Sonar Magazine.

As you may or may not know, in October I took on the job position of being the magazine editor of Sonar magazine. A publication which is products by students and is aimed for students at Southampton Solent University. It is produced on a bi-monthly time scale, which is every other month.

So far, we have had 1000 copies printed for issue 1, with an estimated circulation of 16,000. It is distributed throughout Southampton Solent University as well as being put into smaller businesses across Southampton city centre.

We had issue one printed and available for our readers at the beginning of December 2011. Above is the image of the first issue.

Having to start the magazine from scratch and trying to manage a team of contributers I am so pleased with how well the first issue came out. We are currently working on the issue 2, which will be out at the end of February.

I work with a small team of committee members which include myself being the magazine editor, Steph who is the online editor, she deals with the social networking side of the magazine as well as managing the blog, Simon is the marketing and finance coordinator, he deals with the advertising and marketing side of the magazine and Chrissy is the fashion coordination. Pretty much speaks for itself, she is in charge of organising the fashion content.

If you want anymore information about Sonar magazine or if you would like to be part of it, then email myself - offline.editor@sonarmagazine.co.uk and i'll happily be able to give you more information or help.

Book Author Review - Sophie Kinsella.

The majority of the time I love the look of a front cover and the sound of the book title but I can never read the book from cover to cover. I just end up reading the first few chapters and then find something to read.

This however is a different story for me, when I read the shopaholic books written by well-known author Sophie Kinsella, from London. I say to myself, I’ll just read one chapter before I go to bed, but I cant help but read on.

Becky Bloomwood is the main character featured in all of her books. She is a financial journalist who is dreadful at managing her own money. She is forever maxing out her credit cards and has received a large amount of red letters from the bank.

She fortunately manages to always find a good enough excuse to tell the bank manager to be able to get her payment date extended. Some excuses being, ‘I’ve just come back from a skiing holiday and I have broken my leg’ or ‘Someone stole my purse and has spent all the money on my credit cards’.

The majority of her books have the same story line; a twenty something girl addicted to shopping and expensive designer labels, always getting herself into debt. A girl who has every excuse possible and someone who finds it extremely easy to overspend on every single credit and debit card she owns.

The series starts off with her living her dream being a true shopaholic and attaining her perfect career as a finance journalist; to her most recent book when we find her married and having a child whom she also spends a large amount of borrowed money on.

Despite knowing the story line, it makes it a lot easier for myself to read. Kind of knowing what is next and trying to guess which designer coat or scarf she has bought on her lunch break is a fun task.

She is an amazing author and I love the fact her books are so easy to read. Maybe that is a little lazy of me, being a trainee fashion journalist, but there’s nothing more frustrating than having a complicated book in your hand.

Make sure you borrow a shopaholic book from the library, they are a definite must read, especially if you are a fashion fanatic like myself.

Happy New Year...

Wow, we are in 2012 already.

I can't believe how quick my life has gone, it seems like last week I was starting primary school. Look at me now, a few months away from graduating from university, scary. I know everyone says they can't wait for the beginning of the new year, but I generally am so excited for 2012. I have many plans and goals that I want to achieve this year. 

Including -

• Seeing Nero in concert - April
• Finishing University - May
• Seeing Westlife on their final tour - June
• Turning 21 - June
• Girls holiday - July
• Graduating from university - November
• Going to New York City - New Years Eve!!!
• ..............

What a busy year I have ahead of me, i'm so excited for everything I have planned. Especially turning 21 and being the first member in my family to graduate from university with a degree :)

Being on a degree full of trainee journalists I believe it is everyone’s intention to become an editor of a high glossy magazine like Vogue or Elle. Personally I know I won’t ever get to that stage in my life, I know I should think positive but realistically, I can’t see it happening. It seems almost impossible.

Starting my third and final year of my degree, I thought I had better start gaining as much experience as I can within the journalism industry before I go into the ‘big wide world’. I have less than 10 months before I officially finish university, that’s less than 10 months to find a job and start climbing the journalism ladder.

Through word of mouth I heard that the university magazine ‘Sonar’ were recruiting a new team in October to start the magazine from scratch. ‘Sonar’ magazine has always been produced and written by university staff, however this year is the first year it has been completely student led.

So I did it, I applied to become the editor of the magazine. After a lot of thought, I decided to apply. If I don’t get it I don’t get it I said to myself. Thursday 20^th October was the day, the day I had to stand up in front of other students and explain to them why I should be the editor, why I would be best for the position and what I can do to help them produce the best ‘Sonar’ magazine.

After minutes of silence, the winners were announced……’And the new offline Editor is…..Jess Bishop’ YES!! I won. I was extremely thankful and happy for everyone who had voted for me.

Time to tackle third year at university and being an editor.

I will keep you updated x

I'm back.

So after months of humming and haring about starting a new blog I finally went for it. People kept asking me for my blog link and I’ve been ashamed to say ‘I currently don’t have one’. As a journalism student I should have a blog to display additional material to show off to friends, family members and experts.

In a couple of weeks time I’ll be heading into my third and final year of university so its about time I get my bum into gear and start showing off to get my name out into the ‘big wide world’. I promise you I will keep updating this blog and wont be as slack as my previous blogs.

Much love xx