Supplement Review – Media Independent

The Independent today re-launched its media section as a stand-alone supplement. Media+ supplement appears on a Monday in direct competition with The Guardian’s media pages which were converted into a separate section a few week ago *Supplement Review – Media Guardian. This move has sparked-off The Guardian’s current ad campaign where The Guardian accuses The Independent of copying a number of its ideas.

Bitchiness aside, Independent Media+ is visually eye-catching. The articles are well spaced across the pages and are interspersed with the excellent photographs that the paper is famous for. It definitely has more visual appeal than the Guardian’s equivalent.

The supplement leads with a rare, but standard, John Birt interview. The feature begins by going over old ground, the much publicised history of Birt at the Beeb. Birt then pumps out his standard answers to questions about unease at the BBC and the piece ends with a Birt PR quotes.

There is a very good feature looking at responses to The Mail’s ‘guilty’ verdict, although it would have benefited from more influential respondents, and there is also a regular CV spot on media people’s careers: sound familiar?

Today’s Media+ had 10 pages of editorial and 15 pages of job adverts. Media Guardian averages about 26 pages of jobs. Ultimately it will be recruitment advertisers who will decide which is the superior supplement. The Independent now has a monopoly over all Mirror Group job ads. The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, The Mirror, Sunday Mirror, The People, Daily Record, Sunday Mail, The Sporting Life, L!VETV and Newsletter will now only advertise jobs in Media+. Other major advertisers in today’s paper include the BBC and EMAP, but the majority of ads were sales related.

Overall Media+ articles are shorter and more people led than its Guardian counterparts. It is a lighter read and if it can win-over advertisers it may win-over readers. *Subscribers only