for #thinkpinkTR. The whole Moodie Davitt Report team will be wearing at least one pink item throughout the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes and at The Trinity Forum in Doha, while all The Moodie Davitt Report media will turn pink for the month.
Then in October 2020, we are encouraging everyone in travel retail to cover either 5km or 10km by running, cycling, swimming, rowing, or by any means at all for The Travel Retail Pinkathalon.
Thank you for being with us through the last 17 years. It has been an incredible journey but in many ways it has only just begun.
The Moodie Davitt Report team
