It's a difficult time for the regional press so any innovation that has the potential to help out cash-strapped publishers is usually seized with both hands. But The Journal's ‘500 Of the Most Influential People in the North East' looks like it might have been a brand extension too far.
Put it this way -The Sunday Times Rich List it aint and you certainly won't get the same voyeuristic pleasure from reading it. Quite why your average Whitley Bay housewife would care whether Simon Roberson, regional manager BT, or Bill McGawley, executive vice-chairman, TDR, should have made the cut is beyond me and I shouldn't imagine it's the talk of the pubs of Spennymoor.
Business magazines in particular are prone to these brand extensions but they're normally a bit of knockabout fun and an opportunity to indulge in a bout of harmless self-reverential navel-gazing. The regional press would probably be best advised to either steer clear of them or come up with a slightly more interesting category for the sake of their readers. Otherwise they just end up looking desperate for cash.
