Hot off the press this weekend, News Corporation's
"News of the World" launches a new magazine. Still
billed as "BRITAIN'S BIGGEST WEEKLY GLOSSY"
"Fabulous" clearly has distinct pedigree. Whilst it
would be unfair not to give the new brand until, say,
the end of the financial year to win-over its audience,
there's a sneaking suspicion in this quarter that the
addition of a "lout spout" on the back page, relegating
the horoscopes to the next page in, working backwards
as Mercury is right now, will neither appeal to the Bob
Crampton, Jon Ronson or Zoe Williams fan, nor its
apparently intended Loaded-sector audience (a mere
15 years after the aforementioned title's launch), who
are more at home with Johnny Vegas.

With some semblance of constructive criticism in
mind, whilst it is impossible to predict the full range
of channels different viewers of different subscription
packages will and won't receive, there is a major
lack of any TV listing format covering simply those on
free-to-air terrestrial digital.

Quite why this should be is beyond me: aren't they
free to all on cable and satellite platforms too, regardless
of subscription extras?

G DAEB
COPYRIGHT (C) 2008 SIPSTON
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