December Update: Episode 7 & 8

Unfortunately this blog has been a little neglected recently (mainly because I’ve been busy continuing to develop Carrbridge News while working on Brocken Spectre, a feature film that has been shot throughout the year and is now in post-production)

Quite a few things have happened since the last entry:

1. The website has had a complete revamp! It’s now a more cohesive site combining the video and “read” elements instead of treating them as two separate news sources. It’s had a great response and our visitor numbers have risen too! Check it out at the main site: www.carrbridgenews.co.uk

2. Episode 7 has been released! This episode was released back in October – the slightly longer than usual period of time between 6 and 7 resulting because of the production of Brocken Spectre. If you haven’t yet seen the October edition, you can check it out here.

Today were out filming the “intros” for Episode 8, which is set to be released tomorrow: Friday 30th December. It’s not a very big episode (there’s not much news at the moment!) but I felt it was important to keep up the momentum and continue to produce. No doubt there’ll be a slightly longer “History Corner” to compensate for the shorter news section.

Anyway, thanks for continuing to follow our progress, and keep and eye open for Episode 8 tomorrow evening from 7:00pm!

All the best,
Fergus
Follow @CarrbridgeNews / @FergusThom
www.carrbridgenews.co.uk
Contact fergus@carrbridgenews.co.uk 

Has your Business Got News?

Some of you may remember that we ran a survey online a few months ago. We got some great feedback from this and would like to thank everyone who took the time to get involved.

One of the comments that cropped up a few times was praising our recent feature of The Old School, Self Catering accommodation in one of the Episodes and also made the point that we should feature more local businesses on the website, for the benefit of those planning on visiting the village as well as those in the village to keep them up-to-date with developments in the business world.

To this end, we are keen to launch a new area on the “Read” section where we will share local business news. However, for this to work, we really do need for local businesses to send us their news. 

What might be featured in the Business Section:

• New startup businesses
• Product / Service launches
• Job opportunities
• Business expansion
• Special offers
• Success stories
• ….really….anything!

If you have any local business news then we’d love to hear from you, contact, info@carrbridgenews.co.uk

Episiode 6 Now Available to Watch

Episode 6 of Carrbridge News is now available to watch online at www.carrbridgenews.co.uk …. check it out!

Best Use of Journalism on the Web

We’re absolutely delighted to have won the prestigious “Best Use of Journalism on the Web” award at the 2011 Highlands & Islands Media Awards last night!….
Read more, Click Here  

Photo by Ewen Weatherspoon, http://www.ewphoto.co.uk/

Shortlisted for Media Award

Although we’ve also updated on the main site about this it would be wrong to leave out the “in production” section when spreading this exciting news.

Today we found out that we’ve been shortlisted for the “Best Use of Journalism on the Web” award as part of the Highland & Islands Media Awards 2010.

This is absolutely fantastic news and we’re over the moon to have been placed on the shortlist….

Read the main news post on the website - Click Here

Looking Back on…Episode 5

Episode 5 has been incredibly well received, and we’ve had lots of very supportive and positive comments coming through.

We were never quite sure whether releasing an episode right before Christmas would be a good idea – as the worry was that, because most people are busy with other festive things at this time, it might not pull the same audience numbers as previous episode have. We decided, early on, to release the episode at 2pm in the afternoon as opposed to the more common time of 7pm, in order to give everyone a chance to catch it before Christmas.

However, looking over the statistics so far for the episode, it seems it’s been a great decision to make. We’ve had very promising numbers watching the episode already and a large number tuned in on Friday!

This is the first episode that we’ve been able to instal an indepth analytical programme in. This new additions takes all sorts of data including how many people watched it, where they were from, how much of it they watched as well as a variety of other useful information.

If you haven’t yet caught the episode, then you can do so here and don’t forget to also join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Episode 5

We’ve been busy putting together Episode 5 recently. Today we were out filming with our new presenter, who make her first appearance this Friday in the Episode.

As we come to the end of 2010 we’ve put out a survey to help us to review the year and see where we can improve things – as we’re always trying to push the boundaries and expectations surrounding Carrbridge News. We’d really appreciate everyone’s feedback – Click Here to take the survey.

We’ve also recently been planning out what 2011 will bring for Carrbridge News. 2010 was a BIG year (but really it was our first full year). Right at the beginning we reformatted the way in which the episodes were presented, shortly after we rebuilt the ‘read’ section of the website, we launched our – so far greatly successful - presence on Facebook and redesigned the website into a more “news friendly” space. The results of our work have been very evident – our web statistics are way above what any of us ever anticipated we could achieve and we’re pleased to have developed a steady audience.

This will, most likely, be our last post on the “in production” blog for 2010 so… here’s to 2010… and here’s to 2011! We’re excited about what another year will bring and look forward to sharing the journey with you all.

Thanks for your ongoing support.
Enjoy the festivities,
The Carrbridge News Team

November Update

Hi Everyone,

It’s been a while since we posted here.
The big news at the end of the month was that we had a wee anniversary - 1 year “in production”! If you haven’t already read our message to you all then do so here. We really do appreciate all the support the project has behind it and look forward to it’s continued production.

As we move onto, what we’re calling, ‘series 2′ of Carrbridge News we’re starting to plan out the ways in which we can improve what we’re doing and have already lined up a whole load of developments for the website. If you’ve got any suggestions about what we should do then please don’t hesitate to get in touch, info@carrbridgenews.co.uk

We’ll be starting work on Episode 5 very soon, and posters will be popping up around the village too…. but for those not in the village…. our release date for EP5 is Christmas Eve!!! Although we were weary that xmas eve might not be the best time to get people to watch we’ve decided to release the episode at 2pm, rather than 7pm….

Check back soon for all the latest updates!

Episode 4….

We somehow managed to forget to post here all the way through September! However, we do have an excuse in that we were producing Episode Four.

If you haven’t already seen it then catch up with Episode Four here.

Titles for 'The History Corner'

The episode has received some great feedback – especially for the development of “The History Cornery” with David Ritchie and Ian McInnes. We’ll be making this a permanent part of the programmes structure so await more interesting tales from the past!

Right now we’re working up to our coverage of the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship this weekend (10.10.10) and we’ve got lots lined up as part of this, from pre event interviews to post event reports, photographs and much more! Keep checking the website from Saturday onwards for all the latest developments!

We bid farewell to Sarah McWilliam yesterday as she heads for Australia to begin her travels and the Carrbridge News Team wish her a fantastic time. She’ll be back in February so she’s not quite off your screens yet!!

Episode 4 Enters Production

Now that we are just one month from producing Carrbridge News Episode Four it’s time for us to start “shooting.” Usually we film the majority of the episode quite close to it’s release time – and spend the rest of the time finding news and writing the stories. If anyone has any news that they’d like to see included in the episode then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Other news and we might be introducing a new presenter as part of this Episode – although we can’t yet confirm this. Unfortunately one of our main presenters, Sarah, will be leaving for Australia from October – the end of February so this will be her last episode – meaning we have decided to rope in a new presenter, if not for this episode, then for the next.