The SoGlos.com Blog

SoGlos.com at Journalism.co.uk news:rewired

We’re delighted and honoured to announce that SoGlos.com’s deputy editor James Fryer will be joining an acclaimed line-up of speakers – representing media from the BBC and Guardian to the Times and Telegraph, no less – at the inaugural news:rewired event in London this January.

Taking place on Wednesday 14 January 2010 at City University, where SoGlos.com’s editor Michelle Byrne incidentally studied the newspaper journalism postgraduate course a few years back, the event is being organised by Journalism.co.uk as an opportunity for working journalists, trainees, journalism students and academics to learn from those with first-hand experience in the industry.

The keynote speech will come from George Brock, head of City University's journalism department, with speakers then being organised into three main subject areas.

Multimedia speakers will include freelance journalism and multimedia producer Adam Westbrook, CEO of AudioBoo Mark Rock and internet consultant / media blogger Malcolm Coles.

Those speaking about collaboration including Demotix commissioning editor Andy Heath, Guardian Local launch editor Sarah Hartley and senior developer at MySociety.org Francis Irving.

While the making money speakers will be Sift CEO Ben Heald, head of digital media at Telegraph.co.uk Greg Hadfield, partner at media law firm Wiggin Caroline Kean and SoGlos.com’s very own James Fryer.

For anyone with an interest in the UK media industry, don’t delay in booking your ticket for what’s sure to prove an engaging insight for would-be and established publishers alike: newsrewired.com

SoGlos.com Gloucestershire widgets hit the headlines

Officially launched last week, SoGlos.com’s brand new what’s on in Gloucestershire widgets have gone down a treat with readers from across the county – having already been embedded on around 100 websites, blogs and social networking sites.

It’s also fantastic to see the news of the widgets – a first for regional media in the UK – being covered in some of the industry’s leading titles.

Journalism.co.uk kicked off proceedings with their piece SoGlos tackles copyright infringements with new widgets.

Press Gazette ran a story identifying Online widgets to boost Gloucestershire tourism.

While Hold the Front Page today published an article entitled Online magazine bids to reach wider audience.

And with widget-related queries coming in thick and fast from Gloucestershire webmasters and potential partners galore, we couldn’t have asked for a more successful launch.

Gloucestershire media sales professional wanted

SoGlos.com - The online magazine for Gloucestershire is expanding, and requires a full-time media sales professional to join its dynamic team. See the following link for more information: Join the team.

SoGlos.com unveils venue auto-predict functionality

While SoGlos.com is home to Gloucestershire's most popular directory of county arts, entertainment and leisure venues - from Cheltenham restaurants, Cotswolds attractions, and Forest of Dean hotels to Gloucester museums, Stroud pubs and Tewkesbury live music venues - readers will now find the process of digging out venue details even easier, thanks to brand new auto-predict functionality introduced across the online magazine this week.

Simply visit the section of your choice, start typing the venue name in the search box, and SoGlos.com's bespoke system will cross-reference the carefully-researched and -written database before presenting possible options.

SoGlos.com unveils new dynamic events calendars

For the past four months the SoGlos.com team has been busy beavering away on some very new exciting developments for the online magazine, and it’s with great pleasure that this week we unveil brand new dynamic events calendars.

While SoGlos.com is already Gloucestershire’s most popular resource for discovering the best county events, we’ve now made things even easier for readers who can now quickly refine their selection to find exactly what they’re interested in.

Choose an area of the county, the type of event you’re looking for and over what dates, and the new system will do the hard work for you – presenting a range of event listing options which have all be carefully selected, and written, by SoGlos.com’s journalists. There’s even a special ‘So’ icon to represent editor’s choices where a full editorial preview can be found.

Check out the new home of Gloucestershire events, or use one of the quick links provided below (you can, of course, further refine your selection to see Cheltenham restaurants events specifically, for example):

Cheltenham events
Cotswolds events
Forest of Dean events
Gloucester events
Stroud events
Tewkesbury events

Gloucestershire restaurants events
Gloucestershire theatre and comedy events
Gloucestershire art and culture events
Gloucestershire children and family events
Gloucestershire music events
Gloucestershire nightclub events
Gloucestershire pub and bar events
Gloucestershire sport and outdoor events
Gloucestershire health and beauty events
Gloucestershire cinema and film events
Gloucestershire books events
Gloucestershire accommodation events

Happy second birthday, SoGlos.com

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!

Yes, it was two years ago today that SoGlos.com was officially launched as the UK’s first regional online magazine – covering Gloucestershire’s arts and entertainment, leisure and tourism scene like never before. It’s been an amazing couple of years for the team – with successes far beyond we could have ever have hoped for – and it’s with sincere thanks to SoGlos.com’s readers and advertisers.

While there’s a celebratory mood at SoGlos.com towers – despite the grey summer skies – the real celebration will come in just a few week’s time, when perhaps our most innovative development yet is revealed to one and all...

Happy New Year Gloucestershire

The SoGlos.com team would like to wish all of its Gloucestershire readers, and indeed all those residing across the UK and even further afield, a very happy New Year! Many thanks for all the ongoing support and as we're already in the midst of working on some exciting new developments for the online magazine, we're sure you'll agreed 2009 will be a fantastic year indeed.

SoGlos.com on Journalism.co.uk, again

It was a pleasure to see SoGlos.com making the headlines on journalism.co.uk again today, this time being cited as one of the UK's independent websites challenging regional newspapers in an online journalism news article.

Updated daily by a small but experienced team of journalists, it's great to see SoGlos.com's commitment to the highest editorial standards and innovative development continually standing it in good stead. And fantastic to see the innovative Gloucestershire Interactive Map getting some credit too...

SoGlos.com sponsors Skate at Cheltenham

SoGlos.com has the pleasure of supporting one of Gloucestershire's finest festive attractions this year, in the form of sponsoring the Skate at Cheltenham artifical rink in Montpellier Gardens. While thousands of readers have found SoGlos.com's preview through the search engines in recent weeks, thousands more passers-by won't miss the SoGlos.com banner taking pride of place outside the white marquee which is home to all the action.

SoGlos.com on Richard & Judy's new show

While you'd think, by now, the obsession with SoGlos.com's world-famous videos of both the Cheese Rolling 2008 and Shin Kicking 2008 events would have fizzled out, think again.

Today saw none other than Black Hawk Down-star Josh Hartnett and musical legend Michael Bolton chuckling over SoGlos.com's videos, alongside Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan on their brand new show, as the segment tested the celebrity guests' ability to identify true from fictious events.

Thousands of viewers soon logged onto SoGlos.com to find out more about the action, and we're wondering whether the Cheese Rolling 2009 event will see more than its fair share of celebrity contendors...