September 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the first ever print edition of Marina World released by Loud & Clear Publishing. Having worked together for several years for various publishers on marina and waterfront titles before launching Marina World, the founders - Carol Fulford and Julia Hallam - say that they were “fortunate to have tremendous industry support from Issue 1”.
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“Our priority was to provide high quality international editorial coverage and have credible and transparent global print circulation,” they told Marina World. “We researched the circulation list ourselves with help from industry associations. Industry feedback from the first issue was encouraging and complimentary, both in terms of content and presentation.”
Despite initially operating in a crowded yet niche market, Marina World prevailed over the competition and from 2002 was the only global B2B marina title. “We were ably assisted by our advertising representatives, most particularly Philippe Critot in California who headed up sales for us in the Americas and worked with us ahead of the publication of Issue 1. Catherine Metais, then of Paris RAI, and Eva Green and Roberta Pecini of Ediconsult, joined us soon after launch. Our strong relationship as a united team was a great contributor to our success throughout our ownership,” they added.
Industry partnerships
The founders established industry partnerships from the outset and built on these in the early years. The Marina World team was instrumental in establishing the Marina & Yard Pavilion at Metstrade, was actively involved in the ICOMIA World Marinas Conference series, and attended every IMBC conference (now known as the AMI Conference & Expo). Carol and Julia also attended conferences in Australia and New Zealand, and travelled widely to many trade and marine events. With the magazine’s readership growing ever stronger, Marina World launched the Suppliers & Services guide in 2009, and expanded its digital presence through the Mooring Post newsfeed.
“We cannot, of course, overlook the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, during which we were unable to mail print copies of Marina World,” they noted. “With great support from our loyal advertisers, we published two digital-only editions before moving seamlessly back to print. We are very proud to have achieved this as it was an amazing endorsement of the value our supporters placed in Marina World.”
Nevertheless, giving the industry a single insightful, global and well-presented information source distributed to key industry-specific professionals was the greatest achievement of the last 25 years, according to the founders. “Although digital content is becoming increasingly prized, 25 years ago even email was in its infancy and everyone relied on print. Industry feedback has always suggested that Marina World was the go-to place for news and market trends and the print issues remain as prized as ever. The immediacy of digital publishing in delivering news now complements this perfectly.”
Help and hospitality
Carol and Julia had already established close relationships with many industry professionals and manufacturers around the world before they launched Marina World, but continued to forge new relationships as the publication continued to grow. They each had over 15 years’ experience working for publications in the leisure and commercial boating fields before founding Loud & Clear Publishing.
These relationships were vital. “Without a doubt, it is the people who made this industry special to us. They were instrumental in our long-standing success with Marina World,” they say. “We thank all of our industry friends for supporting us and for the help and tremendous hospitality they showed to us over all these years.”
