FrontLine Club launches own quarterly promoting independent journalism

Posted by Christie Silk on June 18, 2009 at 5:01 PM

The FrontLine Club has launched its own quarterly title to sponsor independent journalism. FrontLine: A Broadsheet, will comprise of foreign coverage, as well as articles investigating British culture and politics. In fact, its creators hope to resurrect "some traditions lost from the British market".

The identity of these traditions is as of yet vague, however the publication's ethos has been made clear. This, according to Vaughan Smith, founder and managing director of the Club, is "political, but party-politically-allergic, irreverent and iconoclastic". The subject choice in the selection of articles for the first edition suggests that these values are indeed underwriting the content. Up for discussion is Tony Blair's Catholic faith, the return of British sleaze and peacekeeping in Kosovo.

Frontline represents a strong nugget of writers desirous of maintaining their reporting standards, while adapting to changing forces in the market. The title is free from advertising and is funded by Club members and the wider community.

"More than 1,000 journalists from all over the world support the Frontline Club and use it as a place to meet and exchange ideas. This is an extraordinary pool of editorial and journalistic talent. Late in the evening, at Frontline over drinks, documentary ideas are hatched, book deals are agreed and idealistic plans for new media ventures are launched," Smith told journalism.co.uk.

"Frontline's Broadsheet was one of those idealistic plans that has been made possible by the many members who have contributed in there spare time. All of the contributors, editorial supporters and the design team worked for free."

The targeted readership is in theory, general and inclusive to all looking for "journalism from independent sources and delivered by correspondents who aim to do things differently from the mainstream". Upon closer examination, this may prove to be a market more niche than one would expect. However, conclusions of media analysts about the patterns of change in readerships have suggested that publications, using both traditional and new platforms, are best placed to succeed if they specialise their content and attract a more specific group of consumers.

Source: journalism.co.uk