The Lady and The Re-Vamp - Notes from a freak in control

This week I watched with relish a great programme about the revamp of The Lady Magazine. For those of you, probably blokes, who are unfamiliar with The Lady - this magazine has been around for 125 years and is targeted not unsurprisingly at the Ladies!

Back in the days when I had paper-round The Lady magazine was a publication that I used to deliver and I found it utterly fascinating. It was a brief insight behind the chintz curtains into another world of weekends in the country and embroidery samplers. I would sit on the on the wall of the person who had ordered the magazine and devour every word. After submitting the editorial to careful scrutiny and after much fantasising of this upstairs, downstairs world I would then deliver a well thumbed publication to its rightful owner.

As well as opening a door into the world of landed gentry, The Lady was also responsible for my first job, which was as a mother's help to a remarkable lady. The only reason I responded to her ad was because it claimed that there was a possibility to ski at Easter - Free Ski-ing Yeah! I was offered the job over the phone and at the tender age of 19 I accepted. In no time I was to be found running down the platform to board a train to London to meet my employer and start work immediately.

Anyway before I get carried away with my life history, I must confess that it was with great interest that I watched a programme about the revamping of The Lady Magazine which I hold responsible for my first job and move to London.

Rachel Johnson or RoJo, (she is Boris Johnson’s little sister) was bought in to shake things up, increase circulation and revamp the old Lady. It made for fascinating if not sometimes uncomfortable viewing as RoJo fired people, moved staff she didn't like into tiny back offices and basically put a very large cat amongst some unsuspecting pigeons She would also make sneaky, whispered conversations to the camera in her office about putting people on the 'death list'.

The programme was really well put together and whatever your view you may have of the magazine it was fantastic publicity for them as the skirts of the old Lady were dragged screaming unceremoniously across the threshold of the twenty first century. I would love to know what the subjects think about their portrayal in these programmes - a follow up show would not go amiss. I wonder if they knew what they were letting themselves in for ?- I suspect not, but I bet their circulation has gone up.

I for one immediately went onto their website to see if the old cover designs of seasonal flowers had remained or were now art directed within an inch of their margins by RoJo’s creative scalpel.

A change in the working environment is going to be a difficult time for both employees and employers and having it played out on television for the world and his wife to see, would seem to be a naive choice but it is probably indicative of a publication stuck in the past.

There were many other ways they could have secured a presence on television or on-line without having to launder their dirty washing in public.

This 'fly-on-the-wall’ style filming is addictive viewing but is a tad old fashioned, just like The Lady herself, in this new media environment. An alternative approach to bringing their image up to date might have been to talk with either a really forward thinking agency or an open minded broadcaster who could have created some programming to suit their needs - but if they had done this we would have been denied the entertainment factor.

For pure viewing pleasure I for one am very pleased that The Lady is still stuck in the past even in their approach in tackling the new - I will however be in touch to offer my services for future media ventures and also to recommend a new recipe for Spotted Dick!