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  • 2010
    • July
      • London Shophound - an app is born
        05/07/10
        There's one section of my bookshelves reserved for books written in whole or perhaps in part by people I know. It's highly eclectic: novels and anthologies; a frisky take on a culinary delight called A Passion for Asparagus; two minutely researched books on travelling post offices in South

    • June
      • Falling in love again
        14/06/10
        Every so often, even after all these years, the total wonderousness of the internet hits me all over again. (Should I rephrase that? Am I sounding too much like Stephen Fry?)

        It goes like this.

        I am moving a much loved piece of vintage furniture and notice part of a label on t

    • April
      • Into each life a little ash must fall
        18/04/10
        With a much-loved family member currently stranded in Hong Kong, I'm not going to make light of the current 'no-fly' situation. But the sheer scale of this natural event gives pause for thought.

        This could go on for weeks,or months - life changing stuff. Aside from the man

    • February
      • I'll have a Ping gin
        24/02/10
        Is there something wrong with my life? I'm sitting in something which calls itself a Skylounge, thirteen floors up, gazing across the cloudscape as the light over Leeds city centre deepens into dusk. There are three women at the table - one white wine, one mojito, one gin and tonic.

    • January
      • Life is like a mailing list
        04/01/10
        It's one of those Forrest Gump moments. The Christmas cards come down and - after carefully sorting out those which can be recycled (no glitter or metallic printing,if you live in York) - it's time to update the mailing list.

        Received wisdom tells us that, left to their own de

  • 2009
    • November
      • Brand personality runs amok in gastro-pub
        24/11/09
        Picture it. A recently revamped gastro-pub in North Yorkshire on a dull November day. The spacious modern interior suggests good things to come: the wood is blond, the textures natural, the paintwork ever so Farrow & Ball. On the walls hang simply framed but exquisitely composed photographs refl

    • October
      • COMMUNICATING SCIENCE IS NOW SIMPLER – AND GREENER
        14/10/09
        press release:

        Award-winning photographer Rob Cook at Yorkshire Scientific Pictures has teamed up with Val Seddon at York-based Output Communicators to offer clients a unique, one-stop communications package – the Hotcom.

        A Hotcom is an elegant fusion of communications strateg

    • September
      • So farewell then, Keith Floyd
        16/09/09
        There's been a lovely little framed cartoon on my kitchen wall for more than twenty years. It shows three cats settled down on a sofa and the programme they are watching so intently is "Floyd on Fish".

        I loved the programme, and I loved the cartoon so much that I bought th

    • August
      • For lighter, brighter text - make the last word count.
        20/08/09
        "This editorial's a bit flat," says the client. "Can you do anything with it?"

        Yes, yes, definitely yes. Writers are a bit like hairdressers. We just love to run our fingers through other people's text, snipping off surplus adverbs, slicing into clunky phras

    • July
      • Dick Turpin rides again, and again
        17/07/09
        There's no doubt that years spent working in PR remove a lot of life's mysteries. I learned how to 'bury bad news' many years before 9/11 made it sound like bad practice; I can spot a pharmaceutical 'disease awareness' campaign a mile off and am still amazed at how ofte

    • June
      • What are you doing?
        23/06/09
        It's the big question with the 140 character answer. I know Stephen Fry does it, half of Iran does it, s'lebs do it, but do I have to do it too?

        What's the real communications value is all this stuff? If 1000 people join a FaceBook group in the name of a dead/missing pers

    • April
      • How often should you send out a newsletter?
        28/04/09
        And before you go back to check how often I’m writing this free newsletter advice series, I know its frequency is fairly erratic. Other things are allowed to get in the way. I might have been at choir practice (another story, of which there will be more later), baking a cake, or doing client work. I

      • Need to cut costs on newsletters? Let me count the ways...
        03/04/09
        ...but first, are you absolutely sure? If it’s a customer newsletter, is this really the time to be cutting back your sales communications? If it’s an employee newsletter, do you really have less to say in days like these?

        Or maybe you need to start a new communication but the budget is

    • March
      • Free advice - think of your newsletter as a gift
        18/03/09
        Creating a communication for someone is a bit like buying them a present.

        A well chosen gift shows how deeply you understand the recipient. A perfect reflection of their tastes and aspirations casts a big warm glow on the relationship. Thank, tempt, persuade, flatter ... the thoughtful gi

      • Free advice about newsletters: do it for a reason
        11/03/09
        Any commitment to communicate should be a big deal, with a fair amount of structured thinking going into it. But one of the good things about newsletters – digital or printed –is also one of the bad things. They are just so easy to start. A masthead, a mailing list, something you want to say, a bit

    • February
      • Newsletter advice comes free
        27/02/09
        Every so often, someone sticks a piece of paper - usually four pages of A4, even in this digital age - under my nose and asks "What do you think of our newsletter?" It happened again yesterday.

        It's always a tricky moment, especially if the person asking it is a friend or a

      • The Vikings arrive
        19/02/09
        The sun shines. A crocus opens. But there's another reason why it feels like spring. The Vikings are here.

        One of the joys of living in this beautiful city is that York has more than its fair share of festivals - and this week it's the Viking Festival.

        There's

      • The past comes back
        16/02/09
        I'm Googling "Val Seddon". Not in a narcissistic way, you understand; just checking out search terms for the refreshed site.
        Before you dash off and Google it yourself (perhaps you're having a quiet day), it's important to say that not all those Val Seddons out there a

      • The Non-Exec makes an appearance
        11/02/09
        "So now you've got a blog," says the Non-Exec, hovering around behind my chair. (OK, so he brought me coffee: a short hover is allowed.)"What's next? Facebook? Second Life?"
        A tiny shard of contempt tinkles on the desk beside me.
        "Most writers," I te

      • Welcome to my blog!
        10/02/09
        So here it is - a brand new shiny blog for Output Communicators, for clients, for friends, for people who rummage around for this sort of thing.

        Like a baby, its life could take any direction. That depends on who interacts with it.But speaking of babies, welcome to the world Harrison Ale