Blog

Posted on

The Lost Mags of Highbury

Sitting in a warehouse, somewhere in England, are the last unpublished Highbury issues of Digital Photographer, XBox Monthly and Web Developer. No one wants them. So there they lay, collecting dust. How sad.

Does this mean Imagine isn’t going to carry on publishing these titles? There are good reasons why Imagine wouldn’t want to – and probably wouldn’t be able to – ship these particular issues of the mags, including copyright, branding, currency, ad revenue and so on. So we shouldn’t necessarily read too much into this. But if you want copies of those mags, I might be able to put you in touch with a man who can help out…

Posted on

Imagine still in talks with staff

Well, the reason for Imagine’s silence seems to be that it’s still in consultation with the former Highbury staff about which magazines it’s going to continue and whom it’s going to offer jobs to.

At the moment (according to unconfirmed reports from my sources), Tuesday or Wednesday next week looks like the end of the consultation period, and it’s likely only 50% of the magazines are going to survive. The sad corollary is that only 50% of Highbury’s staff are going to be offered jobs. Some have already decided they’re going to look for jobs elsewhere anyway and some are being told they’re too valuable to head off into the sunset and would they like a job now? Certainly, some of the key mags from Highbury are already up and running with some ex-Highbury staff.

The only ones we definitely and absolutely know for sure are going to continue are iCreate, Web Designer and games™. Play and one of the Xbox 360 magazines are liable to have survived as well, but we’ve not had that confirmed.

As for the previous list of titles that Imagine’s receptionist claimed were surviving, it’s entirely possible that she actually gave a list of titles that weren’t going to survive, since it looks like Digital Creative Arts and Web Developer won’t be weathering this particular storm. That doesn’t leave Advanced Photoshop in a particularly good place if that’s the case.

Incidentally, I’ve had another letter from a former Highbury subscriber. The current information deficit clearly isn’t going down well with the general public.

Excellent blog – as a reader since first publication of Digital Photographer I was shocked to see a magazine of such quality disappear without trace… I was referred to your blog via a forum with Digital Camera Magazine and read it avidly! Although you mention the publication in passing, I see no news of any relaunch so if you hear any more about it, I would be interested and will follow your blog when I can (I travel a fair amount).

Just thought it would be nice to thank you for letting the victim subscribers know what’s going on, as nobody else has.

Posted on

Imagine the sound of silence

Still nothing more from Imagine about what titles they’re carrying on with, although it looks like Web Developer might be history. I did email MD Damian Butt at the weekend to ask if he’d like to give me a list of the continuing titles so that I could help him get the word out. But so far, I’ve had no reply. Maybe I’ve been spam-filtered. Maybe he’s busy. Maybe he hasn’t decided. Maybe he’s trapped under something heavy.

With none of the Imagine staff, old and new, willing to post the info here (they are kind of busy, I suspect), at this rate, it’s looking like we’re only going to know once the magazines are on the shelves. Oh well.

Posted on

More Imagine magazine news

Continuing our theme of “which ex-Highbury magazines is Imagine going to continue publishing?”, it turns out the receptionist at Imagine may have spoken to soon: Digital Creative Arts may not have a new life after all. I’ll get confirmation of that on Monday, hopefully, along with a fuller list of the rejuvenated titles.

But in the meantime, I can tell you that Windows XP Made Easy is one of the survivors as well. Have a nice weekend!

Posted on

Today is Day of the Journalist

Apparently, in Latin America, today is Day of the Journalist. What do journalists do today?

“Mainly delete the standard e-cards sent to us telling what a great value to society we are”

Hmm. Can’t see it taking off here. Sniff.

UPDATE: Actually, it turns out it was yesterday. Digest versions of mailing lists: I curse you!

Posted on

The readers want info

Just got this email from an iCreate reader. Seems like my suggestion about Imagine leaving info here might be a good idea:

I’m not in the industry, just an avid reader of iCreate magazine. I’d been wondering why the latest issue was taking so long to come out; at first I thought it might have been delayed due to Christmas, then I’d heard rumblings that Highbury had run into trouble. No-one though, not W.H Smith Customer Services, not the Highbury website not even trade publications like Media Week seemed to have any information.

That is until Google led me to your blog. I just wanted to say thank you for letting people know what’s going on with their favourite publications when the companies involved seem so completely incapable of passing on any information either through their websites or through newsagents. Happily iCreate appears to be coming back. I look forward to picking up the next issue and hope that it’s as lovingly written and produced as before.

Posted on

Imagine begins to speak!

No sooner do I wonder what’s happening with all the ex-Highbury magazines and why Imagine’s being so quiet than messages start to come out: I’m guessing everyone was under orders to keep quiet until now.

Only a couple of magazines so far have confirmed their existence, but I’m sure more will be emerging into the light in the coming days. Looks like the first new issues will be coming out this month and next month. Anyway, here’s a round-up of what we have so far:

gamesTM: Will continue, according to Imagine MD Damian Butt.

Web Designer: Will continue, according to emails sent out by the new team. Working on issues 116 and 117 right now. Former contributors are being approached. At least some of the old team are running it as well as, I’m told, the former editor of Web Developer (who might also be editor of Web Developer, but I’ve no information about that title at the moment). The new contact email address for the mag is [email protected]

Advanced Photoshop: The receptionist at Imagine says the mag will be back.

Web Developer: Ditto

Digital Creative Arts: Ditto

iCreate: Will be coming back and former contributors are being approached. Further details are available in this Mac Creative forum thread.

Anyway, that’s six titles out of 24, so there’s some way to go before we know the fates of all the mags. But I’ve had an idea. Seeing as

  1. there’s a bunch of people at Imagine who come to visit this blog every so often (yes, I can see you) and who are presumably in need of content quickly
  2. plenty of former Highbury Entertainment freelances come here, wanting to know whom to approach about contributing articles
  3. plenty of subscribers to the magazines come here, too, wanting to know what’s happened to their favourite mags
  4. Imagine’s Flash-based website is probably a bugger to update and is none too compatible with search engine indexing

why don’t the new Imagine teams leave their magazines’ contact details here in the comments section, along with any information about their respective mags that they want subscribers to know? Alternatively, they can email me. In both case, I’ll add a blog entry with the appropriate details so that the information’s obvious and clear. That’s probably the quickest way to get word out to contribs old and new, as well as subscribers, don’t you think? Let me know if you agree or disagree.

And if SMD feel like doing the same, that’s just dandy: I’m already getting lots of people asking me for their contact details and BT.com doesn’t yet have a number for them.

Posted on

The quietness of Imagine

There’s been a slight quietness from Imagine of late as to which magazines it’s going to continue publishing and in what forms. There’s also a quietness about how many from Highbury have been offered jobs at Imagine. Given the interviews were supposed to be over a week ago now, that doesn’t bode well.

I’ve tried phoning; I’ve tried emailing; I’ve tried instant messaging.

Quietness.

Some news has leaked though, as previous blog entries will show. There have been various assurances given that the Imagine versions of the surviving mags will appear at the end of this month or in March.

But there are a few questions still on my mind

a) has anyone from the old Highbury been offered a job yet?

b) have any of the former Highbury freelances (who weren’t also Imagine freelances) heard from the editors of the new titles yet?

c) which magazines are going to continue?

d) are the new mags going to be pure Imagine, without any input from the former contributors, a mix, or a continuation?

If you have answers, could you leave a comment on the blog or email me at [email protected]? Let me know if you’d like the information published or not. I’m hoping it’ll be good news for the ex-Highbury lot, at least.