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January 31, 2008
Big night
It seems only yesterday that we were launching our Local Heroes Awards - yet tonight we will be announcing the winners at what promises to be a glittering event.
I really look forward to the gala evening, even having to make a speech, and I have to say this year the standard of nominations in all the categories has been exceptional.
This is the sixth year of the awards and once again the generous support of Uxbridge College has ensured their success.
I am sure there will be plenty of cheers and tears later on today and I will let you know how the evening went tomorrow.
However, before the awards we have an all day management conference which I will shortly be leaving the office to attend.
The agenda for the day looks pretty action packed and once the conference finishes I will be dashing off to the Local Heroes Awards at the Hayes Campus - so it promises to be a busy day.
Posted by aseal at 7:43 AM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2008
Shocking picture
Apologies for the lack of postings this week - everytime I have got down to writing one something else has cropped up which needed my attention.
Yes, it's been one of those weeks with lots of meetings taking up large chunks of the day.
However, I have to say that I was particularly pleased with this week's edition of the Gazette, which was one of the strongest we have put out for many weeks.
There was some debate as to whether we should use the shocking picture of a battered grandfather on the front page of the Hayes edition.
It is a shocking picture but was supplied to us by the family and I had little hesitation in running it to highlight a particularly brutal crime.
In a way that's old news now as we are well ahead with next week's edition of the Gazette which will feature all the finalists for our Local Heroes Awards gala evening on January 31. I am already looking forward to what is one of the highlights of the year for us.
The meeting theme continues today when my fellow editors from West London and Bucks will be joining me at Gazette House for our monthly meeting.
This will be followed by lunch with Michelle Moffitt, the marketing manager at the Chimes Shopping Centre in Uxbridge who is always good company and full of energy and ideas on how we can work together with the centre.
I have to say I am looking forward to the weekend when I will be going to Scotland to see my newly born grandson and wet the baby's head with my son.
Posted by aseal at 8:32 AM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2008
Are you depressed?
Today is officially the most depressing day of the year - and known as Blue Monday.
Apparently it's the worst day of the year as people experience a series of combined depressive effects, including debt, low motivational levels, new year's resolution failure and lack of daylight hours.
I have to say that I am not finding it the most depressing day of the year although perhaps my spirits were lifted by a healthy seven mile walk yesterday around some fantastic countryside - a tonic I would recommend to anyone who may be feeling the winter blues.
And there is no need to feel depressed about this week's Gazette newslist which has several big hitting stories and is looking pretty healthy.
We already have splashes lined up for all four editions which is a good position to be in early on a Monday afternoon and it's shaping up to be a strong news week.
I am just about to go into a meeting to look at some new ideas for the Exclusively Yours magazine we produce quarterly and then it's back to checking some more Gazette pages.
Posted by aseal at 1:50 PM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2008
Fishy tale!
I am not sure if someone is having a laugh but today I have received one of the strangest press releases for some time.
Like many editors I receive a fair amount of 'junk' releases from hopeful PR agencies who don't have a clue about local newspapers and what makes a story and what doesn't.
Most of these releases never see the light of day and are quickly deleted never to be seen again.
However, one headlined 'If your name is Pike - you're not coming in' caught my eye and I thought at least deserved some further reading.
It emerges that Chessington World of Adventures & Zoo is offering anyone with a fish-related name FREE entrance into the Park.
So if you are a Miss Pike, Mr Goldfish or your name is simply Ray - you could be on your way to free entry to Chessington.
Unfortunately Mr Seal does not qualify - not that I would be going anyway despite the fact it's just down the road from where I live.
I am sure this tale will delight my colleague Ian Carter on the Croydon Advertiser who is constantly up in arms about receiving useless press releases.
His latest rant involves one he has received from Playtex bras telling him that their new range will improve his figure for Valentine's Day! http://blog.croydonadvertiser.co.uk
On that note I will wish you all a good weekend.
Posted by aseal at 2:07 PM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2008
Football fever
First and foremost I am not a Newcastle United supporter but no sports fan could have failed to have been interested in the tidal wave of excitement which has followed the announcement of Kevin Keegan's return to the club as manager.
I am just amazed by the interest that the club generates in Newcastle even to the point that a special late edition of the evening paper in the city sold 15,000 copies, many of which you may have seen being waved by delirious fans on various television channels last night.
I can't believe that any other paper could sell 15,000 copies at such short notice just on the back of a new football manager being appointed.
I have also just read that a couple named their newly born baby Kevin Keegan, after it was born just minutes after the announcement of his appointment as manager.
On the subject of baby names my son and his partner have decided on Lewis David Mackenzie Seal, which appears to have been met with approval by all sides of the family.
The news team at the Gazette were quickly off their blocks when we heard that a plane had crash landed earlier today at Heathrow Airport.
Already they have pulled in a good local follow up story to the incident, which has been posted on the website, and this will be further developed for next week's Gazette.
We already have a few other half decent stories in the bag for next week's paper and with content editor David Tilley currently on a training course our chief reporer Chris Longhurst is eager to make his mark as he runs the newsdesk for the next couple of days.
Posted by aseal at 2:20 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2008
Baby is delivered
I have said it before but the beauty of our website is that you can almost immediately check which stories are engaging most with readers.
On Monday we posted the story about two Russians who were caught having sex on a plane which was on its way to Heathrow.
Apart from the Heathrow angle the only other local link to the story was the fact that the convicted couple appeared before Uxbridge Magistrates.
However, we posted the story on our site on Monday aftyeroon and it has rapidly become the most viewed story on http://www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk over the last couple of days.
The story about a school in Hayes being closed after a wall collapsed has also attracted a fair bit of interest as has the story about a man being knifed in an attack at Ruislip Tube station.
This tells me that not unlike newspapers sex, crime and disasters are still some of the most popular viewing topics with readers.
Apart from keeping up with breaking news from across the borough on our website you can also read all the week's news in comprehensive style in the Gazette, which as usual is out today.
Yesterday I told you that I was waiting for a phone call to tell me that I had become a grandad.
Well that call came late last night when my son's partner Linzi produced a bouncing baby boy. I will keep you updated on names and progress over the coming days.
Posted by aseal at 2:26 PM | Comments (0)
January 15, 2008
Spelling test
We are all being extra careful this week after the cock up with a spelling mistake in the Gazette's sister paper the Leader last week.
It really was the worst possible mistake with a word being spelt incorrectly in the front page headline. For those of you who missed it despair was spelt dispair.
I think we were all hit by word blindness because several people read the page before it went to print but missed the error.
And there have been plenty of people only too happy to tell us about the mistake.
Infact, one person has even called for my head along with the person responsible for the error. I think that's a bit extreme but perhaps it may be a case of daily spelling tests and bedtime reading of a dictionary for staff in future!
We have still got plenty of pages to finish for this week's Gazette so it's going to be a busy few hours while at the same time I will be keeping a watchful eye on my mobile phone ringing.
My son's partner is due to give birth anytime now which means that I will shortly become a grandad. As they live in Scotland I am also preparing to hot foot it north of the border shortly to see the new arrivial.
Posted by aseal at 7:53 AM | Comments (1)
January 11, 2008
We told you first
It's amazing how some stories suddenly make big news - particularly if it's one we have covered in the Gazette some months ago.
That was the case this week with the story surrounding the building of the new Travelodge in Bakers Road, Uxbridge which is almost directly opposite Gazette House.
We have watched with interest as the building has risen in recent months and reported on the traffic chaos the construction has caused at times due to its close proximity to Uxbridge bus station.
The Gazette also reported on the fact that the main part of the construction was metal boxes shipped in from China and then bolted together and arranged over eight floors of the site to form the hotel's bedrooms.
So, we were more than a little surprised earlier this week when the story about the 'bedrooms' being shipped in from China broke and gained substantial coverage in national newspapers and on radio and television.
We could have told you that you would have read it first some months ago if you had seen a copy of the Gazette.
The reason that the story broke so big was due to a press release sent out by Travelodge and anyway it did make for an interesting picture in this week's Gazette.
What has turned out to be a manic week for me continues today with a series of meetings which will pretty much take up the whole day.
I think once I have battled my way back home tonight on the M25 I will be ready for a cool refreshing beer...
Posted by aseal at 8:20 AM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2008
Swearing over breaking news
There's nothing more annoying than when a major story breaks in your area just hours after your paper has gone to press.
That was the case for my colleague Julie Voyce, who is editor of the Buckinghamshire Examiner, when news broke of the awful discovery by the RSPCA at a farm in Amersham late yesterday afteroon.
For any of you who missed the story more than 100 horses and donkeys were left neglected to starve and a number of these were discovered dead
She was still swearing this morning and bemoaning her bad luck that her paper had 'missed the boat' by a matter of hours on what is likely to be one of the biggest stories this year in the their circulation area.
However, all was not lost as at least the paper's website was able to cover the story in some detail and I am sure will continue to do so over the coming days.
That's the beauty of the website - no matter when a story breaks you can get it up there almost immediately and everyone is happy.
It now plays a key role in the Gazette newsroom as we aim to ensure that we put breaking news from across the borough on our website at the earliest opportunity.
At the moment there is no big breaking news in the Uxbridge area but, it's early days and the first draft of the newslist for next week's Gazette is looking quite healthy with some strong issue stories already on the boil.
Posted by aseal at 1:40 PM | Comments (0)
January 9, 2008
Struck down by sickness
Where has the week gone so far...
It's early Wednesday morning and the Gazette is out and I have to say it's been non-stop for me with no signs of that changing in what is turning out to be a very busy week.
Our sport editor Scott became a victim of the vomiting bug sweeping the country so the bulk of the past two days have seen me looking after the Gazette sports pages - no complaints please - and also overseeing the news pages of the paper.
It's all been a bit of a juggling act but I am relatively pleased with this week's paper as normal service is finally resumed after the festive season.
We have strong front pages for all editions and over the coming weeks will be introducing one or two new features into the paper so as always I will be interested to get your views on them and the paper in general.
It did look for a while that for the first time in many weeks, no months, we might have a full compliment of staff this week but Scott's demise was closely followed by our Uxbridge reporter Libby going home ill.
Later today I have a meeting to finalise the details for our Local Heroes Gala Night at the end of the month which will again be held at the Hayes Campus.
Uxbridge College are again supporting the event and I am already looking forward to what promises to be a glittering night and one of the annual highlights of the Gazette calendar.
Posted by aseal at 8:07 AM | Comments (0)
January 3, 2008
Back to normal
The festivities are over, the mince pies have gone stale and turkey is definitely off the menu.
It's good to be getting back to normal after the past few weeks although judging by the lack of cars on the M25 this morning and the crowds in Uxbridge town centre this afternoon it looks like many people are extending their break until the end of the week.
We are already starting to plan next week's Gazette which will be the first 'normal' paper we have produced for a few weeks now.
I mean 'normal' in the sense that it will be back to its usual pagination and the word Christmas has been banned - although I suspect someone will still try and sneak it in somewhere.
I was interested to read in this week's paper that the council are considering having an ice rink outside the Civic Centre in Uxbridge High Street for the festive period in 2008/9.
This certainly seems a good idea and is something that is taking off in towns throughout the country.
I was in Windsor over the festive period and their temporary ice rink in Alexandra Gardens by the river certainly seems popular judging by the number of people skating.
While in the area I also took the opportunity to do the famous Long Walk from the Castle. I would thoroughly recommend it and not only is it excellent exercise it's also free.
Posted by aseal at 2:23 PM | Comments (0)