''The First Post'' was a British daily online

news magazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or n ...

based in London. Launched in August 2005, it was sold to Dennis Publishing in 2008 and retitled ''

The Week ''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...

'' at the end of 2014. In its current format, it publishes news, current affairs, lifestyle, opinion, arts and sports pages, and features an online games

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

and a cinema featuring short films, virals, trailers and eyewitness news footage. There are also quick-read digests of the UK newspapers' news, opinion and sports pages.

Contributors

''The First Post'' has no discernible

political bias Political bias is a bias or perceived bias involving the slanting or altering of information to make a political position or political candidate seem more attractive. With a distinct association with media bias, it commonly refers to how a ...

. Regular writers have included the

left wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in so ...

Alexander Cockburn Alexander Claud Cockburn ( ; 6 June 1941 – 21 July 2012) was a Scottish-born Irish-American political journalist and writer. Cockburn was brought up by British parents in Ireland, but lived and worked in the United States from 1972. Together ...

, commenting on US politics, and Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, generally perceived as a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

, writing on UK and international issues. Contributors are based in a wide range of countries. ''The First Post'' was devised by

Mark Law Mark Alexander Law (born November 1944) is a British journalist and author, known for his book on Judo called ''The Pyjama Game, A Journey Into Judo''. Career Law began his career as a reporter on Woodrow Wyatt’s group of provincial papers ...

who was the editor until September 2009. It is edited by Nigel Horne, former editor of the ''

Telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

'' magazine. In 2007, 15 Royal Navy Personnel were kidnapped by Iranian Special Forces. On their release, UK Secretary of State for Defence

Des Browne Desmond Henry Browne, Baron Browne of Ladyton, (born 22 March 1952) is a Scottish politician who served in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as Secretary of State for Defence 2006 to 2008 and Secretary of St ...

granted permission for the 15 to sell their stories to ''The First Post''. Senior members of the Royal Navy were troubled by this decision and contacted ''The First Posts defence correspondent, Robert Fox. The article Fox wrote was the first to alert the public to the disquiet within the Navy, and instigated coverage by the BBC radio programme ''Today''.

Moses Moyo

Moses Moyo is the pseudonym of an independent Zimbabwe-born journalist based in Harare, who reports exclusively for ''The First Post''. In October 2007 documents leaked to Moyo by an operative in Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation uncovered a plot to assassinate former Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube. This coverage forced Zimbabwe President

Robert Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the ...

to suspend attempts to silence critics of his regime.

Chinese censorship

In March 2008, shortly before the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

were due to be staged in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, ''The First Post'' ran a story in which the head coach of China's

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

team admitted to

match fixing In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...

at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

in Athens. Attempting to access this story from within China resulted in the user being redirected to an error page that simply read "The connection was reset". This is the same message that users attempting to access the BBC News website have encountered and is thought to be the result of state censorship by the Chinese via the

Golden Shield Project The Golden Shield Project (), also named National Public Security Work Informational Project, is the Chinese nationwide network-security fundamental constructional project by the e-government of the People's Republic of China. This project i ...

Design

''The First Post'' initially had more the appearance of a print publication with a grid layout, and commissioned shorter pieces with the stated intention of avoiding scrolling. However, it has adopted scrolling-based text since its takeover by Dennis Publishing.

Publishers

''The First Post'' was initially backed by an investment group, The First Post News Group, which also publishes ''Zimbabwe Today'', which carries personal accounts of life in the country under the Mugabe regime, and ''Media Circus'', a student guide to getting and sustaining a career in the media. In January 2008,

Dennis Publishing Dennis Publishing Ltd. was a British publisher. It was founded in 1973 by Felix Dennis. Its first publication was a kung-fu magazine. Most of its titles now belong to Future plc. In the 1980s, it became a leading publisher of computer enthusi ...

, publisher of ''

'' and a range of consumer print magazines, acquired ''The First Post'' for an undisclosed sum.

Awards

''The First Post'' was singled out for special commendation in the Best Editorial Team category of the 2007 Awards given by the Association of Online Publishers. The site also received a nomination for a Yellow Pencil Award for Outstanding Achievement in Viral / Animation & Motion Graphics at the D&AD Global Awards 2007 and was voted one of the "Top 50 Secret Websites" by PC Pro magazine (now Alphr).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:First Post, the News magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines published in London Magazines established in 2005