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8 Days, the weekly international news and business magazine

Campaign magazine, April 1982:


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The 8 Days crash that left more than a gap in the market

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Dennis Hackett on the latest publication to founder as the recession marches on

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The 20 strong editorial staff of 8 Days, the weekly international news and business magazine, were having a chapel meeting at their Chiswick offices when a lady from Touche Ross, the publishing company's auditors, walked in, informed them that the company had gone into voluntary liquidation, briefly but helpfully explained how receivership worked and left.
It wasn't entirely a surprise. The March issue, distribution of which was completed in the UK, but stopped abroad, already carried a letter by editor Tony Hall with the initial letter of each paragraph spelling out "Goodbye".

What was a surprise to the staff was to learn that their March salaries would not be paid and that all was at a standstill until a creditors meeting on the 20 April.
It had already been noted that bills were falling further in arrears - hence the goodbye notice - but no one suspected that a company set up with such a massive capital injection nearly three years previously would arrive at a point of being unable to meet the wage bills.
Furthermore, the staff,, accustomed to ferreting for business stories, have been unable to discover any details of the Arab Publishing Corporation, of which their company, Falconwood Publications, appears to be a subsidiary.
The magazine was founded by Mahdi al Tajir, the United Arab Emirate' ambassador to Britain, whose name is often accompanied by the tag "the richest man in the world".
It's aim was to give in-depth coverage to the Middle East and European affairs "with particular stress on the central issues of our times such as energy and the problems of rekindling the world economy".
The publisher and editor-in-chief was Colin Chapman, formerly of the Observer and the BBC, and its chairman was Shuabi, a Jordanian citizen who is also information officer to Sheikh Rashid, the ruler of Dubai. At the time it was rumoured that al Tajir was founding the magazine as a British publishing base, possibly as the prelude to opening a newspaper.
The magazine started well from a news and production point of view. It benefited during the Sunday Times stoppage from the services of members of that paper's satff and it's second issue carried a scoop on how the Pakistanis had outwitted the Atomic Energy Commission and made the bomb.
It was heavily capitalised and had its own photo-setting equipment, later hived off corporately and geographically, as Falconwood Productions which has also ceased trading.
Around 1979, al Tajir's name disappeared from the masthead. This disappearance was interpreted as being due to the magazine's forthright approach to sensitive stories in the Middle East.
Chapman also withdrew. There had been a series of executive editors and now Hall took the chair.

The magazine had started with a marketing staff but at this point the impetus for commercial viability seemed to depart - as did the marketing staff. This surprised other staff as the magazine was reputed to be losing over £1/2 million a year.
It was only six months ago that the magazine had a full time advertising salesman. Its 64 pages rarely had an advertising content of more than around 20% and the magazine had no promotion.
Hall said that although he was depressed by the closure of the magazine he was not depressed in a professional sense because of "our lack of some of the most basic elements for an even adequate distribution and advertising system over the past two years". This meant, he said, that the magazine, selling around 15,000 copies, had never been seriously tested on the market.
Shuabi has been a firm supporter of the magazine and was recently quoted as having plans to launch an Arab language sister magazine, Assada, for which he said 8 Days would provide the infrastructure.
Allegations made of editorial interference by Shuabi have been rebutted by him and his rebuttal is confirmed by Hall, a journalist with a reputation for integrity. The staff have reported to Shuabi to see if money cannot be found for their March salaries.
The staff's six month redundancy agreement will have to await the creditors' meeting. Meanwhile, a further representative of Touche Ross has informed them how they can apply for their Government redundancy money.
They believe that Shuabi, now in Dubai, might be seeking further backers to give this well produced but curiously commercially neglected magazine a further lifespan.

[My initial emphasis on the names: Ed.]

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