Tim Spira

Are youth magazines finally coming of age? Tim Spira looks at a fickle and fast-changing market, where the only trend that’s constant is the steady climb in copy sales.

US conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has been a big factor in Republican Party victories over the last decade, but now the shoe is on the other foot. Can left-leaning talk radio oust Bush? Tim Spira phones it in.

With the US presidential elections looming, Tim Spira watches Capitol Hill and Big Media dancing to a hauntingly familiar tune. Could it be Pink Floyd’s "Money"?

Sometimes the news is so bad you just have to laugh. Tim Spira explains why young Americans are getting their political insights from late-night comedy.

Saddam’s capture was George W. Bush’s second Christmas gift, claims Tim Spira. The first? Michael Jackson’s child abuse charges. What possible impact, you may ask, could the alleged shenanigans of a has-been moonwalker have on the popularity of the world’s most powerful head of state?

"On a recent visit to South Africa, I was accosted by a fellow columnist who demanded to know why the American media have not mounted a more forceful challenge to the radical policies of the Bush administration". How broken is the US administration’s media smokescreen? Tim Spira thinks President Bush should start reading his nation’s newspapers.

Leading ANC intellectual and former Minister for Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting in Mandela’s cabinet, Dr. Z. Pallo Jordan, evaluates local media ten years into democracy. Have free market principles delivered the goods? Has the SABC overcome its apartheid legacy? Are we adequately reflecting the two nations in our one country?

Does the US media have a Blair for each one of our Bristow-Boveys? Tim Spira looks at the parallels between Ranjeni Munusamy’s story labelling Ngcuka an apartheid spy and syndicated American columnist Robert Novak’s ‘outing’ of a CIA agent.

Perhaps journalistic objectivity, as Thami Mazwai suggests, is an unattainable ideal. But, asks Tim Spira, does that make it a worthless one?

Markets have been sending out strong signals that listed media entities need to forget the strategies of the late ’90’s and start restructuring. So has the age of the integrated media company come and gone? Tim Spira addresses the question.

The Citizen Kane character, loosely based on newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, again looms large as the US reviews its media regulations regime. At the same time, SA regulator Icasa is faced with its own acquisition-hungry media owners.

The fight for position in South Africas coastal radio market has moved into the white water. The SABC nationals have breached the back line and are taking on the regions, but the local guys arent leaving the surf. Tim Spira scoped em out.

Reality TV is going political. Could a localised version of The American Candidate fly? Tim Spira casts his vote.

What’s the formula of success for a mens magazine? The perfect mix of babes, cars and gadgets? Tim Spira talks to the okes at SA’s top titles and finds out it ain’t so simple.

Tim Spira, The Medias man in New York, tells us how US war coverage looked from the inside.

With US newsrooms suffering a post-war dearth of material, maybe those weapons of mass destruction could get some play? Unfortunately, writes Tim Spira, not even the New York Times is treating the subject with respect.

A new, controversial UK media regulations bill begins its passage through parliament this month. It raises questions about media independence that will become increasingly relevant as SA reviews its own media regulations.

Tim Spira The Media’s correspondent in New York notices that the Bush administration is as successful at getting US journalists to tow the party line as Mugabe is in Zimbabwe.