Reed back with meetings title

Reed Travel & Meetings Asia (RT&M) has overhauled its management as it

is adding two travel trade titles - Travel Weekly Events (TWE) and

Travel Weekly East China (TWEC)- to its portfolio.

TWE will replace the defunct Meetings & Conventions Asia (M&C Asia)

title - published for five years by Venture Asia Publications under

licence from the Cahners Travel Group, a subsidiary of Reed Elsevier.

The licence expired in January.

RT&M publishing director Fiona Rankine, who set up Venture Asia as its

executive director in the mid-90s, said it was better to build the

Travel Week brand, which Reed owns internationally, rather than invest

in one so closely associated with another company.

Travel Weekly Events, a bi-monthly publication, has a controlled

circulation of 15,200 and is targeting organisers of events, incentive

programmes, conventions and exhibitions.

The publication was launched on February 21 to coincide with the Asia

Pacific Incentives and Meetings Expo in Melbourne, organised by Reed

Exhibition.

In April, the company will launch the monthly Chinese-language TWEC,

which will be distributed in Hong Kong, China and Macau.

Reed has made two senior appointments as part of the launches: Ms Irene

Chua as TWEC's associate publisher and Mr Chris Michaelidies as

international sales director for RT&M.

Ms Chua had worked on competing travel trade titles and was previously

with I-Quest, while Mr Michaelidies' travel publishing experience

included a stint on the now-defunct Travel News Asia in the mid-90s. He

subsequently established the Chris Michaels International media

representation business in Hong Kong.

The appointments coincide with the departures of RT&M group publisher

and business development director Phila Anne Tan, who is joining

computer magazine publisher IDG early this month as business development

manager, and RT&M regional sales director (Northeast Asia) Rachel Choy,

who left to join the International Herald Tribune as regional sales

manager.

Ms Tan, who was at Reed for 11 months, said she had been in travel

publishing for nine years, said she wanted to focus on another industry.