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March 23, 2006
Bleeding Edge. Not even an also ran
There's no question that Bleeding Edge is the most popular column in Green Guide's LiveWire section. All the reader surveys and my e-mail confirm that, week after week, and hundreds of readers have told me that they buy Thursday's Age simply to read it. But today, there's no Bleeding Edge column in Green Guide. There's a Mac Man column, despite the fact that only a tiny percentage of the readership have Macs. There's a Personal Space column. There's a piece on home cinema screens.
The official reason is that industrial action meant that four pages had to be pruned from LiveWire.
The question, of course is what criteria were used to determine what would run and what would be cut. The editor of the LiveWire section makes the choice, so it clearly indicates her judgment of the value of each column. Over the end-of-year break, she ran the Mac Man column but didn't run Bleeding Edge. Do you think the editor of Live Wire is trying to tell us something? It is, after all a troublesome column. The sort of column advertisers hate. And by the standards of The Age it's an expensive column. This is what freelance journalism is like. You never know which of your worries is real, and which imagined. Should we start taking the medication?
As for subscribers. Well we're not about to send out a column before it runs in The Age. But what we can do is comb through our archives to send you a couple of columns that you might have missed, and which you might find helpful. The benefits of that subscription are unending!. Get yours today!
Posted by cw at March 23, 2006 07:43 AM
Comments
You may have a clue there with the reference to advertisers, I wondered at the time why the Mac Man column with its gushing praise for all things Mac was still running, while yours was awol!
Posted by: Duncan at March 23, 2006 09:34 AM
I wasn't linking it to advertising, just pointing out that it's problematic. It's as much a consumer advocacy column as it is a technology column, which means that from time to time it upsets powerful interests. The Age has always backed Bleeding Edge in our forays against advertisers. We've seen no evidence whatsoever that it's changed that policy.
Posted by: cw at March 23, 2006 10:34 AM
No offence to MacMan but most of his stuff is always behind - I already read about it somewhere else. Whereas, bleeding edge is totally bleeding edge - I was reading your blog the other night about firefox 2.0 beta and quickly downloaded it to sample at one of my computers.. keep up the good work!
Posted by: Richmond at March 23, 2006 12:42 PM
Charles, Do you have an email address for the editor that maybe we could let her know our preferences in the paper we buy.
Posted by: Sean at March 23, 2006 02:23 PM
The best way of getting reader concerns and comments through to The Age is to use the email address feedback@theage.com.au
Posted by: cw at March 23, 2006 02:59 PM
I emailed Livewire about the missing column before 7 this morning. No reply yet.
Posted by: David Horwood at March 23, 2006 03:33 PM
You need to send it to feedback@theage.com.au
I'd love to see any responses.
Posted by: cw at March 23, 2006 03:42 PM
I thought MacMan stayed because it was a paid ad! Certainly the Age should not be paying for the copy, I'm expecting an attack on France to be up next for its anti ipod policices.
RE Bleeding edge, I shall add my support. However I must say that from personal knowledge the editor of Livewire has very good creditials as a supporter of journalism, and in resisting pressure on editorial from the commercial side of the company.
Hopefully the bright side will be a reaction that both bolsters your stocks with the Age and gives more argument to those who want to argue that it is good journalism that can deliver readers and thus provide a market for advertisers.
Did/does your column appear in the SMH?
Posted by: tflip at March 24, 2006 04:11 PM
I've been so busy this week that I forgot to buy The Age this Thursday, only to read here that Bleeding Edge has been dropped. Unbelievable, thats the best part of the whole Green Guide, I always read that first before reading anything else.
Posted by: Thanh at March 24, 2006 06:35 PM
Dear David
Thank you for taking the time to contact The Age. Due to an industrial dispute at the Tullamarine Print Centre four pages of Green
Guide were dropped and unfortunately Charles Wright's column was on one of the pages. It will be back to normal next week.
Apologies for the inconvenience.
I will also recorded your comment in our Reader Feedback Report which is seen by editors and senior maanagement.
Kind regards
Helen Barnett
Reader Services
~~~
Barnett was responding to this letter:
Sent: Friday, 24 March 2006 4:05 PM
To: Reader Services
Subject: Bleeding Edge column
Dear Editor
I searched high and low for the BE column on Thursday. It is the first item I read when I open my copy of The Age and glance at the headline. Often the solutions and tips in the column are implemented on my computer before 7 AM on the day of publication.
I did not see any message about it being held over, although I read on a forum that there were production problems.
What happened?
Posted by: David Horwood at March 26, 2006 07:55 AM
Congratulations to tflip for accurately predicting MacMan's attack on France over their iPod policy.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/macman/copy-law-a-fait-accompli/2006/03/28/1143441155700.html
Posted by: Luke at March 30, 2006 09:07 AM
I emailed a complaint to The Age over your missing column and this is the reply received on Wednesday:
Hi Matt,
Thank you for contacting The Age.
The Bleeding Edge, will return to the Green Guide tomorrow (30/03).
It was left out in error last week,
and mainly to do with the large amount of Commonwealth Games coverage.
Sorry to have caused you any inconvenience.
I have also forwarded your email onto Charles Wright,
it certainly looks like he has a major fan club.
Regards,
Brad Dolan
THE AGE
Reader Services
Posted by: Matt at March 31, 2006 06:35 PM
hi i just want to know where i can find a revue for ipod docking radios, something that will wake me up slowly
Posted by: marcus at August 20, 2008 11:03 PM