Hi. I'm Conor Gleason and I'm going to talk
to you about listing magazines and in particular
the most famous listings magazine in the world,
Time Out, which originally started in London
fifty years ago in August 1968.
Nowadays, if you want to find out what's going
on in a major city, you just go online and
with a few clicks, you have all you need to
know about the films, the theatres, events
in general. But if you go back fifty years,
it was much more difficult. The TV maybe,
the radio maybe, and maybe some things in
the newspapers but you didn't have the information
that you have now. That was part of the excitement
of going out on a Friday or Saturday night.
Deciding at the last minute, what you were
actually going to see.
Now, if you put London events into Google,
you will get literally hundreds of thousands
of responses telling you everything you need
to know for that night. All complete with
maps, videos, special offers, photos and personal
recommendations, even from celebrities.
That was certainly not the situation 50 years
ago when a young man in England, Tony Elliott,
sat down at his mother's kitchen table and
decided to design the first ever listing magazine
for London. He called it Time Out. It was
just a single sheet.
In a few years, it grew to become part of
a huge global empire, and the magazine soon
became identified with the city. It also became
identified with the city's radical politics,
especially in the 1960s and the 1970s and
the editor and his staff frequently had visits
from the police. Not friendly visits of course.
Time Out publicized the less well known aspects
of city life, alternative life, alternative
cinema, alternative theatre.
It promoted the city as a venue for people
who wanted to see more, and it promoted the
city for people who wanted to see the alternative
side of life. It also promoted the city in
terms of tourism and it's helped to make the
city one of the most attractive tourist spots
in the world.
It's fair to say that Time Out played a fundamental
role in making London the tourist attraction
that it is today.
