One of my first jobs as a freelancer was working for Leed’s based advertising agency Media-Mad. Initially, the first job was laying out their monthly regional magazine JLife. When the opportunity arose to put the content online, I jumped at the chance to take the brand to the next level.

Basing the site on the Joomla! content management system, I adapted pre-made templates and customised various modules to create a site with a community news focus.

Once the site was created, the editor was so pleased with the result that he requested I duplicate it for another in-house publication, Hospitality and Events North.

I continue to keep the site updated with content from the magazine and have adapted it in recent months to feature competitions with online entry forms and an integrated email newsletter that goes out to a dedicated user base.

In 2009 the site received the Jewish Media award for Best Communal Website.