About

The West Londoner is a news site focused on everything west of Westminster within London. Founded by Gaz Corfield, then a Brunel University journalism student, the site received 1 million pageviews in 24 hours at the height of the London riots of August 2011, with a total of 1.9 million pageviews during that week.

Since those halcyon days, the West Londoner has settled down to reporting local news from West London, with the odd snippet of news from around the capital as well.

Gaz Corfield – Editor

Gaz completed his journalism training at Brunel University in West London, on their NCTJ-accredited MA course. Having spent a year editing a newspaper serving some 15,000 students, Gaz decided he might be able to make a living out of this strange craft and so stuck with it.

Gaz is responsible for building and maintaining the website, writing the majority of the news content, editing everything and keeping the other sections fresh and interesting. He also has a profitable side enterprise in hanging wallpaper with one arm tied behind his back.

Steve Harland – Game Overdose Editor

A lone wolf, a man ahead of his time, a genius amongst mere mortals, like Prometheus who first stole fire from the gods Stephen Harland is here to both enlighten you, and remind you that he’s better than you are.

Ricky Compton - Assistant Editor

Ricky is a second year accounting student at Brunel with a blogger’s heart. Originally writing for Brunel University’s revamped newspaper under Gaz’s editing, he’s been with WL from the start. Ricky is still primarily a reviewer but with a growing taste for ‘proper’ journalism. Ricky’s input is spread across WL, both in the foreground and background.

Amanda Leek – Reporter

Amanda qualified with her NCTJ Multimedia Journalism and worked full-time at the Hillingdon & Uxbridge Times in 2011 but crossed over to the WL because Gaz said she could do more animal stories and he’s pretty cool, as editors go. She is responsible for the Weekly Crime Roundup and does sporadic stories on arts, culture and social issues. She REALLY loves animal stories.

Emily Venables – Reporter

Emily is a Brunel University journalism student on their current MA Journalism course.

Anna Maysey – Reporter

Anna is a graduate in English Language from the University of Kent and is currently studying for her NCTJ qualification, having run the university newspaper and website for two years. She is currently freelancing as a newswriter for the WL so Gaz doesn’t have a nervous breakdown.

Xenia Coudrille – Writer

Xenia is currently in her 3rd year studying International Politics at Brunel and will be graduating this summer. This often means she is busy essaying rather than news-writing, but this doesn’t stop her giving her beloved boyfriend (the editor) a kick up backside when he starts to slack off. She is fairly likely to be a fully fledged cat lady by the age of 43.

All of WL’s contributors are unpaid. If you’ve read an article on here that you liked, we’d really appreciate it if you sent us a few quid so the author can have a beer. Donations are welcome via Paypal.

If you want to get in touch with the WL team, have a look at our Contact Us page.