Press Gazette to live again

It appears then that Press Gazette will fight another day.

Reports of its demise after Wilmington announced it was closing the magazine were premature.

Mike Danson saviour of the New Statesman has stepped in with the Progressive media group.

You can read the full statement here at Press Gazette's blog

Ponsford on PG's demise

Editor or should I say former editor of the Press Gazette Dominic Ponsford writes in this morning's Media Guardian.

Media doomsayers will see the demise of Press Gazette (if this is the end and no last-minute buyer comes forward) as the death of the canary in the coal mine as far as the news industry is concerned. If journalism, of all professions, can't support its own trade magazine and site - what chance does the rest of the industry have?

The magazines demise he says is

another chapter in an unfolding national tragedy, as long-established news organisations go to the wall. It matters, just as the closures and mass lay-offs at dozens of regional newspapers matter, because of the stories that will no longer get told.

More on the demise of PG

There is much more on the demise of Press Gazette today.

Neil Thakery former publisher sums it up quite well

It was never an easy title to get right. It’s readers were passionate about it, but unwilling to pay for it. Recruitment, which hadbeen the bread and butter of the magazine all but dried up with the regional newspaper groups operating an effective boycott in favour of their jointly owned Hold the Front Page website. The press awards were a cauldron of ego, hatred, boorishness, controversy, boycotts, politics and occasionally a celebration of the best in journalism.

Jon Slattery believes that it should exist if only on the web

We can't let some small time publisher like Wilmington kill it off.
We are in a different era from print magazines. All we need is access to the web, to tap into the independent spirit of Press Gazette and connect with journalists across the country.
We won't make any money but we won't lose a lot either. What we will have is an independent voice. That's priceless in a way a magazine company and its bean counters will never understand.

The final demise of Press Gazette

There is little that hasn't been written already over the appaarent demise of Press Gazette which was announced yesterday by Wilmington

Instead let me direct you to three postings.

1.John Slattery who has been filling in their recently covering for paternity leave

2.Dave Lee who did some work experience there

3.Kristine Lowe who reflects on why the model failed

Press Gazette Magazine awards

This is the list of the winners of the Press Gazette magazine awards that were held last night.

The highlights,Glossy design and fashion magazine Wallpaper winning three awards including,best-designed circulation magazine of the year and the overall best-designed title of the year.The young designer of the year went to Dominic Bell also at the magazine.

Young Designer of the Year: Dominic Bell, Wallpaper

Best Designed Magazine of the Year - Consumer (Over 40k): Meirion Pritchard, Wallpaper

Best Designed Magazine of the Year: Meirion Pritchard, Wallpaper

Best Designed Features Spread: Grant Bowden, Ritz

Best Use of Typography: Grant Bowden, Ritz

Best New Design/Redesign: Marissa Bourke, Elle

Best Designed Front Cover: Marissa Bourke, Elle

Best Use of Illustration: Tan Parmar, Contact

Best Use of Photography: Dan Delaney, Onelife

Reviewer of the year: Andrew Billen, The London Magazine

Digital Journalist of the Year: Paul Grant, Accountancy Age

Business Reporter of the Year: Stuart MacDonald, Building

Exclusive of the year: Jonathan Green, Live

Feature Writer of the Year: Ariel Leve, The Sunday Times Magazine

Magazine Designer of the Year: Jonathan Gregory, Dirt Magazine

Editor of the Year: David Burton, Camouflage

Best-Designed B2B magazine: Dean Dorat, Contagious

Interviewer of the Year: Lesley White, The Sunday Times Magazine

Best-Designed Customer magazine: Dan Delaney, Onelife

Columnist of the Year: Michael Hodges, Time Out

Production Team of the Year: Esquire

Best Designed Magazine of the Year Consumer (Under 40k): Paul Willoughby & Rob Longworth, Little White Lies

News Reporter of the Year: Sally Gainsbury, Health Service Journal

Former Press Gazette editor on why the magazine has so many problems

The news that the Press Gazette is to turn from a weekly to a monthly publication attracts attention in Media Guardian this morning.

Its former editor Ian Reeves asks why has it become such a poisoned chalice and reminds us that

Since 1990, six companies of varying size, shape and ambition have had a stab at owning what in theory should be the industry's pride and joy: a magazine by its journalists for its journalists. Each has either passed the magazine on with unseemly haste or, in the case of Piers Morgan and Matthew Freud, gone spectacularly out of business in a high-speed crash for which I had the privilege of a front seat.

and adding that

no other business-to-business magazine has had such obstacles placed in its way by the very people it tries to serve. Its treatment at the hands of some powerful players, within regional and national newspapers, has been little short of shameful

.

He sees a couple of major reasons

1.

the issue has been about control over a title that often prints uncomfortable truths. With the regionals this took the form of removing the lucrative jobs advertising that had once been Press Gazette's lifeblood

2.

For the nationals, the battleground has always been the British Press Awards - the event that has become the magazine's commercial lifeline. It has been plagued by petulant, childish behaviour, both on the night itself and during the weeks of aftermath as strutting editors summoned PG's editor for a lecture on why the judging system must have been rigged;

It will be a shame if the magazine losses its front line relevance for the press industry by being forced down the monthly route.But then again it won't be the only B2B that comes out monthly?

Uclan student wins journalist of the year award

Congratulations to Ricki Dewsbury,third year student at Uclan who has walked off with the prestigous Student Journalist of the year award.

Ricki follows in the footsteps of another Uclan student Mark Hughes who won the award last year.

Uclan had a number of successes at the Press Gazette awards including student team of the year award,Tom Clarke won radio journalist of the year, BA Sports Journalism graduate Frida Larsson won multi-media journalist of the year.

Press Gazette launches new aggregator blog

Press Gazette have this morning launched a news blog,the Wire which attempts to aggregate in the words of Dominic Ponsford

a new cross-media service aimed at providing a comprehensive, intelligent aggregation of every story we can find about journalism

Dominic continues

The Wire will provide a highly-searchable index of journalism stories culled from a plethora of sources across the internet and other media

. adding that

Online is where the action is for news, and The Wire is our attempt create a sort of mega-blog which keeps us and our readers on top of all the big stories about journalism all the time - without diverting limited editorial resources away from the print edition.
And it provides us with the material for a handy page of digested news in the magazine which should become essential reading for anyone who needs to keep up with the fast-changing world of journalism.

Press Gazette relaunches online

The Press Gazette has relaunched its website today to coincide with the re launch of its print edition.

This from the site:

"The relaunched site will give us far more flexibility
about how we present images. The wider screen width will allow us to use larger
photography and will also give us plenty of space to include videos and other
multimedia features.
Each story in the new site will automatically connect to
related content in the site's archive, which includes more than 16,000 Press
Gazette stories dating back to the late 1990s. The site's search functionality,
long a leading source of complaints both among readers and staff, is also
drastically improved. "