"The depressing but inevitable demise of Press Gazette"

Today, Wilmington Media announced that Press Gazette, the UK’s journalism trade mag, will be closing.

In a statement this lunchtime, proprietors Wilmington Group announced that next month's edition of the magazine would be the last hard copy edition, reports Holdthefrontpage. Dave Lee, from whom I, stuck for time as I'm in the middle of a few other stories, have stolen the title and intro, has more. I will only add that hiring Martin Stabe back in 2006 or so was a brilliant move and what got me reading Press Gazette's online in the first place (keeping in mind that I only know Martin via his blog, which I stumbled across via a former tutor, Andrew Grant-Adamson's, blog).

On a less positive note, a key industry player recently told me he felt former PG-man Jon Slattery's blog was at times doing a better job of covering the media industry than PG these days as Slattery was calling people up to get tidbits rather than just reproducing press releases - a fact I mention only because it's a trap too many news sites seem to fall in these days.

I will also add to Dave's thoughts on Media Guardian playing such a dominant role in the UK's media journalism market that there are aspects of that I find a bit odd: I would for instance have expected FT to cover especially the European media market better, and yet they're beaten again and again by Media Guardian - even on M&As and company results, issues where FT long has been heralded for having the market leading coverage. That said, The Independent also has good media stories from time to time, though they tend to "hide" them in the business section, and The Telegraph has been doing a better job of covering the media industry since they hired Amanda Andrews (or since they set up a seperate RSS-feed for media and technology, not sure which). I also get many of my favourite UK media tidbits from Journalism.co.uk, Paid Content and media bloggers.

On that note, if not even an online shred of Press Gazette will be kept alive, I shall thoroughly miss Peter Kirwan's blog - even though I was not entirely happy about a piece he interviewed me about Mecom for, I've come to really enjoy his writings on Media Money as it covers one of my favorite aspects of the media industry so well. 

For the record: of the sites mentioned here, I've been paid for article commissions from Press Gazett, The Independent business section and I'm a regular contributor to Journalism.co.uk (and, if I shall be really strict on disclosures, I've also been paid for articles I wrote for The Guardian/Observer)

Update 07.04-09, 13:00 CET: On this topic I also enjoyed reading Press Gazette Insider’s View: Why Journalism’s Trade Bible Failed by Patrick Smith 16:55 CET: and Jon Slattery's Old Bell tolls for Press Gazette via Thoughts of Nigel

17:07 CET: isn't it interesting how many people, like here, say they will miss the blogs? I singled out Media Money above, but I shall miss the other blogs too.

Comments

[Peter Kirwan]

Kristine

Kristine -- Sorry to hear you weren't entirely happy with that piece... I wasn't aware of that: you should have dropped me a line. I certainly would have corrected emphasis/facts/whatever...

But thanks for the kind mention. It's appreciated. All the best,

Peter

[Kristine Lowe]

Yes, I could have dropped you a line, but it kind of drowned in other major things going on that month which goes to show my objections weren't that major.

I thought there was nothing new in the story save my notion of how Montgomery is perceived differently when he puts on his Irish rather than his British persona, but I also saw your story was picked up immediately by Gentlemen Ranters so the conclusion may be that I'm rather hard to please since I've followed this story so closely. UK media press was slow to pick up on Mecom, but UK business press did keep an eye on it from an early stage. I would have been much more interested in reading your original story idea, looking at the company's finances, but come to think of I also wouldn't have minded editing that story myself;-)

Ah well, I do like your writing though, and my thoughts on UK media coverage also reflects that I'm much more interested in media finance and editorial development than in celebrity - which is why I find most of the media coverage of the Indy's media section rather dull and think they hide their best media stories in the business section:-)

So what will you do now? Will you take your blog elsewhere? I mean, it's not like Media Money has become a less important topic recently...

[Peter Kirwan]

Thanks Kristine. Those Gentlemen Ranters, eh?

Yes, I'm thinking about what to do with Media Money...

Peter