Jan 11 2007 auditions

After 28 years in the business I did something for the first time yesterday. I held auditions for newsreaders to front a new news headline service we are looking at for liverpoolecho.co.uk.

There are some decent examples of regional and local newspapers around the globe providing a decent online bulletin and I'd like us to be able to do the same.

http://blogs.roanoke.com/vlog/

At present myself or one of my senior team give a flavour of the day's news in a daily videocast but I think we could provide a further dimension.

Along with our multi-media editor John Dempsey, Head of Online development, Steve Harrison and Trinity Mirror Regionals' multi-media head Mike Hill, we held auditions from among staff who'd expressed an interest.

We were delighted with the response and in yesterday's first trial we unearthed a couple of real gems. People were understandably nervous but performed bravely and brilliantly.

I felt a bit of a fraud as my broadcasting experience is practically nil.

We're seeing more people today and I'm feeling really positive about the outcome.

Lyne and I putting final touches to proposed holiday to Thailand soon. Island off its west coast called Ko Samui. Would love to hear from anyone who has been.

Diet and training for half marathon going well and up to four miles tonight. The high winds can activate my agina so it looks like the gym again.

Lynne logging on to the Echo's new online slimming club today! Just when she was felling good and talking about getting back to work she's had a couple of bad days. MS is proving a complex proposition to understand. She thinks the steroids are making her put on weight (a frequent side effect) but she looks fine to me. I told her not to do anything radical diet-wise until we can talk to the MS nurse specialist next week.

www.echoslimmingclub.co.uk

I'd be keen to hear from MS sufferers about their own experiences and coping mechanisms.