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UPDATE: Dan Bignold, Managing Editor of SH Magazine has posted his response below.
One week ago, we were sent a press release promoting SH Magazine's new look by their Hong Kong headquarters. Apart from getting the spelling of their own magazine title and the name of their Shanghai managing editor all WRONG, the press release promised the following:
In line with the design, SH is also revamping the editorial with new columns, campaigns, topical issues and lifestyle stories. The bold redesign promises to make a huge impact in the market as it offers a radical change - and will be picked up fast by the magazine's loyal readership.After flipping through a copy of their first issue of the new year (which screamed from its cover, "Like our new look?"), we have to say, the change was a little, erm, underwhelming. We were expecting, as their press release proffered, a "bold redesign". Also, we weren't able to find their classifieds segment, so that appears to be a thing of the past now (to the pleasure of Enjoy Classifieds and Adweekly).
By the way, does anyone notice how the two characters “广告” (the Chinese term for "advertorial") appears on, like, every single page of the magazine? A quick check with their pre-revamp editions last year shows the mistake has been there for some time. Either these guys are not flipping through their own magazine or they just don't realise that tagging the word “广告” onto every page of your magazine is just plain craziness. A more likely explanation is that “广告” is supposed be a short form of SH Mag's Chinese name, "中外文广告" (which loosely translates into "Sino-Foreign Languages Advertisements"), and is hence printed on every page. But wait a minute, so what do we call the magazine now: SH, 8 Days, or its Chinese name “广告”? With everyone still calling it different names (come on, they're not new on the market anymore), the magazine continues to suffer from an identity crisis they should deal with sooner rather than later.
Since the departure of managing editor Michael Cole (we heard he sold off all his shares too), Asia City has apparently been sending its top executives to Shanghai very frequently, to see what SH is up to. According to one of our friends working with BK (the company's Thailand edition), Asia City's publications are all either #1 or #2 in every city they're in, with the exception of Shanghai. Reason enough, we guess, that they believe SH could be doing much better.
UPDATE: Response from Dan Bignold, Managing Editor of SH Magazine:
Thanks for picking up on the redesign of the magazine, and for pointing out the misspelling of my name on the press release. As for the rest of your observations, the classifieds are still very much in place, just at the back of the magazine instead of as a pull-out. In this week's issue they start on page 31. This brings us in line with the rest of our city living magazines in Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore. Next, the characters 广告 at the top of most pages are not a mistake – they've been there since June after all – but part of our publishing license. Regarding the name, you can carry on calling the magazine SH, as you have done in another Shanghaiist post this week. You are not the only person to wonder about the 8Days tag, which is why with the redesign we've got rid of it from the cover. I hope that clears up our identity. And finally, Michael Cole was managing director, not managing editor - that's me.
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You're talking about a licensing issue here, Mister Tan. Even though printing "advertorial" on each page might be, like, totally, "just plain craziness," it's fairly logical to do so when the government requires it.
I reckon their staff, like em or not, probably flips through the pages from time to time.
Looks like they should have picked a better Chinese name then.
Actually, if you look, that same string of characters appears on other advertorial magazines in Shanghai as well. I suspect it's the publisher's legal name.
Honestly, I have never noticed. I guess it's a good thing very few of their readers likely read Chinese. Are they all officially known as "advertorial magazines"?
Though SH has never been the most comprehensive of mags, it is the most entertaining and least po-faced of the Shanghai crop (can't recall ever having made it through the embolysm-in-ink that is Talk), though the redesign didn't warrant quite such a loud and ham-fisted heralding. It's good that they've done away with the horrible glossy sheet of ads that used to slide out of every issue. Though it does seem to mainly be filled with food articles by Chris St Cavish, the guy knows his stuff. Maybe it should remarket itself as a wining and dining guide.
SH mag's Chinese name sums it up perfectly, whether it's a name or a requirement. They should amend the English name to something similar, like "Advert (not) in disguise".
If it really was a licensing issue, then IMHO, slapping the name "中外文" on every page would have made much more sense than "广告". Don't you think it's important for readers to know what they're reading are advertorials or not?
Regardless of what's printed on the top of the page, SH (or whatever the hell it's called) is still by far my favourite ex-pat magazine.
I'd gladly pay to have it delivered just so I don't miss a week.
Kenneth, it appears that you haven't done your homework when it comes to the nature of the publishing industry in China. You don't put what you think 'might work' on your cover, or the pages within without permission, just as you don't necessarily control all the editorial content within the magazine. In fact, you don't even control the size of the paper (A3 or A4) without a proper license, and those nifty maps you see in mags also require another license. You do what the government tells you to do, and that government includes the company that holds the license that is necessary to distribute the magazine in the first place.
Sure, it'd be great if readers had to scan their eyes across a more appropriate Chinese moniker. And yes, it'd be neat if it wasn't labeled advertorial, when a great deal of it certainly is not (I doubt that many of Mister St Cabbage's restaurant reviews are advertorial in nature. Unless he's advertising that a certain place is not worth visiting)
I think it is just too easy to pass all the blame on to the "government" and to say they made you do this or that. Sure, all magazines have to be issued through a government-approved publisher, but you are pretty free to choose who you work with. Some marriages work out and some don't, and we have seen that being played out over and over again in the industry. Don't say there is no choice.
Maybe, it's just SH's tough luck that they chose to have a partner that made them slap on "广告” on every page? Sure, blame it all on their partner.
Sorry, but the "广告" issue is a pretty big deal. There is a reason why publishing regulations require us to slap on "ADVERTORIAL" when the space is paid for. When readers can't tell what's been paid for and what's not anymore, then woah, you've got a problem.
"中外文广告", the name sounds like an advertising handbook which is published by Focus Media
Slow news day, huh Kenneth.
Looking at Dan Bignold's response, it looks like you didn't flip through the magazine much if you missed the 8 pages of classifieds, and that 广告 has appeared on the cover (!) for as long as I've been in Shanghai.
The mystery of the 广告 appears rather obvious: they needed to make put it their to satisfy the publishing authorities here. I've heard mag licenses are sparingly given out in the Mainland. If I wanted to start a mag, and I thought the only way to do so was to stick two characters on each page, I'd do it do. You wouldn't?
Errrh, looks like someone can use a little Chinese lesson here. 广告 is certainly not the term for 'advertorial' in mandarin. 软文 is. 广告 simply means 'advertisement'. So when a person who can read Chinese properly sees these two characters on SH's pages, he or she won't see the contents as 'advertorial'. They are more likely to relate it to 中外文广告 which they see on the cover. As a matter of fact, if you've paid enough attention, the real advertorials in SH are clearly marked as 'advertorial' in English (see page 11, the Jan 4 issue).
You're just picking nits xxxtina. I think the writer has displayed he knows what "广告" is in his translation of "中外文广告". In Chinese, when you have an advertorial, you certainly won't display the term "软文", it would be "广告". And he paid attention to that in his translation.
I am native Chinese, and no I certainly do not relate it to 中外文广告 when I see it on every page. It is strange yes.
To all the past and present employees of SH Mag that have made your presence felt in this post, thank you for reading Shanghaiist. If I have stepped on a nerve somewhere, I am truly, unreservedly sorry. Rest assured it was NEVER my intention to take down anyone or any publication in town.
GrisGrisAhAh summed it well by describing SH as the "least po-faced of the Shanghai crop", and I agree. For the record, I have been an avid reader of your magazine, and never fail to grab the latest copy of it whenever I see it at ARCH. I would also rate SH Magazine as having the best food content in town, to the credit of St Cavish. I am not aware of any other food writer in town that the average reader in Shanghai is able to name.
Maybe, all this has come a bit too late, and I guess I should have mentioned all of that while putting together the post. But as they say, better late than never.
Peace out.