I love the way blogging connects you with new people. A few weeks ago Sarah from Blag magazine emailed to say hello and introduce Blag because she'd been pointed at m'blog by Stef and Tom from Big Al's. And I'd been thinking that you've all probably heard enough planners banging on about brand polyphony and such so I thought it'd be interesting to interview some people who are building a really fascinating media property. And they kindly agreed. So here it is. I will confess to be a little intimidated interviewing professional interviewers but it seemed to go OK.
Blag is created with great passion, smarts and integrity by Sally A. Edwards and Sarah J. Edwards and you can tell they love what they do, which is probably why they're very good at it. It's a top magazine, you should try and get hold of a copy. We talked about Blag, obviously, about magazines generally (including nostalgia for great magazines of the 80s/90s like Sky, early Arena, Details and Raygun) and about how they don't mind crossing and/or blurring the line between advertising and editorial because their readers are savvy enough to know what's going on and they don't carry ordinary advertising in the magazine. (I think they're working out some of the ways brands and media owners are going to have to work together in a less interruptive world). I really enjoyed it, I suspect planners don't spend enough time talking to media creators. We should do more of it. It's a bit noisy in the background because the quietest place we could find in Covent Garden was a pub and it wasn't as quiet as we'd hoped, but I still think it's listenable.
Big thanks to Sally and Sarah for the time.
We also talked about little remembered but rather splendid 80s/90s TV programme Star Test; so I thought I'd add a little bit of that from YouTube featuring my hero, Martin Fry.
Sky and Star Test - now you're talking.
You could have done the interview here. Downstairs in the quiet bit.
Posted by: Ben | January 11, 2007 at 12:27 PM
I LOVED Star Test. And might have forgotten it forever if you'd not remembered it.
Posted by: beeker | January 11, 2007 at 12:36 PM
Didn't French and Saunders do a great spoof of Star Test a while back? I seem to remember Dawn French pretending to be Sonia and just going 'Er..' and 'Dunno' in a cod Scouse accent and giggling.
I really liked Sky Magazine, although I can only remember the 'Jay Strongman in Clubland' column because to a 15 year old growing up in Lancashire it sounded cool.....
Posted by: claire | January 11, 2007 at 12:58 PM
Love the interviews that you post, but would it be possible to get these as downloadable MP3 files so that a little time shifting can take place? I realise it can be costly to host this kind of stuff so I'm willing to offer a bit of space on my server if that would sway you.
Posted by: Jim Holt | January 11, 2007 at 03:52 PM
Sorry Jim, I forgot about the direct MP3 link - I've added it now. I might have forgotten it on some others too, I'll check. Glad you like 'em.
Posted by: russell | January 11, 2007 at 04:33 PM
Groovy baby. By the way, do you have a category that specifically hosts the posts that include MP3 files or do these gems have to be diligently mined?
Posted by: Jim Holt | January 11, 2007 at 04:43 PM
Russell -- Wyatt's first blog. He thinks your blog is cool, so I told him I share his with you. It's about toys. But he wants to attract adults to his blog as well, so he has thrown in a stock chart. Nicely balancing art and commerce. I think he's on his way to a career as a designer. Have a look. PS -- he did the blog on his own. i'm so proud.
Posted by: Kim Curry | January 11, 2007 at 09:16 PM
http://stuffedinformation2.blogspot.com
Posted by: Kim Curry | January 11, 2007 at 09:17 PM
their attitude between bluring content and paid spots was slightly confusing to me, but the sound quality was great. the muzak in the background was an added bonous...
Posted by: Michael Surtees | January 12, 2007 at 02:51 AM