Posts Tagged ‘Royal Gazette’

Let the games begin

Posted: June 12, 2014 in sports
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chris-toby2For us football fans, it’s been like waiting for Christmas but the FIFA World Cup is finally here with hosts Brazil kicking off against Croatia in Sao Paulo today.

I’ll be flying to Brazil next week with my son Toby for what promises to be the football trip of a lifetime. We’ll be seeing six games, including England’s games against Uruguay and Costa Rica and two quarter-finals. During the trip I’ll be contributing a World Cup Diary to The Royal Gazette – you can read my first column here.

Oh, and just in case you’re wondering, Argentina will beat Brazil in the final.

 

RIP RG

Posted: November 26, 2011 in Bermuda, media
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February 1993: Stephen Raynor's portrait of runner Jennifer Fisher and her children graced our first cover.

It’s either a curse or merely a sign of the times. With the news that the December 2011 issue of RG Magazine will be the last, it means that every publication on which I have worked full-time in my career (bar The Royal Gazette) has folded!

My first newspaper, the Bucks Examiner in my hometown of Chesham, Buckinghamshire, now masquerades as the “Buckinghamshire Examiner” under its new owners, but it is no longer printed in or operated from Chesham and no self-respecting local regards it as the same paper.

The Evening Post-Echo in Hemel Hempstead was closed down in 1983, the year after I came to Bermuda (damn, missed out on the redundancy money!), and the Mid-Ocean News, of which I was sports editor from 1984-1992, shut down in 2009.

I’m particularly sad about the demise of RG Magazine, though, sunk it seems by dwindling ad sales caused by both the economic climate and increased competition from internet advertising. I was its founding editor when it launched in February 1993 until I left to start Kaleidoscope Media in August 2001, so it was very much my baby.

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A tale of two papers

Posted: December 15, 2010 in Bermuda, internet, iPad, media, Technology
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It’s been interesting week for online news junkies.  Here in Bermuda, The Royal Gazette gave its website a much-needed makeover on Tusday while in London, The Sunday Times launched what is arguably the most impressive iPad version yet of a major newspaper.

Of course we’re comparing apples and oranges here in terms of resources and readership but I think it’s interesting to see how two newspapers, both established in the 1820s, are trying to figure how how to stay viable and relevant in a rapidly-changing media landscape.

The Gazette site really couldn’t have got any worse – although at the time of writing a poll on the site embarrassingly showed that 38% thought the new version was either “worse” or “much worse” (57% said it was improved or much improved).

At first glance, the site certainly looks cleaner, more readable and better organised but it doesn’t take long to realise that the changes are little more than cosmetic and that the Gazette still doesn’t really get the internet, digital publishing and just how disruptive and game-changing the technology will continue to be to the media business as a whole. (more…)