Showreel

Magazine Lecture #1

The first magazine was the “Gentleman’s magazine” which was launched in 1731 in London. This wasn’t your stereotypical “lads mag” like we’re familiar with today, instead it consisted of more political and economic content.

It took longer for women’s magazines to appear, with “Dress” and “Vanity Fair” both launching in 1913. “Vogue UK” wasn’t released until 1916, and was only launched due to the fact that during wartime “American Vogue” couldn’t be shipped to the UK.

There are around 3,000 print magazines in the UK today, covering four different markets; business, professional, consumer and specialist consumer. However there is very little brand loyalty when it comes to the consumer “glossy” magazines. People are fickle and advertising on the front page is key, an article on the front saying “100 ways to have an orgasm” is enough to make a reader switch publication. This is evident across the magazine industry where publications are closed down frequently, for example “Maxim” and “Arena” closed in 2009 and “More!” closed in 2013. Whereas in specialist and business publications loyalty is key, people want accuracy and reliability which requires the publication to have a strong reputation.

Magazines are led by advertising in a very different way to newspapers. Magazines will regularly print articles entirely focused around advertising or reviewing certain products. They also print large full page advertisements throughout their publication. A perfect example of this is “Vogue”, in 2007  it ran 2,020 pages of advertising at an average of £16,000 per page, providing an income of £32million. “Vogue” is infamous for its high end advertisements, and in many cases this provides another incentive for the reader to buy it, it’s an opportunity to see the newest high end items.

As the industry changes and becomes more digitally focused magazines need to adapt to keep up with the trends. This is often done through supplying online subscriptions and Ipad editions, however this can have a backlash as it can cause print sales to fall. For example “Marie Claire’s” print sales have dropped by 14% since 2009. It could then be presumed that this would have been offset by digital sales, however they were just 1,764 in the first half of 2013.

The future of magazines is clearly going to be digitally based, and this is only going to be accelerated by the development of applications such as “Flipboard” which give the reader more choice and freedom to build their own magazine collection adapted to their specific tastes and needs.

Two surprising facts:
1) The top 3 selling magazines in the UK are; “TV Choice”, “What’s On TV” and “Radio Times”
2) Tesco magazine over took “The Sun” in terms of readership in 2012. 

MP Mike Thornton - The Big Interview

This is the third in the series of "The Big Interview", this time with Eastleigh MP Mike Thornton. I am a lot happier with the production of this interview, which is miles ahead of the previous Big Interviews. I feel that it looks much more professional and is in a very natural setting.

The main points I focused on throughout the interview were;
The IPSA announced 11% pay rise for MP's
Immigration - Romania and Bulgaria being granted free ability to enter the country on 1st January 2014
Prime Ministers Questions - is it appropriate how MP's are conducting themselves?





Eastleigh MP Mike Thornton has stated that he will be rejecting an 11% pay rise until his Eastleigh constituents start receiving higher pay themselves. 

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has announced plans to increase MP's pay by £7,600 making their annual pay £74,000 as from the 2015 general election. 

Mike Thornton stated that he will donate any additional pay above 1% to the Mayors charities for the benefit of his Eastleigh constituents.

WINOL - Week 7

This week on WINOL I was the expert on the Portsmouth job cuts and had an in-studio discussion with Harry Parkhill.

The bulletin this week had good light and shade, we balanced serious stories (a lot of job cuts) with some softer news, and gave everything a strong local angle. However a lot of reporters are still getting the eye lines of their interviews wrong, and some are still being framed as a profile shot. 

Ian Anderson said that the in-studio discussion worked, but it could have benefited from having some more context on careers in Southampton and reference to previous closures, such as Ford. 

Our Guest Editor this week was Claudia Murg - Investigative reporter for Panorama

Claudia gave us all very constructive criticism, and was unashamedly clear about the reality of the industry we all plan to enter. She said that the bulletin this week was good but only had average aspirations. No one aimed as high as they could have and that really came across in the bulletin, no one is really taking any risks, we are all playing it too safe. 

When you decide to cover a story, you need to bring something new and exciting to the story, don't just echo what the other publications have said. Make a list of all the people who your story will effect and try to make your story relevant to them. You are the eyes and the ears of the public - you need to be able to justify the time you spend. When you interview someone, you need to think about what the experience is like for them, you don't want to bore them. Surprise them, don't ask them things you can already find the answers to on the internet, ask them something new! Try not to focus on what you're going to say next, really listen to them and react to what they have to say. Constantly work on how you can improve your work and your skills.

WINOL Week 6 - Rowenna Davis Interview

This week I conducted an in-studio interview with Rowenna Davis, the Labour candidate for Southampton Itchen. This was the second in a series of big political interviews that I aim to complete before Christmas.

The interview has collected a large number of views, a big reason for this is that Rowenna Davis tweeted the link to the video on her Twitter, which has over 15,000 followers.

On the day of the interview I also tweeted Conservative Royston Smith, who will most likely be Rowenna Davis' biggest competitor in the 2015 General Election. He responded well, so I am currently working on getting him to come in for my next Big Interview. 

I am also working on increasing the viewership, on both my interview with Rowenna Davis and Diane James, by posting links to the videos on relevant political forums and Twitter pages.

I was very pleased by the content of the interview, however i felt that the production side of it lets it down. The lighting is far too spotlighted and gives off quite an intense feel. This is purely down to the fact that this style of interview is new for us, so I will be working closely with the production team to try and get it right for the next interview. 

For my text story for the WINOL website I chose to focus on three main topics that were brought up during the interview:

In an exclusive WINOL interview, Labour MP candidate Rowenna Davis said that she was “honoured and excited” to have been chosen to replace Southampton Itchen MP John Denham in the 2015 General Election.

When questioned on her Conservative competitor Royston Smith, she said: “I don’t think that this man can govern”, and added that: “he is someone that I will respect and take very seriously, but I do not fear him”.

Davis also said that despite her ties with Portsmouth, if there was a football match between Portsmouth and Southampton, she would “absolutely be wearing Southampton colours”.

The former journalist said that she agreed there needed to be some form of press regulation to prevent the “cartel of media giants” and stop the likelihood of a monopoly in the industry. But she disagreed with party leader Ed Milliband, who has supported the Royal Charter, saying that “the freedom of press is paramount,” adding: “people should be allowed to have their say without being fearful of the state”.

WINOL Week 5 - Presenting and UKIP Interview

This week I took the role of presenter for WINOL, attempting to fill the very big shoes of Harry Parkhill. I was quite nervous as it has been a long time since I have presented but I was excited to take on the challenge. I was slightly disappointed as I stumbled a few times and fluffed a few words. Ian Anderson said I presented well but needed to slow down my delivery, which is something I am aware I need to work on, as I often talk as fast as a chipmunk on a caffeine high.

Chris Coneybeer was our Guest Editor this week and he said I was personable but I still came across slightly stiff and nervous, he reassured me that confidence is something that will come with time.

I also tweeted Alastair Stewart for advice on presenting, and he was nice enough to reply with some very helpful advice. This also acted as a good little promotion for WINOL via a household name.

Chris Coneybeer also gave me advice on my Diane James interview, which we promoted and showed a small clip of in the bulletin. My questions were good, but Diane, like most politicians, was well trained and often managed to avoid the point I was  focusing on. The interview would have benefited if I re-questioned her, even if it meant asking her the same thing several times, even if she never answers it, it makes it clear to the audience that this is a topic she is trying to avoid. Politicians will always say their party line and get across what they want to say, it is my job to push them further.

The Big Interview - Diane James

In a WINOL exclusive interview, UKIP’s Diane James stated that other than its stance on Europe, the party is still working on its policies regarding other issues.

Since February, MEP candidate, Tim Aker has been developing the parties policies which will be announced “as and when it suits” UKIP before the General Election in 2015.

When it comes to current issues such as energy prices and economy, Diane stated that she is happy to sit back and watch the larger parties “battle it out”.

The Waverly Councillor also expressed her disgust against the Conservatives “illegal immigrants go home” posters calling them “abhorrent”, and stated that if UKIP were successful in the General Election they would not use such tactics.

WINOL - Week 4 - Vince Cable Energy Package

WINOL Week 4 -

On the Friday I managed to grab a quick interview with Business Secretary Vince Cable. I was pretty certain that I wouldn't be able to speak with him,as every other news organisation had booked a set slot with him, so I had the intention to grab some candid shots of him at the event and treat it similarly to my coverage of Nick Clegg. But as he walked away from the BBC my journalism training took over and I threw him a question regarding the energy price hikes, and thankfully he answered!

At Mondays news meeting Harry (this weeks News Editor) decided that we had to try and fit Vince Cable into the bulletin as he is a big name which would attract viewers, so I focused on turning it into a full package. My initial intention was to get a case study of an elderly resident to give the story a more local angle, however after knocking on many doors I eventually got the message that this was not going to happen.

As this was going to be a picture weak package I worked on making graphics to give it some more life. I also got in contact with British Gas to get their response to Vince Cables statement and they chose to send me a generic press release. Another tactic I chose to use to help get pictures for this story was "fair dealing" of a British Gas advertisement.

This weeks Guest Editor was Graham Bell. Angus Scott returned to WINOL aswell, so alongside Ian Anderson, we were spoiled for choice when it came to industry experts.

Graham Bell and Ian Anderson both said that my package was just missing one shot; Vince Cable arriving. His arrival would have provided me with the perfect set up shot so it was a real shame I didn't get it. Graham Bell used a Great British Bake Off analogy of Francis's picnic bake being "10 minutes away from perfection", my package was one shot away from perfection.

I had taken a lot of footage of Vince Cable throughout the day with the intention of using them for cutaways, however due to the colour difference between that and my interview footage, it wouldn't have made sense, so I chose to stick purely to the interview shot. My package also needed another shot to fill the time before the graphic, as it paused to white for an awkwardly long time. Graham Bell and Angus Scott were both quite pleased by my use of NAT SOT at the beginning and end of my package, which I was slightly worried was going to be bordering on cheesy.