Did-he-or-didn’t-he Felix Dennis

The ‘I killed a man’ confession of Maxim founder Felix Dennis in the Times isn’t lying down. The great man himself has tried to pass it off as an April Fool in BusinessWeek:

‘What [the press] didn’t notice was the date,’ [which was April 1, Dennis claimed] ‘Anyone who thinks that story is real needs a sense of humour check.’

But there’s no playing it down in Press Gazette. Read all about it there: ‘Ginny Dougary reveals the story behind her explosive Times interview with magazine mogul Felix Dennis, and how she kept his murder claim in it.’

White raises black cover issue

Premier Model Agency founder Carole White has attacked magazine editors for not using more coloured models:

“…it’s always about sales and the idea that blue eyes and blonde hair sells. I’m not sure I believe that. If fashion editors were a bit braver and tried out black, Asian and Chinese models, our eyes would be easier on that look.

“They don’t give the opportunities to these girls. Given that there are so many variations of skin, particularly in London, it’s a backward step being taken if no one is brave enough to give ethnic girls a chance.”

White addresses the issue in an interview with Arifa Akbar in today’s Independent. The article makes it clear that she believes the women’s magazine industry is part of the problem, despite the defence of Vogue by Alexander Shulman.

Country Life campaigns

Country Life has set out on the campaigning trail with a 10-point agenda:

· Give children more freedom

· Label food by county of origin

· Eat a rare breed

· Reduce Britain’s deer population by 30%

· Drink English ‘champagne’

· Clean up our verges

· Learn to love GM crops

· Only eat ethically produced chicken

· Save protected rural areas from flight paths

· Plant a tree

Seems like there’s a conflict here - big on rare breeds and ethical chicken while promoting GM crops.

GQ heads for India

Men’s monthly GQ is to launch in India - following its Conde Nast stablemate Vogue. Sanjiv Bhattacharya, a British journalist who was features editor of GQ in the UK, will be editor with most of the material generated locally.

Dylan Jones, the editor of British GQ, is a consultant. Jones uses the Observer story to take a swipe at his competition - weekly freebie ShortList as well at National Magazines’ Esquire: He claims Esquire’s relaunch under Jeremy Langmead has been ‘a total failure’, because ‘they are selling 10 per cent less at news-stands. They’ll be giving it away at tube stations next.’

Men’s magazines profiled

‘Cleggover’ Piers Morgan - film star in the making

Piers Morgan on journalists from a pithy interview in the Observer by James Robinson:

I’m having so much fun doing this TV lark [a return to editing newspapers is]  unlikely in the near future. It’s in my veins. It’s in my blood. I love Fleet Street, I love journalists. They are a disgusting bunch of venal reptiles and I love wallowing in their pit.

The interview follows Morgan’s GQ profile of Nick Clegg in which he lured the Liberal Democrat leader into bragging about his ‘no more than 30′ sexual conquests, which has resulted in the nickname ‘Cleggover’ in Westminster.

Morgan also discusses his victory in the US celebrity version of The Apprentice:

‘It’s quite interesting how the British press treated my victory. Half the papers completely ignored this global event [sic]. I thought that was a great accolade.’

The former Mirror editor might have had his tongue in his cheek, but journalists have long had a dislike for colleagues who find fame elsewhere.

Yet there is a long history of screen-struck editors, most famously the legendary Arthur Christiansen. He played the role of Daily Express editor in the 1961 film ‘The Day the Earth Caught Fire’ - and, of course, had done that job for real for 25 years. A Topic magazine report at the time revealed Lord Beaverbrook demanded a private showing in his Fleet Street office. The 82-year-old Express proprietor - in whose ‘glasshouse’ or ‘Black Lubianka’ the film had been shot, is reported to have said: ‘Wonderful. If you had taken up acting instead of editing, you would be another Cary Grant by now.’

Perhaps that’s what Morgan is really after.

Tyler Brûlé to return to the FT

Tyler Brûlé is to revive his Fast Lane column in FT Weekend on April 26 as part of a relaunch. The column will return to the back page of the weekend section alongside Harry Eyre’s Slow Lane pieces.

Brûlé, founder of Wallpaper* and editor-in-chief of Monocle, will return on April 26.

Fast Lane ran from 2004 -2006 and covered travel, trends and upmarkets consumer goods, with two consecutive wekly columns rarely written from the same country.

However, Fast Lane does tend to divide readers. Some find its jet-setting tips unmissable; other pretentious. As one comment to a Guardian blog by ‘Ragunoodle’ put it: ‘The writing was really priceless. I would like to meet the person who invented the Tyler Brule character and convince her/him to bring it back. FT is at a loss without it.’

Underground Press on Radio 4

Radio 4 is broadcasting ‘1968: Notes from the Underground’ about the origins, influence and legacy of the underground press in Britain - Paul McCartney painting shelves for IT, Felix Dennis and OZ, the UFO club - and the Obscene [it turned out in the sense of the size of the backhanders they were taking from Soho's pornographers] Publications Squad.

Rosie Boycott is the presenter. She was inspired by [unknowingly] meeting feminist members of the Angry Brigade as guest editors of Friends - who were planning to blow up the Biba shop! - to set up Spare Rib. Paul Keers points out that the agenda of the underground magazines is now mainstream.

Dennis claims: ‘I’ve killed a man’

The billionaire publisher of Maxim and The Week tells the Times he once killed a man - among discussion of poetry, whores and his past addiction to cocaine.

The Daily Mail wades in to investigate.

Dennis Publishing profile