Media Week

Newsstands across the country will be feeling the strain this morning following the arrival of Conde Nast's latest style bonanza, Love magazine. Weighing a hefty 1.5kg, the oversized glossy might carry the strapline 'Fashion and Fame' but it's anything but a 'light read'.

In fact, flying in the face of conventional handbag-sized wisdom, this new 334-page publication is only available via the newsstands; presumably because the cost of having the already £5 title delivered to your door would require a sizeable remortgage - which of course are no longer available. 

Not that I can see Conde Nast's managing director Nicholas Coleridge being too worried - I recall GQ's 10th anniversary issue being an equally arm bending occasion, while the size of Vogue around Fashion Week is usually comparable to a new-born baby.



Perhaps of more concern should be the delicate balancing act the magazine is attempting to make in fusing the all- too-accessible world of celebrity with high fashion. Of course, Conde Nast and Love's of-the-moment editor Katie Grand deserve praise for even attempting such an audacious launch in the teeth of an economic recession.

It also comes exactly one week after ABC figures tracked across-the-board declines in magazine circulations for 2008, not least in the celebrity sector where only Hello! managed to post an increase, and only then because it has started giving them away. Hello! itself has always placed its own success on the quality-control over 'the stars' it covers and how it approaches them - staying as true to its high society/regal-Spanish roots as possible: no Britney-chasing or Jade-bashing here.

Love's editor, who used to be at the helm of Bauer's Pop magazine, is clearly confident the British-public are ready for a change. She sees no reason why luxury brands, fashion and pop celebs can't share the same space, and has placed a naked, plus-sized Beth Ditto and on the launch-cover to prove it. Striking, certainly. But is it enough to herald a brave new publishing world?

Conde Nast will point to its many pages of advertising, 46 before you even get to any editorial, as evidence that the market is ready for the step change. Its initial commitment to publish just biannually has also taken the pressure off. But it doesn't mask the fact Love's so-called edge lacks conviction.

Getting The Gossip singer to take her kit off is hardly a new concept - it's like a Dove ad on steroids. In fact, forget concept, actually sticking Beth's baps on a magazine cover was first masterminded almost two years ago by NME.

Other 'cutting edge' celebrities to make the first issue include the ubiquitous Lily Allen, incessantly annoying Pixie Geldoff and, er Amy Winehouse. Grand's decision to get Mark Frith's input - he of Heat fame - clearly already paying dividends. But fear not, there is one credible star unearthed in today's first issue, Iggy Pop - you know, from the insurance ads.

British newspapers received another body blow this week, outside the all too familiar stories of looming redundancies.

The national press is no longer considered a reliable source of information and, unless sweeping changes are made to the existing system of self-regulation, they risk becoming irrelevant, according to a major report. 

The findings make grim reading for those in the business, and come during a time of unprecedented change in the way news is being gathered, produced and consumed. 

The battle for readers and advertisers has never been so desperate, so the suggestion that newspapers are now trusted less than banks will not be welcomed. 

In fact, according to polls cited in the report, the woefully low levels of trust are still dropping, and fewer than one in ten people now have any faith in newspapers to behave responsibly.   

Published in consultation with an independent group that includes the FT's deputy editor Martin Dickson and The Independent's MD Simon Kelner, it also highlights how many of the concerns are shared within the industry.

There are many valid reasons for why newspapers have ended up in such a position, including the growing demands for more scoops, across more platforms and in less time, in addition to the underlying technological and financial pressures.

But identifying the problems is the easy part, it's when the recommendations are published later this year when it should start to get interesting.