MagBlog

In an interesting addendum to the last post, according to a report in the Guardian (part written by Cardiff Magazine Journalism graduate Owen Gibson) Jeremy Clarkson is on a deal that allows him "to share in the commercial exploitation of Top Gear around the world". That must be a bit like having points in a Hollywood movie.

In another addendum, never, ever mention the fact that the first Lord Rothermere, founder of the Daily Mail, had Nazi sympathies, both with Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts in this country and Adolf Hitler's real deal in Germany. Because if you do mention that fact and the Daily Mail's current editor Paul Dacre hears you (especially if you say it on the radio, for instance), he is likely to go "barmy" ('A source at the Mail said yesterday that when Brand mentioned Hitler, editor-in-chief Dacre went "barmy"') and come after you with the big stick of British newspaper journalism at its finest.
And when I jokingly said that the Mail is a boiling bucket of hypocritical pus, I actually meant to say that it is like unto a whited sepulcre.

Labels: Adolf Hitler, Barmy, Blackshirts, Cardiff Journalism School, Jeremy Clarkson, Lord Rothermere, Nazi, Oswald Mosley, Paul Dacre, Top Gear, Whited Sepulcre

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

The BBC has brought the Top Gear brand under one roof. This might not sound like a revolutionary step but it is. For the first time, a 'public service' television programme, its online avatar and the print magazine of the same name will be physically and philosophically together, operating as a 'virtual company'. If nothing else, it pioneers an official new level of co-operation between BBC Television, BBC Online and BBC Worldwide.

It will also give Michael Harvey, editor of the magazine, a major new role in expanding the brand across the globe. Top Gear magazine has licensed editions in several territories, and this can now be tied in with sales of the tv show overseas, with sponsorship opportunities (especially in the USA) and with brand extensions such as ... aftershave (just imagine the aroma; Castrol R and petrol, perhaps).

Will other publishers, broadcasters and onliners squeal? Perhaps they will, but with the less-than-expected licence fee settlement now clear the BBC will probably make the argument that it needs to generate as much revenue as possible from its commercial activities, and also that this kind of reorganisation brings managerial efficiencies.

If the Top Gear experiment succeeds in getting these three bits of the Beeb to work together there will be a massive machine in operation.

Question - how does this compare with Ofcom's proposals for an online Public Service Publisher?

Labels: BBC, magazines, Ofcom, online, public service publisher, Top Gear