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That'll be the Watcher gone from DWM, then...

Lonemagpie

Lonemagpie

Writer
In Memoriam
http://mjd.id.au/node/26452497
Well, that’ll be an automatic firing, as The Watcher columnist’s final (and it certainly will be) column in the print edition - they’ve changed the digital one - has a thing where if you take the first letter of each sentence, it spells out “Panini and BBC Worldwide are cunts” - never a good way to impress your bosses and their licensors.
 
Wow, did he/she think she/he was being clever? We live in the Internet age; not only will people figure it out, but they'll spread the word quickly when you're being an arse. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
 
Both Clayton Hickman and Gareth Roberts denied being The Watcher on Twitter yesterday. Also in there, Hickman posted that they (ie., Panini and DWM people) were asking people not to talk about it or share photos of the page.

I can't imagine this is being talked about on Gallifrey Base. Steven Hill wouldn't stand for that.

I've no idea who The Watcher is. I suppose The Watcher might have done this to send a message about his feelings about the new editorial regime, so I'd guess that The Watcher was a Tom Spilsbury loyalist.
 
Since I'm not on Twitter I have seen no suggestion not to talk about it. And wouldn't care.

As for the Watcher's identity, I don't see why it has to have been the same person all along- wouldn't be surprised if there was a bunch of them, in which case the fictional identity will still have to go.
 
Evil Headhunter said:
Wow, did he/she think she/he was being clever? We live in the Internet age; not only will people figure it out, but they'll spread the word quickly when you're being an arse. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Click to expand...
If you look on the bottom right of the page it says "IN A NUTSHELL: If you look hard enough, there's always something hidden in plain sight."

I'm guessing the Watcher guy wanted people to figure it out to send the message and maybe this is his/her way of resigning?
 
According to Hickman, The Watcher was not a group pseudonym, nor has The Watcher's identity changed. Which could, I suppose, be a polite fiction like The Stig.
 
It'll come out eventually, I'm sure. I mean, wasn't there a time when we didn't know who Jackie Jenkins was?
 
Australis said:
^ I still don't know who Jackie Jenkins is, because I've never heard of her. :)
Click to expand...

Well, the Jackie Jenkins book is being reprinted soon, so you may have your chance to find out.

I loved Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, and then Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary was being called the female equivalent, but it wasn't, because Bridget didn't obsess over anything the way the High Fidelity protagonist obsesses over music. Enter Jackie Jenkins in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine, a Bridget Jones with a fannish obsession: Doctor Who. I missed it as a magazine column but read the first book edition and enjoyed it.
 
The papers have caught up with the story today - Nick Pegg was the Watcher in DWM and has been fired from that and Dalek-operating... "So he was the Watcher all the time.."
 
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That's him finished at Big Finish as well, I'd imagine.

I'm guessing this is somehow connected to Clayton Hickman's tantrum over his cover for Shada not being used? The Professional Fans getting upset that they're not wanted anymore?
 
From the new issue of Private Eye:

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Not massively surprised TBH.
 
I'm skeptical of certain parts of that -- mostly, Brexit as the excuse for Worldwide to crack down on DWM -- but a lot of that rings true. It always struck me as strange that Spilsbury insisted that DWM was independent, since as a licensed publication I'd have thought, based on my own experiences with working on and with other people's properties, that everything between and including the covers was approved by Worldwide at every step of the process to make sure they weren't going off-message. Panini is paying Worldwide for the privilege of working with Doctor Who, and Worldwide's right to expect Panini to treat their property properly and showcase it in the best light. The magazine should be the official cheerleader, not the official tomato-thrower, something that I don't think Spilsbury always got.
 
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