What is The Ocelot Magazine?

Urm. It's a website.

But that's not a magazine is it?

Well, in this wonderful modern world that we live in, The Ocelot Magazine is what we describe as a digital magazine. It has lots of interesting articles, covering culture, food and drink, and loads of other stuff to make you think including The News Elephant.

But it's not a printed magazine is it?

Ha! Got you there disembodied question asking person, as it used to be a printed magazine. The Ocelot was founded as a printed magazine distributed through pubs, venues and theatres way back in 2006 when the world was a very different simpler place. Its geographical stomping ground was Swindon, Salisbury and Oxford (and sometimes Reading when it could be bothered).

So what happened?

The world moved on. When the magazine first started there was nothing better than catching up on the local scene whilst sitting in the pub on your lonesome but nowadays with the social media and smartphones you never have to look around for something to read when you're on your own in a pub again! The printed magazine, which managed to get a massive following over the years, eventually finished in print in March 2020 helped along by a worldwide pandemic.

Ah, I get it. So it's a case of smartphones and the way people consume content changing that eventually led to the end of days for The Ocelot. So why the website?

It's a case of 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em'. At least now when people are on their lonesome they can be sat their reading through their smartphone The Ocelot Magazine. Something of a bit more quality than just your humdrum Facebook feed (unless you count that post that Sandra put up the other day about that time she was attacked by ducks during a family bbq. That was gold!)

Wait – what was that about an Elephant?

A News Elephant

A News Elephant? Ocelots? Is this a website or a menagerie!?

Well, amidst the worldwide turbulence of the rise of smartphones and social media, fake news and devastating worldwide pandemics, we decided what the world needed was more fake news, only this stuff would be funny, instead of the downright depressing real life stuff that you see every day. So this is where the News Elephant comes in. The News Elephant is our satirical take on world events, and other things we feel like writing about, like how much we miss Dale Winton, and how they ought to bring back Cadbury’s Wispa

But they did bring back Cadbury’s Wispa...

Oh. Right. Well, then you see why we need the News Elephant. To poke a satirical swipe at the ridiculous world that now surrounds us, and also to make us have more chocolate bars. In summary, everything you read on the The Ocelot site, apart from that in the News Elephant section, is real. Everything is in the News Elephant section is satirical, made up nonsense and intended for humorous purposes only. That’s why we put a big elephant logo at the top of those stories, and try to make them as silly as possible, which admittedly is a challenge in today’s world, as reality is often far sillier than anything we can think of. And we share an office with a News Elephant!

To get in contact with the editor Jamie Hill - email jamie@theocelot.co.uk