Monthly Archive for September, 2010

Common sense – spot the difference

Published: 17 September, 2010 by Don in Mags we like.


An excellent perk for anyone banking with Royal Bank of Scotland is the superb free magazine, Sense, which rivals any news-stand glossy in terms of photography and writing quality. It’s not exactly exclusive, though. Customers of NatWest, owned by RBS, get a great magazine, too. Also called Sense, it has the same cover picture and largely the same features inside. In the issues I perused, sponsorship deals dictate that the RBS version has a feature on golf, while the NatWest one goes for cricket. In the food section, Andrew Fairlie waxes lyrical for RBS customers while Nigel Slater does the same for their NatWest counterparts. It’s all nice work for publisher John Brown, which produces both Senses for RBS Group. It’s good for the readers, too, because economies of scale doubtless mean they get a better mag, featuring bigger names, than they would otherwise. But it does feel slightly odd to see both versions – which must happen in a fair few households. And it must be a nightmare for whoever has the job of ensuring that no logos or corporate slogans creep into the wrong publication.

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A bit rich

Published: 16 September, 2010 by Don in Uncategorized and We're not convinced.

It’s sometimes said that a magazine’s adverts tell you more about the readers than the editorial content – certainly that’s true of, say, the Sunday Telegraph magazine, which is likely to run interviews with edgy grime artists in between its ads for stairlifts and gardeners’ kneepads. So who do you think would be reading a mag crammed with ads for Aston Martins, luxury whirlpool baths, diamonds, Rolex watches and home security systems? Yes that’s right – footballers. The organ in question is The Players Club, official publication of the players’ union, the PFA – and in this case the editorial does actually tally closely with the ads. Too closely for comfort, at times, with many of the pictures used in the ads cropping up again in nearby editorial. The whole shamelessly opulent package does rather undermine the notion of a trade union publication being there to battle on behalf of the downtrodden.

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Out of office

Published: 9 September, 2010 by Neil in Stuff we like.

It’s not all sitting in front of a screen laying out pages here at CMYK Towers. Sometimes we have to get involved in photo shoots, gathering together props, finding locations and standing in as models!

A couple of weeks ago it was Christmas at my house, as we recreated a festive “gifts under the tree” scene for the forthcoming Scotland in Trust.

Then just the other day, we went to our photographer’s back garden and set up a cover shoot (harvesting apples). Shannon Tofts, our friendly photographer, needed an old fashioned looking bellows to see the screen of his laptop. Thanks too, to Tattie Shaws for the Discovery apples – delicious!

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New balls

Published: 6 September, 2010 by Don in We're not convinced.

It’s always nice to see a new running mag, but I fear Men’s Running may hit the wall sooner than you can say “Grease up my nipples”. Not only is it laced with dated, sub-Loaded fnarr-fnarr phraseology like that (it’s aimed at ‘runners with balls’, would you believe), but by taking the monogendered approach it’s also depriving itself of half its potential readers and a fair chunk of its potential subject matter. Avoiding repetition is hard enough for Runner’s World, which can at least throw in the odd feature on running while pregnant, which sports bra to buy and why those beastly men insist on spitting so much. Besides, I’m not convinced that the kind of muscle-worship and preening to which this new title panders is actually that common in running circles, which are largely populated by scrawny characters with a healthy lack of interest in their appearance. Wild Bunch Media, who have launched Men’s Running, already do a title for women runners, so they have a vested interest in this division of the sexes. But nearly all running clubs and road races welcome runners with or without balls, and I’d have thought the whole subject is largely gender neutral. Oggi oggi oggi – why, why, why?

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Café CMYK?

Published: 6 September, 2010 by Neil in Stuff we like.

Shoe designer Patrick Cox has recently opened a cake shop in London’s Soho. The Missoni family have a hotel in Edinburgh. Ralph Lauren has a restaurant in Paris. Designers everywhere are extending their brands – and why not? They sell a lifestyle after all.

Publishers Conde Nast are about to roll out a chain of cafés worldwide, based on their flagship title Vogue. They’ve already piloted the model in Moscow, with Vogue Café, GQ Bar and Tatler Club. It remains to be seen how this idea would work in other cities, but I suspect they aren’t opening one next door to us here at CMYK Towers. Skinny latte anyone? Coming right up.

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