Everything just changed today if you read the newspaper food sections in Melbourne.
Citystyle, which I wrote for and was half fashion/half food is no more. It was usually eight pages, although sometime three would be taken with fashion (which I never quite understood).
It never was a match for the absurd F–die weekly Epicure, even though it is wrapped up in the sport section due to some strange quirk of Fairfax’s printing plant.
Replacing Citystyle is extrafood a highly visible 20 page section which mops up celebrity gossip, cartoons, the zodiac, crosswords, a quiz and arts and entertainment as part of a bigger revamp of the daily sections in the Hun.
Including ads and the cover some 11 pages are dedicated to food and drink.
There are three big differences. First, by wrapping everything into this one section it will bring in people who’d never previously read the food and drink pages.
Second, Gordon Ramsay starts a column (helping me represent the under 50s) which will bring more eyeballs.
Third is a major innovation – the launch of eat, a double page spread which this week gives us the top ten country restaurants, 32 one paragraph reviews that rates resturants from one star and dollar sign to five for quality and value and a review of a bar, cafe and pub (in addition to Stephen Downes’ single review). That’s 45on one spread.
I reckon the eat section will substantially increase the influence of the Herald Sun restaurant choice, although the section is aimed at everyday restaurant goers and home cooks rather than the F–die crowd.
One thing that will be interesting to watch is how those restaurants who ban Stephen Downes will be treated. Will they be included in the listing (some are today) and the splash cover features that will follow in coming weeks?
My own column is renamed from Ed lines to extrabite (at one point man bites town was mooted. I liked the idea of man bites chef) and itself, like the section, will evolve over coming issues. I’ve been asked to remember the builders, have a little more space to fill and highlight five food ideas or outlets. Otherwise my brief hasn’t changed too much.
Overall, the section is much more magazine-like with lots of little snippets and information packed in and appears to be more structured than Epicure. But the real test is with the readers.
What do you think? What would you like to see in your ideal food section? Which new features do you like and which are you not so keen on? Has Gordon Ramsay through Channel 9 overexposure jumped the shark?
Become a Facebook fan. Follow me on Twitter.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 60 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Yep JSL
No problems with that
I was always immensely amused by the Millers Tale. Still bawdy ain’t cussing
I don’t think this got published so I’ll sat it again
JSL Chaucer is a fine exponent of the bawdy = I was immensely amused by the Millers Tale as a teenager BUT cussing ain’tbawdy!!
Elliott
doesn’t bawdy and cussing go hand in hand?
Not really Ed
Bawdy refers to material or situations that are humourous, risque, lewd or vulgar. Ribald language, indecent or off colour jokes may be involved.
Cussing derives from cursing. The langiuage used may be obscene or profane but the essential element of bawdiness is irrelevant to cussing and if it happens to beamusing or vulgar it incidental to its purpose.
well fucking flog me with a wet fucking fish – how did I miss out on all of this excitement?
Too funny that something as silly as discussing a newspaper format has somebody riled, but if they think that this blog is about self-indulgent back slapping they just don’t get it. I’ve noticed Gobsta has a similar “friend”.
I think Gordon appeals across the range – from michelin star diners to his frank manner and manly ways to housewives (remember many women probably hear this language at home too!).
Like jack i don’t use the term f-die, i find it cringe-worthy and most people that say they are, are in my humble opinion, NOT.
enough said
I liked the grasshopper’s fairly savage first post. Spot on really.
And what would people really expect Ed to do on his blog other than rip into someone who dared to criticise his fellow Hun employees, Paddy, Gordo, Downes and McGhie. It would be a bit uncomfortable upon his next trip into the Hun office if he hadn’t shown a bit of solidarity with his stablemates and tried to squash the grasshopper.
The grasshopper also gave Ed a belting over the content of his own newspaper column. And perhaps he is right. I keep coming back to Ed’s blog because it is a good read with plenty of new and interesting content. But his Hun column is boring. Sorry Ed.
Elliot, that was the point of the slab of text I quoted that there was a lot of swearing that was considered offensive then.
Grocer, just got Ken to deal with down here.
Ken, fair enough but I’m not sure where Grasshopper got the “gratuitous congratulations” from. I was just making the point that the Hun had taken a step forward in its food section. True, Stephen is a mate but that doesn’t mean I agree with him. I’ve met Paddy once and Kate twice at events.
I’ve only ever seen inside the Hun office once a few weeks ago. I’m a full time freelance journalist and I write what I’m asked to write to a format which is generally for a mass market newspaper or magazine for money.
This blog is fun and a sort of hobby and as I’ve said before will probably just about make enough money this year to make up for the two features I won’t be writing for The Bulletin because it closed. Actually, I feel I’ve been distracted by deadwood and some new media recently and need to make more effort to entertain here. Keep coming and I’ll try not to mention my employers again.
Thanks Ed – after many years dealing with the media as part of my job I understand the constraints and respect those who have to work within them. For the record, your stuff in the business media is better reading but it is the blog that rocks.
In fact it is really only online media that floats my boat these days. And I am a big consumer of all kinds of media. When I’m not paying out on vacuous morons in the Herald Sun (good morning Bob Hart) you will find me whingeing about the precious leftists in the Age who seem to run the show. I don’t need North Fitzroy freaks telling me not to drink bottled water or insist on Fairtrade coffee.
Blogs are excellent because of the sheer freedom of it all. It is where I find my entertainment and my information these days and actually enjoy it. Sometimes there is some rubbish but there are plenty of gems out there. And on top of all that it is free!
Dead tree media is now run by a mix of self-important elites and moronic marketing drones. And unlike the newspapers I don’t think I have to worry about my labrador shredding my laptop before I get up to read the news.
Keep punching, as they used to say.
Ken, online’s floating me too with those 400 feeds in my reader. It’s interesting how Crikey! has gone downhill since the self important old media Eric Beecher took it over. I’ll save Bob for another time. Funnily enough my foxy shreds the paper if I leave it on the sofa. Computers can be a problem too though – over at Confessions of a Food Nazi I gather there may have been a meeting of cat vomit and Macbook.
Yes not only did I have a joyous night last week of being woken to a feline heaving the contents of her guts out twice (to get maximum human sleep disruption) but woke to find the worst of it was spewed all over my mac book. Fortunately it was closed and turned off at the time but…Not Nice!
Am in sunny (sic) Wellington airport right now. I can report that the cult of Ramsay is alive and well in this neck of the woods. The Sunday paper (I refer to it in the singular, I think this country has only one) ran the same 15 minute Ramsay interview we got in it’s sister paper The Age recently. Good to see recycling is alive and well.
← Previous Comments