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Post by partytentdown on Feb 11, 2022 17:06:33 GMT
No more Thursday night exclusives slash dramas
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Post by Jon on Feb 11, 2022 17:14:45 GMT
No more Thursday night exclusives slash dramas Nah, just means they'll end up on Deadline instead. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2022 17:52:54 GMT
Will be interesting to see what he does. He's been around for years. Just checked up he's 64 years old now so is he winding down to retire I wonder?
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Post by Phantom of London on Feb 11, 2022 18:10:51 GMT
RETIRE!
Why? He has one of the best jobs in the industry, it isn't a bad job writing several articles a week, especially with his contacts he doesn't really need to hunt down a scoop, the scoops come to him.
It could all be the downsizing in the media in 2010 the Daily Mail circulation was 2.1m, today it's a mere 800k. People aren't buying newspapers, especially the young. The pandemic showed that news is 12 hours old news is well too out of date and people now want news that is current.
I will be sorry to see Baz go, I liked him, he was the one could thing in the Daily Mail. The equivalent in New York was Michael Riedel, the NY Post haven't replaced him.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2022 18:57:27 GMT
Daily Mail has a considerable online presence and their Showbiz/Celebrity page is one of my first ports of call for gossip each day. As Phantom said with Baz's contacts he'll always have an outlet for news.
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Post by Jan on Feb 11, 2022 18:58:42 GMT
It could all be the downsizing in the media in 2010 the Daily Mail circulation was 2.1m, today it's a mere 800k. People aren't buying newspapers, especially the young. Mail Online is the most viewed newspaper site in UK, 4 million people daily - it is arguably the most successful in the world and it's very profitable. Although surprisingly it generally has quite separate content to the print version Baz writes for them both. He must have a much better job lined up - maybe at a TV station ? |
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Post by partytentdown on Feb 11, 2022 19:17:00 GMT
Will be interesting to see what he does. He's been around for years. Just checked up he's 64 years old now so is he winding down to retire I wonder? He's got a new job at Deadline which includes theatre coverage, apparently. |
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Post by theglenbucklaird on Feb 11, 2022 19:17:40 GMT
It could all be the downsizing in the media in 2010 the Daily Mail circulation was 2.1m, today it's a mere 800k. People aren't buying newspapers, especially the young. Mail Online is the most viewed newspaper site in UK, 4 million people daily - it is arguably the most successful in the world and it's very profitable. Although surprisingly it generally has quite separate content to the print version Baz writes for them both. He must have a much better job lined up - maybe at a TV station ? Four million people read the Mail?? What a country, eh |
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Post by princeton on Feb 11, 2022 20:07:37 GMT
Baz and the Daily Mail have been quite uncomfortable bedfellows for quite some time. His political and cultural views are somewhat removed from those of the paper particularly in recent years, and some theatre producers have been reluctant to give him scoops and they don't want to be seen to support the Mail. Also, producers no longer want to have to wait until Friday to make their announcement, and the very nature of his late night tweets mean that it's not really an exclusive in the print edition as by that time everyone else has picked it up.
After 40 years I hope he's managed to get a huge pension from the Mail, and I think Deadline will be a great home for him in the future. If truth be told he no great writer, but he loves theatre, he's good at making the connections and getting the stories - and I think he'll be better at finding and reporting those scoops once he's freed from the constraints of the Mail.
And yes Mail Online is one of the most used news sites in the world - certainly, as Jan, says top of the newspaper related sites - beaten only, I think, by the BBC and CNN.
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Post by Jan on Feb 11, 2022 21:50:53 GMT
Mail Online is the most viewed newspaper site in UK, 4 million people daily - it is arguably the most successful in the world and it's very profitable. Although surprisingly it generally has quite separate content to the print version Baz writes for them both. He must have a much better job lined up - maybe at a TV station ? Four million people read the Mail?? What a country, eh Well it seems most commenters on this thread read it (except me) so your sneering is somewhat misplaced. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Feb 11, 2022 21:55:42 GMT
I believe the Mail online website does better from US visitors than UK ones.
The joys of a connected world
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Post by Phantom of London on Feb 11, 2022 21:57:52 GMT
Daily Mail online is popular and I go on it myself sometimes. I would say more than 4 million read it and also provides valuable data for editors on what people are actually reading, by observing where people click.
However how do you make money from the website? Sometimes I have a banner that appears and disrupts what I want to read, or if I click on a video, it will open up another advertising video again all very annoying and would make me rather not buy the product. The Daily Mail is very popular because it is free, when it goes to subscription it will lose most of its readers.
If newspapers online was to be so profitable why then are most other newspapers you have to pay to read including The Sun? I wanted to read the New York Times’ review of The Music Man today but couldn’t, without taking out a subscription.
On a side note I have no idea of Baz’s politics? But I do know one of the best critics the late Jack Tinkler was a supporter of the Labour Party.
Gone are the days of the powerful newspapers that used their position to bully people.
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Post by Jon on Feb 11, 2022 23:53:46 GMT
Deadline has pretty solid theatre coverage although it's more skewed towards Broadway so I imagine Baz will try and get more West End exclusives.
I usually read Deadline for TV and film news and it's a solid website.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2022 5:13:35 GMT
Well it seems most commenters on this thread read it It depends what you mean by "read it". Most people will follow a link to the site to see what it says. Far fewer will choose it as a news source. |
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Post by HereForTheatre on Feb 12, 2022 9:09:21 GMT
Isn't Deadline based in and for the USA? I can't imagine many West End/UK theatre exclusives via that platform. Why would they?
I can't imagine we will get anywhere near as much UK theatre gossip from him and most production companies and PR's will give exclusives to WOS and The Stage now.
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Post by alicechallice on Feb 12, 2022 9:19:09 GMT
Isn't Deadline based in and for the USA? I can't imagine many West End/UK theatre exclusives via that platform. Why would they? I can't imagine we will get anywhere near as much UK theatre gossip from him and most production companies and PR's will give exclusives to WOS and The Stage now. They cover a lot of UK TV & film production so maybe they’re looking at broadening their horizons, particularly considering the big names that do theatre over here. They cover all the Broadway stories. |
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Post by TallPaul on Feb 12, 2022 9:25:52 GMT
Until a little under 16 hours ago, I'd never heard of Deadline. I suspect 98.5% of the UK population have still never heard of Deadline.
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Post by catw on Feb 12, 2022 10:07:45 GMT
Yes Deadline is USA focused I think although I have followed it for several years now as it usually has interesting interviews with actors/directors
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Post by og on Feb 12, 2022 11:18:14 GMT
Until a little under 16 hours ago, I'd never heard of Deadline. I suspect 98.5% of the UK population have still never heard of Deadline. I suspect a good 80% have never heard of Baz either. Outside of the inner sanctum of theatre, not many will know who he is. |
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Post by partytentdown on Feb 12, 2022 11:46:52 GMT
I think a lot of theatre PR people will be worried about this. As mentioned, the Mail reaches a huge swathe of 'Middle England', the type of people with enough disposable income to buy tickets to a West End show but who largely don't hear about theatre news and announcements by any other means. They might see a story about the casting in Cabaret on Baz's page and think 'Ooh, I'll splash out on some tickets' but might otherwise never know it's even on. Most of the other printed papers no longer do regular theatre reviews or even interviews. Deadline certainly won't reach most of those people either.
Saying that, I know some will be relieved to no longer feel they are 'held at ransom' in terms of giving him exclusives. As discussed there has been unhappiness at the direction the Mail has taken and some uncomfortableness from many theatre companies and producers about placing so much emphasis on articles in that paper. Indeed many have pulled advertising spend with the Mail and Mail Online because of its dubious stories which many see as old fashioned or even straight-up racist or sexist. Baz also had a reputation for throwing a strop when he didn't get his own way or if he wasn't offered a big story first, or it was leaked before he talked about it. I remember some big casting news at the National (I think) was reported here first and he threatened never to post an exclusive on Thursday night again, but he did anyway.
Whatever your thoughts, it is certainly quite a turning point for theatre in the mainstream press.
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Post by shambles on Feb 12, 2022 11:52:32 GMT
I wonder if he might also do reviews for them. Deadline is a big trade paper that doesn't do London theatre reviews, while Variety and Hollywood Reporter do. Of course, they usually only do those shows with a star or two involved, but it's something.
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Post by teamyali on Feb 12, 2022 12:19:09 GMT
If I can recall, some West End/London theatre reviews written by Variety or THR rate poorly, very opposite to the ones from leading UK publications. I guess Baz being on Deadline would give a more favorable or sensible review of the shows. I also think it would be fun if he prognosticates on his Olivier predictions (like most trades do during the Oscars)
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Post by shambles on Feb 12, 2022 12:35:19 GMT
If I can recall, some West End/London theatre reviews written by Variety or THR rate poorly, very opposite to the ones from leading UK publications. I guess Baz being on Deadline would give a more favorable or sensible review of the shows. I also think it would be fun if he prognosticates on his Olivier predictions (like most trades do during the Oscars) That's not been my experience with both their critics, Demetrios Matheou and David Benedict. I've always found them to be very considered. But maybe you came across some that seemed incongruous. And while it would be nice to have some insight on the Olivier choices, I think it's best if the prediction trend doesn't cross-over. Oliviers still sometimes make unexpected choices and even resist picking the starrier names, and it would be a shame if prognostication buzz started countering any of that. |
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Post by Phantom of London on Feb 12, 2022 12:56:18 GMT
Now Baz is writing for Deadline, we can take off the table he is retiring, we can also assume he left the DM on his own accord, why we he leave a massive publication that speaks to middle England to some obscure website? In the same way no one has replaced Quentin Letts. It all go to the trend that newspapers are downsizing and do not hack the same money they did 10 years ago so cannot be so lavish.
Know hopefully the DM will downsize Richard Little John completely, who is fond in telling people the perils of working from home, especially the Civil Service, despite working from a nice gated mansion community in West Palm Beach, Florida,
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Post by Jon on Feb 12, 2022 13:05:16 GMT
I do object to Deadline being described as obscure, it's one of the biggest entertainment website there is outside of Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
I'm personally not too worried, there is a shift from print to digital and as much as we think that the older generation can't use a computer or a phone, more and more are and will since those in their 30-40s will become that older generation in the next decade and they will be tech savvy.
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