CRITICAL REFLECTION #3

The decision mid semester to combine each individual features magazine into one had a profound effect on my role as Editor of WINOL Travel and Adventure. In my previous Critical Reflection I outlined the pros and cons of maintaining a magazine in relation to it's navigation and target audience. With my initial struggle to manage and upload content on a regular basis, I supported this decision wholeheartedly.

Near the start of the semester, www.winol.co.uk ranked *1,309,425 globally and *38,579 in the UK [16.10.2013] peaking on Thursday 10th October with *67 page views. This was most likely the result of the weekly WINOL News bulletin aired on the Wednesday prior. Compare this to the end of the semester and we see a steep decline (see graph 2). According to www.alexa.com, however, WINOL's Global Rank has increased to *773,133 and *30,063 in the UK* From my point of view, "Here & Now" has played a specialised role in maintaining this. 

(1) Number of page views 9th-16th October (Google Analytics).

(2) Number of page views 25th November - 1st December (Google Analytics).

WINOL’s relaunched “Here & Now” magazine* has worked hard to improve the organisation of Features as a whole, with the installation of a modernised, user friendly ‘Gabfire Theme’ for WordPress (which I will have to be familiar with for my fast approaching Final Year Project). Each market now has its own subcategory, with the main slider situated at the top of the page. Being its most redeeming feature, this aims to promote some of the websites top highlights. Like with News, there is constant competition between magazines to get their pieces mentioned in the ‘barkers’ as they act as the highest form of promotion. You can see in the image below, both the Paintball package and the World Travel Market overview have appeared under the slider subcategory of “Events” and if you scroll over the “Travel” tab further above, invested in the world of adventure are a number of written articles, as well as a couple of video packages managed, produced and edited by myself*

Indoor Skydiving Feature.

Images taken with Canon 650D Digital SLR.

Watching Wind Tunnel.

The Adventure Team.

James In Flight.

Filming On Location.

Find below the final video package feature for WINOL Travel and Adventure Magazine. 

Also, some of the most recent Adventure triumphs have been mentioned in the "Best of" SUPERWINOL Features package, with Travel and Adventure in the Top 3 (17 mins 20 secs approx.)

Find more content here.

Adventure Podcast (26.11.13)

Check out the podcast below for an insight into some of Europe's most beautiful Christmas destinations and much more. I'm leading the podcast, along with special guests Andrew McHarg and Hannah Hayesmore.

See the original script below. This had to be tweaked to fit the less scripted and more spontaneous conventions of a radio features bulletin.