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I've just heard that the Manchester based Creative Industries Development Service (CIDS) has launched an online version of their quarterly newsletter the Creative Times.
CIDS is a government-funded agency with the aim of supporting new and established creative businesses in Greater Manchester, though what it does on a day to day basis I'm not sure.
Experience of the paper version of the Creative Times has shown it to be more of a shop window for certain companies rather than something that provides support and advice. It also seems to draw a lot on experts from outside Greater Manchester for comment when there is a great breadth of knowledge within the boundaries of our city. Why, for example, in the current issue, does the lead article on "People Power" draw on expert advice from a Skipton-based accountant and a Leeds-based agency.
I worry that getting value out of CIDS is less about what you need but more about who you know. Hopefully, the new Creative Times site, very nicely designed by Bolton agency Fudge, which encourages much more user interaction than the dated CIDS site, will help to overcome this problem and help the service add more value to the local creative sector.
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