MagBlog

No doubt about what the big media story is (Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand and Lesley Douglas, should you need reminding) but here's an interesting hypothetical link to the magazine world and the BBC's place within it.

Ross and Brand are not connected with any particular magazine title but what if the shit-storm had enveloped that other "bad boy" Jeremy Clarkson? (I hasten to add here that Clarkson is only introduced here as an exemplar of a media personality who has had bad things written about him: 1, 2, 3 ... ah what the heck.) JC is indelibly associated with Top Gear, and Top Gear has now become a brand that works in a unified manner across the TV show, the website and the print magazine.

But, BBC Worldwide, which publishes TG, is a separate organisation from the public service arm of the BBC and, what is more, it pays a turnover-based fee to the public service BBC for the right to use the TG name on its magazine.

Suppose Clarkson had been suspended from TG on the telly – would he also be suspended from the magazine? Would public BBC have to refund part of the royalty fee?

And, just as a parting thought, offered purely as a personal opinion, isn't the Daily Mail a boiling bucket of hypocritical pus?

Labels: BBC, BBC magazines, BBC Worldwide, Jeremy Clarkson, Jonathan Ross, Lesley Douglas, magazines, Russell Brand, Top Gear