In Print

In spite of the similarities between the two blogs in terms of “innovative journalistic engagement”, in the aftermath of the sale of the Huffington Post Blog to AOL for £196mil, there is no truth whatever in the rumour that the Omnibuses Blog has sold to New Transit magazine for a “considerable five figure sum”.

Why would we? New Transit now seems to have slumped to occasional production only, with the last two editions spanning two, not one month. Two of New Transit’s main writers have recently left. These are former editor Robert Jack and contributor Andrew Garnett. Both enjoyed high standing as cutting-edge transport writers. They join Meera Rambissoon, who left a while back. She now works for Coach & Bus Week.

Indeed, Jack & Garnett are about to launch their own magazine, entitled Passenger Transport. The offer sounds a little like Old Transit: a news-led fortnightly but with analysis and comment. Indeed, Old Transit had replaced the erstwhile Bus Business as the industry must-read. Old Transit differed from CBW & routeONE in that Transit didn’t simply bring you the news, it sought to analyse it. If the promises are kept, Passenger Transport looks set to bring back this older format, including that much missed company financial analysis senior managers would eagerly await each issue. Even if half of them were rail based!

Jack and Garnett’s passengertransport.co.uk domain currently points to this empty Wordpress site. For those who know it, the image is somewhat redolent of the B3082 near Badbury Rings, Dorset...

That’s not to say that the road to Passenger Transport success will be easy. It has to compete in a crowded marketplace. CBW’s relaunch, for example, means it impresses much more than it has for a long time. Modern Railways plus a raft of other journals is still the most important in the rail sector.

And, since the Old Transit news-led fortnightly seemed to have waned (and hence its relaunch as a features-led monthly, in 2009), success is by no means guaranteed. For Transit, the new format was do or die…

New Transit’s trump card is its website. Here, you will find the sort of news once available in Old Transit—albeit without some of the comment & analysis. If a £95 subscription seems a lot for a magazine like New Transit, you do get access to articles online that appear in other Landor journals, especially Local Transport Today. Some may be of interest to the operations industry though others set the public policy scene.

Passenger Transport nevertheless looks promising. Its editors say that the coverage of the bus industry will be “substantial”. They liken its appeal to the former Old Transit but are quite clear that this is a new venture. They’re being tight-lipped about subscription prices and mock ups and, cleverly, this heightens anticipation levels.

Present alongside Jack & Garnett will be Stuart Wilde. He’s the other of the Blazefield team. And, of course, your blog author Busing is always open to offers… but they will have to be nearer the Huffington Post end of the spectrum before he even considers switching on his computer : )