Monday 30 June 2008

Sami part 2

I'm glad to see Sami Mokbel's Palace blog has got a fanbase wider than just the Selhurst Park faithful.

I'm not sure whether 'Lucy', 'Beccee' and 'Clare' had any interest in the Eagles before Sami's picture appeared on the homepage, but they have now. Still, hits are hits.

Friday 27 June 2008

And finally...

Full marks to Katie Larkworthy, who is clearly a 'glass half full' kind of person judging by her comments at the end of this nib destined for next week's paper.

"PLUCKY Tandridge youngsters finished bottom of the pile in last weekend’s Surrey Youth Games.

Seven to 15-year-olds from across the district battled it out in sports such as judo, badminton, athletics and basketball in the annual competition held jointly in Guildford and Woking.

Despite their best efforts, Tandridge came last out of the 11 districts, notching up 34 points overall compared to winners Spelthorne district which got 87.

“I am very proud of everyone who has taken part in the Surrey Youth Games and look forward to hopefully even greater achievements next year.” said Katie Larkworthy, Team Tandridge organiser."

Bin

We're a bit spoilt working in a great news patch like Croydon, but I have to say I was rather surprised this story from a paper down in Sussex warranted QUITE so much attention.

Departure

One of our Croydon reporters, Lizzie Smith, is leaving today to start work on the nationals.

Lizzie's been a great addition to the team since joining us from somewhere weird in Wales.

But every reporter with ambitions to work on the national press has to make the leap at some point, and I'm sure Lizzie will make a big success of it.

It does mean, though, that I've now got to embark on another torturous recruitment process, which I am not looking forward to at all.

Another thing I'm not looking foward to is regularly seeing Palace reporter Sami Mokbel's blog getting more hits than mine. But it already is, and it's only been up for an hour. Bah.

Thursday 26 June 2008

Sales

I'm just looking at the sales figures for the edition where we put Big Brother's Alex De-Gale on the front page.

Surprise surprise - it was one of the biggest-selling editons of the year. Credit where credit's due, it was content editor Andy Worden who suggested splashing the story as I hadn't really considered it.

I don't even mind being made to look stupid by splashing the story the day after confidently predicting I'd never do anything of the sort. (Many thanks to holdthefrontpage for bringing that to people's attention!)

As is the fleeting nature of reality TV fame, Alex's star is already sinking - she slipped from the front page a fortnight ago to page 15 last week, and is lined up for page 23 this week.

Expect to see her hovering around the planning applications come July.



In fact sales in general are doing really well, which is a credit to the entire editorial team who have had to put up with some fairly major teething troubles during our switch over to a new production system.

This week's paper is also shaping up to be a cracker, more of which later.

And finally, check the website tomorrow for Palace reporter Sami Mokbel's new blog. I don't know what he's going to be writing about yet - and I suspect he doesn't either - but it should be entertaining.

Tuesday 24 June 2008

Farce of Croydon

Fun and games this afternoon as it emerged the winner of the Face of Croydon competition doesn't, erm, live in Croydon.

A sticky situation for the organisers, made worse by the fact the winner Kym Whittle is the sister of a marketing executive at Croydon Business, which had been backing(but not actually organising) the competition.

Oh dear, all very unfortunate. The fashion festival - which the Face of Croydon had formed part of - has actually gone a long way to getting some positive publicity for the town.

The Observer article I posted yesterday, in fact, was inspired by the festival itself.

For what it's worth, I don't think there was anything underhand about the choice of winner, but privately I suspect Croydon Business will be fuming that this has put a dampner on the competition.

Monday 23 June 2008

The Observer ran a fairly large article on Croydon's charms yesterday, inspired by the town's first fashion festival.

It was a bit less sneering than you might imagine, helped by the fact the author was from Croydon herself. More here.

Friday 20 June 2008

Wonder stuff

Ho hum. A sub-editor with a sharp eye for detail has written to content editor Andy Worden looking for work, but has accidentally called him Andy Wonder. (Which is, admittedly, a very good name).

I briefly considered splashing the story about the eight-year-old boy who took a knife into school yesterday. Looking at how popular it's proving on the web today, maybe I should have done so.

Pow, pow, pow

Obviously I can't leave the office today in case I fall foul of Alex's gangsta pals, so I'll spend a bit of time seeing what else is going on from the safety of my desk.

First to Fairfield. I usually get criticised whenever I say anything negative about our premier entertainment venue's line-up, so I'm pleased they've got some big names like Jimmy Carr on the way.

But I can't let one particular show due to take place in September pass without comment - the Best of British Variety Tour 2008.

For one night only you can see the following names sharing the stage: The Brotherhood of Man; Paul Daniels; The Krankies; Frank Carson; Jimmy Cricket and Cannon & Ball.

I spent an uncomfortable evening in the company of Frank Carson in a marquee at Selhurst Park once as he made a series of jokes that may not have been entirely appropriate for our cosmopolitan town, and I had an unfortunate interview experience with the Krankies when I was a trainee reporter that I'm still too traumatised to recount.

Never the less, there's something quite so horrific about that line-up that I find myself bizarrely tempted to attend. Word magazine sum it up better than I can here.

Moving on, and they must have different copyright laws in Scotland as the Daily Record clearly has no qualms about copy and pasting stories from our site onto their one and passing if off as their own work. I'm sure they cheque's in the post. Or maybe not.


Finally after Wednesday's post about Tony Newman's YouTube debut, I'm delighted to see viewing figures have shot up from five to 44. You can still have a look for yourself here

Wednesday 18 June 2008

Bye bye Alex

Boot her out, we said, and boot her out they did.

I doubt out anti-Alex stance will go down in the annals of Advertiser history as our most important campaign, but it was a victory of sorts.

We won't miss her wannabe gangster posturing on Big Brother but, in retrospect, we'll miss the hits on the website. Maybe she'd like to write a blog.

TonyTube

Croydon Council's Labour leader Tony Newman came into Advertiser House yesterday for a photo shoot to plug his newly-launched YouTube videos.

If I was in a mean mood - which I usually am - I'd point out that it could do with a bit of a push as only five people have looked at his current offering in the past week.

I know for certain that one of those was me, another was one of our reporters, one was our news editor and I bet Tony himself couldn't resist a quick peek. Which begs the question - who was the remaining mystery viewer?

Although TonyTube is obviously in its infancy, more and more politicians will no doubt be going down this route in future.

His current video discusses the schools review (and rather disingenuously refers to 'a local paper' breaking the news of proposed closures - we're always happy to receive the occasional plug too you know.) Have a look for yourself here.

Don't get too excited by the video of Tony Newman performing Soul Thing though - that's another Tony entirely.

Just to show we're still strictly politically-neutral, the Conservatives' Sara Bashford has been in the office too to discuss the 2008 Ecocitizen awards - more on that soon.

Tuesday 17 June 2008

BBC

My previous post about our imminent new website - and the subsequent comment about another local news site due to relaunch soon - brings me onto the subject of the BBC.

I've always welcomed the fact Croydon is a competitive news patch - it keeps people on their toes and makes the job more interesting.

But at the same time I've always had an issue with the BBC.

I share the view of most people in the industry about the corporation's plans to roll out 60 ultra-local news sites, offering all the services we and our rivals try to provide without having to worry about how they are going to make any money.

You can see the background to the story on the Press Gazette website here.

The main players in the UK media industry - Trinty, Northcliffe, Newsquest et al - believe the BBC will completely skew the playing field if its Board of Governors approves such a huge expenditure.

From my own time at the BBC I know, despite its claims to the contrary, it's absolutely AWASH with cash. Just look at how many staff they've got at Euro 2008.

And don't get me started on the chauffeur-driven limos they provide for staff working unsocial hours. Even if I didn't say no at the time.

What I do know is that if every household in Croydon was forced to give me £139.50 each year regardless of whether or not they wanted the Advertiser I'd be able to create a bloody fantastic website.

I realise this is the kind of argument unlikely to win the hearts and minds of readers, but I really don't think the BBC's remit should be to attempt to crush traditional local media.

Still on the subject of the BBC, I've got a story I've been itching to post for ages now.

It involves somebody pressing the wrong button on the day of the Queen Mother's death and briefly broadcasting the wrong pre-prepared obituary to the nation. And when it comes to public figures, the one accidentally killed off was as big as they come.

I'll open a right can of worms if I say any more, but maybe I'll Twitter it instead...

New website

As I mentioned last week, we're gearing up to relaunch the thisiscroydontoday website very soon.

I know we only seem to have had this one for five minutes, but you can't stand still in this business and the new site will be more user-friendly and Google-friendly.

We're taking the opportunity to add a host of fresh content to the site, and some of the editorial team - including news editor Jo - have been taken off-diary ahead of the launch.

Jo will be tracking the progress throughout via Twitter, and for those of you unfamiliar with it, she explains it below in her own words.

"Twitter has been described as micro-blogging, but anyone familiar with Facebook will probably recognise it as being more akin to that site’s status updates. Twitters basically send brief updates as to what they are doing whenever they want, which other twitters can sign up to follow.

"Twitter has been causing a stir amongst bloggers and mediawatchers lately. Last month, news of the Chengdu earthquake broke on twitter hours before other more traditional media organisations picked up on it.

And closer to home, Marc Reeves, the editor of the Birmingham Post, was the first to break news of the arrest of Karren Brady, MD of Birmingham City on corruption allegations in April. (I've had a brief look at Marc's offerings, and most of them seem to involve him talking about Dire Straits - Ian.

"I'm now a fully fledged twitter, and will be tweeting regularly through the next few weeks to share my thoughts on rebuilding the site – and inviting responses from anyone who wishes to comment or suggest what they wish (or to generally let me know what is going on in and Croydon). To find out what I'm tweeting about, visit www.twitter.com, search for me as jowadsworth, and click follow."

Friday 13 June 2008

Big bother

We've had no repeat of last week's change page errors today, but I'm in a tremendously bad mood anyway and moaning at people left, right and centre.

It's not a very productive way to go about things - particularly when the main cause of my angst is a broken-down boiler at home which has left me without any hot water for two days - so I will try to snap out of it.

A mixed response to the decision to put Alexandra from Big Brother on the front page - one poster said Advertiser founder Jesse Ward would be spinning in his grave, which is probably a bit of an over-reaction. My hunch is it will probably sell pretty well.

That said, it's quite unusual for a local paper to campaign for one of their own to LOSE a TV show, but that's more down to her than us.

Back to the web, and it's been a source of constant frustration that this site scores so poorly when you look for Croydon news in Google or other search engines.

We'll be unveiling a new design fairly soon that will address that issue, and will also include quite a few other changes. Watch this space.

Thursday 12 June 2008

Hindsight

I'm glad the print version of the Advertiser has a substantially bigger readership than this blog.

At least that means not every reader will be able to laugh and point at a post from earlier this week when they see tomorrow's front page.

You may recall I said I couldn't envisage a day when we put a Big Brother contestant on the front page of the Advertiser.

Well, maybe I spoke to soon. I'm sure you can work the rest out for yourself.

In all honestly, I couldn't bring myself to put another murder on the front page, and went with the next best option.

As punishment I've banned myself from tomorrow's Press Gazette awards, where we are competing for the weekly newspaper of the year title. I'm sending my deputy Andy Worden and reporter Ross Lidbetter instead.

If any bookmakers are laying odds on the winner - which I doubt they are - lump some money on the Bath Chronicle.

Wednesday 11 June 2008

Balloon

Good to see Croydon police are leaving no stone unturned in their quest to rid our streets of crime - photographer Danny Fitzpatrick has just been quizzed by one of Commander Gore's finest on suspicion of filming a balloon.

Danny was stopped in the act as he worked on a video about Friday the 13th, which we will be putting up on the website on, um, Friday the 13th.

Apparently the conversation went as follows:

Police officer: "What do you think you're doing?"

Photographer: "I'm videoing a balloon."

Police officer. "Oh."

On the same subject, chief photographer David Berman is appealing for readers to leave a voicemail message telling him how lucky or unlucky they are, which will apparently soundtrack the video.

The plaintive appeals he left stuck to the office coffee machine have clearly not had the desired impact, so he has turned to this blog instead. You can leave your message on 07530 753 303.

David also wants voice messages from people talking about how sad or lonely they are.

I'm not sure whether he wants these for professional or personal reasons, but you can leave your messages on the same number. I'm taking no responsibility for the consequences though.

Tuesday 10 June 2008

Oh brother

Friday was the busiest day we've ever had on the Advertiser website.

I'd like to say it was down to our extensive coverage of the council's education proposals, but that would be a complete lie - it was thanks to Croydon's Big Brother housemate Alexandra de-Gale.

Ever since the first story announcing her entry into the house attracted hundreds of readers in a next to no time on Thursday evening, it was clear she was going to be a big draw.

And on Friday, when we told how she had been arrested three times by police, the figures went through the roof and have stayed there ever since.

So for those people who posted comments asking why we bothered writing articles about her, that's your answer.

Although the Advertiser's print and online versions are obviously closely linked, that doesn't mean you have to treat stories in the same way in both.

I can't imagine a time when we'd splash a story about Alexandra in the paper, but on the web it's a different matter.

Friday 6 June 2008

Editions

I'm pleased with the Croydon edition of the Advertiser today, but that's been overshadowed by a complete balls-up with some of our district editions.

To cut a long story short, people buying the Sutton or Coulsdon & Purley Advertisers and hoping to read about the Carshalton child deaths have been given a page from the New Addington Advertiser instead.

Because it's on an inside page, they won't realise the mistake until they get home - and quite rightly they're not impressed.

We're looking into how and where the mistake was made, but that's irrelevant to the readers. In these situations the newsdesk always bears the brunt of the calls, which is unfortunate as they are the ones least culpable.

The bottom line, though, is mistakes like this are simply not good enough and we can only apologise to readers and do what we can to provide them with an alternative edition with the correct story in it.

Wednesday 4 June 2008

Glue

Over in our Reigate office, and I'm wrestling with a problem that comes up more often than you might expect.

What do you do when you pick up a story about somebody who has previously been a supporter of your paper?

The Advertiser's sister title in Dorking has landed a bizarre story about a newsagent convicted of putting superglue into the locks of pensioners' homes.

We've no idea why he was doing it, and since he denied the charges and offered no mitigation we're unlikely to ever find out.

Two issues: 1) The newsagent in question was recently named the Advertiser's local trader of the year and 2) His shop sells a good few hundred copies of the paper each week.

To be honest, there wasn't really any doubt that we'd put the story on the front page but, in doing so, we know it will probably hit this week's sale.

I don't expect he'll have copies on display, and I certainly don't think he'll be putting a bill poster up outside his shop plugging the story.

This kind of thing crops up quite often with supermarkets.

More and more papers are sold at out-of-town superstores these days, so I've always got mixed feelings when the newsdesks come forward with stories about people finding dead frogs in their bags of lettuce and the like. We've had papers pulled from the shelves of various outlets in recent months, and it really can put a dent in your circulation.

And don't even get me started on stories knocking estate agents - they can cause even more trouble.

The bottom line always has to be to print the story regardless of the commercial consequences, but in doing so we can quite often end up paying a price for it.

Back over to Croydon soon for a meeting with education chief Maria Gatland. I'd forgotten this meeting was diaried when I posted yesterday's blog entry but hey ho, I'm sure she'll take it in good spirits.

Monday 2 June 2008

Email

It hasn't taken long for the political spinning to start over the council's review of our education services.

An email arrives in the newsdesk inbox from a former governor at a Croydon secondary school intended for our letters page, hailing the brave stance of the Conservative administration and Councillor Maria Gatland in particular.

But what's this? Scroll down and it seems the letter may not be all it's cracked up to be.

Before reaching Advertiser House, it appears to have been forwarded around to a select group for their approval including Gavin Barwell and - ta da - Councillor Gatland herself. (The latter's verdict: "I think that's good.")

In fact, it seems the letter underwent some hefty editing before being deemed suitable for our consideration.

The school our contributor was governor of was removed in case it encouraged other people connected with it to write in, and other sections were removed to cut down on any overlap with another missive we are apparently due to receive.

So why am I bothering to blog about this?

Simply because these reforms are hugely important for our current and future pupils and parents, and I've committed the Advertiser to covering them in as much depth as we can.

I think everyone concerned should just set out the facts and listen to the feedback, without trying to influence public opinion.

Carshalton child deaths

The deaths of two children in Carshalton at the weekend was a truly terrible story.

The first I knew of it was when I woke up on Saturday and read the news on our own website.

It quickly emerged that we had taken a picture of a third child injured in the incident at the time of her birth six months ago, and it had appeared on our regular Celebrations page.

This was the shot that appeared on our website on Saturday and the national press on Sunday.

Elsewhere over the weekend, I was interested to read some of the web comments about the school closure story. I'll repeat one below precisely as it appears underneath the article.

"Well done, Advertiser!! I know you're in the news business, but - even assuming your schools closure story is true - did it ever occur to you the damage you are doing to the (already rock-bottom) morale of the staff, students & governors allegedly concerned. The LA had micro-managed it to ensure heads of affected schools should tell staff & students before the details hit the press. I don't know how accurate your 'exclusive' is, but I do think your council 'source' should hang his/her head in shame.
A school governor, croydon


This is the kind of message that leaves me banging my head on the desk in frustration.

The author starts off by acknowledging we're in the business of breaking news stories, then berates us for doing just that in case it upsets somebody at the council.

Do people really, really think we're going to sit on a story for a week so it fits in with a stage-managed announcment? My staff would lynch me, and the readers should as well.

As for how accurate it is, well - we'll find out at 11.30 when the plans are officially unveiled. Obviously I'm confident it's entirely accurate or else we would't have printed it, but all editors know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you are waiting for an exclusive story to be offically confirmed.

Finally, a few years ago there were reports in the press about how the growth of text messaging would kill off the English language as we know it. Looking at some of the contributions from pupils, it seems that time is already with us.