Friday, 24 August 2007

The Devil Wears Primark

It seems that working for media in Dubai can generate instant class status. An anonymous tip claims that the editor of an ITP magazine has requested that all photographers call her Ma'am. Guess which one?
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Got to be that blonde one in charge of Harpers Bazaar...

24 August, 2007 00:49
Anonymous said...

my money's on a Viva beaver

24 August, 2007 00:50
Anonymous said...

Jeez.
Just for once how about picking a topic that doesn't involve ITP.
I used to work there and even I'm bored of hearing this crap.
A new paper's launching in Abu Dhabi, with serious staff and serious funding and there's hardly been a word about it. You'd think that would be worth a topic. But no, it's back to an anonymous, and no doubt untrue, piece of gossip about a nobody on an unread consumer mag.

25 August, 2007 06:15
Anonymous said...

I too am more interested in the new paper. Any jaded journos out there?

Newland seeks 'jaded' journos for Arab paper launch
24 August 2007

By Patrick Smith

Former Daily Telegraph editor Martin Newland is set to launch a new national newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, creating jobs for 200 journalists from around the world.

Newland, who left the Telegraph in 2005 after two years as editor, is currently working on the design and title of the paper and planning the newsroom, based in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi. He has experience of working on new launches, having played a major role in setting up Canada's National Post in 1998.

Newland said: "You might expect to do this once in a lifetime on a fully national newspaper, but the chance to do it twice was too good to turn down.

There's nothing more exciting than a launch.

"This area is absolutely exploding with potential – in many ways running too fast with infrastructure having to catch up. The paper is aimed at anyone at the high end, so you're looking at broadsheet quality, people earning over £100,000 who speak English. In this place, that's the Indian middle classes, the Anglosphere ex-pats and Emiratis, who speak it fluently."

The paper currently has no title or a launch date more concrete than "months, not years away", but Newland stressed its future is "assured" by significant investment from the investment wing of the Abu Dhabi government.

Although the paper will be a national for the Emirates, Newland said there would be plans to expand further into the Middle East and abroad. He said the paper's aim was to "put Abu Dhabi at the head of a nation within a region" and that, from the start, copies would be sent to London and Washington.

Although it has only recruited one editorial member of staff so far – a designer – the paper's business plan has allowed for at least 200 more and Newland plans to advertise in the US, Canada, Africa and Britain to get staff.

"You've got to understand that, economically, newspapers here are about where we [British newspapers] were at the height of the dotcom era, where you were beating off advertisers with sticks. We have a lot of newspapers that run at 100 per cent profitability – as soon as you can grow a section, it fills [with advertising].

"For those of us who have become slightly jaded with the Fleet Street scene, where circulation is sinking and everyone's being made redundant, this is like turning the clock back. It's booming."

Former Observer business editor Frank Kane left London last year to launch the Arabian Business Standard, based in Dubai but its launch, scheduled for August last year, was postponed after a request from the UAE cabinet to postpone it until new media laws had come into effect. Kane said the paper, the first English-language business newspaper in the region, was to be "a cross between the Financial Times and the Evening Standard".

The paper is backed by publisher ITP, chaired by Spectator publisher Andrew Neil, which publishes more than 40 English-language titles in the Middle East. No one at ITP was available to comment.

25 August, 2007 10:09
Anonymous said...

Hey moderators - any of you actually even looking at this site?
Can you turn this topic into a thread of its own so we can have a proper debate?
Hello? Anyone? Wakey, wakey...

25 August, 2007 10:40
Anonymous said...

Clearly not.

25 August, 2007 11:19
anon_hack said...

Fuck me, some of us do have weekends you know. We're not all here 24/7.

Here you go

25 August, 2007 12:41
Impala Lily said...

I enjoy the gossip. Bring it on!!!

26 August, 2007 20:13
Anonymous said...

more ma'am please. gotta know now...

27 August, 2007 02:34
Anonymous said...

Is it the same bint-editor who banned her staff from wearing heels to work?

28 August, 2007 09:01
Anonymous said...

Oops, that should read: "Is it the same bint-editor who banned her staff from wearing flat shoes to work?" (More sleep required...)

28 August, 2007 09:02
Anonymous said...

For fuck's sake... 'bint editor'? Nice. For what it's worth, the editors of the ITP womens titles are probably the brighest in the company. A cut above the rest of the cut-n-paste drivel that the company produces.

06 September, 2007 13:01
Anonymous said...

That's right @ 13.01. The editor of Harpers is so fucking bright that it took her multiple attempts to get her first ed's letter approved by London and it was still a pile of shite.

06 September, 2007 16:08
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
09 September, 2007 08:50
Anonymous said...

Jumped, as far as my sources tell me, for 'personal' reasons. One down, one to go...

09 September, 2007 12:26
Anonymous said...

is it really that bad at itp!? wow. there are a few threads on here ripping it up and i've been interviewing for positions there - though not as a contributor...

17 September, 2007 20:42
Anonymous said...

Can anyone tell me what it's like working at ITP?

Is it really that bad?

I was thinking about applying for a position with Arabian Business.

I would be coming over with my family as well - does ITP provide their employees with a decent package? What are the salaries like?

18 September, 2007 02:12
Anonymous said...

Yeah, you know, it's actually fine; no worse than working for any other media firm.

I'd certainly pick it over working for one of the many tinpot publishing houses based here that either don't pay staff on time/direct journos what to write/let the boss's dog piss on their legs as it runs around the office/all of the above.

15 November, 2007 15:53
Anonymous said...

Wasnt there 2 blondes on Harpers Bazaar? Go on, give us a clue. Names names names. Would love to know who below is about :)

That's right @ 13.01. The editor of Harpers is so fucking bright that it took her multiple attempts to get her first ed's letter approved by London and it was still a pile of shite.

16 July, 2008 13:40
mediamonster said...

Commented edited:

--------
Anonymous said...

Talking of women's mags, has anyone got any goss on [removed]'s sudden departure from Harpers Bazaar? Jumped? Pushed?

09 September, 2007 08:50

02 October, 2009 15:56

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)