Nigel and Andrew head off on photo odyssey

A busy day approaches for photographer Andrew Jenkins and the man behind glossy independent publications Neath Gnolledge and Valley View.
The snapper - a former military man, don't you know - is to accompany Nigel Dudley as material is gathered for the publications' forthcoming editions.
Nigel tells me: "Tuesday 30 March sees me and Andrew spend the day taking professional photographs of businesses in our next issues.
"They're due out for 3 May ... and I'm also planning a new Port Talbot issue.
"I have a number of appointments set up with new and existing customers. I've invited those who need new photos of the people and teams in their business to contact me.
"My belief is that people buy from people more than from anything else. The Neath Gnolledge and Valley View are set up to give background information about the people within the local businesses we promote.
"We illustrate how they are different, what they can add and why to choose them with real stories and testimonials.
"It all goes to build up a picture of the business, the people involved and who they are."
Another key feature of Nigel's commercial offering is that he puts a call tracking feature on the businesses that request it.
With call tracking, dialled numbers can be used in either customer after-sales or marketing campaigns.
Nigel's a decent guy so if you'd like to do business with the Neath Port Talbot area, give him a shout - 01639 607 152, nigel@neathgnolledge.com.

A big Swansea Bay welcome back to Afan FM

Tune in to Afan FM today (Monday) ... at 11am they plan to be fully back onto the Swansea Bay airwaves. Hear them at http://www.afanfm.co.uk/.
It'll be a welcome return for a valuable community broadcaster ousted from its Afan Lido home by the complex's December fire.
I'm thrilled to report that their future is tremendously bright. A business good-guy has offered them an awesome new studio suite and it offers them a magnificent opportunity to thrive.
They should be the ones to tell you about the premises so I'll keep schtum on the matter now ... but what I must say is that Afan FM's dedicated team provide a warm welcome there.
Hannah Lewis and Hash Piperdy, the station's manager and deputy manager, gave me a guided tour a few days ago.
The move from the Lido has meant a huge amount of work but they and their people have risen to the challenge. Their energy should do nothing but good for the Swansea area's media circuit.
Since the blaze, the station has run in a limited, keep-the-pot-boiling way - but now they're ready to come out fighting once more.
They've been running an informal Facebook poll on what should be the first song at 11am today - I can't wait to hear what it is. Swansea Bay, listen out!

Hope for Haiti from Swansea Bay

Phil England, of community favourite Radio Tircoed, tells me the station will be part of a three-day auction for Haiti from February 2.
As far as I can ascertain, this broadcasting minnow is the only Swansea Bay programmer so far to get involved with Hope for Haiti.
Lots are committed from Simon Cowell, Coronation Street and music giants Sony, Polydor, Mercury and Island.
Radio Tircoed will join a number of other local radio stations across the UK for the online push. All will point listeners to a central auction page.
Station manager Phil says: "100% of the money raised will go to the Disasters Emergency Committee. We're really pleased to be taking part and know our listeners will respond positively to a great cause."
William Rogers, one of the auction's main movers, said: "This is about local radio stations coming together to deliver a locally focused appeal that will raise much needed funds for Haiti and give listeners the chance to bid on prizes that money can’t usually buy.
“We're delighted we've got support from stations such as Radio Tircoed."
Media Master says: Join in! www.radiotircoed.com ... or 106.5FM if you're somewhere between Loughor and Ynysforgan.

£1.2m win will trigger Swansea Bay media interest

Expect some pretty slick PR some time soon on behalf of Llantrisant's Royal Mint.
The Swansea Bay media - old school and new style - won't be immune when global public relations leader Porter Novelli takes up the baton.
The company's London office has just scooped a £1.2m contract to ensure that reputation of the Mint is spit-and-polished.
The four-year tie-up is specifically aimed at services to support PR activities for commemorative coin releases and corporate. Twelve operators tussled for the brief late last year and the contract award has just been made.
2009 saw PRWeek name Porter Novelli as the agency to watch and honoured them with its Innovation of the Year award.
Founded in Washington DC 38 years ago, their expertise and experience encompasses health care, consumer marketing, corporate affairs, technology, public affairs, digital media and social media.
Their website blurb states: "We have a passion for new and emerging companies and represent some of today’s most exciting and innovative organizations, like South by Southwest and Bluetooth, as well as such leading global brands as PepsiCo, HP, Procter & Gamble and Sony. Timberland, Walmart, McDonald’s, Chevron and British Telecom have benefited from their work.
They have 100 offices in 60 countries.
To begin to comprehend its strength, check out http://www.porternovelli.com/ and look under Portfolio where you'll discover how BMW asked them to handle to 5 Series launch.
Novelli's challenge was to pitch the series to European lifestyle media, present a film as a unique communication platform and to promote BMW through an innovative marketing campaign.
The film starred actress and high-fashion model Nadja Auermann who attracted international press attention.
It was shot in LA - with the press in tow, of course - and received an exclusive screening for international press at Cannes during the International Film Festival.
The Mint, meanwhile, has already raised its game in these super-competitive post-Millennial times. Check out http://www.royalmint.com/.
It's the world's leading export mint, making coins and medals for around 60 countries every year.
Its first responsibility remains to make and distribute UK coins and medals.
Journalists across Swansea Bay can anticipate some innovative ways of engagement ... and you can expect a page lead announcing the Mint-Novelli partnership in the Western Mail rather soon.

Going up! Swansea Bay glossy

News reaches the Media Master from Lesley Williams, the whirlwind force behind glossy lifestyle mag The Swansea Bay.
Her next edition is due out on February 5 – and it'll be in a new, larger format.
To date it has run as an A5 journal, traditional pocket-size. Now The Swansea Bay is gonna be B5, about the same size as a conventional soccer or rugby programme.
New features in the 25,000-circulation free magazine are set to include a Welsh column, written in God's language only, a fitness guide detailing Swansea classes for adults and kids, and a piece on why excellence in the written word is crucial when as business is updating or re-working its website.
Recipe of the month is "cawl with a twist," foodmaster Sam Mullan taking a traditional dish and transforming it for a stylish 2010 Swansea Bay dinner party.
Hot stuff, Lesley!
Incidentally, the ads in this mag are virtual giveaways for as little as £30 - and they're nicely done too. A wise buy, perhaps, if you'd like to drum up a little business in west Swansea.

New Buzz for Swansea Bay style folk

Fine South Wales lifestyle mag Buzz is offering free digital subscriptions. Go to http://bit.ly/csfwBo.
Well worth it in my book - even though it's a few years since I was down with the youth.
Although the publication's based in Cardiff, it does support the ents and leisure scene in its south Wales hinterlands, Swansea Bay included.
It's hard to believe, but it's be going for 18+ years and does a spiffing job with its coverage of art, theatre, music, clubs, fashion and sport.
Buzz models itself as "the biggest, funkiest and sexiest publication in the region" and they've got a few good reasons to do that.
At the last count, it was circulating around 25,000 copies to outlets such as information centres, hotels, clubs and bars across the capital, Newport, Swansea, the Valleys, Gwent, Neath and Port Talbot.

Swansea Bay media has new ITV correspondent

The Swansea Bay media scene has a new kid on the block - ITV Wales reporter Rob Osborne.
Rob, who replaces Catharine Evan-Williams, has been handed the second-city patch by his broadcasting bosses at Culverhouse Cross.
So it'll now be him - usually - who you see on flagship shows such as Wales Tonight when the limelight falls on Swansea.
You can see Rob on the clip Rail Revamp - http://bit.ly/d4L36V. Advisory - fast forward to 1min 28sec to eyeball him.
Rob's now starting to work his way through a handy little meet-and-greet tour of his new beat, getting to know some of the movers and shakers who'll be able to help him in his Swansea Bay endeavours.
Croeso, Rob!

New chief for Swansea Bay media team

Sister radio stations Swansea Sound and The Wave have a new head girl.

Helen Bowden, right, arrives with strong Swansea credentials and 20 years of radio experience.

Her track record suggests that she'll wish to build wisely on the Swansea Bay community links already enjoyed by the Victoria Road crew.
Originally from Swansea, Helen spent her teenage years in Mumbles.
She returned in her 20s before taking up a job with The Children’s Society charity.
Helen began her radio career as a breakfast show co-host with borderland broadcaster Severn Sound.
Most recently she has been at Blackpool's Radio Wave who she joined as programme manager before rising to station director level four years ago.
On the Lancashire coast, she chaired town centre enterprise partnership Blackpool BID, was involved in a business leader group and sat on a body looking after the welfare of children across Blackpool.
She instigated the a local heroes project and a culture and lifestyle awards scheme. Radio Wave was recently named UTV station of the year.
Married with two children, Helen said: "I'm incredibly excited about this new challenge. I love this area and can’t wait to get to know local businesses and work with them.
"I'm Welsh, my parents spent much time in Swansea and I spent the best years of my life here.
"The Wave and Swansea Sound are two very successful stations and I look forward to taking them into the next era.”
She was appointed to Swansea Sound and The Wave by parent group UTV Media to replace Carrie Moseley.
Helen, welcome home!

Media Master wins more applause

Plaudits continue to arrive for my daily Media Master. The breakfast-time email snapshot of the day's Swansea Bay media goes to around 300 decision-makers and opinion-formers across the area.
The audience includes more than 150 professionals who ply their trade in the local print and broadcast community.
It's good to receive warm feedback from the likes of South Wales Evening Post reporter Nino Williams and from David Hardy, a former editor of the Carmarthen Journal.
Nino, a genuine good egg of the Swansea media scene, said: "It's really helpful - sometimes you can be running about so much that you miss things. The Media Master's a nice little touchstone."
David, a West Ham fan (ouch), said: "Good work, Andy."
This gregarious fella, incidentally, heads the marketing function at Llanarthne's National Botanic Garden of Wales and it's right I mention here that entrance is free all this month to mark 10 years of the treasure. Go see it and see if you can get your hands on one of the garden's member magazines, Yr Ardd. The last time I checked, these good looking glossies were being designed and printed by Media Wales in Cardiff, with words and pictures supplied by David. A good job all round.

Swansea Bay media's snow flow lingers on

Parts of the Swansea Valley are still served doggedly by the South Wales Guardian under editor Mike Lewis.
Its circulation of around 7,000 means that it also reaches nooks and crannies of the Amman, Gwendraeth and Towy valleys that other newspapers don't.
It revels in its low-tech parochial feel and, with modest journalistic resources, features much content based on contributions from readers.
Its ads are also understated; this week's main front page ad - for Swansea Auctions - is text-only and previews a Neath sale of bankrupt goods ranging from kids' clothes to Avondale caravans.
Picture-wise, the lastest Guardian harks back unapologetically to this month's hefty snowfall. Its main weather-related images include those of a minibus that's slithered into a building, a highway maintenance van up to its wheel arches in the white stuff and a vehicle almost covered in snow.
The headline above the latter reads: "Land Rover found dead in a ditch."
Not a good week for motorists on the Guardian patch ... but a splendid time for those involved in any aspect of road safety to ram home their message through editorial pieces offered to the Guardian.
Those unsure of how to do so should give me a shout.
Happy motoring!

Swansea Bay success as site hits the top spot

Brilliant news for Swansea Bay website Gower News - http://www.gowernews.co.uk/.
Their Google search ranking for the term "gower news" is number one! Not bad for one of the freshest faces to emerge on the Swansea Bay media circuit.
They also clock top 10 rankings for the terms "gower tourist information," "gower," and "gower peninsula swansea."
A big help here is that the website's linked directly from Mumbles Tourist Information as the centre's main source of Gower-related information.
Average article views on Gower News is 250/day, with a total of 30,500 article views since October.
Top content by topic includes nature, history, beaches, camping, events and what's on.
Success like that, I love!

Making local media pay - it can work

The media across Swansea Bay is undergoing a quiet revolution.
Where once there was little more than the market leaders - in our case BBC Wales, the Western Mail, the South Wales Evening Post and Swansea Sound - now there's a plethora of alternative sources for information.
As some Swansea Bay big guns have disappeared, the Neath and Port Talbot Guardians for example, the ground has become fertile for much smaller operators.
Afan FM and Radio Tircoed are wonderful community radio stations, there are small magazines such as Community Times and there are micro-local online-only resources cropping up. Additionally, of course, websites such as http://www.swansea.com/ carry news and information as an important part of their package.
But it's not a phenomenon restricted to this area. On Saturday I attended an inspirational conference a stone's throw from Kings Cross Station in London.
Below are some of the key observations made that day - not by me, incidentally - about local news and information provision. They won't be the last talking points on this dynamic issue which is fast affecting how communities of all descriptions are communicating.


Making local media pay (thanks to http://lifeofwylie.com/)

• Even despite the slump, good news operators are still getting by.
• It’s so important to look at the market – and whether you’re going to get advertisers.
• Locally-based businesses can survive on small profits which larger owners would not tolerate.
• Web success can be driven by regular emails to followers - and it's useful to be offers-led.
• Online advertising can include the creation of micro sites for clients.
• "It’s all those things about getting into people’s heads and finding out what they want.”
• “I think local newspapers have really destroyed (the market) for themselves. Established local media wouldn’t be in the mess it was now if it hadn’t got rid of experienced staff, leaving cheaper, younger, inexperienced people with no mentors."

Striving and thriving in the Swansea Bay media

Thrive: It's My Time Now is the modest title of today's supplement in the South Wales Evening Post.
The page one strap is: "Your four-page supplement for life after retirement."
This grey market's an important one for all local newspapers; a good number of retired folk have decent cash reserves thanks to good pensions and the late 20th century house-price boom.
It's also valuable because this is a generation with established newspaper-reading habits ... unlike their grandchildren.
So it's a shame the pull-out could only run to four pages. It's winter, it's darned cold and a lot more retailers should have been begging the paper for space. If you flog blankets, hot water bottles, fleece hats, furry house boots, thermal underwear or anything else likely to keep our senior citizens comfortable, you should appear in publications like this. Come to me, I'll tell you how best to go about it!
As it is, the Post has attracted ads for Bishopston's Campion Gardens Retirement Village, the Ocean Living residential home in Mumbles and the Mariners Court retirement complex in SA1.
There are also ads for more homes, a cab firm, window specialist, funeral director, oven cleaner and Age Concern.
Also, unusually, there's a quarter-page plug for a supported accommodation scheme for young people.
Generally, Thrive represents a missed opportunity for Swansea Bay retailers. Give me a shout if you'd like to know when the next edition is out.

Numbers add up for Swansea Bay Media Master

It's only been going three days but the Swansea Bay Media Master's daily email already has more than 300 subscribers.
The bulletin is a brief highlights package of the Swansea area's marvellous media scene - newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and the web.
Of our subscribers, around 180 are working in the media industry and have commercial and/or editorial interests in the Swansea Bay area.
The other 130 are business people and public sector managers with a professional anchor in Swansea Bay. There'll be lots more of them to come as the days and weeks progress.
Hopefully, a combination of the email and this blog will help stir discussion and debate about the local media scene and will help bind it together a little more tightly. At present it seems fractured more than it should be due to the naturally competitive nature of the game.
But it's tough out there and it's time the industry took a more dynamic local government-style approach and encourage new partnerships. The Media Master - with its growing fanbase - can help.

Swansea Bay has a new free magazine!

Full credit to Swansea Council politician Peter May, the media mogul behind the latest glossy mag to hit Swansea Bay.
To boost his General Election campaign for the Swansea West constituency, the Lib-Dem hopeful has created a promo document that will take some beating.
This blog isn't intended to be an ad for Kirsty Williams & Co, but May's effort is a bright, chatty A4 publication that's eyecatching because it mimics best-selling fun-and-gossip mag Take a Break.
The cover of Swansea World is all bright colours, punchy copywriting and photos of humanity (well, Councillor May and Nick Clegg).
It's just popped through the letter box and is datelined Winter 2009. It comes complete with a Welcome from the Editor column, features tagged "Exclusive!" and, wait for it, even a sudoku.
It's an extremely clever piece of marketing, hitting a target audience quite likely to be fatigued by the more traditional electioneering techniques.
Okay, so Swansea World may not be around for long but it does prove that there's still power in print.
Let's hope it prompts his election opponents to raise their own games.

Haiti quake eye-opener for Swansea media old boy

ITV News reporter Geraint Vincent, who operated a local BBC TV patch encompassing Swansea Bay a few years ago, is at the frontline in Haiti.
Check him out at http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/2010/01/16/T16011001/
The Media Master's best wishes go to all those caught up in the earthquake aftermath. They can be assured that Geraint, whose little brother Gareth is the Swansea City reporter for the South Wales Evening Post, will view them through sympathetic eyes.

Sporting success for Swansea Bay media friend

Congrats to Nic Doshi who's just been named player of the year for the South Wales Evening Post cricket team.
He's not a media man himself - more of a retailer/phone sales guru - but he's made a huge impression since joining the Swansea Industrial League outfit as an all-action all-rounder.
Well done too to Richard Youle, the Post's environment reporter. He topped the batting averages for the league's rain-hit 2009 season.
This isn't old news, by the way, it's just that the Post's end-of-season dinner was postponed until last Friday. Drinks were taken at the Wig & Pen, opposite Swansea Crown Court, before food was served at the Viceroy. Fielding prize, incidentally, went to fleet-footed teenager Evan Pearson, enjoying his first full campaign as a midweek cricketer.
Roll on summer 2010!

New Swansea Bay Media Master out now

The second edition of the Swansea Bay Media Master was emailed out this morning.
It's highlights include news of Cross Hands-based Dreamtime Beds continuing to sponsor the Radio Carmarthenshire weather – not a bad way to introduce radio promos into the marketing mix.
Today's online focus is on the Swansea Council website - www.swansea.gov.uk - where the key local story details the excitement building for the March 1 inaugural Cork-Swansea sailing of the MV Julia.
From the Western Mail comes news of an interview with BBC Wales’ first female horseracing reporter, Aly Rowell – she’s also an international athlete.
There's plenty out there in the Swansea Bay media - get involved!
Also, if you'd like to be added to the Media Master distribution list just let me know.

Tonight's big question in the Swansea Bay media

There's a tasty Burning Question for listeners of the Swansea area's Bay Radio tonight ... Should butter be banned?
Based on the news that many doctors want to improve the UK's diet and to ban trans-fats, the good people from Neath Abbey's very own broadcasting house ask: "Do you think we should eat less fat? Ban butter?"
Have your say by going to the website - http://www.swanseabayradio.co.uk/ - clicking on The Burning Question button and checking the box next to the answer you think the question deserves.
My own policy? Butter when there's no other dressing on the toast, spread when the topping's gonna be a tangy citrus marmalade.
Perhaps the good doctors of Swansea Bay could let the local media know what they think - and what their crumpet-chomping habits are.

Meeting Matthew of Swansea Bay Business Life

Following the emailing of the first Swansea Bay Media Master daily brief it was good to get a nudge from Matthew Anderson.
He's the key ad sales fella at the splendid Swansea Bay Business Life magazine and I look forward to what he has to say.
The mag was launched a few years ago by independent publisher Avagio, led by the entrepreneurial Laurence Winmill. It was a lively, welcome addition to the Swansea Bay media scene.
Along with sister titles Swansea Life, Llanelli Life, Carmarthenshire Living and others it hit stormy waters as the recession struck.
Last year, the Evening Post bought the titles and has given Swansea Life and the business glossy fresh impetus. Adelaide Street MD Blanche Sainsbury has a genuine passion for the mags, it seems.
If anybody would like me to ask a big question to Matthew on their behalf, just let me know what it is.
Matthew, I look forward to sharing coffee.