The Australian Police Journal held its Biennial APJ Liaison Officers Seminar in Sydney on 25 and 26 September, 2013, with Liaison Officers from around Australia in attendance. Since its humble beginnings in 1946, the APJ has grown considerably in both quality and circulation. The Journal currently hasover 21,000 subscribers throughout Australia, New Zealand and internationally, with about one third of all sworn police in Australia subscribing. There is no other Australasian publication quite like it and while it still remains primarily 'written by police for police' there is now substantial contributing interest from academics and other experts, as well as from respected commercial authors. The aim of this year's seminar was to standardise current practices and develop new strategies to target subscribers at the recruit level and also boost awareness within the ranks of sworn and unsworn members throughout Australasia. As with the seminars in 2009 and 2011, this gathering was another important opportunity to brainstorm and network which is difficult due to the tyranny of distance and competing priorities. Due to natural attrition, there were a number of new Liaison Officers attending this year's seminar, so it was aimed at skill building and providing each Liaison Officer (LO) with a strong network and a sense of 'team' to help improve our marketing into the future. This seminar was a great success and addressed the key issues important to a modern policing publication, with specific sessions on effectively using evolving technology, strategies to ensure the delivery a contemporary product and targeted marketing techniques. Most importantly, the seminar provided the knowledge and skills to better equip our jurisdictional LOs to provide advice to subscribers and new authors in lieu of the considerable geographical distances between jurisdictions, where normal networking and communication strategies with other team members are difficult to achieve.
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