Surrey Life Editor's Blog

Peter Andre and an electric kettle (yes, really..)

Just returned from a lovely holiday up in Yorkshire and am already well and truly back in the thick of things.

It's amazing how it all becomes a distant memory within about five minutes of walking back into the office, but all the same, it's good to have had a break.

I was also cheered on my return to discover how much reader feedback we've had while I was away.

The holy grail for all editors is a full postbag, lots of reader response on the e-mail and plenty of phone calls.

We don't even mind if readers are talking about things they don't like in the magazine, because at least we can bear that in mind for future editions.

So far this week, my favourite piece of reader feedback was from a lady who rang in yesterday afternoon with a 'Spotted' for our Upfront section.

Apparently, she had seen Peter Andre in Morrisons in Caterham buying, wait for it, an electric kettle of all things! Brilliant!

She was a bit nervous about ringing at first, but we soon got chatting and turns out she reads the magazine religiously.

Only downside is, she said she suffers from insomnia so looks at the magazine in bed to help her relax - which led me to conclude that it must also put her to sleep.

Hmm, let's just hope it doesn't have the same effect on the rest of our readers...

Anyway, don't forget that if you want to get in touch about anything at all - whether it's someone else buying an electrical appliance, something you love or hate in the mag or just somewhere you've particularly enjoyed visiting in Surrey - either post a comment below, write to us at the usual address or send me an e-mail at editor@surreylife.co.uk            

Right, in the meantime, back to the madhouse...

The great escape

Survived the radio training day and, much to my surprise, actually rather enjoyed it.

Well, I say rather enjoyed it.. what I really mean is I rather enjoyed it now that I'm safely out the other side (in the same way you might look back on, say, a parachute jump).

Going into the studio was undoubtedly one of the most terrifying moments of my life, but against all the odds, somehow managed to string some vaguely coherent sentences together and think I  stumbled through it without swearing.

Of course, the irony is, that bit was just the dress rehearsal - soon we will have to do this radio lark for real... gulp.

Anyway, it was great to catch up with all the other editors from across the south east (all scarily consummate radio personalities as it turned out) and good to have some time out the office.

Speaking of which, don't faint, but I'm attempting to have a few days off, so this blog and I will both be taking a short holiday. 

Until then, hope you all have a good weekend and I'll be back again around the middle of next week 

On the airwaves

Having spent several years helping out at a hospital radio station, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for radio.

For the patients, hearing their request on the airwaves was a massive boost and really did seem to help cheer them up when they were feeling low - though, incidentally, there were a whole host of records that were banned, like The Only Way is Up, for example... (I kid you not).

Back in the world of Radio 4 & co, I've always liked the fact that you have to use your imagination to create the pictures and also the simple fact that you can get on with other stuff while listening to the Today programme or your favourite music show or comedy series etc.

Anyway, I digress... The only reason I mention all this is because, much as I love radio, it doesn't mean I am exactly relishing the prospect of a day in the studio tomorrow with fellow editors from our sister titles across the south-east.

Apparently, we are going to be learning interview techniques - not how to interview other people (if we don't know that by now then we never will) but how to be interviewed - gulp! - with a view to getting us all on local radio a bit more.

This is exactly the kind of thing that fills me with dread...

Interviewing other people is one thing, but being interviewed myself? Yikes... What if my mind goes blank or they ask me something I don't know the answer to?

I can just see it now...

Interviewer: "So can you tell us about the latest drop in interest rates and what, in economic terms, this means for Surrey?"

Me: "Erm... "

Anyway, fingers crossed I can steer them on to talking about something safe like Cliff Richard (our celeb interview for the Christmas edition) or the top restaurants in the county or, I dunno, where I walk my dog - anything, in fact, except all the stuff I don't know.

Wish me luck...

Humble pie

Well, that'll teach me to make fun of e-mails from potential work experience students (see yesterday's entry).

I'm well and truly eating humble pie today after making not just one but two ridiculous e-mail gaffes myself.

First, I was intending to send out a mass e-mail about the Surrey Life Carol Concert, only to send our entire list of contacts next year's copy deadlines instead (don't ask...).

Cue lots of sarcy e-mails like this one...

"Caroline, I was delighted to hear from you, although I admit the attachment containing Surrey Life’s copy deadlines for 2009 took me a little unawares.

"I can only assume you would like me to contribute at some stage during the next 12 months. I could offer “Goat keeping in Merstham, - a retrospective” or “Killer chickens – how to rid your stables of rat infestation”.

Then, I finally manage to send them all the right e-mail, but put the Surrey Life Carol Concert 2009 instead of 2008 - aaaargh!

Cue the next barrage of e-mails:

"Have you been at the mulled wine already?"

Oh, ho, ho, ho...

Work experience

As you can imagine, we get absolutely inundated with requests from people wanting to do work experience at Surrey Life.

I can remember all too well how it feels when you're trying desperately to get your first job in journalism, wondering how you're ever going to break in, so I like to help out if I can.

However, I do expect students to have at least put a bit of thought into their letter - i.e. to have bothered to find out my name, to show some evidence of having read the magazine and also to be saying what they can do for us - rather than the other way round...

Take this little gem, for example, which turned up in my inbox this morning:

And don't even get me started on the mission statement in their CV, which is another story in itself.

Needless to say, if they can't even get my name right, never mind speak in plain English, I don't think they're going to be quite cut out for our magazine. 

Fortunately, at the other end of the scale, we do get lots of good people asking to join us, too - like our current work experience student, Ceiri, who has already turned in some excellent stories.

Back in the days when I was a journalism student, I did work placements at Woman's Own, BBC Radio 4 and the Surrey Mirror, among others, and whilst each was utterly terrifying in its own way, they were all absolutely invaluable, too.

Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough now, but if I'm in a good mood tomorrow, I might just tell you how I very nearly got thrown out of one of the above when I made a fairly monumental blunder. More on that tomorrow (perhaps...).  

Back from the dead(line)

Many apologies for the slack blogging over the last week - or total lack thereof - but I've been up my eyes in getting the December edition off to the printers.

The Christmas issue of the magazine is always my favourite one of the year - all that festive food & drink, gorgeous partywear, wonderful winter snow scenes etc, etc - but in many ways it's also the most stressful.

I suppose it's because you've got the constant challenge of coming up with new and innovative ways of writing about Christmas - rather than just falling back on the bog standard gift guide. I think there's also a certain element of competition between all the magazines, too, in terms of who can come up with the best and most original ideas.

Anyway, hopefully you’ll agree that we’ve got some fantastic festive features for you this year (more on those later), with everything you need for your best Christmas in Surrey ever!

In fact, if I'm honest, it wasn't so much the features that gave me cause for concern this time, but the cover (yeah, that old chestnut...).

Usually, I'm able to spend deadline week up here in Surrey, but this time, because none of us could agree on a picture, it made sense for me to be down at head office in Worthing with the rest of the management team so we could all thrash it out together.

As a rule, I think the choice of cover should be a democratic decision, because everyone has their own particular area of expertise - whether it's MD Suzanne Heaven with her many years' experience heading up national mags at IPC; group editor Jon Keeble who is a total coverline genius; or senior designer Donna James, who works magic transforming the literally hundreds of images we give her into beautiful finished covershots (only to have them all rejected because somebody changed their mind about the picture again).

Problem was, on this occasion, there was one image that I loved while all the others preferred a different one (and I mean all of them)...

Now usually, because of my whole faith in the democratic process thing, I would have been happy to defer to the others, but this time I just had a hunch - enough, in fact, to stick my neck on the line. 

So, to cut a long story short, we're going with my choice on this occasion.. Yes, it's a bit abstract, and it's certainly not your traditional holly leaves, but it's interesting, different and looks absolutely beautiful.

Let's just hope I prove them all wrong and we get a record sale (it's out on November 19, just in case you want to put it in your diary.... ;-) 

Anyway, if you see me in Morrisons with my trolley stacked up with piles of Surrey Lifes, you know why (just don't tell the others....) 

PR awards

Spent Friday night down in Brighton at a big PR awards dinner.

There were three of us there from our company - group editor Jon Keeble, promotions manager Stephanie Drury and then myself - and we were each there to present an award.

As regular readers will know, public speaking is not really my thing, so to say I was a tad apprehensive is something of an understatement - especially when at the briefing beforehand, the organisers informed us that the awards were big, heavy and, er, made of glass - oh good...

Anyway, thankfully, I managed to present the award without dropping it, and it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening - excellent food, a pleasant setting and great company.

Having said that, it did bring home to me the marked difference between journalists and PR people, who are two very different species of animal.

Broadly speaking, journalists tend to be cynical, often rather shy and nearly always have a black sense of humour, whereas PR people (on the whole) tend to be confident, flamboyant and rather larger than life.    

After the awards dinner, Jon and I listened with wry amusement as we heard a group of PR people talking about journalists and what a funny old bunch we are...

Anyway, we all rubbed along together well enough on Friday night, so thanks very much to organiser Caraline Brown for inviting us along.