Category: Journalism

There’s some handy tips on how to avoid losing your freelance gigs over at Washington City Paper today. It’s aimed more at Washington Post contribs, but some of the advice is universal, I think.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Ernst & Young are currently sending out letters to Highbury freelances, advising them of where they stand. If you don’t receive yours within the next few days and Highbury owe you money, you should give Lukshmi Arulkumarasan a call on 020 7608 6304 (she’s Margaret Mills’ assistant).

There are a few notable points in the letter:

1. E&Y won’t pay for any work delivered after 20th January, unless it was approved by one of the Joint Administrative Receivers (herself, R J Beard and S J Edel).
2. If you’re working on anything for Highbury still, even if it was “ringfenced”, stop now or you’ll probably be doing it with no payment in sight. You should also send a statement of any Highbury orders that you haven’t completed.
3. You need to send Ms Mills a detailed statement of any sums you’re owed.
4. If you have a preferential claim under section 386 of the Insolvency Act 1986, you need to advise her immediately. That’s very unlikely though
5. You may get VAT bad debt relief on anything older than six months. You’ll obviously have to be paying VAT to qualify for that.
6. She considers it unlikely there will be any surplus available for non preferential creditors. However, she’ll be preparing a report in three months’ time to deliver the bad news and give an indication of likely dividend prospects.

She also says that the company directors haven’t yet submit a statement of affairs so the company’s full financial position isn’t known yet. Want to bet it’s probably a lot worse than we already thought?

Media Week has a few more facts on SMD Publishing, confirming that it’s a subsidiary of Remnant and that Attitude and What’s On in London will be joining SMD from Remnant.

I know it’s not like me to mock one of the magazines I work for, but how’s this for an article intro?

How Open Source Frees the World

Enshrining openness in what was hardly more than pseudo-legal terminology codified the belief that spreading technology and the means of universal communication did more for the cause of social democracy and capitalism than maintaining a technological edge using military-style secrecy.

Everyone clear?

If you’re owed money by Highbury, the London Freelance Branch of the NUJ has published the following advice:

If you are owed money by Highbury House Communications plc, note that it was put into receivership on 20 January. You need to file a creditor’s claim form with the liquidator: write to Margaret Mills at Ernst and Young, 1 More London Place, London SE1 2AF. If you do so you should receive a proportion of what you are owed.

If you’re a contributor or subscriber to Web Designer, Digital Creative Arts, Web Developer and Advanced Photoshop, the thread in this forum should give you some hope and information about the future of the mags – and your subscriptions.