Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Press Gazette: A Considered Obituary
Yes, we all know by now that Press Gazette has bitten the dust after four decades of reflecting the newspaper, broadcast, magazine and latterly digital media industries. This is sad news, particularly for those in need of regular and reliable news about magazines.
There are other sources we can go to - the obvious suspects like MediaGuardian - but I can't think of (or find) one which covers our favourite medium to anything like the extent which PG did. Media Week has a dedicated magazine section, true, but it doesn't have the same breadth of coverage. You can also tune your aggregator to seek out magazine news and that does bring in some interesting sources - but generally the magazine content is tangential. This has the advantage of offering a new angle, but is not a substitute for the bread-and-butter stuff.
Will any of the existing sources beef up their offerings? No particular reason why they should, since the specialised opposition has just gone west. Will anyone pick up the baton from PG? Not unless they can find a more effective business model.
Maybe the answer is aggregation - better tuning of the search terms, different engines. It won't be the same but it might be the future.
There are other sources we can go to - the obvious suspects like MediaGuardian - but I can't think of (or find) one which covers our favourite medium to anything like the extent which PG did. Media Week has a dedicated magazine section, true, but it doesn't have the same breadth of coverage. You can also tune your aggregator to seek out magazine news and that does bring in some interesting sources - but generally the magazine content is tangential. This has the advantage of offering a new angle, but is not a substitute for the bread-and-butter stuff.
Will any of the existing sources beef up their offerings? No particular reason why they should, since the specialised opposition has just gone west. Will anyone pick up the baton from PG? Not unless they can find a more effective business model.
Maybe the answer is aggregation - better tuning of the search terms, different engines. It won't be the same but it might be the future.
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