An estate agent whose unconventional wordings for adverts have caused controversy with the local newspaper has decided to launch his own title.
Jules Bending plans to set up the Glastonbury Gazette, which will be published every week from May as a rival to the existing Central Somerset Gazette.
He decided to launch the title after claiming the Northcliffe-owned paper objected to certain words used in his property adverts for The Real Ralph Bending Estate Agent as being in ‘bad taste.’
It is understood that some of the newspaper’s readers had questioned whether some of the ads were suitable for a family audience.
Mr Bending, whose adverts have also been banned from the Rightmove property website for their unconventional humour, has now decided to launch his own newspaper to be delivered free to all 2,000 homes in Glastonbury.
He said the community paper will give him an outlet to advertise properties but other estate agents would also be welcome to advertise and he is recruiting freelance journalists and a full-time editor to write articles.
Mr Bending said: “I can’t allow for my competitors to catch up with me so we have to be able to advertise fresh properties because it is a fast-moving thing. We will have a page in there and just be like any other advertiser.
“The Glastonbury Gazette already has the support of 20 of the town’s leading advertisers from crafts, homeware and so on.”
The first edition of the paper, which will be based in an office above the estate agency, will be published in May and is expected to be 16 pages.
Mr Bending says the paper will be editorially independent and will also “have a sense of humour.”
His property adverts, which he says aim to stand out from those of other estate agents, have previously included a description of a new building as a ‘big erection,’ a blurb for a former school house with ‘everything except the randy old teacher and fag butts down the loo’ and an apartment described as ‘cheap but not particularly cheerful’.
Philip Welch, the editor of the Central Somerset Gazette, declined to comment.
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I imagine it will be a shining beacon of editorial excellence and journalistic integrity. Hurrah for estate agents everywhere.
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Hurrah! People don’t want real news, they want original humour like the “cheap not particularly cheeful” gag. I do hope he bases it on Viz. I give it three months.
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Does this mean that the late great E H Brooks would have been banned from advertising too? That would have been a tragedy. For those of you too young to remember, Brooks wa central London agent who was famous for describing the luxurious places he sold in Chelsea and Knightsbridge and so forth in far from glowing terms such as “decrepit” and “rotting”. His ads were famous and often very funny – and yet he was a very, very successful estate agent. So more power to Mr Bending’s elbow (sorry). As to his paper… in this economic climate? Financially, it doesn’t stand a chance. I suspect he’s just trying to twist Northcliffe’s arm!
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And speaking of “Bad taste” Fee: £25 + VAT (£30 inc VAT per entry). That’s what it costs for each entry in the Society of Idiots press awards. 30 quid per person per entry, so if you’ve got half a dozen hacks entering half a dozen categories, that’s…er…more than a grand. No wonder HTFP has closed comments on that particular thread. With cost-cutting approaching mania and the suits demanding we re-use crappy old envelopes, I’m sure they’re gonna LOVE this.
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@Bluestringer. The normal “click here to have your say” link is at the bottom on my screen.
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An Estate Agent running a newspaper? Thats nearly as crazy as an Estate Agent selling a house!!! This guy is living in lah lah land.
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Maybe the staff at the Central Somerset Gazette could start selling houses?
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