Too young to die…

Posted by on Mar 4, 2011 in Blog, PR | 9 comments I was deeply saddened to learn of the sudden death of Mark Hanson, a highly regarded PR professional and deputy managing director of Wolfstar Consultancy. We had exchanged emails recently as Mark had won a competition on my blog for a ticket to a social media event in London which was held on Monday and I was looking forward to meeting him there. He didn’t turn up, his name was left...
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The Peter Bingle factor

Posted by on Feb 27, 2011 in Blog, PR | 3 comments I enjoyed reading Peter Bingle’s account of the steps he takes to win new public affairs clients, from visits to the opera and theatre to knowing the right restaurants and wines. It’s clearly his personal touch which has won him the contracts he bid for, but having fun too has been part of it. “I once won a huge piece of business because I spoke to the prospective...
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The dangers of a one man brand

Posted by on Jan 19, 2011 in Blog, PR | 5 comments I am a huge Apple fan and desperately sad to learn that its CEO Steve Jobs is unwell again and being treated for neuroendocrine cancer. He has been widely credited with transforming Apple from a failing company in the 1990s to the very desirable and hugely successful brand it is today. The big question is, can it survive without him at the helm? Such are the shock waves surrounding the health of...
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The Soil Association and Carter-Ruck

Posted by on Jan 19, 2011 in Blog, PR | 2 comments Receiving a letter threatening libel from Carter-Ruck is fairly certain to send shivers down your spine. They are said to have sent such a letter to the Soil Association, the organic farmers’ group, after it objected to a planning application from its client to build an intensive pig farm.  Carter-Ruck is reported to have written to them saying that their objection is defamatory and should...
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Should web links be free?

Posted by on Dec 15, 2010 in Blog, PR, Social Media, updates | 2 comments I’ve been following the latest  saga regarding paying The Newspaper Licensing Agency for sharing web links. Francis Ingham, Chief Executive of the Public Relations Consultants Association, explains via a video interview why they are appealing to the Court of Appeal against a ruling which decided that media monitoring agencies should pay for using web links. Mr Ingham describes it as a...
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From journalism to PR

Posted by on Sep 16, 2010 in PR | 2 comments There’s an interesting article in the latest PR Week about increasing numbers of journalists switching to PR as newspapers close up and down the country and they succumb to the temptation to earn much more money from leading agencies. When I first made this transition, the comments from former colleagues did make me feel almost as if I had sold my soul. But I will always consider myself...
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Labour’s black Easter

Posted by on Apr 12, 2009 in Politics, PR | 5 comments What is there left to be said about the tawdry, squalid smear campaign hatched by Damien McBride and Derek Draper and their slanderous emails against leading Conservative politicians? It’s been splashed across the front of every paper today. Is this the kind of “best practice” which led to McBride being ranked at No 2 in PR Week’s list of influential political PR leaders...
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How can charities survive?

Posted by on Mar 25, 2009 in PR, video | 7 comments This video provides advice from the experts on how charities can use communications to promote their organisations during the economic downturn. It features hot tips from Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow; Mark Webster, Director of Communications with the Charities Aid Foundation; Ted Hart, founder of International ePhilapnthorpy Foundation; and David Senior, Director of Development with ...
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How to pitch a story to a national magazine

Posted by on Mar 24, 2009 in PR, video | 9 comments I heard Victoria Woodhall, deputy features editor for You magazine, Mail on Sunday, give this helpful advice at a charity conference, and asked her to share it via my video. Although it is aimed at the charity sector and describes how they can successfully achieve positive media coverage in a glossy mag, such as You, it is also great advice for the communications industry in general. I hope you...
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“Deal with Brown, prepare for Cameron”

Posted by on Mar 23, 2009 in Headway, PR, video | 8 comments How should charities communicate and survive the economic downturn? Peter Bingle, chairman of Bell Pottinger Public Affairs had some sound advice – “deal with Brown, prepare for Cameron.” It was uncomfortably political for some of the audience at the conference where Peter spoke, but made sound sense to me. I was attending as chair of trustees for Headway Cambridgeshire, and...
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Christmas, the credit crunch and alcoholism

Posted by on Nov 21, 2008 in PR | 22 comments I issued a press release this afternoon on behalf of a client, Veronica Callanan, a recovered alcoholic who now runs her own rehab clinic, and within seconds the deputy editor of Take5 magazine responded and said she "would love" to run Veronica’s story. We are hoping for further media coverage too because Veronica’s story is truly inspirational. And, having lost four dear...
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