The BBC reported that the UK *could* run out of air conditioning units due to this summer's heatwave sparking a wave of interest in home installations. I spoke with an air-con installer yesterday who said it's already happening, with engineers not able to complete jobs due to a lack of supply.

Vuelio Political Services email landed yesterday and I wondered why my bin collection service was getting into political analysis. Then I realised I'd mixed up the PR platform with Veolia. Easy mistake to make. #PR #Comms #Bins

I concur

Cup of tea on hot day. Yay or nay?

Good news - we're hiring TWO roles... ✍️ A Senior Editor (can be based in any of our cities) to manage some of our reporters and biggest stories. ✒️ A staff writer in Liverpool to work for @liverpoolpost.bsky.social. Rare chance to join this fantastic team! millmediaco.uk/jobs/

That’s a headline for a very specific audience.

we've just passed 485 new members in our campaign to add 1,000 members by 21 june !! if we add another 15 today, we'll be exactly at the halfway point - please do sign up by clicking the link below, you can pay as little as £0 for your first two months www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/help-make-sh...

The Eden Project in panorama.

Visited The Eden Project for the first time the other week, during the school half term holiday. What a fabulous place.

Ian Hislop's got the news Sheffield needs. Do you? Sign up *now* to get us to our big 1,000 target. Pay what you want for two months, cancel any time. www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk/pledge

The latest @theguardian.com weekly cover made me laugh.

Great news for @millmedia.bsky.social.

Self proclaimed "tiny local newsletter" gets named world's best. Congratulations to the team at @edinburghminute.com

Knitting Nannas from Hill Care’s Hazelgrove Court at it again… this time supporting rescued elephants in India, such as three-year-old Bani (photographed). www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I am looking for renters and landlords to chat to me about the new rights starting next week! Do you have a question or a comment. Or maybe a story about eviction, rights, relationships with a landlord or a tenant? Get in touch [email protected] (Shares gratefully received!)

"Welcome to Y’all Street" - I do love a good headline and this about Dallas and a Texas stock exchange biting at Wall Street's heels in @theguardian.com is great. #journalism

Car output for British buyers down too, declining -7.5%. #ukmfg #manufacturing

Saltburn Care Home Staff Brave The Cold For Homeless Veterans https://thecareruk.com/saltburn-care-home-staff-brave-the-cold-for-homeless-veterans/# Adult_Social_Care# Care# Care_Homes# Care_Staff

Over 22 years after my first newspaper byline (when I was 16!), it's still a thrill to see it in print, even as a contributor. Thanks to the Derbyshire Times.

Great news for #Sheffield.

Someone on another SM platform was bemoaning the state of regional news websites (adverts...), but then highlighted www.ipswich.co.uk as local news done well online, so I had to check it out. And I'm impressed. Very clean. #journalism #localnews

Dream job alert! I always wanted to write features and thankfully I got the chance when I was a local reporter - except I also had to write 2 leads, 2 down pages, 2 NIBs, and 2 picture stories… every day. And squeeze the feature in at some point during the week. I would’ve LOVED this.

Somehow I've made it onto Vuelio's media databases and I'm receiving press releases from universities. However, they're going into my Junk folder, and this raises an important issue with mass distributions via extensive media databases - it immediately hobbles your campaign. 🧵1/5

🚨We're hiring!🚨 The Bell is hiring another full-time staff reporter to join our team. We're looking for someone ambitious & tenacious, who is willing to knock lots of doors. Our journalism is in-person & on-the-ground. Click the link below for more details.

Breaking news from #Sheffield - the freezers at Ecclesall Road Co-op are humming.

Amazing.

Always a thrill to see your story in print - even more so when it makes the front page. Delighted to see Woman of Steel Effie Copley blowing out her 100th birthday candles on Sheffield newstands this morning, thanks to @thestar.co.uk.

Who at @microsoft.com thought it’d be a good idea to syndicate news articles onto MSN news and make all links from Edge/search go there instead of the original?

At 89-years-old, Val Bailey is an inspiration. When I first saw the FB video (see comments for link) of the Hill Care resident showing an exercise routine while out in Bolton, I hoped I'm still as active nearing my 90s. Since then, she's appeared in The Bolton News and now Women's Health UK.

Happy for the team at JÖRO. It's a fabulous restaurant and has been for years. Great for Sheffield to get a ⭐ back as well. guide.michelin.com/gb/en/south-...

Apple News alerts can be useful when there is a breaking news story of national or international importance. But when they send a notification to say the Spurs boss has been sacked, it's time to turn it off.

The website seems to be making a slow recovery, which is good to see. Trying to blog regularly to ensure Google knows we're alive. Any topic suggestions always welcome!

Dore Village history.

Fascinating study from the IPPR on the news sources #AI models are referencing (or not referencing, as in the case of ChatGPT and the BBC). I wrote my take on it and the importance of #PR in this changing media landscape.

If you want to see something inspiring this morning, check out 89-year-old Val on her daily exercise routine, power-walking, jogging, and flexing her way through Great Lever, Bolton.

Worrying numbers for UK manufacturing. #ukmfg #manufacturing

I've seen a lot of posts from journalists recently about the quality of pitches they are getting from PRs... so I thought I'd write a little post about it.

I wrote a blog on reputation management, as it’s often misunderstood as simply crisis control. A business’s reputation is one of its most valuable assets - and there’s far more to managing it than playing defence. #PR #PublicRelations #StrategicComms

Good to see WOSG going from strength-to-strength after the decision to exit the EU market a few years ago and concentrate on the US.

The Beeb's plan to produce content for YouTube is a smart step. Go to the audience, whether on iPlayer or YouTube, and remain relevant.

Glad I’m not the only one with “low confidence” in this transcription on a recent message. Thanks Apple. (Turns out it’s Chris from Cartridge People 😂)

Specialist publications: there is (or certainly used to be) a magazine for everything - even the most niche of subjects. Pigeon fancier? Homing World for you. Cave diver? Check out In Depth mag. Most are online now, of course. Today I learned of Tomato News - for the tomato processing industry.

The Knitting Nannas, from North Yorkshire's Hazelgrove Court Care Home, producing toys and blankets for rescued monkeys at a sanctuary in Pretoria, South Africa.

A 3.5% increase in sales seems pretty strong to me - pushing the total past 2m for the first time in 10 years. 1 in 4 new cars are now electric, which also seems positive, but the UK is still behind ZEV madates. Maybe always will be? Like the carrot? www.smmt.co.uk/uk-new-car-m...

Why is every digital product now offering a "Year in Review"?

Unnecessarily odd move from No.10's comms team to unilaterally make changes to lobby briefings that were only ever going to be seen as a restriction on public scrutiny. It is, of course, within their purvue but a bit of consultanting with relevant parties might have garnered a better reaction.

Fascinating interview with Demis Hassabis from Google Deepmind, particularly his take on #AI bubble talk from 28:30 -> youtu.be/PqVbypvxDto?...

Today has mostly been a writing day, covering Christmas gifts, the Salvation Army, and sustainability in the utilities sectors. Quite the contrasts but that's something I've always enjoyed about this line of work.

The decision to move schofieldcomms.co.uk to schofieldcomms.com in Google Search Console (as the former was merely forwarding to the latter and it was impacting indexing) has completely killed off website traffic and Google search rankings. A mistake? Or short-term impact for long-term improvement?

As a copywriter, I can't ask for better feedback than: "The web article is perfect, thank you. 😊" - received from a client earlier today.