Chris Wheal
Full name: Christopher Graham Wheal
Mobile telephone: 07831 268261
Email: chris at whealassociates.com
Date of birth: 28 December 1965
Marital status: Married (March 1993), son (July 1995), daughter (Feb 1998)
Nationality: British
LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/chriswheal
Facebook: facebook.com/chriswheal
Twitter: @whealie
Google+: plus.google.com/+ChrisWheal
Blog: www.chriswheal.com/blog
Employment history:
February 1999 – present
Managing Director, Wheal Associates Ltd. Editing, managing teams of journalists, supplying features and news, editing, feature editing, news editing, reporting. Clients include Capital.com, AOL, major business and consumer magazines plus national newspapers. Includes being editor of Capital.com, AOL Money, dailyfinance.co.uk, Insurance Times, Property People and Service Management, plus editor for supplements in The Guardian. Established website Creative News.
Marketing copywriter. Public relations adviser. Media trainer. Journalism trainer. Magazine sub-editor.
Twice British Insurance Broker’s Association (Biba) consumer journalist of the year (once broadsheet, once tabloid), highly commended trade press feature writer or the year 2007, Biba business journalist of the year 2008. Highly commended Biba online journalist of the year 2018.
Chris even made Private Eye’s Street of Shame column when he was sacked from Insurance Times for standing up to Independent Insurance boss Michael Bright (who was later jailed for fraud after Independent collapsed).
the-zebra.com
From 2013 to 2017, Chris, known as Whealie, edited the-zebra.com and established the-Zebra phone app on iPhone and Android.
February 1996 – January 1999
Partner, Wheal Associates. Business as above.
October 1995 – January 1996
Freelance Journalist (sole trader). Business as above.
August 1993 – September 1995
Features Editor, Public Finance, The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, 3 Robert Street, London WC2N 6BH.
Oversaw the training of the junior reporter, Damian Wild, through two National Vocational Qualifications. He was highly commended in the Periodical Training Council’s new journalist of the year awards and went on to edit Accountancy Age and Estates Gazette.
November 1989 – August 1993
Assistant Editor, The Engineer, Morgan-Grampian, 30 Calderwood Street, London SE18 6QH. Covered the chemical industry, industrial relations, employment and health and safety. Morgan-Grampian’s weekly feature writer of the year in 1992.
December 1987 – November 1989
Reporter, then Employment Reporter, Electronics Weekly, Reed Business Publishing, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5AS.
Education
BA(Hons) Modern European Studies, 1987, Ealing College of Higher Education, London. Including: history, geography, politics, economics and Spanish.
Two A levels, Havant 6th Form College, Hampshire; Five O Levels, Crookhorn Comprehensive, Hampshire.
Other activities
Chair of trustees – NUJ Extra; Board member – The Broadcast Journalism Training Council; Vice-president – Charlton Park RFC; Fellow – The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (RSA); Volunteer – Friends of Hilly Fields. Chris has been a school governor and was the founding chair of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ)’s Professional Training Committee, standing down in 2016.
Interests
Rugby (retired player and referee), cricket, adventure motorcycling, walking and cycling, cooking, good food, beer and wine.
Getting balance in an award-shortlisted feature
How modern journalism works I’ve posted on LinkedIn about being shortlisted for the 2020 British Insurance Brokers’ Association (Biba) journalism awards. It’s worth emphasising how much work goes into high-quality journalism. This will be entirely recognisable to any journalist but perhaps non-editorial folks are unaware of how modern journalism works. Read more…
Freelance editorial virtual office team available for remote working
A crack team of freelance writers will shortly be available to add news and features to your website or to start up an editorial project such as a newspaper, magazine or mobile news service. We can run an entire editorial service without an office and without the overheads. We can Read more…
Capital.com: editing website news
Chris Wheal’s latest editorial project, Capital.com, is now visible worldwide and the app that funds our editorial work is downloadable from the UK app store. The editorial is provided by a team of (currently) eight UK freelance journalists. We operate through a Brighton-based agency, Lark, which handles the admin and Read more…
Wordfence plugin adds security to WordPress sites
WordFence security plugin for WordPress websites appears to lock down the site, keep out hackers and destroy malware. Even the free version looks good, but I have paid. With WordPress so popular, hackers have long targeted weaknesses within the CMS or within individual plugins and themes. There are constant updates Read more…
Which WordPress plugins do I use?
On hosted WordPress (that’s WordPress.org, not WordPress.com) you can install plugins that add functionality to your site. This can be to the visible part of the site or the back-office – the content management system (CMS). Here are a few I have installed and found useful: All in One SEO Read more…
Installing WordPress via Softaculous
I teach Build Your Own Website. I use WordPress, one of the most successful blogging platforms that is widely used as a commercial content management system (CMS) to run websites. These are my latest two videos I created to help new users set up their hosted webspace to run WordPress Read more…
Post Magazine: injury infographic
Compiling the data for a Post Mgazine infographic comparing the payouts for similar bodily injury claims was a challenge. The government won’t give you the data because it has sold it. My idea was to have two badly injured bodies depicted next to each other. One would be poorly bandaged, Read more…
Deadlines for Journalists and PRs
One of the worst press offices of 2014 was the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). As the main regulator for the financial services industry this is not good news for financial journalists. My experience of the FCA press office in January suggests there have been no positive New Year resolutions. Telegraph Read more…
Is it best to phone or email a PR?
To phone or to email: that is the question. As a journalist, if you phone a PR, they will ask you to email your questions over, but if you just email, press officers never answer – until you call to remind them. Or is it just me?
Paid-for WordPress plugins that work
Much of what WordPress does is available free of charge but some things are worth paying for. Two plugins I have paid for and in which I have seen the value are: Anti-Spam by Cleantalk Associated Post Pro by Dennis Hoppe. Cleantalk is a spam filter for comments. It works Read more…
