Wednesday 30 April 2008

Stuff

Some random bits and bobs before I get stuck into this week's paper.

* Which Advertiser reporter had their expenses claim bounced back when, upon closer examination of the receipt, it showed their expenditure included one packet of Galaxy Minstrels, 2 x Sweet Tooth GG Tag (whatever they are) and a copy of Vogue.

* It seems somebody IS missing MP Andrew Pelling after all, according to the author of the Fairfield Life blog, who is less than impressed with his stand-in Gavin Barwel. More here.

* An idiotic Russian student claims to have taken a picture of a UFO in Croydon, although it's possibly the most unrealistic spotting I've ever seen. More here.


That's it for now. Should be a good paper this week, although the front page may look a touch unusual.

Monday 28 April 2008

Squid

I've just been on a mini-tour of the office in the hunt for a CD, which may or may not contain some images destined for Friday's front page.

I didn't find it, but I did make the following discoveries instead:

1) Reporter Lizzie Smith has a picture of content editor Andy Worden taped to her terminal.

2) An obviously over-worked Anna Edwards has been reading a story on BBC Online about scientists defrosting a giant squid. (To be fair, it's quite interesting. See for yourself here. )

3) Neil Warnock, not content with turning Palace's season around with a push for the play-offs, has come up with his own idea for our back page ahead of Sunday's vital game against Burnley. (More on that later).

4) Brian Haran has received an email from a Russian advertising manager called Nadya who is offering to become his wife. ("I wish to create strong family. I do not search on beautiful to the man. I search on clever and fair to the man," points out Nadya, allegedly pictured below.)


Thursday 24 April 2008

Content

'User generated content' has been a buzz phrase in the media industry for the past couple of years.

What it boils down to is a desire to increase the amount of interaction between our titles and readers by publishing people's comments, blogs and pictures online and in print. (Or, put another way, we'd like you to do some of our work for us please).

The only problem comes when some of the 'content' your 'users' are 'generating' turns out to be a load of immature tripe.

Yes I'm talking about our online messages, which were getting reduced to playground level at some points this week until we had to ban a load more users.

As a general rule, people can have their say on anything they like as long as they don't abuse other users or land me in the libel courts.

Unfortunately some of them have been doing just that, and have been booted off as a result.

Anyhow, back to the print product and it's a cracking paper this week. One of the basic rules of journalism is the more people connect with a story, the more paper's you'll sell.

It might sound brutal, but you've got less chance of getting on the front page if you are stabbed in a back alley in Thornton Heath at 3am than you have if you are stabbed in the Whitgift Centre at 6pm. Everyone goes shopping, not everyone's hanging around in the early hours.

This week's splash comes into the latter camp - it will interest, and horrify, a big chunk of our readership. More tomorrow.

Tuesday 22 April 2008

Most read

Here's a quick update on the most-read stories on our website.

Of course you can see the daily top five on the homepage, but it's interesting to see how it pans out over a longer period sometimes.

So, without further ado, these are the most popular stories on thisiscroydontoday.co.uk since the start of the year:

1) Teen stabbed in Whitgift Centre
2) Freedman set for Leeds switch
3) Boy, 14, had sex with member of his own family
4) The Warnock curse strikes Liverpool again
5) Is this Croydon's worst home?
6) Notorious Croydon gangster deported
7) Passengers cheat death in bus crash
8) Football thugs jailed for nightclub brawl
9) Club blames smoking ban for closure
10) Victim of fatal crash named.

Conclusions: Anything with sex in the headline will do well, no matter how grubby the tale; Palace stories will always score highly, particularly if they involve Neil Warnock have a pop at over-sentimental Scousers; crime is as popular online as in print.

On the subject of Palace, things were looking so bleak earlier in the year that our sports editor booked a holiday timed to coincide with the play-offs, confident there was more chance of Peter Taylor sprouting a second head than guiding the Eagles into the top six.

Now, though, it looks like he'll be heading overseas at the same time Palace are - hopefully - heading to Wembley. How things change.

Monday 21 April 2008

And another thing...

Other random things I meant to comment on last week during my enforced blogging absence:

First, I'm finding it interesting that people now seem to be backtracking a bit on Croydon's arena plans.

Labour leader Tony Newman, who has previously been firmly in favour, said in last week's Advertiser that he now had 'some concerns' about its viability.

I'm not quite clear what has changed to put doubts in his mind (apart from Ken Livingstone coming out so strongly against the plans, of course).

I've said from the outset that a 12,500 seat venue is approximately 9,000 seats too many for Croydon and I stand by that.

It's unfortunate for developer Arrowcroft that their push for a Croydon arena has coincided with a spate of articles in the national press singing the praises of the
o2 venue in Greenwich, which seems to be growing in popularity all the time. (Not with me though, it's like watching a gig in a giant teacup.)

Moving on, and we're having all kinds of fun and games on the subs desk at the moment.

Sub-editors, who design the pages and write the headlines, are the backbone of any newspaper and at the moment a) We haven't got quite enough of them and b) They are still learning a completely new computer system.

All told, it's made for some fairly horrific deadline days - and it's to their great credit the Advertiser has been coming out at all.

That said, I was a bit taken about when, four hours into Thursday's deadline day, one sub (who shall remain nameless) suddenly announced he'd picked up the wrong glasses that morning and couldn't see a thing he was doing.

I hadn't noticed any difference in the pages he had produced, and have since been wondering whether that was a good or bad thing.

More BNP

A couple of weeks ago I attracted the ire of the British National Party after revealing we'd turned down their adverts.

I said at the time it was a difficult decision - it could be argued that all political parties are entitled to the oxygen of publicity, no matter how offensive you find their views.

But we came down on the side of rejecting their material on the grounds I didn't think it was right to take their money.

It prompted a flurry of letters from BNP sympathisers that is only now starting to die down.

Another paper in the capital, the Hampstead and Highgate Express, took the opposite decision and decided to run the adverts, and it's caused a bit of a stink - partly thanks to George Galloway highlighting the issue on Radio 4.

The paper's parent company has now announced all the profits will go to charity - you can read more here

I'm no keener to allay myself with George Galloway than I am with the BNP to be honest, and I think the Ham and High - which is a very well-respected title - took the decision it did for the right reasons, even if I still believe it was the wrong outcome.

There are some situations where whatever you decide to do will attract criticism, and this was one of them.

In other news, the Advertiser (as the Palace paper) has just been challenged to a football match against the Brighton Argus, which we are now in the process of setting up (ie trying to sort out some ringers to complement our otherwise slighly lightweigh side.)

Argus reporter Jonathan Stayton is probably unaware I have a long-standing grudge with his paper, and I can't wait to get stuck in.

Friday 18 April 2008

Ready, steady, cook

I'll interupt my blog embargo to point out that if you turn on your TV right NOW you can see reporters Aline Nassif, Lizzie Smith, Anna Edwards and Chris Johnson in the audience of Ready, Steady, Cook.

Chris in particular is doing a good job of clapping like a big girl, and Aline apparently is about to ask a question about what makes a good meal for both cats and people.

Enjoy.

One of those weeks

Sometimes you have the kind of week where you spend so long dealing with distractions and side-issues that it's easy to forget you're a newspaper editor.

This has been just one of those weeks, hence the dismal lacl of entries on my blog.

My apologies - normal service will be resumed on Monday.

Friday 11 April 2008

Ken again

One blog entry all week - how slack. My apologies - I've been at a succession of meetings with the venues ranging from our Kensington mothership to the back room of our Dorking office.

As intimated earlier in the week I've been completely out of the loop as far as the Advertiser goes and handed control to the newsdesk, who have done a fine job.

Not such a smooth job, though, from reporter Anna Edwards when she went to interview Ken Livingstone on one of his rare forays south of the river today.

Anna apparently 'got in a bit of a tizzy' when she tried to get a notebook out of her handbag, and accidentally unearthed a plastic bow and arrow instead, and then proceeded to conduct the interview unaware she had a Bob the Builder sticker on her coat.

Tuesday 8 April 2008

Shannon

Some stories just keep on giving.

The Shannon Matthews tale is rapidly evolving into one of the most fascinating rolling news stories for years, and tonight's announcement that her mum has been charged with perverting the course of justice and child neglect means there's plenty more to come.

I'm a bit jealous of the journalists in West Yorkshire who have such a great story on their doorstep, but at the same time I'm glad I don't have to wrestle with the problem of editing a weekly paper with a story that changes every day.

Anyhow, you may wonder why I'm writing about that rather than my working week. The simple answer is I'm having the kind of spell at work that would make for an even more boring blog entry than the time - amid a bout of writer's block - I listed the entire contents of my desk drawers.

Suffice to say, I'm wrapped up in the kind of time-consuming legal issues, IT headaches and strategy meetings that leave me precious little time to look at the content of the paper.

In fact, I'm handing full control of this week's Advertiser to content editor Andy Worden so if you don't like it, blame him. (Or take a leaf out of Shirley High pupils' book and have a pop at us online instead!)

Friday 4 April 2008

Rod

There was much excitement in our Crawley office last night when two reporters insisted they had seen Rod Stewart walking into a bar across the road.

They went down to investigate and dragged him into the office for a photo and interview, but on closer inspection it seems their excitement may have got the better of them.

I guess it says something for their initiative, but it says even more about their eyesight. Here's their exclusive 'Rod' photo.



Other things that have caught my attention this week: Croydon Voluntary Action have produced what sounds like a rather libellous feature in their latest publication accusing the Advertiser of inciting racial hatred.

It follows a story a good few months ago about an illegal immigrant, Mokhta Tabet, who demanded to be flown home because he thought Croydon residents were 'rude and unhelpful.'

As I mentioned last week, this comes at a time when I'm still receiving a steady stream of hate mail from people angy we turned down BNP advertising.

Much as I might disagree with the BNP's policies, I'll also gladly publicise people who attempt to abuse the immigration system - changing our website means I can't link to the original story, but here's the Evening Standard version.

Wednesday 2 April 2008

April 1

I've not had the chance to write anything all week, which means I missed out on April Fool's Day on Tuesday.

I'm no fan of April 1 because I'm a bit of a misery, but I let the news team go ahead with the 'Taberner House to be painted pink' tale anyway.

I didn't expect it to fool anybody, so I was surprised to hear that one reporter on another paper not a million miles away had phoned the Croydon Council press office attempting to follow the story up.

Nothing funny about this week's news list though - the stabbing at the Whitgift Centre has quickly become the most read story on this site since it launched, and it's generating an awful lot of interest.

Some of the comments make interesting - if unpleasant - reading in the light of recent debates about Croydon's image, and people would do well to take note.