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Happy Birthday TimeOut London! 40 years of young news

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September 1968 – September 2008: Time Out celebrates its fortieth anniversary. Tony Elliott was just a Keele University student when he launched Time Out with the £70 his aunt gave him for his twenty-first birthday. Now he is sixty-one and the chairman of a multimillion-pound empire. To celebrate this success the main story this week covers the forty most famous Londoners in this anniversary edition (today in the shops for £2.95).

Time Out is quite simply the best resource to find out what’s going on in London. It’s a weekly listings magazine, famous for its cultural reference value with listings for film, theatre, fashion, literature, restaurants, clubs, parties, festivals and events – tailored to each city. It expanded from the London edition to cities across the globe. It has established a worthy online presence to provide its readers with news and useful information that constitutes twenty-three different city editions.

You can find Time Out everywhere: London, Chicago, New York, Paris, Beijing, Dubai, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Cyprus, Moscow, Athens, Singapore, Saint-Petersburg, Bucharest, Almaty, Jerusalem, Kiev, Mumbai, New Delhi, Abu Dhabi, Sydney, Shanghai and Barcelona, and from 2008, also in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. Every edition is unique and rich with event listings, complemented by articles, typically featuring celebrities appearing in one of the listed events.

40 years, 52 covers per year and 86,000 copies for about 374,000 readers every week: Happy birthday Time Out!

The world is changing: investment banks are no more…

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The recent developments in the financial world are forcing vast changes to the economic climate and the markets are desperately trying to right themselves amidst the evolution many banking sectors are experiencing. In one week the era of the independent investment bank has ended, deeply changing the worldwide financial landscape.

‘Wall Street as we’ve known it for decades has ceased to exist’, explains The Wall Street Journal, though the gravity of such a change is of course affecting London: six months ago there were five major investment banks, now a portion of the market has vanished overnight; Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns have collapsed, Merrill Lynch is getting bought out by the Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are becoming commercial banks.

Two banking giants filing for bankruptcy is a clear sign of a problem with the system, and now the survivors have to arrange their affairs to conform to the capital requirements and other rules that govern such commercial banks.

Perhaps this is one of the greatest tests to the global economy in decades: and a strong example of rules required. Lax regulations have allowed investment banks to boost their profits for almost twenty years by borrowing money and investing in ever more risky schemes. And now they are paying the price.

What will happen now? Can we be sure that the worldwide economic machine is correcting itself against the greed of man?

Free theatre tickets for redundant bankers!

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If you’ve recently lost the security of employment under an investment bank and your highly lucrative job has turned you into one of the thousands of well-qualified investment bankers looking for another similar position then don’t panic; Andrew Lloyd Webber’s to the rescue!

As a recently unemployed banker you can claim free tickets to The Sound of Music and The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat from now to 15th October. And the Telegraph.co.uk reports the Andrew Lloyd Webber’s words: ‘Both The Sound of Music and Joseph are feel-good shows and I thought that free tickets might offer some respite, albeit for a couple of hours, for some of those people who have sadly lost their jobs in the current economic upheaval’.

Interestingly the offer depends on the theatre-goer bringing along the P45 issued from they’re recently folded bank employers, the very piece of paper that embodies their redundancy and the demise of their secure livelihood. Can you imagine all the recently fired bankers brandishing this piece of paper in public amongst their ex-colleagues in the queue for the theatre… we think not. I’m sure the column inches devoted to this offer (such as this blog!) will serve to publicise the shows even more. As such this promotion should clearly be noted for its value as a stunt marking Webber’s unfailing business savvy rather than a legitimate offer for those it is purporting to be targeting.

The 10 best London songs!

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Good afternoon. Today we want to distract you from the tumultuous economic instability with something a little more cheery…

Here are our 10 favourite London Songs!

  1. God Save The Queen – Sex Pistols
  2. Streets Of London – Ralph McTel
  3. London Belongs To Me – Saint Etienne
  4. Down In The Tube Station At Midnight – The Jam
  5. Primrose Hill – John & Beverly Martyn
  6. London Is The Place For Me – Lord Kitchener
  7. Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks
  8. London’s Burning – The Clash
  9. London Town – Light Of The World
  10. For Tomorrow – Blur

Do you agree with our choices? Tell us your opinion. Time Out (the best London magazine) seems to disagree. See what they suggest and tell us what you think.

Enjoy!

Post a comment: it’s free and powerful

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Everyday we provide you with up-to-the-minute news and ideas from London. Everything on this blog is written for you so why not let us know what you think? What do you want to read? Would you like to ask anything? You can post a comment on any blog entry which we will be happy to respond to. Comments are a powerful web tool.

In every blog post you can find and leave comments: there are many people who work for or deal with companies related to the subject of each post, people who are involved in or just keen on a topic: posting a comment is the way to join in on a conversation online. You can state your opinion and receive an answer: in two words, you can get involved quickly and easily.

How does it work? Posting a comment is easy – you just have to click on ‘comment’ (at the bottom of each post) and write what you want. For maximum effect, your comment should be interesting and not too long, since the main point is to generate response, create links and exchange ideas. In this way you can add more value to your company’s name and a link back to your own site.

So feel free to comment when and how you want: we are waiting for you…

Inflation and bankruptcy! Don’t panic.

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Don’t panic. Even if all todays news is very very bad: don’t panic, business and life keep going on! But let’s have a look at the 4 most read news stories of today from London about London:

  1. The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings has brought several consequences: markets everywhere have never been so down, overnight the cost of borrowing in dollars has more than doubled to the highest since 2001 (from 3.33 percentage points to 6.44 percent today: the biggest jump, according to the British Bankers’ Association), 7000 bankers are now sending out their cv’s and hoping to quickly solve their personal situations.
  2. ‘Inflation surged above forecasts to 4.7 per cent in August to the highest rate since Britain’s last recession, after the price of food and energy rose. – Thetimesonline.co.uk says: – Households are now paying 27.7 per cent more on their gas bills and 18 per cent more for electricity. The cost of banking services also increased as lenders cut their mortgage arrangement fees by less than they did last year. Food prices also rose by 1.3 per cent last month and, in the year to August, by 13 per cent’.
  3. Problems in the City, at home and at City Hall: – David Cairns, Minister of State at the Scotland Office, believes Mr Brown is showing a lack of leadership and direction to the country -, says the Timesonline.co.uk – He is unhappy about the lack of direction and believes the leadership is all over the place and making lots of mistakes. He has been unhappy for some considerable time and could decide to go today.
  4. And in London the crimes are increasing. Spokesman Chris Huhne has set out his vision for tackling crime, calling for better policing rather than tougher sentences. He said people should not be sent to jail for minor offences when other punishments would be more effective. Resources must be directed towards more effective policing and detection rather than more prisons, Mr Huhne added.

But don’t worry life is an up and down of events, the famous destiny’s waves! Londoners (and not just them) have to try to resist, never give up and learn from the brave Lehman’s workers that kept going to work, knowing well what was going on and now are at work to find a new employer. Being up to date and connected is indispensable in order to succeed and to survive: for this reason London Presence continues to provide you with efficient customer service from Monday to Friday (9am – 5,30pm) and with a unique blog!

Lehman Bros & Co: a black monday

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It was a tough morning for many going to work in The City today; it’s Monday and it’s a black day for the Market. The fourth-largest U.S. investment bank has gone bust and all the front pages are dedicated to what could be the largest scale bankruptcy in history. Bloomberg.com explains in detail what is happening: “Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. succumbed to the subprime mortgage crisis it helped create in the biggest bankruptcy filing in history. The 158-year-old firm, which survived railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression in the 1930s and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management a decade ago, has filed a Chapter 11 petition with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan today. The collapse of Lehman, which listed more than $613 billion of debt, surpasses WorldCom Inc.’s insolvency in 2002 and Drexel Burnham Lambert’s failure in 1990.”

Unfortunately the crisis is not limited to the Lehman collapse: the Bank of America has brought Merrill Lynch, and Wall Street is in crisis. Thetimesonline.co.uk says: “London woke up to discover that, overnight, two of the biggest pillars of Wall Street had either collapsed or passed into new ownership, the world’s largest insurer was forced into an emergency restructuring, and 10 banks put together an emergency fund to lend to any other ailing banks”. This bad news will probably not come as a surprise to many. But the problem is serious and involves all the Markets and a huge numbers of bankers, who can’t predict anything about their future. “One New York observer (thetimesonline.co.uk goes on to say) estimated that 40 per cent of Merrill’s workforce, or 24,000 people, could be out of a job. The situation at Lehman will inevitably be much worse”.

But, as Douglas Adams would say, Don’t Panic! “This is undoubtedly the worst banking crisis since the 1930s, but traders shouldn’t panic and start to sell shares of other leading banks. It doesn’t make sense. American, British and other global banks  are cooperating to make the transition as smooth as possible”, said Allister Heath, City A.M. editor.

Travel by flight or by train… shall we stay in London this weekend?

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Good afternoon! Here we are on Friday, hurtling towards the weekend, with a quick update from London. Some bitesized pieces of the latest news specially selected to provide you with some good topics of conversation and some useful advice. To start off, here is some travel news! Maybe the summer is over, but there are still a lot of us that are waiting for our holidays and maybe are planning some travel right now. Maybe you need to organize some business travel… What is the best thing to do? Organise by oneself, booking and checking every detail or rely on a travel agency?

Airtravel with low cost airlines has had several problems in the last few weeks: shortly after the Spanish crash of last August, a Ryanair flight from Bristol to Barcelona-Girona had to make an emergency landing after loss of cabin pressure. And on the 11th of September another Ryanair flight (from Dublin to London) had to make an emergency landing shortly after take off at Dublin airport and oxygen masks were dropped into the cabin, leaving all the passengers afraid or their lives, but safe.

But today something different has happened: thousands of British travelers were stranded, because one of the largest tour operators collapsed under pressure from high fuel prices and a sagging economy, reports Ap, and the Timesonline.co.uk explains: ‘thousands of travellers were left stranded overseas today after XL Leisure, Britain’s third largest tour operator, collapsed and BA’s chief executive predicted that another 30 airlines would go out of business before Christmas’. At the moment at least 67,000 passengers across the globe are left waiting to be brought home…

Travel by train could be a good solution: the British train services are good and on time (well…mostly. ed.). But from yesterday we were cut off from the continent. Bbc.co.uk says: ‘thousands of passengers hoping to travel through the Channel Tunnel face further disruption after a fire on a freight train. The tunnel is closed after the fire broke out about seven miles from Calais on Thursday afternoon. Firefighters say the 16-hour blaze has now been put out. And unfortunately the opinions about the re-opening of the tunnel are divided: will the tunnel open tomorrow or in two weeks?

We shall see. Maybe this weekend it’s better to stay in London: the weather won’t be so bad and the city offers a lot of ways to escape from the boredom! A suggestion! Don’t miss the Thames Festival!

Work from your home or from your office? – part 2!

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Welcome back! As the counter-argument to yesterdays post, today we have ready for you several good reasons to brave the daily commute and work in an office:

1. You are not alone: you can have a chat with a colleague working at the computer; you can stop and start your conversation throughout the day; the time runs faster chatting!

2. You are part of a team: working with other people helps you all to have new ideas and finish faster. You can have meetings and quick chats, instead of emailing or calling. This means that for a response you have
just to walk to another desk, instead of wait an email all day.

3. You can interact socially (a pleasant change from the monkish, lonely existence working from home can be!) and go to lunch with co-workers, chatting about work and life. You can push and be pushed!

4. You can leave your job in the office and go home at 5:30. Ok, so maybe sometimes it’s 5 and sometimes it’s 7: but once you’ve left the office you can draw a line under your working day and forget about it until 9:00 tomorrow.

5. You can take a drink and a walk after work, and decide then what you want to eat for dinner that night.

6. You have access to everything need in a office: fax machine, copier and scanner, and moreover you have the IT Support!

7. You have unlimited access to that most essential piece of office equipment, the coffee machine (that you don’t have to start and you won’t have to wash up after!).

8. You can get out of your pyjamas and fluffy bunny slippers and dress well. Dressing in the right way is a good way to express yourself, make yourself feel professional and motivated, as well as making you feel good.

9. You can focus on your job and not on the laundry, the food shopping, the children and the cleaning!

10. You don’t have to cook yourself lunch every single day!

Are you a freelance or do you have your personal company? Take your time to think hard about which is the best solution for you. Business Made Simple provides a practical online resource for starting a every kind of
new companies… it’s up to you.