Have to do some judging for this year's PPA Magazine Awards. I've done this on and off for twenty-five years and it doesn't get any easier. They deliver a huge box of shortlisted items in your category and you have to turn up to a meeting next week with a few choices to debate with some other judges. The supporting statements are full of the usual clichés – really understands the market, exceptional team leader, until s/he came this magazine was languishing etc – so they're not an awful lot of help. They send three different issues of each. The difficulty is finding an appropriate way to sample them. There's not a lot of point sitting down at a desk with a sharpened pencil and a yellow legal pad because that bears no relation to the way that real people actually consume magazines. And you have to stop yourself looking for reasons to exclude things: pictures too small, no captions here, contents page misleading, this is just wrong. They're not GCSE essays after all. Think I'll just leave them lying around the house and see which ones get pinched. That's usually a sign of a good magazine. Which reminds me, who's walked off with my copy of Word?
Thursday, April 12, 2007
The true sign of a good magazine
Have to do some judging for this year's PPA Magazine Awards. I've done this on and off for twenty-five years and it doesn't get any easier. They deliver a huge box of shortlisted items in your category and you have to turn up to a meeting next week with a few choices to debate with some other judges. The supporting statements are full of the usual clichés – really understands the market, exceptional team leader, until s/he came this magazine was languishing etc – so they're not an awful lot of help. They send three different issues of each. The difficulty is finding an appropriate way to sample them. There's not a lot of point sitting down at a desk with a sharpened pencil and a yellow legal pad because that bears no relation to the way that real people actually consume magazines. And you have to stop yourself looking for reasons to exclude things: pictures too small, no captions here, contents page misleading, this is just wrong. They're not GCSE essays after all. Think I'll just leave them lying around the house and see which ones get pinched. That's usually a sign of a good magazine. Which reminds me, who's walked off with my copy of Word?
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ReplyDeleteI'm the editor-in-chief of three magazines, however with none of them being Heat, the ultradull Radio Times or flavour of the year Grazia (which has apparently revolutionised the magazine world by being, er, weekly, and about fashion) then it's not even worth submitting them for consideration by the PPA.
ReplyDeleteYes I am bitter. But awards are meaningless, right?
When you don't win 'em. When you do on the other hand they're a long overdue recognition of that which has been a secret too long.
ReplyDeleteDo remember that without the income from presenting all these awards comedians would be forced to write more dreadful post modern "dark" sitcoms so bring'em on.
ReplyDeleteSadly some things are destined to remain a secret forever, it would seem.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not calling it "The" Word, why should we? Just wondering.
ReplyDeleteI just follow the old "call me whatever you like but don't ever call me late for dinner" line. It's no different from "the" NME or "the" Tatler.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, except that neither has changed its masthead to "The NME" or "The Tatler"...
ReplyDeleteOr Safeways.
ReplyDeleteAn Enoch Bolles cover, now that's a sign of a great magazine!
ReplyDelete