Apparently the reason Campaign is so delayed is because there has been an order from On High that all magazines must be resized to A4 format, so that they don't resemble newspapers. Construction Week and a couple of others have apparently already resized, and Communicate is about to. Anyone else heard this? It sounds like utter lunacy.
There has been a rumour rumbling around for some time that there will be a ban on all tabloids - can anyone shed any light on this?
18 comments:
Are you sure about "all magazines"?
Sounds totally unworkable, saying that, I would love to see an A4 format Hello! magazine, it would look like some sleazy contacts mag.
by the way newspapers will soon shift over to the size know as "Berliner"
How would that work? All the international stuff in Campaign comes from the UK edition.
How would they make it fit? Reduce it down to A4 size and give all the readers a magnifying glass?
Even if they are going to relaunch, I wouldn't do it now - summer's a stupid time as there's no advertising. Then there's Ramadan. If I was them I'd wait til after that.
The Berliner theory sounds like bollocks. You need specially configured presses for that. I bet there's not a single printer that can produce Berliners at the moment - let alone have all of them move to it.
I think the Berliner comment was a joke...
"How would that work?"
Duh, how you gonna fit all dem big words on dat little paper.
Add more pages?
You've missed the point - the international pages come as full pages from the UK edition, which is A3. They don't lay them out in Dubai.
But thanks for the incisive analysis: "duh" really raises the level of debate...
I'm sure they'll work it out Einstein. Watch and learn.
Surely a more interesting question is why "On High" is obsessed with tabloid-size being the root of all evil when worldwide, broadsheets are all going compact?
It is certainly true that the tabloid format has been banned for magazines.
Am not sure whether this means resizing to A4 - but it certainly means no new magazine will be allowed to print tabloid - and all existing tabloid format mags must resize to something less resembling a newspaper.
Am also unsure why the authorities feel that simply being tabloid format (regardless of content and/or frequency) means you are a "newspaper". ET is tabloid but doesn't resemble a newspaper in the slightest!
Speaking of ITP, anyone got the inside track on Marc Wildman? He's their production bigwig, one of Serafin's inner circle. Or rather he was. Apparently he's not any more...
Serafin's main course, despite banging his fists on the table, didn't arrive quickly enough.
So he ate Wildman.
so...campaign is still really coming out?
thot it was going be be a court thing for a looong time?
Last I heard, the issue was over Campaign being reformatted (as per orders from On High) to A4, which is obviously against the look of the original. With almost all the staff having bailed now, perhaps Motivate & Haymarket would be best to forget a relaunch?
The resizing issue is true. The govt. is freaking out about any format that doesn't lend itself to promoting the rosy image of Dubai as a city where everything is perfect. That's why: 7Days is constantly pressurised, ITP's business paper is unlikely to ever get the green light, and the government-backed AMG is starting to dominate the scene. They don't want mags with news on their front pages, because anything negative is seen as deeply offensive to the "vision" of Shk Mohamed. Both Motivate and ITP received a circular to this effect. Campaign was a sacrificial lamb, and its death illustrates the fact that if you want to be a journalist, then don't come to Dubai. It is perhaps, with the exception of Burma, North Korea and the Falklands Islands, the worst place on earth to do anything remotely journalistic and creative.
I still don't see how re-formatting Campaign will solve the issue of negative reportage. Ultimately, Campaign painted a pretty positive picture of Dubai (and the GCC), positive insamuch there was (at least) an iota of constructive criticism.
How controversial can news that someone has won the Motorola account possibly be?
Who's actually making these decisions? Government cronies toadying up to the ruling elite is one thing, but someone, somewhere must have the final say.
Why is XPRESS not on your poll?
It's nothing to do with format.
That's utter nonsense.
The Campaign issue is far more sinister than that.
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