What a week last week was. It all started out so normally, Monday, back in the office, let’s get some people some jobs, woooo.
And then a tweet came out of nowhere that shattered the bliss:
Um – what? Andy Oakes leaving NMA? Andy Oakes can’t leave NMA, he IS NMA. In the office we all though it was a prank by the man himself, typical Oakesy, always playing tricks – but as the day went on the truth came through – Centaur Media had shut down the print version of NMA and were going online only. Fair enough, you might say, it’s a magazine about new meeeja, why the hell did they have a print version anyway? All I can say is what a load of tosh, what ridiculous timing, and what a real, true shame.
I read NMA every week. I read every page, looked at the photos, read the articles, the letters… cover to cover (even the crap adverts at the back got a look in sometimes). I look at NMA online, ooh, once a month, and that’s only when someone sends me a link direct to the page where there is a badly laid out article surrounded by far too many adverts and links to this person’s column and this other person’s thoughts on something else. What I am trying to say, and sorry NMA for being blunt about it, is that the NMA website needs a SERIOUS overhaul if it’s going to get the subscribers and readership it hopes to attain by taking away the print version.
Some people, me included, like tangible reading. I don’t like Kindles (or other ebook readers) and I don’t really like reading things online – I go to the shop to buy newspapers and magazines, I don’t pay to access content online. I work in an industry that is reliant and focused on computers and the internet, and it was nice once a week to have a magazine thrown on my desk so I could sit back and catch up with the industry news and anything else interesting that was going on away from my computer.
Timing wise – what are you doing?! The NMA Awards were last Thursday. NMA had just launched ‘Digital Professional’, a new supplement about recruitment and working in digital. I appreciate these things can still continue online but hells bells, could you not have thought about these things in advance, Centaur?
Ok, so that was Monday. Crap news, everyone a bit shocked, let’s get on with Tuesday. Oh no… wait:
Another slam from Centaur – Reputation Online is also to exist no more. So the part of NMA that deals with one of the newest and most talked about areas of digital (apart from the new ad sphere with RTB and all that stuff), digital PR and social media (oh – I am now 100% confident in the difference if anyone cares) is also going. The same part that had a launch party THAT NIGHT for its award ceremony. Timing, Centaur?! It’s not your strongest point. Props to Hill & Knowlton and Communicate Magazine for holding a Rep Online tribute party at the H&K offices on Tuesday night – would have been nice had a few more people turned up but it was a very very nice thought and I’m impressed.
To be honest I’m just really shocked by the way this was handled and by Centaur’s apparent indifference to digital and social – the guys and girls at NMA were equally shocked, they had just sorted out the budgets and plans etc for the coming year, and then boom, all gone. I wish them ALL all the best and I’m sure they’ll all get new jobs in no time – a great bunch of people and if you bump into one of them, buy them a drink or seven.
Wednesday and Thursday saw a couple of things – the Rocket Fuel UK launch party and the Online Marketing Show at the Marketing Week Live event.
The Rocket Fuel launch party was hands down the best launch party I have been to, so well done to them. There were a lot of people there, there was a free bar (bonus – always a winner), a DJ playing AWESOME music accompanied by a guy on the bongos and a girl on a sax, a vodka ice luge… it was astounding! Everyone was very friendly (free bar?!) and dancing. Just brilliant. The guys and girls at Rocket Fuel are great as well, and I think they’ve got a good thing going, so all the best of luck to them.
And the Online Marketing Show was a success from what I can tell, lots of interesting people there and some great talks – including some from people at NMA and Rep Online, interesting…. and we gave away another iPad on our stand (an iPad 2 dontcha know) to Nigel Muir from DBD Media – well done Nige! 9/10 indeed. Here is the video of Phil (our marketing manager) and me picking the winner. It is not a hostage video 🙂
Such a strange week. Collapse of one of (what I perceive to be) the backbones of the industry, a company launch party, and a top exhibition/conference. Up and down, up and down…
What is next week going to bring?!
lauraatpropel 
Completely agree with your comments about timing – cutting people during such a busy period for the publisher, and the titles, can only lead to fairly public airing of views about how crappy a deal is being given.
However, I don’t think it’s the “collapse” of one of the backbones of the industry – the simple fact is that almost all print titles are going to have to do something similar in the next few years. Whether users like you and me like tangible reading, (which we do), it is no longer commercially viable.
Hopefully the NMA will evolve, improve, and become even more relevant and insightful now that it can operate in a way that is commercially sustainable.
It is, though, a bloody great shame about Oakesy et al. Always horrid when people lose their jobs.