May 8, 2008
Sunny outlook
The sudden spell of glorious weather has added a Cosmopolitan feel to Uxbridge town centre this week.
It's amazing what a bit of sun can do to raise spirits and there is a vibrant feel about the town as people stroll around and eat and drink outside in the sun.
On the subject of the town centre this week I have been helping to judge the nominations in the first ever Uxbridge Customer Service Awards.
The awards were launched in the Gazette in March and are being run in conjunction with the Chimes Shopping Centre and The Uxbridge Initiative.
I have to say I was amazed by the number of nominations received covering a large number of the retail outlets and bars and restaurants in Uxbridge town centre.
It was not an easy task for the panel of judges to come up with a shortlist of finalists and all will be revealed at an awards lunch later this month.
Our popular Hayes reporter John Hugill will be shortly leaving his colleagues at Gazette House having decided to embark on his travels around the world. I am sure that everyone will give him a good send off when he leaves early next month!
I spent part of this morning at the office of one of our sister papers in Harrow. The newsroom was a hive of activity due to the explosion in South Harrow late the previous evening which tragically left one person dead and several others injured.
The paper's website enabled the news team to fully cover the blast both in words and pictures and give regular updates to readers throughout the day. See http://www.harrowobserver.co.uk
This is a far cry from a few years ago when it would not have been until the following week's paper that such a major breaking news story could be covered.
Posted by aseal at 3:37 PM | Comments (0)
May 1, 2008
Most read stories
I thought you might be interested to see the 10 most read stories on our website over the past month so here goes.
1. Uxbridge car park death leap woman named
2. Girl seriously injured in road accident
3. Woman dies after falling from Granges car park
4. Road closed after accident in Cowley
5. Family's tributes to dead schoolboy
6. Driver helps rescue woman from crash
7. Man shot in Ruislip road
8.City hit town and they will be back on cup final day
9. Injured girl remains seriously ill in hospital
10. Teen who spat at Uxbridge Tube staff traced through salivia
With the bank holiday fast approaching - let's hope the weather improves- we are cracking on with next week's Gazette and it will be a tough couple of days for the newsdesk and production team.
I will also be on the warpath over the next few days...
One of my pet hates is the amount of rubbish that seems to accumulate in the editorial department - yes I know it's a newspaper office.
Anyway I now have the perfect excuse for a complete tidy up as we have an important visitor coming to Gazette House - more on that nearer the time - in a few weeks time.
So everyone has been warned not to leave anhything lying about otherwise it will be skipped in no time at all.
Posted by aseal at 7:47 AM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2008
Wrong page
An early contender for press release of the year has arrived headlined 'A St Geroge's Day Protest - save an English icon.'
All very interesting so much so that I decided to read further.
It turned out to be a photo call as part of the Real Food Festival's campaign to 'Save the Cauliflower' which highlights the plight of cauliflower producers in the UK and aims to raise the profile of the iconic vegetable.
You may well ask what this has to do with the Gazette and the anwser is nothing what so ever.
However, it was a bit of light relief as I am not at all happy that one of the letters pages has not appeared in this week's paper and instead the memory lane page has appeared twice.
I am still trying to get to the bottom of what has gone wrong but one reader has already demanded that one of our reporters personally goes to their house and apologies for the error.
That will not be happening but all I can do is apologise to all our readers for the mistake.
That apart, I am pleased with this week's paper which has some really strong stories and includes a highly emotive interview with the parents of Emily Sadler, who so tragically died in the recent Ecuador bus crash.
This story really puts things in to prespective and one can't begin to appreciate the suffering the whole family are going through over Emily's death at such a tender age.
There are more important things than the wrong page appearing in the paper.
Posted by aseal at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2008
Counting the votes
As I predicted in a previous blog the entries in the readers vote section of our Top Toddler competition has seen the entries flooding in to Gazette House.
By the time entries closed last night more than 600 had been received which meant that content editor David Tilley has spend most of this morning locked away in an office counting them - he gets all the good jobs!
He finally emerged several hours later to triumphantly announce there was a clear winner. I am sworn to secrecy at the moment so you will have to buy a copy of next week's Gazette to find out who the winner is.
Chief reporter Chris Longhurst joined the early morning queues as the Post Office in Uxbridge town centre opened in its new home in WH Smith.
It seems the message didn't get through to a lot of people who were still turning up at the old site in The Mall Pavilions and standing in amazement at the closed sign.
I am sure there will be some mixed reaction to the move and we will featuring plenty of views in next week's paper.
We have been blessed with some really strong news weeks recently which has resulted in some strong sales figures for the paper.
This theme looks like continuing this week with a good meaty news list for a Thursday afternoon
and plenty of other stories and issues on the boil.
Posted by aseal at 3:01 PM | Comments (0)
April 9, 2008
Cheers to pub decision
I am glad to see that common sense has prevailed and that plans for another pub in Uxbridge town centre have been rejected.
It just didn't make sense to bulldoze a number of long established businesses in The Arcade in the High Street and replace them with a massive Wetherspoons pub.
These businesses have been at the heart of the town centre for many years and appear to be well supported by customers. In my opinion they provide a far greater attraction to the town than a giant lifeless Wetherspoons pub.
I was also amazed by the statement from Wetherspoons that the threatened shops would be able to relocate elsewhere in the town - quite where I would like to know and I am sure they would!
Unfortunately the decision to scrap the pub plan was made last night and too late to be included in this week's Gazette. However, you can read the story online and we will be following it up in next week's paper.
My postings have been rather sparse lately - not because there has been nothing say about the Gazette but it's been rather busy here with a number of things going on which have prevented me from having the time to write on a regular basis.
Back to this week's Gazette and it features more than 200 pictures of all the shortlisted finalists in our Top Toddler competition along with the chance for readers to vote for their overall favourite.
As usual I am sure this will prove extremely popular with readers and I expect the votes to flood in.
This is the second week running we have featured the Top Toddlers in the paper and I know for sure that our Production Editor is breathing a heavy sigh of relief that nothing has gone wrong - because believe me there is plenty of scope for that to happen!.
Posted by aseal at 11:21 AM | Comments (1)
March 28, 2008
Musical chairs
Another busy week is comning to an end - it's always difficult cramming four days into five due to the Easter break.
We got a reasonably strong paper out this week given the constraints of Easter deadlines although for the second week running a cock up has left some of our readers fuming - quite rightly.
The pre-story to the announcement of the winners for our Gazette Top Toddler competition in next week's paper got completely obliterated by an advert.
So instead of a story about the judging of the competition and details of how the winners will be announced in the Gazette there was a nice picture of the judges, no story and a whacking great advert running into the picture!
I could spend all week investigating what went wrong but the damage has been done and I can only apologise to those readers who were left completely in the dark by the whole sorry event.
It's a case of musical chairs in the editorial department today as we are moving things around to accommodate our central features team, who are moving from one part of the building in Gazette House, to the general news and production area.
Hopefully things will go smoothly and all the computers will work when they are switched on again - luckily our IT guys are doing the move so I will not have to worry about all the technical stuff.
At the moment I am also keeping one eye on the weekend weather.
Last weekend I emabarked on doing the Thames Walk which for the record is more than 185 miles from the source in Wiltshire to the Thames Barrier.
I am doing it in stages over the course of several months and hopefully will be looking to complete the 12 mile stage from Cricklade to Letchlade on Sunday.
However, as much as I like walking my plans will be put on hold if it chucks it down with rain plus the fact the footpaths in that area were pretty flooded when I walked the first stage last weekend and I also don't like getting my feet wet!
Anyway, what ever you are doing have a good weekend.
Posted by aseal at 7:58 AM | Comments (0)
March 19, 2008
Wrong page and animal magic!
After all the trials and tribulations this week I suppose it was inevitable that something would go wrong with this week's Gazette.
The same story has appeated twice in the Hayes edition as the wrong slip page for that edition appeared.
It's particularly frustrating when this happens and understandably leaves the reader feeling less than happy.
Believe you me I feel just as annoyed as any reader about the error. All I can say is that it was a genuine mistake and with the best will in the world they do occasionally happen.
As I said yesterday we are already cracking on with next week's Gazette and given the short Easter deadlines we are working with thankfully we already have some good stories on the boil.
Due to pressure of work I had to turn down a VIP invitation to the launch of the Sea Life Centre at Chessington World of Adventures & Zoo earlier this week - not that I would have gone anyway. Nevertheless I am sure it will prove a very popular attraction.
However, it seems the animal theme is following me around as I have just received an email from London Zoo telling me about nest-building and helping the tropical birds settle into their newest exhibit, the Blackburn Pavilion.
Neither of these stories will be appearing on the news pages of next week's Gazette I hasten to add but I will pass then on to our features team.
Posted by aseal at 3:30 PM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2008
Dark day at Gazette House
I was going to post this blog earlier but the way things have been going over the last few days I thought better of it for the safety of this week's Gazette.
It all kicked off last week with two false fire alarms at Gazette House which meant some considerable time spent standing about in the High Street waiting for the all clear. We all knew there wasn't really a fire but had no option but to evacuate the office.
However, yesterday became the day from hell as first a power cut plunged Gazette House into darkness and no sooner had we recovered from that and yes, you've guessed it we had another fire alarm.
So in total we spent the best part of two hours either sitting in darkness looking at blank screens or standing in the freezing cold outside.
All in all it was time we could ill afford to lose and put the Gazette's production schedule behind.
However, thanks to as lot of hard work we have managed to pull it back and this week's edition has hit deadline and on its way to the printers.
Thankfully there have been no more dramas today and we can certainly do without them for the rest if the week in what is one of the busiest times of the year for us.
In many ways Easter is worse than Christmas for local newspapers and it causes havoc with our deadlines.
We are already starting work on next week's Gazette which will have to be virtually finished before close of play on Thursday - so it's very much a case of all systems go over the next few days with hopefully no more alarms along the way.
Posted by aseal at 3:32 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2008
Blogged off!
I am pretty blogged off this morning.
During the space of the last 24 hours I have been bombarded with responses to just about everry blog I have written -217 to be exact - by some clown who goes by the name of asmani-go.
There are no actual comments on the replies to the blogs but it's completely overloading my email inbox and taking considerable time to clear the junk. Can you please stop sending them now....
On a much more positive note I received a comment through my blog to this week's story in the Gazette about the Brunel University student who had his £2,000 life savings stolen while out in Uxbridge.
The international student may now have to drop out of University as he will be unable to meet the costs of his course.
However, at least one person has already come forward with an offer of financial help to ensure that he can complete his studies at Brunel and we will be following up the story in next week's Gazette.
I am shortly off to our Ealing office for a meeting and then later this afternoon I have a meetring at the Civic Centre in Uxbridge so it promises to be another busy day.
Posted by aseal at 7:30 AM | Comments (1)
March 13, 2008
Staff issues
It's been quite a week so far and a bit like the weather I feel as though I have been blown about a bit.
While on the subject of the weather it seems that a lot of people took the warnings earlier in the week not to travel unless it was absolutely necessary quite literally.
The roads, and the M25 in particular, were deserted during both the morning and evening rush-hour on Monday - perhaps we should have storm force winds everyday!
Thankfully all the Gazette's dedicated staff made it in apart from content editor David Tilley, who has been sunning himslef on holiday this week in Devon. Well perhaps the wind might have least given him a tan!
However, our chief reporter Chris Longhurst has stepped up to the mark and done a fine job in running the newsdesk in David's absence - although I think he will be soon counting down the hours until David's return next week.
Apart from looking after the Gazette I have been busy dealing with staff issues which have included appointing a new production editor, looking at candidates for a vacant feature writer's post and also sifting through applications for sub editor positions that we have and setting up interviews.
It's all verey time consuming and I must admit that my heart usually sinks when the dreaded resignation letter falls on my desk and I have to start the recruitment process all over again.
We are already well ahead with planning next week's Gazette with several big issues on the news agenda.
These include the apparent worrying increase in youth gang violence in the borough, new efforts to save a number post offices from closure and several parking rows that seem to be brewing up.
Several of these stories have been the topic of considerable debate on the website and as I said last week they can certainly play a role in shaping up the weekly news agenda for the Gazette and at the same time increasing traffic on the website.
Posted by aseal at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)
March 7, 2008
Awards launched
I have just returned from the town centre where we launched the first Uxbridge Customer Service Awards.
We have teamed up with The Chimes Shopping centre and the Uxbridge Initiative for the 2008 awards, which we will be launching in next week's Gazette and sister paper the Leader.
I am excited about the awards which aim to reward excellent customer service in Uxbridge town centre in the two categories - shops and restaurants, bars and cafes.
We will be featuring entries in the paper as they come in and the awards will culminate with a special ceremony for the various winners at Baroosh, in Uxbridge, in May.
A couple of days ago I mentioned I was going on a visit to the RAF Uxbridge Operations Room, which was responsible for the air defence of London and the South East during the Second World War.
It was a truly fascinating and very nostalgic afternoon spent in a room that still exists today as it did on September 15, 1940, the day the Luftwaffe suffered its heaviest defeat, and which is now commemorated as Battle of Britain Day.
I am sure not that many people realise the vital role that this little part of Uxbridge played in the Second World War and its ultimate outcome.
For now I have several meetings this afternoon to wrap up what's been another busy week., and I have to say I am looking forward to the weekend.
Posted by aseal at 1:21 PM | Comments (0)
March 5, 2008
Going underground
This week's Gazette is out on the streets and after another frantic deadline day I am quite pleased with the finished paper.
Once again we have some strong front pages for all editions and there are again plenty of stories which I am sure will be big talking points across certain parts of the borough.
It's encouraging that we are getting more and more readers' comments on both our print and online stories on the have your say section of the website.
I must say that I enjoy reading the wide range of postings that come through daily, even those that at times are critical of the Gazette.
There is generally some lively debate on major issues in the borough and some of the offerings provide good story ideas and can help us in the way we shape and treat stories in the paper.
On a totally different note later today I am going on a visit to the RAF Uxbridge Operations Room, which has been arranged by Uxbridge town centre manager Andy Stubbs for a group of us.
And, I have to say I am looking forward to the experience even if it does mean going 60ft underground and climbing more than 70 steps.
The Operations Room in Uxbridge was responsible for the air defence of London and the South East of England during the Second World War.
It still exists today as it did on September 15, 1940, the day the Luftwaffe suffered its heaviest losses, and which is now commemorated as Battle of Britain Day.
Hopefully it will be a fascinsating visit and I will let you know how the experience was.
Posted by aseal at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)
February 28, 2008
Faces sell papers
Last week I spoke about the highs and lows of sales figures for the Gazette and how I was confident our recent First Day at School supplement would boost the circulation figures.
Well thankfully I was right and the figures I have just received show that we sold more than 1,200 copies than the previous week and they were the best sales figures across the board this year for the Gazette.
The real trick now will to be to ensure that all those extra people who purchased a copy of the paper continue to do so week in week out. I suspect that will not be the case if previous experience is anything to go by - but we will have to wait and see.
We have also had some strong editions in recent weeks with stories that have proved real talking points both in print and online so perhaps we will have some more circulation highs to celebrate in the coming weeks.
Posted by aseal at 4:48 PM | Comments (0)
February 27, 2008
Late breaking news
This week's Gazette is a bumper edition - the most news pages we have had this year.
It meant a fairly frantic Tuesday because of the number of pages we had to do on deadline day and it really was all hands to the pump.
With everything finished just slightly behind schedule and the pages on their way to the printers we breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Our peace was quickly shattered when the verdict on the Helen Chung murder trial came through late in the afternoon.
A quick phone call and we were re-making the front page to get the verdict in and also posting the story on the website.
You always get a real buzz when you get late breaking news and it was good to be able to get something about the vicious murder of popular Yiewsley restaurateur Mrs Chung on to the front page of the main Uxbridge edition.
Coupled with the verdict on the evil killer Levi Bellfield - which we have covered in detail and got a good exclusive angle - it's been a particularly busy news week.
On a lighter note we have three pages of Mother's Day messages from local school children across the borough and they really fo make a superb feature with some fantastic and amusing drawings from the young kids.
Posted by aseal at 8:51 AM | Comments (0)
