For more than 35 years, International Supermarket News has reported on the supermarket, FMCG and retail industries. We have built the publication the old-fashioned way, through years of interviews, relationships, trade shows, industry contacts and daily reporting. We have spoken to supermarket CEOs, buyers, government officials, producers and technology companies across Europe and North America. That experience cannot simply be copied overnight.
This is why the appearance of Global Supermarket News and GSN Media Group Ltd has attracted our attention.
There is nothing wrong with competition. The media industry has always had competitors. But competition means building your own publication, developing your own editorial identity and earning your own readership. It does not mean appearing with a remarkably similar name, targeting the same industry and attempting to benefit from the reputation of an established publication.
Cheap Imitation by cheap people and a fake editor in linkedin
James Taylor described the people behind this type of operation as “cheap people with a lack of intelligence and imagination”. It is blunt language, but it captures something that is becoming increasingly obvious in parts of the digital media world.
Real journalism takes time. It requires people who understand the industries they cover. It requires original reporting, conversations with real people and the ability to recognise a story before everybody else is writing about it.
Copying is much easier.
You can reproduce the appearance of a publication. You can follow the same subjects. You can approach similar companies. You can create pages that look impressive. But none of that creates 35 years of knowledge or relationships.
A website can be copied. Experience cannot.
A Revolving Door of Directors
Another feature that deserves attention is the apparent revolving door around the company structure, with directors changing from year to year.
A change of director is not, by itself, evidence of wrongdoing. Companies change their directors for many legitimate reasons. But repeated changes become relevant when they form part of a wider picture involving a new media organisation attempting to establish itself very quickly in a market where another publication has operated for decades.
Transparency matters in business media. The people behind a publication should be identifiable, accountable and able to stand behind what they publish and what they sell.Fake editor
The real concern comes when a publication uses the names of senior executives and corporate interviews to create the appearance of a large and influential industry platform.
A CEO interview can give a publication credibility. That credibility can then be presented to advertising departments and marketing directors when commercial packages are being offered.
This makes audience transparency extremely important.
Advertising buyers should be able to distinguish between genuine readership and numbers that may be generated through questionable traffic sources, artificial social-media activity or other forms of digital promotion.
B2B advertising is ultimately about reaching real people. Supermarket buyers, category managers, procurement executives and senior retail decision-makers are the audience that matters.
A large number on a media kit means very little if the right people are not actually reading the publication.
Serious Allegations
There have also been allegations concerning the individuals connected with GSN Media Group Ltd and possible misuse of state benefits while commercial activities are being carried out.
These are serious matters and should be treated as allegations unless supported by documentary evidence or findings from the appropriate authorities.
The same applies to allegations concerning commercial deception. If evidence exists that businesses have been deliberately misled about the identity, audience, reach or commercial value of a publication, that evidence should be presented to the relevant companies, platforms and authorities.
That is where such matters belong.
The Difference Between a Publication and a Website
The biggest difference between ISN and a newcomer is simple: International Supermarket News has history.
ISN was not created yesterday to sell advertising packages. The publication has been covering international supermarket and FMCG developments for more than three decades.
Over those years, retail has changed dramatically. Supermarket formats have changed. Consumer behaviour has changed. Technology has transformed stores. Supply chains have been rebuilt. Retailers have merged, disappeared and expanded.
We have been there reporting on those changes.
That history is not something that can be manufactured by copying a name or creating a similar-looking website.
The Bandit Can Copy the Sign
There is an old difference between building something and pretending to own something.
The people who built ISN spent decades creating its identity. They built relationships with the industry and developed an editorial voice through thousands of stories and interviews.
A copy can imitate the appearance. It can imitate the subjects. It can even imitate the language.
But it cannot manufacture the years behind the publication.
That is why we are not particularly concerned about cheap imitations.
International Supermarket News will continue doing what it has always done: reporting on the global supermarket and FMCG industry, speaking to people who actually work in it and providing information to the professionals who depend on it.
The bandit may copy the shop sign.
He cannot copy the 35 years behind it.
