Rick Waghorn told my journalism class that the survival of newspapers could well be in leaning towards brands rather than just faceless writers or reporters.
Covering football news and issues in Norwich for the Evening News since the early 90s, and now launching his own (so far very successful) footie coverage creation MyFootballWriter.com, I guess he understands the lucrative significance of having a loyal following, living up to expectations, having pundit status, his name recognised independent of his writing – basically being a brand.
And it seems that Waghorn’s observations are spot on, not just in regards to newspapers, but magazines as well. Marie Claire has ‘The Janice Street Porter interview’, More! has started a similar ‘The Alan Carr interview’ regular feature.
I agree that it’s a great idea to pull the readers in, but perhaps there is a fine line between a person who has become a brand based on their knowledge and work in their field (e.g. hard questioner Janice Street Porter, and credit crunch expert Robert Peston), and a mere celebrity taking on an ‘expert’ role.
The Times has Jeremy Clarkson doing its driving section while The Mirror has gotten hold of Richard Hammond, which is fair enough – they both qualify as ‘petrol heads’ and their Top Gear brand goes hand in hand with car and motoring issues.
The Mirror also has Ian Botham on cricket and Stan Collymore on Football; professionals in their chosen sport becoming pundits is nothing new. But Tess Daly, TV presenter most recently on Strictly Come Dancing, writing on “style news and views”? Simply looking good and being a household name is qualification enough for that ‘pundit status’ it seems.
Natmags have recently (August 08) re-branded their celeb magazine Reveal as the “celebrity magazine written by celebrities” where each of the eleven newly employed celebs have been given their own section of ‘expertise.’
There are logical appointments at Reveal such as Martin Lewis (moneysavingexpert.com) writing about money, Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen (remember him off Changing Rooms?) doing homes, and Saturday Kitchen chef and cook book author, James Martin, covering food. All fairly reasonable appointments. But then there’s the slightly more abstract…
Actress and singer, Martine McCutcheon, on beauty – she’s beautiful yes, but a make up artist? A beauty therapist? No. And again, looking good on TV is all the status bubbly, Xtra Factor presenter Holly Willoughby needed to secure her position as “red carpet style” expert. But the strangest appointment of all is yet to come, as the new Reveal Agony Aunt is…Vanessa Feltz.
This is the lady who had a rather monumental meltdown on Celebrity Big Brother, refusing to hand-over a stick of chalk after scrawling intensely contemplative words onto a table while sobbing into a silk leopard print dressing gown (many were questioning her sanity I believe). She annoyed the nation (along with magical gramps Paul Daniels) on ch4’s Celebrity Wife Swap, and recovering alcoholic, Jack Dee, described her as “emotionally unstable.” Despite this however, Reveal have put her in charge of our emotional, life, and relationship problems. Hmm, okay…..?!
