The Big City

I’ve been getting more and more puzzled about The First Post, an online magazine I came across a few months ago. The design of the site is excellent, the articles are pithy, well written and invariably interesting and many of the contributors are well-known. It has interesting arts coverage, plenty of foreign affairs and great pictures, it looks expensive. So why on earth has nobody heard of it and where is the money coming from?

According to the details on the contact page:

The First Post is owned by First Post NewsGroup Limited and is backed by private investors who are involved in the development of new media opportunities. The Non-Executive Chairman of the company is Mike Turner.

No clue there then. After an age searching on Google I finally came across an article in the Observer from last year. They say that the site is edited by Mark Law, a former comment editor at the Sunday Telegraph, which explains why so many of the First Post writers have also written for the Telegraph. Looking back over some articles with that in mind I did get the occasional whiff of constipation and shoe polish, but it is also a very good read so it’ll be staying in my Bookmarks menu for now. I’ll be keeping an eye on it though, one more sentence containing “flooded” and “immigrants” and they’re out.