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February 2007 Archives

February 27, 2007

First outing

The day began early today as I was in Bangor to review the morning papers on the Radio Wales breakfast show. Happily I was back in time for Max the dog's morning stroll on the beach, which was made all the better by a lovely warm breeze. It really feels like spring is round the corner.
Mind you, I thought the same exactly a year ago, then we had one of the biggest snowfalls North Wales has seen in a decade.
But it has been balmy (if not barmy) of late and I even dragged my behind onto my bike for a pedal along the new-ish cycle path from Deganwy to West Shore last weekend.
A word of advice - don't take a shiny racer with super thin tyres along here. The path is in a dreadful state - covered in stones in one section, with sand in others. And parts of the bank up to the golf course look close to collapse, so if someone shouts "four" it might not be a golfball, but a golfer, about to land on your head.


 

February 26, 2007

Big day for baby bloggers

Congratulations to fellow blogger (and Daily Post deputy news editor) Rob Davies and wife Kate - they've been blogging for the last few months about the imminent arrival of their first baby and Rob reported over the weekend that the nipper is here safe and well. Mum is fine too.
You can read all about the big event by going to dailypost.co.uk... scroll down and see the link to their blog.
The pictures in part one of today's North Wales from the Air supplement have reproduced well so you can see the work of our picture editor Richard Williams and photographer Gerallt Radcliffe shown to its best effect.
The rest of the pictures for the 48-page partwork will appear in the paper in batches of eight from tomorrow until Saturday. Details of the free photo offer (plus the first token) will appear in Wednesday's paper.
We are getting ready to send your coupons and petitions in support of our "Save the Post Offices" campaign to 10, Downing Street. We are still counting the total number of signatures but the figure is huge, I can assure you.
So all those politicians out there who backed the campaign - it will soon be time for you to deliver!


 

February 22, 2007

Partwork/today's splash/cocaine

We have completed the design of our 48-page partwork "North Wales from the Air" which will be published section by section in the Daily Post next week. I think it looks superb and I hope you will agree. Thanks to deputy night editor Wendy Jones for putting it together.
Our short video publicizing the supplement has received thousands of hits already so it appears that there will be a lot of interest in next week's editions. Just a reminder too that there is a token collect for a free print (a glorious view over the Menai Straits all the way up to the Great Orme). And all the pictures in the supplement will be available for purchase.
A story from North Wales with national significance dominates our front page today. It is quite ridiculous that the Home Office should instruct North Wales police to let suspected illegal immigrants they arrest go off on their own with a map showing them how to get to an asylum centre in Liverpool.
The comments about this issue by Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, in the Commons yesterday, were feeble and get a well deserved thumping in our leader column today. I hope (and expect) that the national papers will follow up this story over the next few days.
We are currently working on a story about cocaine use in North Wales which we plan to publish in the next few days. A misleading and far from complete version of the story has already appeared on the chief constable's website after we approached his press office for comment.
Feel free to read this then read the correct version in the paper. We will raise some very important questions about the extent to which the use of this class A drug is growing in our society. We have some interesting information about how cocaine is creating a little known but deadly health risk, especially for young men. I hope that our investigation will raise the profile of this important issue. But if it makes just one person think twice about consuming cocaine, then it will have been worthwhile.


 

February 20, 2007

Bits and pizzas

The beauty - and the curse - of life on a daily newspaper is that there's always another edition round the corner. If one day's dreadful, you can dust yourself off and start again, full of beans and optimism for the next day. Mind you, if you have a great day, you've no time to bask in the glory.
To finally get to the point...today is going rather better than yesterday. Nothing wrong with this morning's edition - but it was a painful and challenging birth. Our original front page lead went belly up at about half past eight last night. It was a cracking tale, it merited a powerfully worded editorial comment.
We just couldn't prove it was true - at least not in time for deadline.
Tomorrow brings a mix of stories - the alarming high number of breaches of ASBO orders in North Wales, the first meeting of an organisation set up to revitalise Anglesey after Wylfa shuts, an interview with Airbus's UK boss, Brian Fleet and the dramatic rescue of a 77-year-old lady whose flat in Llandudno went up in flames last night.
In fact we've got so many stories we haven't got room for the picture of the man who wants to have a pizza tattoed on his head.
Hope for his sake it's not a meat feast - that's a BUSY pizza.


 

February 17, 2007

Life - but not as I know it

Hells bells! I have been the victim of dodgy tabloid journalism. My company's in-house newspaper (called "Life" and known affectionately as "Death" by many of its readers) has reported - with pictures - that I took part in a Santa Fun Run in Liverpool on December 3 to raise money for the Liverpool Sunrise Fund.
As regular blog followers will know, I did indeed run dressed as Father Christmas that day but it was for Hope House/Ty Gobaith children's hospices and the picture of me was taken at the finishing line ...in Oswestry.
Bloody journalists.
I have just come back from a busy two days of meetings in the big city on the Mersey. The 'pool is still like a massive building site but things are starting to take shape at the enormous new shopping centre and the new arena by the river looks very impressive (apart from the fact that the developers have put just about the ugliest car park in history right in front of it).
My deputy Gregg Fray has kept the paper firing on all cylinders (despite having a dose of flu) so he gets the hero of the week award. We are getting ready to launch a new section in Friday's edition of the Daily Post. It's called Go and features five pages of reports about concerts, theatre, days out and more not just in North Wales but further afield, reflecting the fact that many readers are happy to travel over to Merseyside, Cheshire and Manchester to go to a concert or see a show.
We have also lined up a fantastic partwork that will appear throughout the week commencing February 26. It features a total of 48 pages packed with fantastic photos of North Wales from the air.
Also, check the website (dailypost.co.uk) on Monday to see a wonderful aerial video of North Wales by our picture editor Richard Williams.




 

February 13, 2007

Oh we're off, off, off to sunny Rhyl

It would take a talented spin doctor to defend global warming as "good news".
Well, today it was proved that you can "big up" climate change if:
a) you see it from a Welsh perspective;
b) your name is Rhodri Morgan.
Yes, the first minister has spotted that, between melting polar ice caps and Saharan conditions in the Med, the coastline of Wales might just benefit from weather conditions a bit like today's Southern California - a state of affairs that would be "hardly unhelpful" to us.
Cue the inevitable backlash from outraged opposition politicians (and no doubt a chorus of tut-tutting from those very gloomy people at the Independent and Guardian).
You've got to hand it to Rhodri - he loves to say what everyone else has been secretly thinking all along... if Spain's like an oven and fuel tax has wiped out low cost flying then there is a good chance that the resorts of Wales will grow in popularity as the temperature rises.
What he doesn't mention is that the coast line of Wales will have shifted inland thanks to all that ice melting into the seas (the subject of this morning's dire warning from the National Trust).
...Anyone fancy a trip to the Rhyl Sun(k) Centre?


 

February 12, 2007

The private life of David Cameron

I was delighted to learn that one of the journalists who hung David Cameron out to dry over his Eton drug taking habit was a chap called Francis Elliott who used to work for me as Westminster lobby correspondent when I was news editor at the Derby Evening Telegraph.
The boy done good.
As we point out in our editorial comment today, the voting public probably will not judge a potential prime minister over youthful misdemeanours - Cameron really does have a great deal more to say about more pressing domestic and global issues.
But I totally disagree with Cameron's claim that policiticians are "entitled " to a private past. The public have a right to know what makes these people who they are today. Why shouldn't we know about his incredibly privileged upbringing? Why should there be secrecy about the culture of soft drug misuse in the 1980s at a school which has produced no less than 18 prime ministers?
Last month Cameron said he would consider legalising cannabis for medicinal use but ruled out decriminalising its recreational use. How much more faith would people have in politicians if he'd said: "yes I did smoke cannabis when I was stupid little boy. Now I've read all the literature about the potentially harmful effects of the long-term use of this drug, I regret what I did and I was jolly lucky not to be expelled."
Then we can get in with the more important question of why he insists he's not snorted cocaine "since becoming an MP".


 

February 1, 2007

Modern life is rubbish - example 4,317

I was hoping that tomorrow's Daily Post might feature a great big picture of the Welsh rugby squad to stick on your wall as you get ready for the big match against Ireland this Sunday.
I know the picture has been taken, that we have made the space in the paper for it and that the Welsh team's sponsors Brains beer are very excited at the prospect of seeing the team (and their logo) in the paper.
The trouble is that the photographer won't give us the picture unless the Welsh Rugby Union gives permission. And we can't find anyone from the Welsh Rugby Union's press office or corporate affairs department to talk to. They won't return our calls and all we can get from the HQ of Welsh rugby is an answering machine. We are running out of time and will have to decide very soon to reorganise the paper once again (which is quite a difficult thing to do).
We've been asking for this picture for four weeks. Why are some people so bloody unhelpful these days?
I love sport and I must say that, having made a home here in Wales, the men in Red have won this Englishman's heart. But the people who run rugby sometimes drive me up the wall.


 

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Hello, I'm Rob Irvine, editor of the best -selling newspaper in North Wales - the Daily Post. I reckon mine is one of the best jobs in newspapers - editing a paper with an incredible history, with fantastically loyal readers. And I get to live in one of the most beautiful places on earth with wife Julie and our dog Max. I'll tell you in this blog about life at the Daily Post office in Llandudno Junction together with some s

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