Exclusive Interview with Timeshare Publication CEO, Paul Mattimoe

Q: Paul, let’s start with Perspective International. Was your company founded with the intent of publishing timeshare magazines, or do you have other interests in the timeshare industry?

A: Actually I started in the timeshare industry in 1995 and over a 9 year period grew from sales executive to project director level, working for resorts throughout Europe, Thailand, and India. In the latter of those years, I was also responsible for the recruitment of staff to each project. Recruiting European staff to work in Thailand was time consuming and expensive, so I placed an advertisement online for staff. It didn’t really work too well, but it did produce some results, so I built my own website to attract the right kind of people – this worked better, so two years later, I chose to recruit full time and with the help of my now wife, Sharon, I created www.timesharestaff.com which will shortly be celebrating its fifth birthday. Now owned by one of our UK companies, (Timeshare Staff Ltd), this online recruitment service is used by the majority of hospitality brands and leading developers worldwide to recruit both new and experienced personnel at all levels.

Q: So when did you first begin publishing Perspective? And what prompted you…what need were you seeking to fill?

A: Well, Perspective Magazine started out as the Timeshare Staff Magazine back in November 2005, when we launched it as an extension to the recruitment website. Not all companies at that stage were convinced online recruiting was the future and were much happier with the tried and tested print advertising – so we gave them both, and to make it a little more interesting we ran a few resort reviews and a bit of industry news. After only a few months, developers were pushing us to run articles on them and because of this, it gradually grew into a different type of magazine. After careful consideration and even though it was not our area of expertise, at the end of 12 months we changed the name to Perspective Magazine. We purposefully concentrated on creating an independent business to business magazine where companies could use it for brand development and promotion of products and services as well as recruiting – nearly two years on since we changed the name, it is the most read independent B2B publication globally for the timeshare and shared ownership industry with more than 6,550 print subscribers and a further 10-12,000 online readers per month. It is also officially distributed to all delegates at 11 major industry conventions around the world each year as well as a number of other smaller events.

Q: You offer Perspective as an online publication; and you also offer it in print format. Unlike some magazines, however, you make your complete publication available online. Why have you made the decision to do this? How does it benefit you? And how does it benefit the reader?

A: We decided that our B2B publication would be predominantly advertiser funded; as a result the more people who read the publication, the better it is for the advertisers, better for us as the advertisers continue to use us, and better for the readers, as we can continue to provide useful information about the industry from an independent point of view, that they cannot get elsewhere. With this in mind we decided to make the full edition and all back issues available free of charge online and we are currently creating text versions of all back issues to use as an ever growing reference library for industry professionals also.

Q: What, if any, challenges does it present?

A: Our challenges of finding new content and attracting more advertisers are decreasing and becoming easier as time goes on, so I think with Perspective Magazine we have grown through many of the challenges, however we are just starting with Owners Perspective and our other products.

Q: What is your circulation?

A: Our current circulation is a little over 6,550 print subscribers; including readers from an impressive 79 countries / territories, and an average of 10-12,000 online readers per month. The online readership is always changing as a good proportion of it is sales and marketing staff looking for employment and with the nature of the industry, there is a relatively high turnover of staff. So as fast as we lose some, we gain more – hence the approximate figure which reflects only the number of current readers, not the total number of subscribers from day one which is much higher.

Q: Who is your target reader?

A: Our print subscribers are made up of predominantly middle to upper management across developers, marketers, and suppliers within the timeshare and shared ownership industry. Our online subscribers are much more varied with industry professionals of all levels and jobseekers not yet employed in the industry. Our publication is designed to educate developers about new products and services available to them; promote developers to suppliers and inspire anyone who works in the industry, keeping them up to date with the latest industry news and achievements. In many cases, our publication is also used to give examples to potential new members on the sales decks at resorts around the world.

Q: Why is your magazine growing so rapidly at this time?

A: People crave information, and although there are other great industry publications available, most are restricted by association, exchange company or membership database – ours is independent, can feature any resort, and review all industry conventions. Add to this, global content and we naturally are going to attract large numbers of subscribers. We have benefited a great deal from word of mouth via our readers, and so as our readership increases so does word of mouth allowing us to grow consistently and quickly. In just short of three years we have exceeded the circulation of all other independent B2B publications within the worldwide industry and yet we still feel that we are only at the beginning of what Perspective Magazine is capable of in terms of reach and content.

Q: What other publications/services do you offer to your readership?

A: We have the Perspective Buyers Guide , which is the largest database of suppliers to the industry; where we offer free listings helping them promote their products and services to developers and marketers, and the Timeshare Resort Guide, which we have just recently started and that offers free promotion of resorts to consumers and will be linked to our new consumer magazine, Owners Perspective.