4 Oct 2009 by Chris     No Comments    Posted under: News/Media/Sport

Another “Eureka Moment”. Can they do this?

Curious news that The Times is about to launch a science magazine called Eureka. But hang on… there’s already a long-established, well-respected technology magazine called Eureka, published by Findlay Media. Whilst the subject matter may not be exactly the same, there sure as heck are many potential advertisers in common, so it could easily be argued that the two would be competitors.

Eureka (the long-established one) has impressively survived a meltdown in the trade press over the past ten years, which saw the demise of long-established titles such as Design Engineering and relatively short-lived newcomers such as What’s new in Design. What I’m sure it doesn’t need is this sort of confusion in the market.

Back in the early nineties, I remember someone else launching a publication called Eureka, aimed at kids if I recall correctly. Not sure what happened to it, but being on a rival magazine to the real Eureka at the time, we laughed. And there are others around the world too. But this new Eureka comes from the UK, and from a major publisher too. Aren’t there rules against this sort of thing? If there are none, what a trick we’ve all missed over the years, not producing our own publications with the same titles as rivals’, just as spoilers. What would happen if Findlay Media launched a newspaper called The Times?

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