EMPIRE - "INSIDE EMPIRE" special edition overviews mag's history

Especially for the A2 folk currently working on producing Film Mag covers/review pages, the "Inside Empire" edition is a useful resource, billed as "THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S BIGGEST MOVIE MAGAZINE", though it does provide an intriguing overview not just of the development of the magazine but also the movie industry throughout (and slightly before!) your lifetimes.
Critic Angie Errigo boasts that "historically Empire has a strong track record of loving young lions and getting behind promising newbies who went on to make good." Steven Soderbergh, Spike Lee and WT-produced Coen brothers are all cited as examples (Inside Empire (2009) "They do make 'em like they used to", p. 19).
The language used in the contents page quite clearly denotes this as a laddish mag, with 'the C-word' for example rather surprisingly used without any euphemism or asterisks, though this edition lacks the usual adult chatline ads at the back.
I've added the following excerpt from this to the http://mediabritishcinema.blogspot.com/2009/11/some-thoughts-on-digitisation-effect.html post -

Empire magazine critic Angie Errigo makes an interesting defence of the state of modern movie-making against claims that its filled with mega-budget tat that ignores narrative in favour of sheer spectacle (Inside Empire (2009) "They do make 'em like they used to", pp. 18-19).

A voice and a vision, and a reluctance to do what is expected are what's wanted in aspiring filmmakers. A-list stars and million-dollar explosions are completely optional if there's a story to be told, an emotion to be felt, a mood to be captured. Far from being a downbeat era of pap, these are wildly exciting times for all of us, rich with possibilities. Having entered the digital age with web access for all and an array of technology that gets cheaper by the minute, it's more possible than ever for movie brats to make their own productions and make them more ambitious and sophisticated than the Super 8 kids managed in their backyards. For every Hollywood film that costs upwards of $150 million, thousands of 'home movies' can be made and hundreds that are good to go in cinemas. It isn't naive to believe that 'talent will out'. The next Shane Meadows, Steve McQueen and Duncan Jones are out there at work within and without 'the System'.

 Super 8 is an old-fashioned format of video camera. If you've ever seen Son of Rambow imagine you were making your coursework with the same technology, a VHS video camera and two VHS machines linked up for editing (no digital technology at all, no computers even!).