Bad Idea (magazine)
{{Short description|British general interest magazine}}
{{COI|date=January 2011}}
Bad Idea is a British general interest magazine based in London, England.
Overview
Bad Idea was founded in September 2006 by journalists Jack Roberts{{cite news|title=The fall and rise of magazines from print to digital|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/mar/07/fall-rise-magazines-print-digital|accessdate=26 October 2016|work=The Guardian|date=7 March 2013}} and Daniel Stacey, both of whom were students at a magazine production class run by Clay Felker, the founder of New York Magazine, at the University of California.[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2055284,00.html Observer article, 15 April 2007]
Bad Idea is known for its feature stories, which are often written in the first person. These have included insider accounts of life as a ‘honeytrapper’ – a private detective sent to ensnare potentially unfaithful husbands; an exposé of Dubai’s sex trade; an investigation into the growth of ‘Web 2.0’ sex dating sites; and a feature following Iraq's Kurds, as they search for DNA evidence of Saddam Hussein's ‘Anfal’ genocide.
In May 2008, Portico Books released Bad Idea – The Anthology, a paperback collection of writing from the magazine's first two years. The magazine was described in a small review of the book published in the Observer as having ‘…hacked itself a niche as a Granta for the MySpace generation’,[http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/roundupstory/0,,2283269,00.html Observer review, 1 June 2008] and the book received 4/5 stars in the Independent on Sunday, where it was said to be '... a great selection of work’.[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/bad-idea-the-anthology-ed-jack-roberts-and-daniel-stacey-845784.html Independent on Sunday review, 15 June 2008]
Contributors
- Jonas Bendiksen (photographer)
- Lowell Bergman (journalist)
- Billy Briggs (journalist)
- Ron Butlin (novelist)
- Sarah M. Broom (writer)
- Neal Fox (artist)
- Niven Govinden (novelist)
- Robert Greene (author)
- Xiaolu Guo (novelist)
- Jean Hannah Edelstein (journalist)
- Edward-Hogan Edward Hogan (novelist)
- Alyssa McDonald (journalist)
- Martyn McLaughlin (journalist)
- Sebastian Meyer (photographer)
- Mil Millington (novelist)
- Patrick Neate (novelist)
- Nicholas Royle (novelist)
- Sorious Samura (journalist)
- Joe Stretch (novelist/musician)
- Simon Wheatley (photographer)