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References To FT In Other Publications / Media

Andy X

Andy X

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I don't need to tell you lot that Fortean Times magazine is only occasionally name-checked in the mainstream press and news media. It's therefore quite gratifying to spot the odd obscure reference from time to time.

Here, courtesy of the Library Angel, is a gem I immediately stumbled on today whilst looking at some old computer mags which I can't bring myself to chuck out. It's from PC Format's March 1995 issue:

Anyone got any more to share?

Bob Rickard_PC Format issue 42_March 1995.png

I'd completely forgotten it was bi-monthly only in them days.
 
FT is also mentioned in this satirical item about snowfall and awareness thereof this past December ...

‘IT’S SNOWING’ SOCIAL MEDIA EXCLUSIVELY REVEALS
Large portions of the United Kingdom have been overlaid with a thinnish veneer of a snow-like substance, various social media outlets can exclusively reveal.

In a blow to mainstream media everywhere, news of the unprecedented weather phenomenon has been leaked via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The BBC could neither confirm nor deny the reports until they had been corroborated by five separate weather stations across the United Kingdom, and three of those were closed due to poor weather.

The BBC acknowledged the existence of snowmen, but declared that these were not ‘anthropogenic’ snowmen: ‘Naturally occurring snowmen have been recorded as early as the 6th century. And in the 17th Century it used to be so warm in Antarctica that they used to grow strawberries and kumquats, you know…’

Meanwhile the Fortean Times, who have recently opened a Snapchat account, are said to be chasing reports of a mythical rainbow-spewing snow-unicorn with spaniel ears, somewhere outside Reigate.
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SOURCE: http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2017/12/11/its-snowing-social-media-exclusively-reveals/
 
On the other hand, FT's reputation is not so obviously respected in other circles ...

Mature student Lizzi Mills has ‘discovered’ a mermaid skeleton on Worthing beach.
A video she produced shows the ‘found footage’ of her April Fool’s style adventure.

Lizzi, who is studying for a degree in photography at Northbrook MET, explained: “I have recently returned to university and I have been assigned a project to undertake a fake photoshoot – think Fortean Times or National Enquirer. ...
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SOURCE: https://www.worthingherald.co.uk/news/offbeat/video-mermaid-skeleton-spoof-1-8447231
 
I remember Viz comic quoting 'David Sutton, Fortean Times Editor' in a spoof article about shapes in clouds.
 
Ah, that rings a tiny bell. I think it might have been at the time when both titles (FT / Viz) were acquired by - or sold to, or whatever - Dennis Publishing.
 
Andy X said:
Ah, that rings a tiny bell. I think it might have been at the time when both titles (FT / Viz) were acquired by - or sold to, or whatever - Dennis Publishing.
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Just to clarify - the link between FT and Viz goes back to when FT first became generally available via the newsstand. It had previously been small-circulation, available only by subscription or via some science fiction / comics / counterculture-type shops (I bought my first subscription at the 1979 SF Worldcon in Brighton). In the early 1990s (as far as I remember), John Brown Publishing gained the distribution and marketing rights, having previously made a huge success of Viz (also previously small-circulation). Presumably to John Brown's disappointment, FT never hit the heights of sales that Viz reached at its peak. A little later, JBP started Bizarre magazine, siphoning off a little of the more 'out-there' medical and behavioural content that FT had been covering (and adding its own kinks to the fold). In 2001, John Brown Publishing, i.e. Viz, FT and Bizarre, was sold to I Feel Good Ltd, run by James (no relation to John or to the Ambassador of Soul) Brown, and a couple of years later IFG was sold to Dennis Publishing (already a big shareholder in IFG, I think).

Our favourite Viz reference, though, was in an article spoofing tabloid stories of foxes attacking children. The story was about the Loch Ness Monster migrating south and attacking children, and included a quote from "David Sutton, editor of crackpot nutrag Fortean Times". What bliss to be alive that proud day!

Your friendly neighbourhood historian / pedant / bore.
 
owenhere said:
Just to clarify - the link between FT and Viz goes back to when FT first became generally available via the newsstand. It had previously been small-circulation, available only by subscription or via some science fiction / comics / counterculture-type shops (I bought my first subscription at the 1979 SF Worldcon in Brighton). In the early 1990s (as far as I remember), John Brown Publishing gained the distribution and marketing rights, having previously made a huge success of Viz (also previously small-circulation). Presumably to John Brown's disappointment, FT never hit the heights of sales that Viz reached at its peak. A little later, JBP started Bizarre magazine, siphoning off a little of the more 'out-there' medical and behavioural content that FT had been covering (and adding its own kinks to the fold). In 2001, John Brown Publishing, i.e. Viz, FT and Bizarre, was sold to I Feel Good Ltd, run by James (no relation to John or to the Ambassador of Soul) Brown, and a couple of years later IFG was sold to Dennis Publishing (already a big shareholder in IFG, I think).

Our favourite Viz reference, though, was in an article spoofing tabloid stories of foxes attacking children. The story was about the Loch Ness Monster migrating south and attacking children, and included a quote from "David Sutton, editor of crackpot nutrag Fortean Times". What bliss to be alive that proud day!

Your friendly neighbourhood historian / pedant / bore.
Click to expand...

You forgot to add "Love Guru" to your title...
 
Forget that night of wild passion?!:adored::cheer:
 
owenhere said:
"crackpot nutrag"
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Ha ha! Nice turn of phrase!

Thanks for the elucidation - which wasn't boring at all. I'd forgotten all about IFG but have back issues from the James Brown era and earlier. So the two publications, as you say, have in fact been stablemates for longer than I'd thought... Perhaps FT could have achieved the circulation figures of Viz with the inclusion of a regular comic strip such as "Charlie Fort and his unfeasibly small spectacles"?
 
Andy X said:
Ha ha! Nice turn of phrase!

Thanks for the elucidation - which wasn't boring at all. I'd forgotten all about IFG but have back issues from the James Brown era and earlier. So the two publications, as you say, have in fact been stablemates for longer than I'd thought... Perhaps FT could have achieved the circulation figures of Viz with the inclusion of a regular comic strip such as "Charlie Fort and his unfeasibly small spectacles"?
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Well, Hunt E. does his best...
 
Indeed be does, but I've noticed very little gratuitous scatology in his work (there's another regular column for that sort of thing)

;)
 
Andy X said:
Indeed be does, but I've noticed very little gratuitous scatology in his work (there's another regular column for that sort of thing)

;)
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What the scat did Fort do with his spectacles? The world needs to know.
 
Couldn't say, but there are some jolly saucy pictures in some of those books in the Britsh Library. Apparently.
 
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