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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)
February 22, 2008
Are you being served?
Thursdays can be a day of mild celebration or deep deepression as it's the day I get the weekly sales figures for the Gazette.
Some weeks you are disappointed with the figures which you expected to be better and other weeks you get a pleasant surprise - some times it's just plain difficult to judge how readers will react to a certain front page splash or edition.
Yesterday's figures were off the mild celebration category - our story about the concerns of mums over the conditions they endured at Hillingdon Hospital's maternity unit obviously struck a chord with lots of people as it resulted in our best sales figures of the year so far.
There again it could also have been the free bath bomb for every reader offer we had that helped push the sale up.
As I have explained before our figures always run two weeks behind. I am hoping that next week that when I get the figures for the edition of February 13 which included our special First Day at School supplement I will again be celebrating - but you can never tell in this game!
Over the last couple of days I have had very positive meetings with Uxbridge town centre manager Andy Stuggs and Hillingdon Borough Council chief executive Hugh Dunnachie, a very impressive man with a clear vision and a real thirst for the highly demanding role he carries out at the Civic Centre.
Following my meeting with Andy Stubbs we will shorlty be launching a Customer Service Awards initiative in Uxbridge town centre - a competition for readers to vote for the best service they recieve from shops, pubs and restaurants and the like.
We will be publishing full details on the awards in the Gazette, it's sister paper the Leader and on the website in the next couple of weeks so keep a watch out and then start entering the outlets or individuals you feel give the best customer service in the town.
Today will be spent looking ahead to next week's Gazette and one of the features will be pages of wonderful Mother's Day pictures drawn by children from schools across the borough - some of them are absolutely wonderful and it will make a really good spread in next week's paper.
Posted by aseal at 7:38 AM | Comments (1)
February 19, 2008
Looking out for typos
Typos are a nightmare for any newspaper editor - we dread them.
There have been several instances of them creeping in to the Gazette recently, last week's page three lead heading being a classic example.
And there was also the spelling mistake in the lead heading of a recent edition of the Gazettes's sister paper the Leader - this caused quite an outcry from readers.
However, the point I want to make is that despite the various emails and phone calls I get on a regular basis I do actually read the Gazette pages before they go to print and try to ensure they are error free.
Mistakes do sometimes occur and in some cases it's just a case of 'word blindness' that causes them. All the news, sport and guide pages that appear in the paper are read by at least two people but even then the odd error can slip through the net.
I am just about to read a whole stack of pages for this week's paper and you can bet that having written this blog a mistake will somehow appear in tomorrow's paper - but we are no where as bad as some newspapers when it comes to typos.
Posted by aseal at 8:23 AM | Comments (0)
February 18, 2008
Take two, the Strawbs and traffic
It seems that cameras are dominating my time at the moment.
Having previously told you that a photographers lot is not always a happy one (see previous blog) I have been on the receiving end myself.
This time it was a video camera and a corporate presentation I had to deliver.
Having carefully prepared and rehearsed my script I was feeling confident as I sat in front of the camera and it started to roll.
However, I was then struck by 'stage fright' and started to talk gibberish.
Finally after several re-takes I got into the flow of things and about an hour later the presentation had been successfully filmed.
Although I dread to think what the final edited version will look and sound like.....
Over the weekend I relived my youth when I went to a concert by the Strawbs. For those of you who don't remember they were big in the 70s and you can find out more at http://www.strawbsweb.co.uk
They may have aged a bit but they still have a strong following and can pull in the crowds. Take That they are not - thank goodness - but middle aged men playing cracking music and having a great time to boot.
Anyway enough of this nostalgia and back to the real business of editing the Gazette.
We have another strong newslist for this week's paper and I am just about the start reading some of the early pages before heading off to visit our Ealing office.
I just hope the traffic on the A40 has cleared because it was awful first thing this morning, and that reminds me I must get the newsdesk to find out the reason wny.
Posted by aseal at 8:27 AM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2008
Camera shy
I have just returned from the Chimes shopping centre where I got an insight into the problems that our photographers can sometimes face.
I was at the Chimes for the launch of the Mother's Day competition we are running with the shopping centre and several of its stores - full details will be in next week's Gazette and there is a fabulous prize for the winning mum.
However, our chief photographer Chris Berry was also taking pictures of red roses being handed out by the Chimes to celebrate Valentine's Day.
While most people were quite happy to take their free red rose it seemed that very few would have their picture taken to appear in the Gazette.
Chris really had to work hard to get find people who were happy to pose for the camera, which just goes to show that a snapper's lot is not always a happy one....
Posted by aseal at 3:34 PM | Comments (2)
February 12, 2008
Special school pictures
We have just finished this week's Gazette which includes another one of our popular First Day at School supplements.
Over the past few weeks our photographers Chris and Toby have been busy around the borough taking class pictures of the new January intake at schools.
Once again they have come up with some cracking pictures, more than 80 in total, and tomorrow's Gazette will include a special 16 page supplement featuring all the happy faces.
When we ran our previous supplement last October we recorded the highest sales figiure of the year for the Gazette and I am looking forward to another bumper sales week this time.
Apart from the school's supplement we have another strong paper and a good follow-up to last week's story about the maternity unit at Hillingdon Hospital.
Over the past few days we have received a number of calls, emails and comments on our website from mums either defending the unit or being critical of the treatment they received.
It has certainly proved a big talking point with our readers and is an issue that I expect will roll on next week as well.
Posted by aseal at 4:35 PM | Comments (0)
February 7, 2008
Birmingham and the digital age
Spent an interesting day at editors' forum in Birmingham earlier this week despite the dreadful weather in the city and a hellish drive home in wretched conditions.
There was plenty of talk with my fellow editors on the digital age, and the new multi media age that we are all concentrating our minds on at the moment as we look further at how we can develop our websites.
During the day there was plenty of debate over whether you should publish stories online as they break rather than holding them back for the print edition.
My view is that like our papers our websites have to be as competitive as possible so that means that where possible we will always try to get breaking news on to our website as quickly as possible, and then follow up and develop stories for the Gazette.
At the forum we heard about several papers in Australia and the New York Times and their approach to publishing stories online.
The Age in Melbourne publishes pretty much everything first online and then develops it for the print edition.
What is really interesting is that as well as picking up considerable traffic online the paper has also seen a rise in its print circulation figures since adopting this approach.
I certainly came back from Birmingham with some good ideas and plenty of food for thought.
However, I was quickly brought back to the harsh realities of everyday life in the newsroom when on my return I received a resignation letter from one of our sub editors.
You have to accept that people will move on but it could not come at a worse time as we prepare to re-structure our production team.
However, although it puts a hole in our plans it's all part and parcel of everyday life and just one more challenge to overcome - and more time spent recruiting a new sub editor.
Posted by aseal at 8:00 AM | Comments (1)
February 4, 2008
Memorable evening
I have just finished reading and checking our four page special on last week's Local Heroes Awards gala evening.
It's an impressive spread for this week's Gazette and really captures what was a memorable evening - one of the best yet in the six years of the Local Heroes Awards, which we run with Uxbridge College.
There were plenty of tears and cheers on the night and one could not have failed to have been touched by the tremendous stories of all the nominated finalists who attented the evening.
What really touched me was that not one of these people actually saw themselves as a 'hero' despite the many tremendous feats they had achieved. It was an evening that made me feel very humble.
Don't miss the coverage in this week's Gazette as there are some truly outstanding stories to read.
The rest of this week's paper is coming together and again we look to have some strong front page stories for all the editions.
I will be leaving the checking of Gazette pages tomorrow in the capable hands of others as I am off to Birmingham in the morning for an Editors' Forum, with the agenda looking like it will make for an interesting day.
Posted by aseal at 3:45 PM | Comments (0)