Meeja Guardian

Following the revision class on Tues 2nd June I'll start posting materials here. For a starter, though, do be using the Media Guardian online, especially http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/bauer and http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/consumer-magazines

Some recent articles of note:

Bauer Media to cut 30 more jobs ' - Bauer is clearly feeling the heat from the ongoing recession: following the axing of Arena and several other titles since its takeover of Emap 18 months ago, its had to instigate two rounds of redundancies, starting with 15 jobs within its radio operations (now moved outside London to cut costs) but now taking a further 30 across its magazine wing.

'Hello! moves to Mondays with help of the Mail' - Bauer's celebrity titles like Heat have to compete with OK!, which has the considerable backing of Northern & Shell, owners of the Express/Star newspapers. Now Hello is linking up with Associated Newspapers, owner of the Mail titles, in a new distribution and co-promotion deal - enabling it to publish on a Monday, a day before any of its rivals (wholesalers traditionally shut at 10am on Sundays, but have been persuaded to stay open longer for this new deal). --So, the move towards greater frequency of publishing is now intensifying further, with a new battleline over how early in the week celeb titles are published.Trinity Mirror terminates £65m-a-year Dawson Holdings contract' - One of the UK's major magazine distributors is facing closure after a series of publishers pulled their contracts with Dawsons - including 'Frontline, the joint venture between Bauer Media, Haymarket Publishing and BBC Magazines, worth £83m'

' Colin Kennedy appointed FHM editor' - mens mag market leader appointed the former Empire editor to FHM; CK famously edited an edition of Empire featuring a cover mask of Darth Vader - when opened, readers were treated to the familiar breathing sound of Vader! He oversaw a period of continuous growth for Empire. 'FHM sells more copies than GQ and Loaded combined, but Kennedy will need all his skills to arrest falling sales in the declining men's market, in which Arena and Maxim have closed this year. // The magazine's sales fell 13.5% from 315,149 in the second half of 2007 to 272,545 in the final six months of 2008. // FHM's lead over fitness magazine Men's Health is more than 22,000 copies a month, down from about 75,000 in the second half of 2007. // The magazine has been moving upmarket in recent years as the lads' magazine market crashes, highlighted by the closure of Maxim UK earlier this year.'