Blind item

Which just-departed magazine editor, who is moving ino PR for a luxury goods firm, thanked her former boss to the point of spine-chilling embarrassment to her colleagues, finishing up with "I love Ian so much". Whoever knew life at Al Wahibi Building in Garhoud was so touchy feely?

Poor Campaigners

Life is not so good for Campaign staffers these days. There is no sign of the licence, so they are producing stories for a continually updated edition, just in case they get the go-ahead to actually print something. The website is in a state of disarray (as in, no work has been done on creating one).

The editorial team was last spotted playing cards at their desk, with the Campaign desktop flag fluttering limply in the airconditioned breeze.

Outdoor Advertising and the Tolls

I have been thinking about this for awhile and thought I would throw it out there. How do the tolls affect the outdoor advertising on Sheikh Zayed Road? All billboards are fully booked for the next 3 years, so the media buying agencies are probably thrilled. However, visibility will be very different -- or will it? What will it do to the other 'alternative' road?

The art of deception

I had considered this off-topic, but decided to post after receiving a handful of emails on the subject. Most of us are guilty of criticising Dubai at every opportunity, but many members of the media community have come out in protest over The Observer's report on the Gulf Art Fair, branding it ill-researched, factually incorrect, and verging on racist.

Among the cariactures and cliches was the description of UAE nationals as resembling "a laundry load of linen drying in a stiff breeze". Factual inaccuracies include: the "Arabic" American flag painting was actually in Farsi, and Dr Omar did not ask the value of the "Nation of Islam" piece, just pointed to it as it said "Allah" in Arabic. Oh, and Dubai has plenty of bookshops for the record. Letters can be submitted to reader@observer.co.uk.

Three cheers for Secret Dubai

A quick note of congratulations to Secret Dubai from everyone here at DMO headquarters. The blog has won the Africa & Middle East category of the 2007 Bloggie awards. Secret Dubai's blog has been forging its way through the mediocrity with its satire, humour and comment on life, business and politics in the UAE. And, despite being blocked by the censors for a couple of weeks in 2005, the blog has grown in strength (and readership) since then.

Xquisite or xxxx?

After two years of plotting in a secret basement, Gulf News has finally launched XPress. So is it really a 'new style of newspaper', or just a mildly better organised imitation of City Times with a confused looking front cover and more colours than Sport Extra (if that's possible)? Should 7days - XPress' self-proclaimed rival - be worried?

Can anyone hack it?

There's been a lot of criticism in the 7days post of the quality (or lack thereof) of journalists/columnists in the region. So is anyone actually any good? Who's your favourite columnist? If nothing else, this post should give those people "close to" Mark Johnson and Jason Leavy an opportunity to sing their praises...