>>Im convinced that the journos are "told" which way to write their articles before they are given them.<<
Nah - it's completely random.
Like Bowie writing a song pulling lines of type from a hat.
One hell of a ride.
>>Im convinced that the journos are "told" which way to write their articles before they are given them.<<
Nah - it's completely random.
Like Bowie writing a song pulling lines of type from a hat.
One hell of a ride.
'Those are my principles. If you don't like them - I have others.' - Groucho.Originally Posted by Conquiztador
Forum whore
I buy bike mags for phone sex ads.
If a man is alone in the woods and there isn't a woke Hollywood around to call him racist, is he still white?
<- A new way to take a rubber!
I can't read so I buy them for the pictures... and I like "dirty" pictures, really "dirty" ones, like the kind you find in Dirt Rider
Case in point - Top Gear refused a factory Dodge Charger in the USA when they did the Bonneville episode - they had to buy one off the shelf.
Double shot!!
They are just running a business. I am amazed that anyone can make money printing stuff on paper and selling it in shops - for quality reading, google, youtube, etc al make any topic into easy entertainment for hours.
Steve
"I am a licenced motorcycle instructor, I agree with dangerousbastard, no point in repeating what he said."
"read what Steve says. He's right."
"What Steve said pretty much summed it up."
"I did axactly as you said and it worked...!!"
"Wow, Great advise there DB."
WTB: Hyosung bikes or going or not.
One hell of a ride.
Here's how it works in a 'typical' publishing house. (they are all different)
Publisher.
It's his money. His business. Not 'necessarily' his opinions. Holds Full veto power.
(Getting a cover past a publisher is one of the great challenges of design.)
Editor.
Takes the Publisher's instruction and commissions the content to suit.
Good editors bleed for the integrity of their publication.
The Editor dispatches briefs to the writers and journalists, defines the house style, controls and edits the final copy. Dispatches the photographer, chooses the images.
Some publications have sub-editors.
Subs correct grammar and structure and enforce house styles without altering context.
(Some of what I say isn't what I said. Usually grammar, rarely context. Comes with the territory. Bank the cheque, htfu)
Advertising.
Without it there is no production budget. Some sales managers are dicks who try and control editorial and design with bluster, some are team players. Successful titles - better teams.
Journalist/writer.
Takes a brief from the editor. Sometimes that will include 'the Angle' - sometimes it doesn't and the writer has to find one.
Sometimes a writer will produce something on spec or make a contribution and the Editor accepts or declines - or edits to suit.
Personally.
The way I approach it is 'If I was interested in this vehicle - what would I like to know about it' and I try and impart that information in as informative and amusing way as possible within the constraints of the brief.
I haven't had a vehicle worth slating and I won't do the 'My GN is shit for track days' act. Everything I have tested has been fit for purpose and has suited someone.
Mormons.
I think they have talent. Cinematography is real good and they are producing a style of entertainment popular in their generation.
I don't know for sure, but I suspect the moment they put their real names and addresses on the kind of stuff that they will need to do if they want to go 'mainstream' - then it won't be very long before the litigation will start.
Harley come after people for trade mark violations. 'Urinal' they might take exception to if it's published with an address.
Top Gear has BBC lawyers, KB's the Mormon beak?
One hell of a ride.
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/23/mediamonkey
Read Giles Coren's letter to Times subs
Wednesday July 23 2008
guardian.co.uk
Chaps,
I am mightily pissed off. I have addressed this to Owen, Amanda and Ben because I don't know who i am supposed to be pissed off with (i'm assuming owen, but i filed to amanda and ben so it's only fair), and also to Tony, who wasn't here - if he had been I'm guessing it wouldn't have happened.
I don't really like people tinkering with my copy for the sake of tinkering. I do not enjoy the suggestion that you have a better ear or eye for how I want my words to read than I do. Owen, we discussed your turning three of my long sentences into six short ones in a single piece, and how that wasn't going to happen anymore, so I'm really hoping it wasn't you that fucked up my review on saturday.
It was the final sentence. Final sentences are very, very important. A piece builds to them, they are the little jingle that the reader takes with him into the weekend.
I wrote: "I can't think of a nicer place to sit this spring over a glass of ros? and watch the boys and girls in the street outside smiling gaily to each other, and wondering where to go for a nosh."
It appeared as: "I can't think of a nicer place to sit this spring over a glass of ros? and watch the boys and girls in the street outside smiling gaily to each other, and wondering where to go for nosh."
There is no length issue. This is someone thinking "I'll just remove this indefinite article because Coren is an illiterate cunt and i know best".
Well, you fucking don't.
This was shit, shit sub-editing for three reasons.
1) 'Nosh', as I'm sure you fluent Yiddish speakers know, is a noun formed from a bastardisation of the German 'naschen'. It is a verb, and can be construed into two distinct nouns. One, 'nosh', means simply 'food'. You have decided that this is what i meant and removed the 'a'. I am insulted enough that you think you have a better ear for English than me. But a better ear for Yiddish? I doubt it. Because the other noun, 'nosh' means "a session of eating" - in this sense you might think of its dual valency as being similar to that of 'scoff'. you can go for a scoff. or you can buy some scoff. the sentence you left me with is shit, and is not what i meant. Why would you change a sentnece aso that it meant something i didn't mean? I don't know, but you risk doing it every time you change something. And the way you avoid this kind of fuck up is by not changing a word of my copy without asking me, okay? it's easy. Not. A. Word. Ever.
2) I will now explain why your error is even more shit than it looks. You see, i was making a joke. I do that sometimes. I have set up the street as "sexually-charged". I have described the shenanigans across the road at G.A.Y.. I have used the word 'gaily' as a gentle nudge. And "looking for a nosh" has a secondary meaning of looking for a blowjob. Not specifically gay, for this is soho, and there are plenty of girls there who take money for noshing boys. "looking for nosh" does not have that ambiguity. the joke is gone. I only wrote that sodding paragraph to make that joke. And you've fucking stripped it out like a pissed Irish plasterer restoring a renaissance fresco and thinking jesus looks shit with a bear so plastering over it. You might as well have removed the whole paragraph. I mean, fucking christ, don't you read the copy?
3) And worst of all. Dumbest, deafest, shittest of all, you have removed the unstressed 'a' so that the stress that should have fallen on "nosh" is lost, and my piece ends on an unstressed syllable. When you're winding up a piece of prose, metre is crucial. Can't you hear? Can't you hear that it is wrong? It's not fucking rocket science. It's fucking pre-GCSE scansion. I have written 350 restaurant reviews for The Times and i have never ended on an unstressed syllable. Fuck. fuck, fuck, fuck.
I am sorry if this looks petty (last time i mailed a Times sub about the change of a single word i got in all sorts of trouble) but i care deeply about my work and i hate to have it fucked up by shit subbing. I have been away, you've been subbing joe and hugo and maybe they just file and fuck off and think "hey ho, it's tomorrow's fish and chips" - well, not me. I woke up at three in the morning on sunday and fucking lay there, furious, for two hours. weird, maybe. but that's how it is.
It strips me of all confidence in writing for the magazine. No exaggeration. i've got a review to write this morning and i really don't feel like doing it, for fear that some nuance is going to be removed from the final line, the pay-off, and i'm going to have another weekend ruined for me.
I've been writing for The Times for 15 years and i have never asked this before - i have never asked it of anyone i have written for - but I must insist, from now on, that i am sent a proof of every review i do, in pdf format, so i can check it for fuck-ups. and i must be sent it in good time in case changes are needed. It is the only way i can carry on in the job.
And, just out of interest, I'd like whoever made that change to email me and tell me why. Tell me the exact reasoning which led you to remove that word from my copy.
Right,
Sorry to go on. Anger, real steaming fucking anger can make a man verbose.
All the best
Giles
Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
If you have any questions about this email, please contact the guardian.co.uk user help desk: userhelp@guardian.co.uk.
STEVE!
The brit mags are top notch. Especially PB.
NZ mags have new bike reviews and stuff -which are easier findable in other forms via google.
PB have rad stuff, like modding and wheelies and stuff.
Rolling Italian Orchestra
Once a bike mags cuts back on content and puts more ads in I give up and stop buying it!
I grabbed a local bike mag at the supermarket the other day, took a quick glance at it, yep same over 50% ads and put it back.
I'll support any mag that puts good stuff in and less ads....
Sorry I don't wear the "it helps keep costs down" line!
L'arte italiana cammina su due rotelle!
Forum whore
I like the ads. They're useful
One hell of a ride.
Doesn't keep costs down - it keeps the doors open.
Team Brehaut Racing
So that's why I'm always getting an engaged signal...
Geriatric hoon
OK even after allowing for the fact that some of the people will be enthusiasts, the mag isn't a charity. The mag has to be able to pay the bills and the staff need to eat.
I have bought a US mag just to get the ads.
When BIKE went to the launch of the Ducati 1098 they were impressed.
When they took a 1098 to the track they were impressed again.
When they finally got one to test on the road they thought there were problems, and said so. Ducati withdrew their advertising.
Manufacturers do try to bully magazines if they can and some mags will play safe. I leave those mags in the shop for other people to read.
There is a grey blur, and a green blur. I try to stay on the grey one. - Joey Dunlop
C'mon lets ride....
It's good getting them when the outlets dispose of them a month later. Just look at the pics of the bikes. Not reallly interested in what the models are wearing.
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