February 2007 Archives

As regular readers of my blog will know I have previously had several rants about motorists who use their hand-held mobile phones whilst driving.

Therefore I was heartened by the tougher new laws that came into force yesterday and I can only hope that they stop the idiots who insist on driving while at the same time talking on their mobile.

We all know the dangers - or at least we should - of this senseless act which is on a par with drink driving and excessive speeding.

However, early reports suggest that alarmingly many people will continue to flout the law. I have just read that in Sussex yesterday morning four people in the space of 10 minutes were caught on their mobile whilst driving.

There has been extensive media coverage on the new tougher penalties so no one can claim they didn't know they came into force yesterday. I fear that they have done little to halt this dangerous practice and perhaps for some people a £60 fine and three penalty points is a small price to pay for making or receiving that 'all important phone call.'

We will certainly be reporting in the Gazette at the earliest opportunity how many offenders have been caught in the borough since the new tougher penalties came into force this week.

It's been a cracking effort by the news team and as the last few pages are checked off this week's Gazette is another strong edition.

A severely depleted team have really pulled out all the stops to produce some great stories and we have some strong splashes on the edition front pages.

In several cases we have had to really dig around to turn good stories into really strong front page leads and reporters Chris Longhurst and John Hughill have risen to the challenge and delivered the goods.

I have not mentioned any other reporters because over the last few days Chris and John have been 'the news team' with support from content editor David Tilley and news editor Chene Koscienly.

As I mentioned in a previous blog The Mall Pavillions Shopping Centre in Uxbridge is planning to launch a cookery book featuring recipes from creative chefs in our community.

We have featured the story in this week's Gazette and at the same time want to know what dish you think best reflects the borough's tastebuds.

Some early contenders have been kebabs and chicken burgers, fillet steak and pineapple fritters with spicy barbecue sauce.

I would be interested to hear your favourite recipes so let me know and perhaps we can start something of a cooking theme to my daily blogs!

After a day out of the office on Friday much of this morning has been spent playing catch up and responding to the usual daily flurry of emails.

I am shortly off to our Ealing office for a meeting which looks like it will last most of the afternoon but the good ship Gazette is in the capable hands of content editor David Tilley and this week's edition is progressing well.

Despite a somewhat depleted reporting team this week we look like having strong splashes for all four edition front pages and several other stories are also developing well so I expect another strong Gazette come tomorrow lunchtime and our final deadline.

I was interested to receive the comments from Lynn Hall to my previous blog (Most popular stories) and her suggestion that we should have a 'Good News' section in the Gazette.

We do try to include as many good news stories as possible in the paper each week and ensure we have a balance between negative and positive stories. The point I was making is that generally it's the stories that you would define as 'bad news' that boost newspaper sales and get the most hits on the website.

However, I am always interested to receive comments from Gazette readers and would welcome your thoughts and views on the paper.

I have been looking at the statistics for the website to see what stories have attracted the most page impressions this week.

Once again it tells me that crime and tragedy are the most popular stories being read on the site.

The three news headlines that have attracted the most hits so far this week are:

1. Body found near canal identified

2. Girl grabbed by youth

3. Man charged after domestic fight

I’m often asked why there’s no good news being reported and we always try to balance both the paper and website when it comes to good and bad news coverage. However, the simple fact is that bad news stories generally attract a higher readership.

I am not around tomorrow so have a good weekend and I will be back on Monday.

I have the distinct feeling the newsdesk are going to be feeling the pressure over the next few days.

For the last few weeks we have started off with a cracking news list which has developed as we approach the Gazette deadline and resulted in some really strong papers.

However, this week things are generally looking a little quiet and to make matters worse we have something of a staffing crisis.

We have one reporter off ill, another on holiday and the 'loan period' with our Harrow office for reporter Tara Brady has expired and she has returned back across west London. Added to this our replacement reporter for Tom Parnell does not start for another two weeks so, we are effectively three reporters down at the moment in the newsroom.

But in the spirit of things although content editor David Tilley may secretly be a worried man he is putting on a brave face and promising that everything will be alright and the stories will soon come flooding in.

It's still early days and I am sure he is right and as usual the dedicated Gazette team will be pulling out all the stops to ensure that next week's paper is another first class edition.

Domestic bliss has been restored in my daughter's new house (see yesterday's blog) and the Ikea bed saga resolved.

The happy ending is that the king size bed now has a king size mattress to fit - the not quite so happy ending to this saga is Ikea's refund policy if you happen to pick up the wrong size mattress by mistake and then make the even bigger mistake of unwrapping it.

I won't go into great detail but just make sure that when you buy something from Ikea it is the right size or measurement. I know there are signs everywhere telling you to check these details but it's easily forgotten when you are battling with the crowds in a busy store.

Anyway, back to the real world of newspapers and I have to say this week's Gazette is a cracking edition.

There is a great mix of hard news and human interest stories and our page three lead on the Hillingdon pensioner who 'died and went to heaven, and then came back to life again' is a must read for everyone.

We also report on how the council is promising a tough line when the public smoking ban comes into force in July. This is a subject which is likely to generate plenty of news stories and features over the coming months and you can get more information on the ban on http://www.smokefreeengland.co.uk

It's good to be back.....

After spending the weekend and yesterday helping my daughter move into her new house I have come back to work for a rest.

It was a pretty frantic few days and my back is still aching from lugging what seemed a never ending succession of boxes.

Part of yesterday was also spent on a mercy mission to Ikea in Croydon to ensure that my daughter had a bed to sleep on last night. Having purchased the bed some time ago when it came to putting it together she realised that the slats and mattress were for a double bed and the bed frame was for a king size bed!

Her boyfriend blamed Ikea for the mishap and she blamed him ... and so domestic bliss in their new house was quickly shattered ...

Anyway, I have to say the 99p breakfast at Ikea is jolly good value for money and took some of the pain out of trailing round the store early on a Monday morning.

It's now time to get my work hat back on and check how things are going with this week's Gazette. It looks as though we have another strong news week with a vicious Valentine's Day attack in a town centre bar looking the likely splash for the Uxbridge edition at the moment.

I am heading off for Essex shortly well Basildon to be exact.

Apart from my role as editor in chief of the Gazette I am also responsible for the production unit in Uxbridge which produces a number of other papers for Trinity Mirror Southern including the Yellow Advertiser Series, based in Basildon.

Today I am taking our production edition and one of the subs to Basildon for a meeting with YA editor Greg Fidgeon, to look at some new design ideas for his titles, which cover a vast area stretching from Southend to Walthamstow in East London.

You can always expect a warm welcome when you visit the Basildon office and I hope that Greg has got the coffee brewing and the chocolate biscuits ready as we will probably need them after our journey around the M25.

One thing that always strikes me when I visit Basildon is that it always seems to be blowing a gale in the town centre and feels a few degrees colder than anywhere else.

I don't expect today to be any different so I am going ready prepared with my thick coat and scarf. Yes I am just a southern softie at heart...

I was in a good mood - despite a number of gremlins having struck the papers this week - until I saw a group putting on bright purple jackets and lurking menancingly by the entrance to the Chimes Shopping Centre.

Hopefully they would have moved on by the time I returned from a quick stroll around Uxbridge town centre in the winter sunlight.

How wrong I was and who are these people I am talking about....

They are the dreaded 'charity chuggers' who appear to have returned to the streets of Uxbridge in force this afternoon.

And when one of them in his bright purple jacket and smiling face suddenly jumped out in front of me I quite simply told him to 'get lost'. Not very nice you might think but, my view is these people should be banned from town centres with their pathetic antics to try and get people to hand over money for charity.

I don't even know what charity he was collecting for and I really don't care....

I will happily donate money to any good cause but I will decide when and where. I certainly do not need some idiot in a purple bib jumping out in front of me waving a clipboard in my face to make me hand over my cash.

Yes, I am now in a really bad mood.....