Posts Tagged ‘national newspapers’
Saturday, May 1st, 2010
FAMOUS FEATURES BLOG
By Alexandra McGowan for Famous Features
‘You say tomay-to, I say tomar-to,’ goes the classic sung by jazz legends Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
Here in the Famous Features office, we feel like we’re living that song on a daily basis.
This week, there’s been a potent mix of: Crawley (Sally) Germany (Stef), Newcastle (boy Joe), Essex (girl Jo), Glasgow (Lorna) and Manchester (me), all in the one office.
What a melting pot of accents and dialects, and a great excuse to poke fun at each other.
‘Here you gan, pet,’ read one of my emails on Monday. Joe had sent me something to edit, and apparently that was Geordie for ‘Here you go, love.’
‘Nay bother,’ trills our lovely new girl Lorna as she speaks to people about their incredible real life stories, as we sell them to national newspapers and magazines.
‘It’s DAIN-GEROUS!’ exclaims our editor, Sally Windsor, who hails from Crawley but often slips into a sairf-London drawl.
We have concluded that no-one uses the word ‘Wally’ apart from her, either. Is that a suvvern fing as well?
Stef constantly impressed us with her ability to interview in English professionally and completely fluently, before babbling away on her mobile if one of her German friends called her.
And girl Jo? ‘Alright my darlin’’ she drawls in her dulcet Colchester tones. Even though she doesn’t wear white heels, she’s Essex through and through.
The differences between us all lead to no end of hilarity and confusion. For example, when Lorna thinks someone is attractive, we think she’s saying that they’re ‘fat’ – because that’s how it sounds when she says ‘fit’. Jokes!
Do you have a funny story to tell about accents and dialect? Did you meet your now-hubby, who has a completely different accent to you, through a funny misunderstanding down to the different ways you spoke?
Or has an accident left you with a completely different accent, as in the case of Sarah Colwill, who now speaks with a Chinese accent after experiencing chronic migraine pain?
It’s an unusual story, and one that we would be able to sell for a great fee to one of the women’s magazines, or national newspapers.
Get in touch with your funny accent stories – we can’t wait to hear them, whichever part of the country you’re from!
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Today’s ‘Sell a Story’ Request. The latest story and case study requests from the National Newspapers and Magazines.
If you fit the profile that we are looking for, fill out the online form at: www.FamousFeatures.co.uk
UPDATED DAILY
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Story / Case Study Wanted: Former soldier now retraining in another career.
Story / Case Study Info: We are working on a piece to run next week on ex soldiers who have been injured in the line of duty, and are now retraining in a different career. It’s will be a very straight forward, positive article which will show their determination to carry on. All that would be required is a brief chat on the phone either today (Thurs) or Friday, plus a picture.
Story / Case Study Criteria: Any age. Former soldier. Must be available for pix and chat Thursday or Friday.
Story / Case Study Request: We are looking for case studies / stories about CHRISTMAS MIRACLES.
Media Outlet: Woman’s Weekly Magazine.
Story Request Info: We are looking for any stories / case studies about CHRISTMAS MIRACLES. These could include last minute Xmas lottery wins, medical marvels, xmas proposals – anything amazing that happened at Christmas.
Thursday, 5th November 2009
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Here are the latest story requests from the National Newspapers and Magazines. If you fit any of the profiles, or you would like to sell a different story to the national press, submit your story idea here: www.FamousFeatures.co.uk
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Magazine Story or Case Study Wanted: Women with Facebook/MySpace/Twitter horror stories of being approached by strangers online…
More info: This is for a news report following the tragic death of Ashleigh Hall, who was lured to her death by a man posing as a teenage boy on Facebook. We’re looking for women with similar tales – but a happier ending. The incident could have happened to them, or they could have discovered someone was grooming their child online.
Story / Case Study Criteria: Need to be over 18 and ideally under 45. Must be able to supply a pic and be available to chat quickly on the phone.
Magazine Story or Case Study Wanted: We are looking for a woman and her daughter who share a strong physical feature.
More info: For the feature ‘where I get my good looks from’ we are looking for a young woman and her mum who share a strong physical feature. This could be bright red hair, obvious freckles, a mass of curls, big eyes. What’s important is that the mother and daughter are attractive and the feature that they share is strikingly obvious.
Story / Case Study Criteria: One of the women (ie the daughter or mother) needs to be between 30-55.
Magazine Story or Case Study Wanted: A UK-based bride who got married sometime this year at the age of 21 or younger.
More info: We just need to do a short phone interview with her and the groom and will need to use her wedding pics in the piece. Ideally, it needs to have a good story attached – e.g. her parents thought she was too young to marry, or she got married because she was pregnant etc.
Friday, 30th October 2009
