07 July 2006

Like an IT journo dream team...

We've managed to secure a bit of a scoop on Dennis Publishing's new enterprise IT website, IT PRO. Here's everything you need to know:

IT PRO will go live in mid-July, focusing on news, reviews, group tests and features for UK business IT users, budget holders and decision-makers.

IT PRO is staffed by Editor Chris Green, who recently joined Dennis from VNU's Computing, and News Editor Iain Thomson, who joined from VNUNet.com. A third member of the editorial team has just been recruited and will be introduced shortly.

In addition to the in-house editorial team, IT PRO has pulled in an array of freelance support to populate the site's eight news and review-driven sections.

Three of these sections -- storage, security and mobile -- will be edited by well-known IT writers Ambrose McNevin and Guy Matthews. Marcus Austin, the former editor of Internet Works and the UK edition of Business 2.0, will provide content on business intelligence and internet. Alan Stevens, a regular contributor to PC Pro will cover the server and networking markets. The remaining channel, Applications, will be managed in-house.

Channel editors will be filing around four or five news stories in each section every week in addition to producing a number of features, comment pieces and tutorials on topical technologies and IT issues.

Additional news coverage will be generated by IT PRO’s in-house news team, with support from freelance news stringers in key overseas markets including the US, Australia and China, and from Reuters.

Reviews will play a major role at IT PRO, with the site providing more standalone enterprise reviews and group tests than any other UK title, and Green himself will oversee the commissioning of reviews. IT PRO will cover software, hardware and services for enterprises with some focus on SME solutions at the larger end of the market. This strategy will ensure that IT PRO and PC Pro minimise any overlap in coverage.

Video and audio will also play a major part in IT PRO's editorial strategy. The site will go live with a number of high-profile video interviews with leading figures in the business IT world, along with video product first looks, video opinion pieces, and a weekly news-in-review audio podcast. New product first looks will be added on a Monday, new interviews on a Wednesday and a new podcast every Friday.

So there you have it...sounds like a recipe for success to us.
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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like, ummm, yet another IT web site to me.

Winner? I doubt it.

11:31 pm
Anonymous said...

Congratulations on the, er, scoop -- which appears to be a word-for-word rehash of a story that appeared on Fullrun 10 days ago.

A scoop of the ctrl-c/ctrl-v variety perchance?

I miei amici -- blogging = hard work, innit?

Regards

Il Cavalier Ridente

11:19 pm
....the world's leading.... said...

Oh yes, sorry...we meant to say 'scoop...in something that people other than those that produce it read'.

Ha, ha. Not really. We love the Fullrunner...not enough to pay for it though.

8:16 am
Anonymous said...

"IT journo dream team" ????

You're clearly a PR not a journo...

10:49 am
Anonymous said...

My friend, the poor are always with us. . . But only saddoes indulge in plagiarism.

Get help with your problems here.

I feel sure that you will eventually win some new business and overcome your terrible financial difficulties.

Kind regards,

Il Cavalier

11:04 am
....the world's leading.... said...

That's a very serious accusation...I can assure you, little fella, that there was no plagiariam involved. We got the story straight from the horse's mouth.

If that same horse gabbled to Fullrunner a week or two ago then fair enough...but we didn't nick the story.

11:37 am
Anonymous said...

Il Cavalier has been called many things in his long life. Sadly, I must tell you that "little fella" is not one of them.

And yet. . . I can see that you are growing weary beneath the burden of my posts.

You sound serious when you say you are not a plagiarist. And so I accept your heartfelt words. Let us mend the breach and go forward as true friends.

Now, as your friend, I must tell you that I still wonder who the plagiarist might be.

For it remains passing strange that entire paragraphs -- nay, vast gobbets -- of your story were the mirror image of those published by Fullrun.

Do you think that you have been the victim of some magick practised by persons unknown to you?

Il Cavalier

12:35 pm
....the world's leading.... said...

Il Cavalier, there's really no mystery here...we were provided with the content for our post by the Editor of the new website himself!

It seems that any cutting and pasting done was undertaken by the lad Green...in our defence, we'd asked for information from him on June 28th, but he only got round to sending us something(clearly, we now realise, the same something the Fullrun received, cheeky monkey) a few days ago.

Apparently 'things are a bit mad' because he's 'launching' something.

1:12 pm
Anonymous said...

Il mio amico,

Thanks for the candour.

I think you'll find that Fullrun...

* did the reporting
* didn't take any copy from Chris,
* and originated most of the copy that ended up published 10 days later without credit on this blog (apart from the editorialising about "dream teams" and such).

Chris (or whoever's working with him) does indeed seem to be a cheeky monkey, admittedly a busy one. (By now, however, he should have appointed a PR agency, which is good news...)

As for Dennis's relationship with Fullrun, well I'm sure Chris will continue to receive the Fullrunner...

. . . and that Fullrun will view this as positive endorsement of their quality product ;)

You know, World's Leading, you really should think about a subscription (if you haven't already got one)... Less hassle for everyone, really.

Ah, the highways and byways of blog relations ... funny old world, eh?

[Cough, splutter cough. . . exit stage right...]

Il Cavalier

2:18 pm
....the world's leading.... said...

Well, glad we've got that sorted out. I think.

And we'll happily endorse Fullrun...stick this on your website:

"Fullrun is quite simply our first - perhaps only - reference point for all things technology and media related in the UK. It's got to be the world's leading...thing...and if we're ever stuck for something to write ourselves, Fullrun's our first port of call. If people weren't so kind as to send us their own copies, we'd be sorely tempted to subscribe."
The World's Leading

3:00 pm
Anonymous said...

No two ways about it, your "endorsement" raised a belly laugh here in the office...

That world's leading schtick is fantastic because it's unanswerable. You should TM it right away.

Seriously though: You make a fair point about the pass-on readership for The Fullrunner, our email newsletter.

We monitor it (we've got an excellent idea of who our biggest fans are), and it's massive.

So far, it's been a great marketing exercise. We've also persisted with the full-text approach because it's the best way to do email newsletters.

Fairly soon, though, we'll be replacing the full text of our stories with links that revert to the subscriber part of the site.

At that point, who knows, perhaps your soreness will become unbearably tempting. . .

[And now, with the world bored rigid, I probably ought to get back to work...]

Il Cavalier

3:39 pm
Anonymous said...

Wow - another IT web site! And staffed by such high flyers of the journo world. I bet El Reg is quaking in its boots.

6:20 pm
Anonymous said...

Will it compete with the Reg? I don't think so! IT PRO looks far more like it'll compete with the likes of Techworld in the first instance.

11:10 pm

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