Happy New Year! Artificial intelligence, human intelligence and the art of the marketer
As 2025 begins we start by saying a massive 'thank you' to those who've helped make The Raikes Journal, we think - pound for pound - Gloucestershire’s best-read business email newsletter.
Dear readers,
Welcome to the first edition of The Raikes Journal of 2025. I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year.
We begin the year with an edition to give a massive ‘thank you’ to everyone who subscribed in 2024 and became part of our growing readership (more of which below).
And I wanted in particular to say a massive ‘thank you’ to those who have supported Raikes commercially and made it all possible so far.
Without the support of leadership development specialists QuoLux, accountants Randall & Payne, legal experts Willans LLP, Merrell People (an expert in helping businesses and organisations change) and Hartpury University and Hartpury College, Raikes would never have been able to relaunch.
These were our Founding Partners for 2024.
If you have read a story on one of our editions to date and enjoyed it, if you are one of the businesses we’ve written about, if you’ve had your event covered, if you’re one of the charities we’ve supported, or if you have learned more about your county via Raikes it’s because of those Founding Partners.
They put their faith in the vision of a credible, journalistically-led digital email magazine with a focus on business, education, training and charities. Their support has been incredibly humbling and their help with many articles since incredible.
Our stories are not press releases, listicles or other low-hanging fruit, but original reports and articles. We speak to members of our community, get their views and tell their stories. It’s the bit we really enjoy.
And less than 12 months into the relaunch, we think The Raikes Journal is already publishing perhaps the best-read email edition, pound for pound, in the county. And we have thousands of social media followers too. Think where we could be by the end of 2025!
If you would like to join those partners this year, please do contact us.
We now feel comfortable inviting new faces to step into the fold. You can even sponsor an edition this year (more on that below).
And then there are our Founding Members, those who backed us by paying more than the annual subscription. Their support for this small start-up was also vital.
We have written about some of those Founding Members over the last year and used stories they have fed us, but have never revealed their identity as they’ve wished to remain anonymous (that’s despite being allowed an article to shout about themselves in lieu of their support).
Until now. Towards the end of last year we finally convinced one of them to do an interview. That article, is below. Thank you, Darren Stevens!
And thank you to everyone who agreed to speak to The Raikes Journal and create the hundreds of original stories we wrote and published last year.
If good local journalism about Gloucestershire is important to you, if you want to help create something new, that is independent and fights the county’s corner, if you want to put that back in place in the county, then please support us too.
Andrew Merrell (editor).
NB: Raikes publishes probably the best-read business-related email ‘newsletter’, pound for pound, in Gloucestershire.
If you have a story, an issue, a news item, a charity or an interview you want us to write about or investigate, challenge the powers that be on, then please email me: andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.
Some briefing Notes…
🗳️ Just before Christmas we did a big interview with the leader of Gloucestershire County Council, Stephen Davies, as the county learned it was about to begin the journey to become a unitary authority (you can read it here). It’s now emerged the county has asked the Government for permission to postpone its elections in May 2025 to give it time to prepare for that reorganisation. The challenge is to bring its six district local authorities - Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud, Tewkesbury, the Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean - under the control of a single county-wide authority. According to the BBC, if that application to postpone is successful, elections for the new shadow unitary authority would take place in 2026.
🌧️ Flood warnings remain in place across Gloucestershire today following a weekend of heavy rain and melting snow finding its way into rivers and onto roads across the county. Part of the A40 and M5 in the county were flooded overnight and Junction 11 slip road of the motorway was shut as a result. There was also flooding elsewhere, from Bishops Cleeve to Stroud and across to Berkeley and along the Golden Valley.
🎶 News that a Gloucestershire record shop has won a national award might bring a smile to the faces of vinyl lovers in the county. Sound Records in Stroud, based in George Street, has been named Record Shop of the Year in the Songs Behind the Music (SBTM) Awards 2024. Commenting on social media, SBTM said: ‘This year’s awards were by far our biggest and most competitive to date, with over 18,000 votes being submitted across the categories.” The result was decided by a public vote.
🎖️ There was recognition in the New Year’s Honours List for Gloucestershire campaigner against domestic violence and stalking, Nick Gazzard. The father of Hollie Gazzard was awarded an OBE for services to tackling violence against women. Hollie died after an attack by an ex-partner and for the last 10 years her father has made it his life’s work to help those affected by domestic abuse and stalking, founding the Hollie Gazzard Trust. Its work is rooted in prevention, education, and raising awareness and it now works UK-wide.
👨🏫 South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS) has announced the appointment of David Withey (pictured below) as the new CEO and principal, effective from the end of March 2025. Withey will join SGS from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), where he is chief executive officer. He is said to bring ‘a wealth of experience and public service leadership gained in both the UK and Australia, whilst having a strong understanding of the further education sector through his time leading the delivery of funding of Colleges and Skills Providers within England. Withey will take over from Kevin Hamblin, CEO since October 2001.
💷 The Benefact Group, the Brockworth-headquartered financial services group and parent company of major county employer Ecclesiastical, is urging all of us to get voting for the charity, not-for-profit organisation or community interest group we think should receive £1,000 as part of its Movement for Good campaign. Fifty organisations are set to benefit from its handout with the first draw taking place on 27 January. So, in the words of Benefact Group, “it’s one nomination per charity, per person! So if you want to support numerous organisations, you don’t have to worry about choosing one, because you can nominate them all”. Find out more here.
💻 Fancy a new office space for 2025. Here’s your chance to try out one of Gloucestershire’s newest and most high profile buildings for free. Hub 8 by Plexal, the co-working space in Cheltenham’s MX Centre is offering a chance to locate yourself there and experience the buzz of its community all week, from Monday 20 January to Friday 24 January from 7.30am to 7.30pm. Find out more here.
Charity raises £21 million to transform 365-acres of Gloucestershire farmland
Hundreds of acres of Gloucestershire farmland will be allowed to flood and return to saltmarsh after a national charity based in the county raised £21 million to make the ambitious project possible. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), which runs Slimbridge nature reserve near Berkeley, has bought 365-acre (148-hectare) of farmland at Awre in the Forest of Dean, a peninsula described by an oxebode in the River Severn with a view to turning it back into salt marsh. According to the WWT the site was likely to have been salt marsh in the distant past. It claims restoring it will improve biodiversity, reduce issues with flooding and help the environment.
A date for your diary…
Investment property owners through to those considering investing in the residential rental market are invited to a seminar by Willans LLP solicitors. The event, called ‘A Guide to managing your investment property in 2025’ will feature the Cheltenham firm’s head of residential property, Suzanne O’Riordan, James Melvin-Bath, who heads Willans’ residential landlord and tenant disputes team, along with guest speakers Vanessa Clark (Azets) and Paul Davis (Ludice Wealth Management). Topics covered will include current landlord legal requirements and responsibilities, pitfalls to avoid, legal changes to consider following the Budget and the Renters’ Rights Bill, a look at current rental markets, funding your mortgage, financing to build your portfolio and more. Tuesday 14 January from 5.30pm to 7pm at Gloucester Guild Hall. Find out more here.
* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you upgrade to paid you’ll be part of this community interest company too. We are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls often put on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable.
You can sign up to receive your two extra editions a week and see past all our paywalls for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once. Or go all in and become one of our Founding Partners or Founding Members!
Artificial intelligence, human intelligence and the art of the marketer
When The Raikes Journal was in its infancy various people stepped forward to become Founding Members, supporting it financially and with their expertise. We remain extremely grateful, and introduce you to one of those.
Our big interview today is with someone many of you may already know well if you are in business in Gloucestershire and prone to networking.
His clients will certainly know him well, and it is those relationships - as you are about to find out - that are key to him having the impact he does on their businesses.
For many the art of the marketer remains a mystery – it’s something about social media, about profile, about driving business - but they’re unclear whether it is also about sales directly or even what the point is. Until they find a good marketeer.
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