I'd like to claim I've been saving this post until the first edition of the quarterly magazine which is now under my joint-stewardship had gone to press.
It wouldn't be true, but the fact that I can only now pick up my blogging pen speaks to how much the magazine has taken over my life in the past few weeks. Pages to proof (and re-proof and re-proof and re-proof once again), features to write, articles to ghost-write, masses of marketing information to pull together, arguments to have, deciding which articles to pull out when the magazine bust (that's 'had too much to get into the space available', for my non-journalistic readers), delivering the highlights on to the website...It's all part of a journalist's life but on a scale I'd never previously dealt with, having never edited anything bigger than a 14-page broadsheet sports section - and that only as a holiday stand-in.
Now that I've experienced it and the 80-page magazine is due to start dropping through members' letterboxes in the next few days, I can look back and say I've loved it. Nothing beats the feeling of seeing a newspaper or magazine come together from scratch and as I write, 36 hours since the electronic version of the magazine hit the web, I've had more reader reaction than I did in years in some of the places I've worked.
When I last experienced anything like this, in August 2008 before the Birmingham Post & Mail underwent its' first great upheaval, I was battling the effects of ill-health and, looking back, was in no state to handle the stresses and strains of journalism.
Now, God willing, I can do so and it was instructive that on the two or three occasions in the last few weeks when I felt the pressure rising, I stepped back, took a deep breath and worked through it.
And now that the magazine is done, I have a month to fill with other things before we pick up the baton for the summer edition. I'm not wholly sure what they are at the moment but my life has changed so radically in the last six months that I am convinced it has done so for the better and that something will work out.
Tomorrow afternoon, I hope to speak to a former university colleague who I haven't seen for years but who now works for a TV production company and is interested in the magazine. It may not lead anywhere but this whole thing has brought sparks like that into my life that were not there six months ago.
As a Christian, I believe things happen for a reason; if I had not been made redundant, the opportunity to work on the magazine and forsake a daily three-hour commuting round trip for an office in my spare bedroom at home would not have arisen.
I am sure there are other surprises out there; I am sure they will lead my life in the right direction.
Monday 8 March 2010
Friday 19 February 2010
Razors, trains and Blackpool - not a dull week, then.
When I left my previous working life behind six weeks ago, I knew I was looking for new and interesting things to happen. It's fair to say that these six weeks have hardly been dull but Wednesday morning of this week was exactly what I meant.
Having risen painfully early to be at 7am Mass for Ash Wednesday, I was hunched over the laptop at just after 9.30, working on the magazine when my inbox pinged.
It was an email from Nick Lunn, commercial manager of Tamworth FC. One of the jobs I've picked up in the last six weeks is as part-time press officer for the Lambs and Nick wanted to know if I'd like to interview Neil Ruddock.
What, the Neil Ruddock; the 'legendary former Liverpool, Tottenham and England hardman' as the tabloids would have it?
"Yes, that Neil Ruddock; he's doing a sportsman's dinner in Tamworth for us next week and we want to promote it."
Now having lived behind the scenes as a newspaper sub for years, I haven't interviewed a 'serious' footballer since I gave up covering matches for The Birmingham Post in the late-1990s. I've mocked their cliche-speak and the willingness of desperate sportswriters to mindlessly regurgitate it all; I've despaired of them ever saying something interesting - but picked up a pen and a notebook and done it myself? No.
I couldn't wait. I got the necessary phone number, put in the call and had a thoroughly enjoyable five minutes. You expect someone who now makes a living as an after-dinner speaker to be interesting, but it isn't always the case - this was.
He gave me the perfect local angle for the interview, pithy and interesting comment on the football issues of the day (He's backing John Terry, by the way) and was a thoroughly pleasant person to speak to, unlike some interviewees who make it rather too obvious that the whole thing's a chore.
So I'd like to thank 'Razor' for making my week; you can read the interview at www.thelambs.co.uk.
The week began with two days in Blackpool. Blackpool? In February? Yes, it was an event I was attending as part of my duties for the magazine and it was great fun. We met some lovely people, had a couple of romantic sunkissed strolls along the seafront (yes, this was Blackpool in February), won a furry lion toy who now proudly sits on the dashboard of our car and we spent three hours of Saturday evening splashing around in the Sandcastle, Britain's biggest indoor waterpark.
Well, I did say I wanted to have some new experiences this year.
However, here's a great big 'yah boo' to Virgin Trains. Never high on any traveller's Christmas card list, they decided to put on a four-car train, rather than the usual five-car, between the West Midlands and Scotland....on a Friday afternoon....on the first day of half-term.
It's a good job that Mrs W, who is practiced at this kind of thing as a daily commuter from Tamworth to Birmingham, has sharp elbows and a fiercely determined expression.
Having risen painfully early to be at 7am Mass for Ash Wednesday, I was hunched over the laptop at just after 9.30, working on the magazine when my inbox pinged.
It was an email from Nick Lunn, commercial manager of Tamworth FC. One of the jobs I've picked up in the last six weeks is as part-time press officer for the Lambs and Nick wanted to know if I'd like to interview Neil Ruddock.
What, the Neil Ruddock; the 'legendary former Liverpool, Tottenham and England hardman' as the tabloids would have it?
"Yes, that Neil Ruddock; he's doing a sportsman's dinner in Tamworth for us next week and we want to promote it."
Now having lived behind the scenes as a newspaper sub for years, I haven't interviewed a 'serious' footballer since I gave up covering matches for The Birmingham Post in the late-1990s. I've mocked their cliche-speak and the willingness of desperate sportswriters to mindlessly regurgitate it all; I've despaired of them ever saying something interesting - but picked up a pen and a notebook and done it myself? No.
I couldn't wait. I got the necessary phone number, put in the call and had a thoroughly enjoyable five minutes. You expect someone who now makes a living as an after-dinner speaker to be interesting, but it isn't always the case - this was.
He gave me the perfect local angle for the interview, pithy and interesting comment on the football issues of the day (He's backing John Terry, by the way) and was a thoroughly pleasant person to speak to, unlike some interviewees who make it rather too obvious that the whole thing's a chore.
So I'd like to thank 'Razor' for making my week; you can read the interview at www.thelambs.co.uk.
The week began with two days in Blackpool. Blackpool? In February? Yes, it was an event I was attending as part of my duties for the magazine and it was great fun. We met some lovely people, had a couple of romantic sunkissed strolls along the seafront (yes, this was Blackpool in February), won a furry lion toy who now proudly sits on the dashboard of our car and we spent three hours of Saturday evening splashing around in the Sandcastle, Britain's biggest indoor waterpark.
Well, I did say I wanted to have some new experiences this year.
However, here's a great big 'yah boo' to Virgin Trains. Never high on any traveller's Christmas card list, they decided to put on a four-car train, rather than the usual five-car, between the West Midlands and Scotland....on a Friday afternoon....on the first day of half-term.
It's a good job that Mrs W, who is practiced at this kind of thing as a daily commuter from Tamworth to Birmingham, has sharp elbows and a fiercely determined expression.
Thursday 11 February 2010
So where did those three weeks go?
Nothing can be more dispiriting for an enthusiastic new blogger than to craft what you hope is a really interesting post, press 'Publish' and come back two days later to find that it hasn't published at all, but vanished into the ether.
That's what happened here two weeks ago tonight. I was all fired up to tell you about how the pace was stepping up on the magazine, how I'd just been announced as a new press officer of Tamworth Football Club, how I was working on plans for a new PR project and how life was really interesting.
Happily, all those things are still true so I can reprise them now. The magazine is now less than a fortnight away from the final proofing stage and must print in the first week of March, page proofs are starting to arrive (and look great - and as for the redesigned front page....) and interest is still high.
The Lambs are playing great football (I don't think it's down to me) and everyone I speak to about the PR project thinks it's a winner.
We're off to Blackpool for the weekend to be at an event to do with the magazine and after what has been a rather tough day today, I'm really looking forward to it.
The only downer is that my makeshift office chair is starting to give me a really bad back. Does anyone know where I might find some proper office chairs going cheap?
That's what happened here two weeks ago tonight. I was all fired up to tell you about how the pace was stepping up on the magazine, how I'd just been announced as a new press officer of Tamworth Football Club, how I was working on plans for a new PR project and how life was really interesting.
Happily, all those things are still true so I can reprise them now. The magazine is now less than a fortnight away from the final proofing stage and must print in the first week of March, page proofs are starting to arrive (and look great - and as for the redesigned front page....) and interest is still high.
The Lambs are playing great football (I don't think it's down to me) and everyone I speak to about the PR project thinks it's a winner.
We're off to Blackpool for the weekend to be at an event to do with the magazine and after what has been a rather tough day today, I'm really looking forward to it.
The only downer is that my makeshift office chair is starting to give me a really bad back. Does anyone know where I might find some proper office chairs going cheap?
Thursday 21 January 2010
Tamworth, we have lift-off
I suppose this was the week when my new world took off. The pace of production on the magazine has stepped up considerably and we've started pushing lots of copy and pictures through to the typesetters.
It's something of an inexact science at the moment,but Tom and I are both finding our feet.
First, on Monday, it was back to Lichfield to talk to landlords and leave business cards. It may have only produced a free pint of Golden Glow and a spectacularly good Packington pork pie (with English mustard on the side) but all the best businesses started somewhere, didn't they?
From Tuesday to Thursday, it's been hard but rewarding work. Ploughing through contributed copy, cursing my own computer slip-ups, hunched over the keyboard while Muffin, our wonderful half-Maine Coon cat, stares at me from his red bed, seemingly wishing I'd clear off and let him sleep. I've been so tired at the end of the day that I've been crashing into bed at 10pm, yet still not sleeping. And Carmel still thinks I'm sitting here all day watching daytime television.
Do other 'workers from home' find this? It's not a major problem and I know where I'd rather be, but it's taking some getting used to.
Then today, two small steps for mankind. The phone rings. A well-known national football magazine have been pointed in my direction by a former colleague. They want 800 words on Sullivan/Gold/Brady and West 'Am United by next Friday. And they'll pay me for it.
Shortly after, the inbox pings. Another former colleague has been doing some Google searching and wants to know about the magazine. I've got to go back to Funlop next Friday for a final farewell drink. I'll tell him then.
It's something of an inexact science at the moment,but Tom and I are both finding our feet.
First, on Monday, it was back to Lichfield to talk to landlords and leave business cards. It may have only produced a free pint of Golden Glow and a spectacularly good Packington pork pie (with English mustard on the side) but all the best businesses started somewhere, didn't they?
From Tuesday to Thursday, it's been hard but rewarding work. Ploughing through contributed copy, cursing my own computer slip-ups, hunched over the keyboard while Muffin, our wonderful half-Maine Coon cat, stares at me from his red bed, seemingly wishing I'd clear off and let him sleep. I've been so tired at the end of the day that I've been crashing into bed at 10pm, yet still not sleeping. And Carmel still thinks I'm sitting here all day watching daytime television.
Do other 'workers from home' find this? It's not a major problem and I know where I'd rather be, but it's taking some getting used to.
Then today, two small steps for mankind. The phone rings. A well-known national football magazine have been pointed in my direction by a former colleague. They want 800 words on Sullivan/Gold/Brady and West 'Am United by next Friday. And they'll pay me for it.
Shortly after, the inbox pings. Another former colleague has been doing some Google searching and wants to know about the magazine. I've got to go back to Funlop next Friday for a final farewell drink. I'll tell him then.
Thursday 14 January 2010
Snow, Skypes and social media
I really hope my mum would have been proud of me. It's been a wild week but in the front of my mind has always been that this was the time of year when Rita Warrillow was born(on 7/1/1938) and died (14/1/1987).
Thus it was that I found myself ankle-deep in snow in a churchyard in Worcestershire on Sunday, looking for her headstone amid the snow and frost. It's unfortunate that it is at this time of year but I will not forget; once you do that, a huge part of you disappears forever. Rest in peace, mum.
The rest of the week has been frantic; Monday: an afternoon of networking in some of Lichfield's finest hostelries; it may look like drinking, but in fact it's getting to know some very important people - and a very nice man paid me for my first commission so the least I can do is show you where to find him: http://www.maxamcards.co.uk/
Much of the rest of the week has been spent on the magazine. My joint-editor and I had a three-hour skype on Tuesday morning, drawing up what news-on-dead-trees journalists would call a flat-plan, then there were articles to write, people to chase up over features and pictures, articles to write for foreign magazines - I'm going to be published in Canada in the spring - and Plan B to draw up just in case Plan A fell apart, which it duly did at 10am on Thursday morning.
I even found time to squeeze in some learning. Before Christmas,Jo Ind (another recent Birmingham Post evacuee) put me in touch with Pete Ashton, one of the leading lights on the Birmingham social media scene. It took a while to arrange a meeting, but two hours in a freezing coffee bar in Birmingham city centre taught me more than I could have ever imagined about blogs and has, hopefully, made this one just that bit snappier than it was a week ago.
So thanks, Pete; thanks, Jo; thanks, Andy; thanks, Paul and Jim; thanks, Tom and Andrew...and thanks, mum.
Thus it was that I found myself ankle-deep in snow in a churchyard in Worcestershire on Sunday, looking for her headstone amid the snow and frost. It's unfortunate that it is at this time of year but I will not forget; once you do that, a huge part of you disappears forever. Rest in peace, mum.
The rest of the week has been frantic; Monday: an afternoon of networking in some of Lichfield's finest hostelries; it may look like drinking, but in fact it's getting to know some very important people - and a very nice man paid me for my first commission so the least I can do is show you where to find him: http://www.maxamcards.co.uk/
Much of the rest of the week has been spent on the magazine. My joint-editor and I had a three-hour skype on Tuesday morning, drawing up what news-on-dead-trees journalists would call a flat-plan, then there were articles to write, people to chase up over features and pictures, articles to write for foreign magazines - I'm going to be published in Canada in the spring - and Plan B to draw up just in case Plan A fell apart, which it duly did at 10am on Thursday morning.
I even found time to squeeze in some learning. Before Christmas,Jo Ind (another recent Birmingham Post evacuee) put me in touch with Pete Ashton, one of the leading lights on the Birmingham social media scene. It took a while to arrange a meeting, but two hours in a freezing coffee bar in Birmingham city centre taught me more than I could have ever imagined about blogs and has, hopefully, made this one just that bit snappier than it was a week ago.
So thanks, Pete; thanks, Jo; thanks, Andy; thanks, Paul and Jim; thanks, Tom and Andrew...and thanks, mum.
Thursday 7 January 2010
Sailing out into the new world
When I began this blog, I had a wild ambition to update it every day. Then, I got a tweet from a long-time friend and fellow blogger telling me I must be out of my mind.
Of course, she was right and I'm glad I didn't rush to write down some of my thoughts immediately after I left BPM Media Midlands on December 31. It was messy, it was unpleasant and it wasn't the way I wanted to end 17-and-a-half years.
But it's gone now and instead of being bitter, I can look back on the first week of the rest of my life - and it's been fascinating.
Much of the week has been spent getting my head around joint-editing an 88-page A3 quarterly magazine, something I've never had to think about before. The closest I've got was editing the Post's 14-page broadsheet sports section three or four times a year when my boss was on holiday. At least then we had a limited amount of copy coming in; at times this week, I've felt as if I was drowning under the flood of copy landing in my email inbox.
But with the support of my joint-editor Tom Rowland and the outstanding Andrew Welch, as well as the wonderful backing of my friends who I've told about this project, I feel much better tonight.
Martin Warrillow Publishing Services will be officially launched when I see my accountant in the morning, the bank have been very helpful and I am incredibly grateful for the flood of ideas which keeps pouring in from a long-time friend who I am sure would like to stay in the background for the moment. One day, I would love the pair of us to set up in business together - we'd be a great team.
Of course, she was right and I'm glad I didn't rush to write down some of my thoughts immediately after I left BPM Media Midlands on December 31. It was messy, it was unpleasant and it wasn't the way I wanted to end 17-and-a-half years.
But it's gone now and instead of being bitter, I can look back on the first week of the rest of my life - and it's been fascinating.
Much of the week has been spent getting my head around joint-editing an 88-page A3 quarterly magazine, something I've never had to think about before. The closest I've got was editing the Post's 14-page broadsheet sports section three or four times a year when my boss was on holiday. At least then we had a limited amount of copy coming in; at times this week, I've felt as if I was drowning under the flood of copy landing in my email inbox.
But with the support of my joint-editor Tom Rowland and the outstanding Andrew Welch, as well as the wonderful backing of my friends who I've told about this project, I feel much better tonight.
Martin Warrillow Publishing Services will be officially launched when I see my accountant in the morning, the bank have been very helpful and I am incredibly grateful for the flood of ideas which keeps pouring in from a long-time friend who I am sure would like to stay in the background for the moment. One day, I would love the pair of us to set up in business together - we'd be a great team.
Tuesday 29 December 2009
The future is now.....
In the end, Christmas was great fun. Three works parties within five days testified to the spirit within those I've known over the past 17 years at Fort Dunlop while a three-day family Christmas hit just the right note on which to set off on my new career direction.
I leave BPM Media (Midlands) on Thursday and will wake up on January 1 to a new year and a new life. What am I doing? At the moment, I have a 96-page quarterly magazine to edit (first marketing meeting next week), some subbing shifts at another news factory in the Midlands (just to keep my hand in) and the possibility of some marketing work, which will be a fascinating new direction, if nothing else.
And that's it. I have to see the bank next week, I already have an appointment with an accountant (I never thought I'd need one of those) and I have a name for my new business, Martin Warrillow Publishing Services. All I need now is some more work.
I am telling everyone I know that I am setting up as a freelance writer/sub-editor and I can see January being a whirl of networking.
I know it will be hard work, but after 23 years working for big media, I am convinced about the new direction I am taking. Scared? You bet. Enthusiastic? You bet. And I haven't said that about my working life for far too long.
I leave BPM Media (Midlands) on Thursday and will wake up on January 1 to a new year and a new life. What am I doing? At the moment, I have a 96-page quarterly magazine to edit (first marketing meeting next week), some subbing shifts at another news factory in the Midlands (just to keep my hand in) and the possibility of some marketing work, which will be a fascinating new direction, if nothing else.
And that's it. I have to see the bank next week, I already have an appointment with an accountant (I never thought I'd need one of those) and I have a name for my new business, Martin Warrillow Publishing Services. All I need now is some more work.
I am telling everyone I know that I am setting up as a freelance writer/sub-editor and I can see January being a whirl of networking.
I know it will be hard work, but after 23 years working for big media, I am convinced about the new direction I am taking. Scared? You bet. Enthusiastic? You bet. And I haven't said that about my working life for far too long.
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