Corporate Press - Who Writes Stuff?
Visiting a local WHS Smith, I often ponder, stopping at the magazines' shelves and scanning through the titles - who buys them? They all look similar and are basically about the same topic: 20 magazines about knitting or angling, 50 about gardening and history, etc. Never see anybody buying any of them. Still, musing about who and for what profit is publishing them?
I have to recall - the magazine shelves looked very different in the 1990s and 2000s. There was a wide variety of titles to browse to everybody's taste and interests. These had been years before the world wide web expansion. Anglers had three solid titles, so was with the gardening and knitting, the rest was much more diverse. How come the things became so homogenous now?
Now it just looks like we live in a constrained society of mindful knitters with gardens and gym-fit anglers keen on history, and that's it. Every one of the six topics has 20+ magazines.
How those numerous titles survive?
And more importantly - who owns them?
Never had time to explain it until recent research of blogs I was interested in. Found one and thought it was pretty average on the visual side, the content pretty much repetitive, impersonal - but it looked a solid blog, somebody put a lot of effort to it.
Having a few spare moments to investigate a few more links - this occurred not to be a personal blog at all.
In short - the blog, calmmoment.com, among hundreds of others, and among dozens of magazines, including Radio Times (the beloved of the British public) and commercial TV channels - is own by one company, owned by one huge corporation.
Magazines used to be a serious product of a single publishing house and of a devoted team of editors. That's where a variety, personal touch, dedication came from.
In the years 2010 - 2020 things changed.
Immediate is the current publisher of the above-mentioned blog, along with many magazines and other media titles:
Immediate Media was owned by Exponent Private Equity, a private equity firm, operating billions of pounds in different sectors of our economy, investing in businesses yet for the sole role of profit, and with no entry on Wikipedia.
Immediate Media is on Wikipedia:
The 'content services' term is difficult to grasp to a layman; it basically means that: 'the digital editions is created with our own proprietary software and is among the most popular in the UK.' (source: http://www.immediate.co.uk/platforms/) which - in simple words - the texts and images are 'created' by computer programmes, not humans, and are repetitively used, with small variations, over a multitude of websites.
In other words - the same content minced all over again, and again; with enormous marketing resources; to wring out profit for as little intellectual effort as possible.
But, who is Hubert?
Wikipedia:
In short conclusion:
Radio Times and BBC related titles along with many other consumerism-full, content-poor publications belong, since 2017, to a huge German corporation shaping the views and interests of millions of people in the UK (What about Brexit?) - by the use of repetitive robotic software.
I have to recall - the magazine shelves looked very different in the 1990s and 2000s. There was a wide variety of titles to browse to everybody's taste and interests. These had been years before the world wide web expansion. Anglers had three solid titles, so was with the gardening and knitting, the rest was much more diverse. How come the things became so homogenous now?
Now it just looks like we live in a constrained society of mindful knitters with gardens and gym-fit anglers keen on history, and that's it. Every one of the six topics has 20+ magazines.
How those numerous titles survive?
And more importantly - who owns them?
Never had time to explain it until recent research of blogs I was interested in. Found one and thought it was pretty average on the visual side, the content pretty much repetitive, impersonal - but it looked a solid blog, somebody put a lot of effort to it.
Having a few spare moments to investigate a few more links - this occurred not to be a personal blog at all.
In short - the blog, calmmoment.com, among hundreds of others, and among dozens of magazines, including Radio Times (the beloved of the British public) and commercial TV channels - is own by one company, owned by one huge corporation.
Magazines used to be a serious product of a single publishing house and of a devoted team of editors. That's where a variety, personal touch, dedication came from.
In the years 2010 - 2020 things changed.
Immediate is the current publisher of the above-mentioned blog, along with many magazines and other media titles:
220 Triathlon
Andy’s Amazing Adventures
BBC Countryfile Magazine
BBC Easy Cook
BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine
BBC Good Food
BBC History Magazine
BBC History Revealed
BBC Match of the Day
BBC Music
BBC Science Focus
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
BBC Top Gear
BBC Wildlife Magazine
BikeRadar
Cardmaking and Papercraft
CBeebies ART
CBeebies Magazine
CBeebies Special
Cross Stitch Crazy
Cross Stitch Gold
Cycling Plus
delicious
Gardens Illustrated
Girl Talk
Girl Talk Art
Go Jetters
Healthy Food Guide
Hey Duggee
hitched
Homes & Antiques
Junior
Lonely Planet Magazine
Love Crochet
Love Knitting for Baby
Love Patchwork & Quilting
MadeForMums
Mega
Mollie Makes
Mountain Biking UK
Octonauts
olive
Papercraft Inspirations
Radio Times Festival
Radio Times Magazine
RadioTimes.com
Sewing Quarter
Simply Crochet
Simply Knitting
Simply Sewing
Something Special
Swashbuckle
The Knitter
The World of Cross Stitching
The Yarn Loop
Today’s Quilter
Top Of The Pops
Toybox
Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine
You & Your Wedding
Andy’s Amazing Adventures
BBC Countryfile Magazine
BBC Easy Cook
BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine
BBC Good Food
BBC History Magazine
BBC History Revealed
BBC Match of the Day
BBC Music
BBC Science Focus
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
BBC Top Gear
BBC Wildlife Magazine
BikeRadar
Cardmaking and Papercraft
CBeebies ART
CBeebies Magazine
CBeebies Special
Cross Stitch Crazy
Cross Stitch Gold
Cycling Plus
delicious
Gardens Illustrated
Girl Talk
Girl Talk Art
Go Jetters
Healthy Food Guide
Hey Duggee
hitched
Homes & Antiques
Junior
Lonely Planet Magazine
Love Crochet
Love Knitting for Baby
Love Patchwork & Quilting
MadeForMums
Mega
Mollie Makes
Mountain Biking UK
Octonauts
olive
Papercraft Inspirations
Radio Times Festival
Radio Times Magazine
RadioTimes.com
Sewing Quarter
Simply Crochet
Simply Knitting
Simply Sewing
Something Special
Swashbuckle
The Knitter
The World of Cross Stitching
The Yarn Loop
Today’s Quilter
Top Of The Pops
Toybox
Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine
You & Your Wedding
Immediate Media was owned by Exponent Private Equity, a private equity firm, operating billions of pounds in different sectors of our economy, investing in businesses yet for the sole role of profit, and with no entry on Wikipedia.
Immediate Media is on Wikipedia:
Immediate Media Company Limited is a publishing house owned by Hubert Burda Media, which acquired the company in January 2017. Approximately 85% of its revenue is from content services, with the remainder from advertising.
The 'content services' term is difficult to grasp to a layman; it basically means that: 'the digital editions is created with our own proprietary software and is among the most popular in the UK.' (source: http://www.immediate.co.uk/platforms/) which - in simple words - the texts and images are 'created' by computer programmes, not humans, and are repetitively used, with small variations, over a multitude of websites.
In other words - the same content minced all over again, and again; with enormous marketing resources; to wring out profit for as little intellectual effort as possible.
But, who is Hubert?
Wikipedia:
Hubert Burda Media Holding is a German media group (...) In the 1980s and 1990s, the company developed into a major corporation; it is now one of Germany's largest media companies. Its best-known media brands include the magazines Bunte and Superillu, the German edition of Playboy, the news magazine Focus, as well as HuffPost Germany, HolidayCheck and XING. (...) The Group also owns various mail orders and marketing firms.
In short conclusion:
Radio Times and BBC related titles along with many other consumerism-full, content-poor publications belong, since 2017, to a huge German corporation shaping the views and interests of millions of people in the UK (What about Brexit?) - by the use of repetitive robotic software.