I've mentioned before that Time Out isn't the only magazine launching in Manchester this fall. 69-247 Magazine (yes, that's it's real name) is supposed to be out tomorrrow. It's a free glossy from the Midlands that is starting a Northern regional edition based in Manc. It promises to both ruffle our feathers and give us a kick up the ass, which sounds kinda painful to me. Former City Life staffer Ruth Allan is heading up the Manchester editorial operations.
It's pretty brave to go ahead with a free mag when Time Out is poised to start publishing here in the spring, since it looks like they'd definitely be going for the same ad market. You can read more about it in the somewhat breathless press release here.
5 comments:
It's entertaining that we're going to have yet another free mag, made with environmentally-unfriendly, oil-thirsty, glossy paper, filled with adverts for 'luxury apartments' shoved around town.
I. Can't. Wait.
The only upside is that because they have ABC certification, maybe they won't be allowed to shove them through our mailboxes like those two free estate agent mags currently doing the rounds.
Funniest thing I've seen in those mags so far: obviously they're just hoardings from the estate agents, but they have to at least pretend that they're really 'lifestyle' magazines otherwise nobody will read them. To smear the lie in our faces, they pretend to do restaurant reviews. Review in last week's edition of one of them was for, and I'm not making this up: Subway on Deansgate. I shit you not. No, not Suburb, SubWAY. The sandwich franchise. Apparently the six-inch sub is "perfectly fine" and you don't need the twelve inches which would be "setting yourself a challenge". It's like reviewing Mc-fricking-Donalds. 'City Life' was getting crap towards the end, but at least it wasn't this sixth-former, rag-mag nonsense.
I won't be reading this 69 malarky, because I don't care about 'wearable fashion' or 'what the hottest clubs in town' are. Nor am I interested in property, what they laughingly call 'lifestyle' (more like 'slave to conformity'), or what the latest 'happenings' are in Manchester. I'm a Mancunian, not some namby-pamby, insecure, oh-so-lonely-and-in-need-of-being-loved Southerner.
Tosspots the lot of them. I hope they all drown in a sea of oily paper and estate agent ad copy.
Oh, that's brilliant - what's next, Wimpy's? Though in the grim last days of City Life I seem to remember a certain bit of advertorial on Greggs.
"Lifestyle Magazine" Moving Manchester was bought by PR company BBDM earlier this year - Sure, it's free, because it's effectively one big promotional ad. Do they actually think we can't tell the difference between that and a real magazine?
I came across the following comment on your blog this week.
"Lifestyle Magazine" Moving Manchester was bought by PR company BBDM earlier this year - Sure, it's free, because it's effectively one big promotional ad. Do they actually think we can't tell the difference between that and a real magazine?”
I hope that you don’t mind me taking the opportunity to reply to it.
Firstly, I feel I must correct you on a couple of points. BBDM is not a PR company, but a publishing, creative and media company. We previously ran Directory magazine, and took over Moving Manchester, as you said, earlier this year. Before our involvement, Moving Manchester was predominantly concerned with the property market.
Our magazine is free. We do not think that this is something that should induce criticism. Through our editorial, as well as the inexpensive advertising we offer, we support a lot of independent restaurants, bars, and businesses, ethical companies and alternative medicine suppliers. We want our readers to be aware of all the ‘happenings’, as they were so quaintly called, in Manchester because we are proud of how much Manchester has to offer its residents.
As regards the difference between our magazine and a ‘real’ magazine, we would be interested to understand what, in your view, constitutes a ‘real’ magazine’. As we understand it, a magazine is “A periodical containing a collection of articles, stories, pictures, or other features”. Even the most cursory glance through our publication should set your mind to rest on this point. Perhaps you would like to read our November issue, which is out now, paying special attention to page 65. You will find a feature that refers not only to your blog but also quotes you directly.
Furthermore, we are well aware of the interests of our readership and the editorial within Moving Manchester reflects this. We accept that our magazine will not please every potential reader in Manchester – however, as I am sure you are aware, when a magazine attempts to please every possible readership, it ends in pleasing none. We do not pretend to be The Times, The Guardian or Vogue. We are happy with what we achieve as a regional magazine that caters for a readership who have more civic pride than most.
Kind Regards,
The Editorial Team
Moving Manchester magazine
Hmmmm... Okay, I'll take a look at the latest issue of Moving Manchester, and I'll report back - in detail - in a separate post.
Hi
I believe Moving Manchester and Directory Magazine merged in April, the latter being owned with the now defunct Openhouse Group. Is this correct?
Richard
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