Fashion e-tailer ASOS has been in the news again this week, bucking the prevailing retail trend by posting Christmas sales that were up 118%.

The company has no stores, of course, but it has described its customer magazine for top female shoppers as its "shop window". As such, the magazine, which is published bi-monthly and has a circulation of some 430,000, must be deemed a critical element in its ongoing success. This is of course great news in terms of old and new media coming together in a powerful combination.

Up until now the magazine has been contract published by Seven Squared, but earlier this year ASOS announced that it plans to bring the title in-house.

I'm intrigued by this decision. Publishing a successful magazine that engages with its target readership isn't as easy as it may look. I can hear those cries of "you would say that, wouldn't you", but when I look at the work that top-class customer publishers produce for their clients it really is of an exemplary standard. And yes, PrintWeek's publisher Haymarket has a customer publishing division, and yes they produce great work. The client benefits from a host of skills including design, journalistic, production, circulation and general publishing and communications know-how without having to employ all those people themselves. And of course they get the reality check that comes from a third-party's insights and a valuable sounding board as well.

In my humble opinion ASOS would be better off sticking to its e-knitting while working with a publishing partner, rather than setting up a mini-publishing operation all of its own. But I would say that, wouldn't I.