Shanghaiist: Shanghai Media Gossip: NVR says never again

Morry

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:12:10 +0800

"Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned, forgive, and ye shall be forgiven." ~Luke 6:37~ ie. Stop bitching!

commentist

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:42:51 +0800

Oprah

commentist

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:29:15 +0800

Hhhhmmmm.... You workED at That's Shanghai? Perhaps you should update your CV? I can only say that NVR (which I liked) was a hell of a lot more "fair and balanced" than this (strangely byline lacking) rather Fox news-like report. Very opera indeed.

idasein

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 10:57:42 +0800

I quite liked NVR, and will be sad to see it go. Obviously, as a digest-type magazine, it didn't garner much respect for independent content, but it was a nice collection of well chosen topics and sources, and the only Shanghai magazine that could keep my attention for longer than five minutes. The fact that a digest magazine is the best English language print journalism that this world-class city has to offer is kinda sad. That fact that people are actually happy to see it die helps us understand the reason.

Peijin Chen

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 09:12:14 +0800

*full disclosure* I worked for That's, meaning the same company that NVR was a part of. There are fair criticisms of NVR, and there are those that are unfair. You can say that what they did was not original journalism. Fair enough. Neither is Shanghaiist, but perhaps that's not a good comparison. It seems a bit mean-spirited, however, to call what other people do "cut and paste"--i'm not saying what they did was rocket science, but it does involve the reading of several news sources on various issues and cull out of it what's important, what the different opinions and viewpoints are, and what is at stake. And then you have to be able to write that up nicely, in a way that's somewhat engaging. Like i said, that's not rocket science: but speaking for myself, I find it to be more than cut and paste. Maybe this isn't my forte, but somehow, after reading numerous issues of NVR, i found there was something there that was different than my RSS feeds. I have over a hundred RSS subscriptions, to most major English newspapers and media sources. But I don't have time to read all of them, even when it comes to stuff that i like, much less news events happening in places where I don't normally pay much attention (e.g. Latin America, Africa, Europe). You could say that this is what you read on the toilet, well, so be it. I learned something from it each time that i read it. As someone who doesn't get the chance to keep up with the world of books, NVR was always a nice way to keep abreast of what was out there, filling in the gaps, as it were. I really don't think calling it 'cut and paste' is warranted, and i don't think that calling one of its editors a twat was called for either. I can understand if you don't like a person, but slagging them off in this manner seems awful mean-spirited. Similarly, the comment about "cool expat going undercover in risky China"--not sure where that is coming from. NVR made its focus what was happening, it never tried to be overtly critical, but i don't think NVR or anyone affiliated ever adopted that posture of being "cool and undercover." Given that they deal with censors all the time, they are well aware of the limitations within which they operate. You are free to not enjoy the magazine, that's your business--but imputing motives and attitudes to the people that seems to have little or no basis in fact doesn't seem much better. Paul French: thinking that I love you must mean that you love me is indeed silly. But thankfully, none of us thinks that because we consider ourselves clever and witty, that others must also consider us clever and witty. That would be quite Oprah as well.

sprinklycupcakes

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 23:29:54 +0800

';Thank God' is all i can say that the english-language magazine clutter has lost one more pile of paper that was just taking up space. for every new magazine that gets launched here, let's hope one dies to balance it out. since you're on the topic of magazines that are free and for sale---what is UP with that??! if i was a buyer of one of those and then turned the corner to see it being hawked for free in a heap, i would boycott it altogether based on principle and tell all my friends to as well. and BTW, i really hate That's Shanghai's headline typeface they use. it's so hard to read. TALK has now added itself into this stupid phenomenon that i have only seen in this city.

GuestGuess

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:56:39 +0800

'Working' for NVR = cut, and paste. That Aussie bird who worked for them was a completely pretentious tw@t. Glad to see them go down. Typical 'I am a cool expat going undercover in risky China'. Yeah life in Shanghai is sooooo tough.

jfkmiller

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:19:11 +0800

Nice post guys. Fair and balanced (not in the Fox News way). Like the headline too. JFK Miller

Paul French

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:44:40 +0800

I love Miller's idea that because I love you, you have to love me - very Oprah