The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Bosses clash over ‘insulting’ words in puzzle
Bosses of two rival TV shopping channels in Peterborough have clashed after ‘insulting’ words appeared in a hobby magazine puzzle.
The outburst was triggered after readers spotted obscene words in a magazine from Create & Craft, which is part of Ideal Shopping Direct, based in Newark Road.
It has been claimed the words alongside the word Hochanda and the letters VK in the middle of the wordsearch puzzle are an insult aimed at the Hochanda founders, Paul Wright and Val Kaye.
Jamie Martin, the chief executive of Ideal Shopping Direct and who was previously chief executive of Hochanda, said the appearance of the words was a publishing error.
He said: “It is a complete mistake by the publishers of the magazine and a thorough investigation has been launched to find out how this happened.
“We will take action to ensure this does not happen again. An apology has also been issued.”
Mr Martin said: “It is complete nonsense. There is no rivalry between the two companies. There is plenty of room in the craft market for us both.”
Mr Wright said: “While the chances of the words, which appear to be directed at us, appearing in a single wordsearch are, after speaking to a statistician, several million to one, we are still prepared to give Mr Martin the benefit of the doubt. “We are prepared to accept Mr Martin’s apology and that he was unaware of the words in the word search puzzle.
“We welcome Mr Martin’s investigation into the role of the magazine publisher and we will scrutinise his findings.
“It is sad this affair has so upset many loyal customers of both channels.”