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The TV Week overhaul

TV Week recently underwent a bit of a makeover, seeking to shift from its appeal to soapie readers to the broader television fan. How has it fared?

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As some readers know, TV Week recently underwent a bit of a makeover, seeking to shift from its appeal to soapie readers to the broader television fan, and from younger to more-older readers.

In recent years the magazine has had to keep extending its Guide, with more and more real estate added to listings of multichannels. There was a time there when there when it felt like every new month gave birth to a new channel. At least things have settled down there for a while.

One of the issues for the magazine, as with any print media, is the finality of a press run. For TV Week it has always been first cab off the rank, going to the printers well ahead of its publication date. That leaves no room for late programming changes, nor the ability to break stories that online media (such as a pesky TV website) can address on a daily basis. So the challenge is always to lock in magazine exclusives with networks, a practice which continues today.

Its latest edition carries stories on a MasterChef contestant getting special treatment (it’s about Kate being allowed to see her kids) and feuds within the teams at The Block.

I haven’t had a chance to sample the new look mag but I’m hoping it doesn’t still drive its soapie stories as being all about the characters and plotlines. These shows have actors with real names, who used to tell us about their career choices and what it takes to create a production.

The latest edition of industry mag MediaWeek interviews Editor Emma Nolan who says, “We spent six months doing reader research, mostly focus groups in city and regional groups, with both lapsed and recent readers, and there were some key things we found out.

“People were surprised by the content not knowing we cover a big range of shows, mainly because soaps featured so heavily on the cover and the design of the magazine.”

Today Dan Barrett at Crikey offers a very detailed analysis of the overhaul with mixed results for the mag. He sums up his thoughts with:

TV Week is a better publication than many people give it credit for, but it’s still one that falls far short of its potential. There’s a place in the Australian market for a TV publication that offers a more thoughtful, considered approach to TV reportage. The magazine can still cover the same subjects as TV Week already examines (reality shows, soaps, sports, and scripted series). There’s a market for a fun, thoughtful, and relevant publication. I just wish TV Week would take that step and actually deliver a better product for my $4.20 a week.

32 Responses

  1. I did a survey online to respond to what i think of the changes after they had been made but I’d like to know who they surveyed beforehand. I do think it looks cleaner and neater now.

  2. I stopped reading TV WEEK in the 90’s.

    It used to be a great magazine with lots of stories about the great Aussie Soaps of the 70’s/80’s/90’s, with scoops about upcoming plotlines, whole pages stories introducing new actors/acresses joining the shows, interviews with the stars of the shows (not just drivel about their character) and stories on the big American shows.

    Not any more ….. like television itself, t.v week has become a sad read about the annoying fly-by-night (15 minutes of fame) reality tv people. Not interesting to me at all ….

    I miss the 80’s …… television was great, music was great …. and t.v week was great …

  3. We buy it weekly and I mostly like the new look. Carolyn Stewart did a great piece with the lovely Claudia Karvan this week and Gary Mehigan’s bucket list was a highlight. They layout seems very open though and full of cheesy pastel colours, so at first glance I feel like I am getting less content.
    But a big round of applause for running the actual channel numbers of the new FTA digitals on the guide – very helpful. I still think their review section at the back could be much improved…too much fluff and too short. I reckon they should dump the silly puzzles and run more in depth reviews on those extra pages. If people want crosswords, they can buy Take 5!

  4. RE: Masterchef:

    kate seeing her kids is considered favoritism? how about them practically giving dani, ellie and hayden their immunity pins? that’s way worse! this should be considered a belated prize for kate seeing as she deserved the pin weeks back but they chose to award it to the professional, even with an unfinished plate.

  5. I gave up on TV Week. Sick of Home and Away/ Channel 7 dominating the cover! And also, since Neighbours moved to ELEVEN. TV Week moved Neighbours entirely from the mag (not really, just shoved in the corner)

    Hate TV Week now!

  6. Why do people call for things to be axed or canned? Why would you want to do that when that would put many people out of a job and reduce the number of options out there as a source of information? If you don’t like TV Week then don’t buy it but let everyone else who likes it, enjoy it.

  7. One doesn’t really need to buy this tv magazine….you can get the tv guide online for free and I also have it on my Play TV. The beauty of this is that it is always up to date…..I reckon in 10 years 95% of all magazines will go broke owing to the internet…..

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