Category Archives: Magazines

Telegraph: IPC Media considers selling off more titles

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Magazine publisher IPC Media is considering selling off more titles, after disposing of 20 publications shortly before Christmas.

Sources have told the Daily Telegraph that senior IPC executives are taking a detailed look at the whole portfolio, but no talks with interested parties have begun yet and a full sell-off of the whole business is “unlikely”.

IPC Media completed a major strategic review of its titles in December, selling off 20 magazines in the space of just a few months, including Loaded, Web User, Caravan and Guitar & Bass.

Speculation that more sales are on the way comes as Sylvia Auton returns to IPC Media as chief executive after spending four years in the US as executive vice president of parent company Time Warner.

A Time Warner spokesman told the Telegraph: “Of course we conduct regular reviews of all of our businesses to ensure we remain competitive, but there is no plan for any further action at IPC.”

IPC’s titles include Nuts, NME and Marie Claire.

Channel 4 News: Benjamin Cohen’s life torn open by Wired

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Benjamin Cohen, technology editor at Channel 4 News, has blogged about the experience of being sent the latest, personalised edition of Wired magazine.

Well, personalised for some. “Opinion formers” around the UK have been sent a copy of Wired, titled “Your life torn open”, with personal information about them splashed over the front cover. Cohen was shocked by the information that they printed – and it is shocking at first. But then it is all publically available through Facebook, Twitter, Companies House and the Land Registry.

What’s shocking though is seeing all of this printed in black and white (or yellow in this case). Everything was available from Facebook, Twitter, Company House and the Land Registry but it shows the information is so readily available. It also shows how powerful these resources can be for private detectives or government agents.

Read his post in full here…

PPA changes name to reflect ‘increasing variety’ among membership

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The PPA announced a name change today to acknowledge the increasing use of a variety of platforms by its members.

The PPA, which previously stood for Periodical Publishers Association will now be called the Professional Publishers Association. In a release Barry McIlheney, chief executive of the PPA said:

Today’s PPA members are professional publishers of immersive, high-quality content. In recent years their businesses have changed dramatically as they deliver this content across an increasing variety of platforms.

We have changed our name to acknowledge this development, and to reflect our commitment to serving our members’ needs and representing their interests as their businesses continue to evolve.

Journalisted Weekly: Brisbane floods, Arizona shootings, and Tunisia protests

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Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for you, the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about. It is run by the Media Standards Trust, a registered charity set up to foster high standards in news on behalf of the public, and funded by donations from charitable foundations.

Each week Journalisted produces a summary of the most covered news stories, most active journalists and those topics falling off the news agenda, using its database of UK journalists and news sources.

for the week ending Sunday 16 January

  • Floods in Brisbane and shootings in Arizona dominated the news during the week
  • Protests leading to the ousting of Tunisia’s government received much coverage over the weekend
  • Northern & Shell, Stuxnet, and controversy over Welsh organ donation received little coverage

Covered lots

Covered little

  • Renewed controversy over the Stuxnet cyber virus, which attacked Iran’s nuclear programme last year, 8 articles
  • Northern & Shell, the group that owns the Express, Star and OK! pulls out of the UK press self-regulation system, 7 articles
  • The Welsh Assembly Government calling for a ‘soft opt-out’ policy for organ donation and raising controversy over human rights, 4 articles

Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)

Celebrity vs serious

Who wrote a lot about…’Tunisia’

Richard Spencer – 9 articles (Telegraph), James Bones – 8 articles (The Times), Roula Khalaf – 7 articles (Financial Times), Heba Saleh – 5 articles (Financial Times), Colin Freeman (Telegraph) – 4 articles, Angelique Chrisafis – 4 articles (The Guardian)

Long form journalism

From The Media Standards Trust

The Media Standards Trust’s panel event ‘Libel reform: in the public’s interest?’ is now available to watch on our website

The Media Standards Trust’s unofficial database of PCC complaints is available for browsing at www.complaints.pccwatch.co.uk

For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe

Media Standards Trust poses questions over Northern & Shell PCC exclusion

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Following news that Richard Desmond’s publisher Northern & Shell had withdrawn all of its titles – including the Daily Mirror and OK! Magazine – from the PCC’s self regulatory system, the Media Standards Trust has posed the following open questions to Northern & Shell, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) and the Press Board of Finance (PressBof). Republished here in full.

Northern & Shell

  • Will you guarantee to offer the same levels of protection to members of the public – such as families who have suffered a suicide – as you did when covered by the PCC code?
  • If a member of the public feels harassed by a journalist claiming to work for Northern & Shell, what should they do?
  • If you discover that a high profile public figure is pregnant before their 12 week scan, will you protect their privacy as other newspapers have agreed, or just publish the story?
  • Will your publications continue to write to the PCC Editorial Code, or is Northern & Shell opting out of all existing codes of self-regulation?
  • How should a reader go about making a complaint about something that is written in one of your titles?
  • When the Media Standards Trust wanted to make a complaint to the Daily Star, it found that the newspaper did not make public the name of its editor or a phone number for anything other than the newsdesk. Will the affected titles now make clear how to contact the editor and/or provide a clear internal complaints system?
  • What motivated your withdrawal and on what terms, if any, would you return to the system overseen by the PCC?

Press Complaints Commission

  • What impact will Northern & Shell’s withdrawal have on the PCC’s overall funding? Given that the amount contributed by national newspapers is kept secret, it is currently not possible for those outside the industry to work out what effect the exit will have.
  • Will the PCC be able to maintain the same level of service on a lower budget?
  • In its statement – and for the first time – the PCC revealed some of the publications not covered by the PCC (i.e. Northern & Shell publications). Will the PCC now publish a list of all those that do subscribe?
  • Was Northern & Shell clear as to what motivated its withdrawal? And, if so, is it clear under what terms it might return to the system?

PressBof

  • This is the second time in two months that the PCC budget has been hit (the first being the libel settlement and costs in November 2010). PressBof was not transparent about the cost of the first (and did not respond to the Media Standards Trust’s letter requesting further information); will it now be transparent about the cost of the Northern & Shell withdrawal?
  • PressBof has previously refused to provide any assurances on what this means for the PCC’s level of service. Will it now provide assurances that the level of service the PCC provides will be maintained?
  • Given the importance of national newspaper contributions to the sustainability of the PCC, will PressBof now lift the secrecy surrounding those contributions, and publish information on who pays for the PCC and how much each pays?

Martin Moore, the director of the Media Standards Trust, said: “The withdrawal of Northern & Shell raises fundamental questions about the sustainability of the current system of self-regulation. The PCC and PressBof need to reassure the public that they will continue to have adequate avenues of complaint. Northern & Shell needs to be clear as to how it will, in future, fulfil its obligations to its readers and to the broader public.

“The Press Complaints Commission argues consistently that it exists as a better alternative – and deterrent to – statutory regulation. It now needs to explain what impact Northern & Shell’s withdrawal will have on the general public, and what it plans to do to ensure the comprehensiveness and sustainability of press self-regulation.”

Update

The MST reports on its PCC Watch site that the PCC and PressBof have responded to their questions.

Journalisted Yearly: Elections, World Cups, and WikiLeaks

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Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for you, the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about. It is run by the Media Standards Trust, a registered charity set up to foster high standards in news on behalf of the public, and funded by donations from charitable foundations.

Each week Journalisted produces a summary of the most covered news stories, most active journalists and those topics falling off the news agenda, using its database of UK journalists and news sources. From now on we’ll be cross-posting them on Journalism.co.uk.

for the week ending Sunday 19 December

  • Nothing dominates the press like a football World Cup, even when England perform poorly
  • The General Election, the X-Factor, and the BP Gulf oil spill were three of the other biggest stories of the year
  • Twitter and Facebook became household brands
  • Though India, Japan and Brazil failed to generate much press interest

Newsletter stats based on 892,330 articles published in the national press and on the BBC this year

Students can now create their own profiles on Journalisted.com

The Media Standards Trust’s unofficial database of PCC complaints is now available for browsing at www.complaints.pccwatch.co.uk

For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe

Covered lots

  • The football World Cup, which was spread across most front pages and back pages throughout June 2010, 22,413 articles
  • The General Election, that led to the formation of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition government in May, 18,087 articles
  • Spending cuts, of which many were introduced by the incoming Coalition government, 11,152 articles
  • The X Factor, both a television and a news phenomenon, 9,740 articles
  • The BP Gulf oil spill, which remained headline news for almost 3 months, 4,471 articles
  • WikiLeaks, who released three loads of leaked information – Afghan war logs, Iraq war logs and US diplomatic cables, 2,859 articles
  • The volcanic ash cloud that hung over Europe and grounded all flights, 2,372
  • The 33 Chilean Miners whose incarceration and rescue captivated the world media, 944 articles

Covered little

  • Gun crime referred to in 296 articles, despite a General Election, shootings in Cumbria, and a nationwide hunt for the armed Raoul Moat
  • Parliamentary debate mentioned in only 222 articles
  • Child detention that continues into 2011 despite Lib Dem promises to end it, 101 articles
  • NHS waiting lists that were hardly mentioned, despite it being an election year, 27 articles
  • Saving Gateway, a £100 million pound scheme to encourage those on low incomes to save that was cut by the Coalition government, 24 articles
  • US-Saudi $60BN arms deal – the Obama adminstration does largest US arms deal in history, going to Saudi Arabia, 20 articles
  • The ongoing conflict in and around Kashmir, contributing to regional nuclear tensions, 119 articles

Most covered politicians

Under-exposed world leaders

(receiving >5% of coverage of Obama, who was mentioned in 19,704 articles)

Most written about sports stars

Countries of war, civil conflict, military occupation

  • War in Afghanistan, 8,572 articles
  • Iraq, with ongoing civil unrest after occupation, 8,393 articles
  • Haiti, with civil unrest after an earthquake, 4,216 articles
  • Sudan, with ongoing nomadic conflict, 3,433 articles
  • Burma, under a military-led government, 3,165 articles
  • Somalia, with inter-clan unrest and insurgency, 3,101 articles
  • Israel-Palestine, with ongoing dispute over territories, 2,755 articles
  • Sri Lanka, with ongoing human rights allegations after civil war, 2,647 articles
  • Yemen, battling insurgency, 2,120 articles
  • Democratic Republic of Congo, 1,049 articles
  • Mexico, with an ongoing drugs war, 1,011 articles
  • Kashmir, with insurgency against Indian administration and military, 850 articles

Celebrity vs serious

  • Simon Cowell, presenter of the X-Factor 4,146 articles vs Al Qaeda, 4,173 articles
  • Lady Gaga, singer and fashion icon, 3,739 articles vs. floods in Pakistan, in which almost 2,000 people died and over 20 million were affected, 1,285 articles
  • Cheryl Cole, singer and presenter of the X-Factor, 3,597 articles vs. Raoul Moat, on the run from police and shot after a nationwide hunt, 1,029 articles
  • Katie Price, 1,585 articles vs. Child Trust Funds, scrapped despite take-up by over 5 million people since 2002, 381 articles
  • Ann Widdecombe, ex-politician and Strictly Come Dancing contestant, 1,038 articles vs. Derrick Bird, taxi driver who went on a killing spree in Cumbria, 685 articles

Most over-used phrases

(with thanks to John Rentoul)

Most written about internet services

Who wrote a lot about…’David Cameron’

Nicholas Watt – 360 articles (The Guardian), Patrick Wintour – 294 articles (The Guardian), Michael White – 202 articles (The Guardian), George Parker – 201 articles (Financial Times), Andrew Grice – 189 articles (Independent), Macer Hall – 179 articles (Daily Express), Michael Settle – 178 articles (The Herald), Andrew Porter – 170 articles (The Telegraph), Hélène Mulholland – 156 articles (The Guardian), James Chapman – 152 articles (Mail Online)

Long form journalism

Most prolific journalists

(by number of articles)

LA Times: Online journalism ‘contaminated’ by web format, says Flipboard chief

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The LA Times’ technology blog interviews Mike McCue, chief executive of Flipboard, an iPad app that creates a magazine-style package of news, features, videos and images circulating within a user’s social networks – and it’s well worth a read.

The problem with journalism on the web today is that it’s being contaminated by the web form factor. What I mean is, journalists are being pushed to do things like slide shows – stuff meant to attract page views. Articles themselves are condensed to narrow columns of text across 5, 6, 7 pages, and ads that are really distracting for the reader, so it’s not a pleasant experience to “curl up” with a good website.

Journalism is being pushed into a space where I don’t think it should ever go, where it’s trying to support the monetisation model of the web by driving page views. So what you have is a drop-off of long-form journalism, because long-form pieces are harder to monetise. And it’s also hard to present that longer stuff to the reader because no one wants to wait four seconds for every page to load.

Full story on LA Times at this link…

Wired.com: ‘Why WikiLeaks is good for America’

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Wired magazine has had a somewhat fractious relationship with whistleblowers’ website WikiLeaks since the latter rose to prominence.

Speaking at the beginning of October at City University London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hit out at the magazine for allegations it made about infighting at the organisation.

Later in the month he made further criticisms of two particular blogs on Wired.com:

We condemned Wired magazine for that conduct and the magazine has been oppositional ever since. The two blogs concerned, “Threat Level” and “Danger Room”, while having produced some good journalism over the years, mostly now ship puff pieces about the latest “cool weapons system” and other “war tech toys” as befits their names – “Threat Level” and “Danger Room”.

But Wired.com editor-in-chief Evan Hansen, writing yesterday on the Threat Level blog, clearly thinks the organisation is a force for good in the world, or in the US at least:

WikiLeaks is not perfect, and we have highlighted many of its shortcomings on this website. Nevertheless, it’s time to make a clear statement about the value of the site and take sides:

WikiLeaks stands to improve our democracy, not weaken it.

See the full post – Why WikiLeaks is good for America – at this link…

#cablegate: Time magazine interview with Julian Assange

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Time magazine has published in full an interview it carried out with WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange on Tuesday (30 November) following this week’s release of secret and confidential diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world.

In the interview, which is carried out by Time editor Richard Stengel via Skype, Assange discussed the impact of the release so far.

I can see that the media scrutiny and the reaction from government are so tremendous that it actually eclipses our ability to understand it. And I think there is a new story appearing, a new, original story appearing about once every two minutes somewhere around the world.

He also talks about social media, adding that the wider online community has not been as involved in the “heavy analytical lifting” of the data as he expected, this role instead taken on by professional journalists.

The bulk of the heavy lifting – heavy analytical lifting – that is done with our materials is done by us, and is done by professional journalists we work with and by professional human rights activists. It is not done by the broader community. However, once the initial lifting is done, once a story becomes a story, becomes a news article, then we start to see community involvement, which digs deeper and provides more perspective. So the social networks tend to be, for us, an amplifier of what we are doing.

See the interview transcript in full here…

Alex Harris talks to Journalism.co.uk about taking two gongs at the PTC Awards

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Journalism.co.uk reporter Rachel McAthy is at the Periodical Training Council (PTC) Awards today. She spoke to Men’s Health journalist Alex Harris, who won both the New Journalist of the Year and New Consumer Journalist of the year awar.

See the full report from today’s awards at this link, and listen to the interview with Alex Harris below.