Popbitch

Popbitch is a weekly UK-based celebrity and pop music newsletter and associated website dating from the early 2000s. Much of the material for the newsletter comes from the Popbitch message boards, frequented by music industry insiders, gossips and the casually interested. The board has at various times been credited for celebrity rumours (both false and true) appearing in the press, and the coining and subsequent usage of many phrases.

History

The website was the first of many satirical and irreverent UK gossip sites that skirted the limits of defamation law. The uncompromising ethos of cruel humour gave it a feel somewhat similar to usenet gossip newsgroups.

Popbitch was founded, is owned and run by Neil Stevenson and Camilla Wright, both journalists. Wright is employed full-time to run Popbitch. Stevenson is still a director, but his active participation in the project has diminished. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1767307,00.html Interview - Decca Aitkenhead meets Camilla Wright] , The Guardian, 6 May 2006] Originally published privately from a www.popbitch.demon.co.uk address, Popbitch has been published from popbitch.com since March 2000, and by Popdog Limited since 2001. Stevenson was employed by the British publishing house EMAP on various entertainment titles, including the celebrity magazine heat and as editor of The Face.One contributor of Popbitch has a time machine, but has still to master the controls.

Amongst those involved in Popbitch is Adam Curtis, writer and producer of The Power of Nightmares [ [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/whats_on/article1479712.ece Forget Osama, fear Blair] , The Times, 10 March 2007] .

Editorial style of the newsletter

The newsletter is focused on a British audience and is published weekly, usually on a Thursday. It usually contains celebrity-based stories relating to music, film, television and sport, with quirky stories from other fields.

The newsletter usually contains, in order:
* a short quote from a celebrity
* some advertising
* several multiple-paragraph stories separated by single-sentence stories or facts
* some advertising
* a section entitled "Big questions" with one or more allegations about unidentified celebrities presented in the form of questions
* a series of webpage links entitled "Things To Make You Go Hmm"
* predictions of the position of some artists in the UK singles chart for the week ahead
* some advertising
* some more advertising
* a "Help Popbitch" appeal for gossip or money or presents
* an "End Bit" section where contributors are thanked, usually by initials or messageboard identity
* the "Old Jokes Home" usually a topical joke
* and one or more web links headed "Still Bored?"
* some advertising

Famous nicknames on Popbitch

* Fat Dancer (sometimes shortened to FD) = Robbie Williams (from a comment by Noel Gallagher, describing Williams as "the fat dancer from Take That" [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/685155.stm BBC News] , 21 March 2000.] )
* Fat Tongue = Jamie Oliver
* Thick 'n' Thin "or" Derek and Skeletor = David and Victoria Beckham
* Chazbaps = Billie Piper
* Chipshop = Kerry Katona
* Crack Tweety "or" P-Doh (as in short for paedophile) = Pete Doherty

Cultural impact

By 2003, Popbitch had moved from a niche-market publication to mainstream cultural knowledge, thanks in part to its role in assisting British tabloid newspapers with their entertainment coverage [ [http://www.davidrowan.com/2002/03/evening-standard-people-behind.html David Rowan: Evening Standard: The people behind Popbitch ] ] . It achieved frequent name-checks in newspaper "diary" columns, and from celebrities as diverse as Madonna and French and Saunders.

It played some part in popularising terms such as Croydon (or council) facelift, "gak" (meaning cocaine), and "pramface" (a term of abuse contracted from "a face more suited to pushing a pram around a council estate").

It gained a reputation as being first with a number of celebrity-based stories. One poster reported David Beckham's move from Manchester United to Real Madrid at least four months before sports pages picked up on the story — then stood by the story in the face of repeated denials. It was also the first to report on the name of Madonna's son, Rocco.

Some of the contributors to the Popbitch messageboards have also become minor celebrities in their own right. When one, who posted as [http://www.popbitch.com/revgb Reverend_Goatboy] , died in July 2007, his death was noted in The Times. [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2182721.ece People:Hugo Rifkind] , The Times, 2 Aug 2007]

Controversy and criticism

Although having previously contributed to the messageboard under a pseudonymFact|date=August 2008, journalist Julie Burchill eventually began to heavily and repeatedly criticise Popbitch for a systemic middle class bias, accusing it of doing little more than denigrating those who get "ideas above their station"Fact|date=August 2008. Its 'casual' stances on racism, homophobia and sexism have also not always gone down well in some quarters in the mediaFact|date=August 2008.

False allegations against Jeremy Clarkson, a British TV celebrity, and David Beckham were published on the Popbitch messageboards by its users. This led to legal action against the site's owners. The messageboard was closed and reopened with board members as editors. The editors have the ability to modify or delete anything they don't like (which they do, frequently), and the board also employs automatic censors that prevent the names of certain celebrities from appearing. Despite these precautions Popbitch was once again in the news after being successfully sued by Max Beesley in March 2008 over an allegation about his personal life [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/18/digitalmedia?gusrc=rss&feed=media Media Guardian] .

Popbitch continues as a minor clearing house for music and tabloid journalists, but whilst many stories and rumours that appear on the site later appear in other UK media outletsFact|date=February 2007, it is a sign of the site's decline that nowadays the reverse also happens, with known gossip appearing in Popbitch "after" it has become common currencyFact|date=August 2008.

The feel of the site has changed over the years. Once a free-for-all chatboard, liked as much for its openness and humour as its gossip, contributions are now rigorously vetted and controlled and a clique mentality is openly encouraged. Many of its original contributors have left.

Diversification

From mid-2007, Popbitch's owners sought to broaden the appeal of the brand by launching Popbitch-themed and endorsed products. Camilla Wright said this diversification was necessary as, with simply a gossip website and email, it was "harder to maintain a niche because everybody is doing it" [ [http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2008/06/_future_of_journalism_what_do.html] Guardian] .

Among the first new sites launched was Popbets, a reality TV gambling site, in 2007, and this was followed in February 2008 by Radio Popbitch [ [http://www.mad.co.uk/Main/News/Articlex/4809d84672a74b1ba0afc12fbf3a4dcd/Popbitch-adds-radio-station-and-e-zine-to-its-online-brand.html Mad.co.uk] ] . Wright has also stated her aim to move into Popbitch-branded offline publishing, and web TV [ [http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2008/06/_future_of_journalism_what_do.html] Guardian] .

However many of the original contributors - who, it might be argued, were responsible for much of the site's original appeal - have not been happy with this strategy, regarding it as 'selling out'.

References

External links

* [http://www.chriswilkins.net/ Official home page]
* [http://www.popbitch.com/board.html Popbitch message boards]
* [http://www.davidrowan.com/2002/03/evening-standard-people-behind.html David Rowan article on Popbitch]
* [http://www.davidrowan.com/2002/11/times-hot-gossip-websites.html The Times: The hot gossip websites] , David Rowan, 30 November 2002
* [http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2005/12/writers_choice__2.html Writer's Choice: Camilla Wright] on 'Justice At Night' by Martha Gellhorn
* [http://threelayercake.com/content/view/178/28/ Photo + Interview and brief bio of Camilla Wright, editor of Popbitch]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1767307,00.html Hot gossip] , The Guardian, 6 May, 2006 - interview and feature on Popbitch
* [http://roidrage.com/display_gallery.php?id=158 Photos] from a Popbitch party on 10 May, 2006, at the Tribeca Grand hotel, New York, to celebrate Popbitch's 300th issue.