Rostrum Communications - A London PR Company

With all the buzz around social media and digital channels, some of the PR tactics that have been around for a while might seem a bit old-fashioned. But they’re still relevant. Let’s look at meeting journalists for a coffee or a lunch.

Why should you meet journalists?
1. to build relationships
2. to find out what they cover, and how they work
3. to get quoted in their articles
4. to see if you can contribute to their publication

What are the rules for success?
1. Know who you’re meeting & why
2. Read up on them - find out what they cover and try to understand their style
3. Have something interesting to say - about big picture issues as well as just what’s happening at your organisation
4. Be nice to them - but remember they are a journalist and you should assume you’re ‘on the record’. A simple rule is - if you don’t want to see it appear in print/online tomorrow morning - don’t say it!
5. follow-up. If they ask you to send a photo - send it! Availability and reliability are key to good relations with the media…

Next time we’ll cover writing contributed articles for trade magazines.

- Mark

This is great from a Director magazine piece on monetising Twitter…

Is Twitter starting to cannibalise its own ecosystem? Some in the industry seem to think so. Responding to Twitter’s decision to limit third-party advertising apps, US angel investor Chris Dixon tweeted: “Twitter is like a drunk guy with an uzi killing partners left and right”. He later added: “Expect investment in ecosystem to drop significantly.”

If you want to get quoted in the media, speak like Chris Dixon does. That’s seriously good quote. Or just hire us and we’ll come up with lines as good as that or better.

Whichever channels you deploy, it’s important to think about social media in the context of your wider online strategy.  It helps to think about social media in terms of a 3-stage process. 

1.       Analysis.  Where are we now?  Who’s saying what about us?  Can we seed into their conversations?  Web listening and seeding software can help with this.  We like Freedata Labs because they’ve got the data specialists to help you make sense of the information the software throws up, but there are other applications out there;

2.       Strategy.  Based on the analysis (1) – what do we do?  What’s the plan, how quickly do we need to make it happen and what resources do we need to make it work (and how do we measure it?);

3.       Delivery.  As a PR firm, a natural product of our efforts is to generate lots and lots of positive, compelling content for our clients.  This can form the basis of your social strategy, and you can add more stuff in as time goes by.  The flow of content must be regular though, or your online reputation will start to suffer.  Measurement also  needs to be realistic, effective and bear some relation to other metrics you trust for other marketing/comms activities.

Daily Mail
Karl West is now City News Editor at the Daily Mail, replacing Ian Lyall who is becoming Editor of Proactive Investors on 12 July.

Daily Mail / The Times
Sam Fleming has left the Daily Mail to join The Times. Sam will be starting as Economics Editor at The Times on Monday 12 July. Hugo Duncan, currently City Reporter at the London Evening Standard, will be replacing Sam at the Daily Mail in September.

Money Observer
Rebecca Rutt has joined Money Observer as Editorial Assistant.

Source: Gorkana

Great coverage went up online yesterday at Reputation Online as our MD, Mark Houlding, blogged about social media for b2b marketers and whether or not it actually matters.

The Times / Freelance Update
Rebecca O’Connor has now left The Times and is now working on freelance commissions

Mail Online
James White has recently joined the Daily Mail website Mail Online as a Reporter covering news.

Financial Mail on Sunday
Financial Mail on Sunday is expanding its coverage of the SME market with the introduction of daily news, advice and features to be carried on sister website, FMWF.com.

Enterprise Editor Helen Loveless will lead the growth in coverage, which is in response to demand from readers and is designed to complement the weekend pages. Enterprise Correspondent Vicki Owen will also contribute to both daily and weekend coverage.

 
Estates Gazette
Patrick Clift, a Reporter at Estates Gazette, has now left to become the British Property Federation’s Public Affairs Manager.

Legal Business
There have been some editorial changes to monthly legal publication Legal Business. Following the arrival of Richard Lloyd, who has joined the magazine as Editor, and Jeremy Hodges, who has joined as Senior Reporter, the Reporters are now as below:

Mark McAteer, Deputy Editor, now covers litigation, TMT, EU/Competition, regulation and insurance globally.

Chris Johnson, Senior Reporter, now covers finance (including structured finance) and capital markets.

Jeremy Hodges, Senior Reporter, now covers corporate, alternative business structures and outsourcing.

Becky Pritchard, Reporter, covers CSR, real estate, private client, corporate fraud and regulation.

Source: Gorkana

BBC London 94.9

Esther Stanhope, BBC London’s Breakfast Show Producer is now on maternity leave.  Kim Davis is now the best person to contact regarding all queries relating to the Breakfast Show.

Source: Gorkana

The Times is now charging for access to its online content.  News International has announced that The Times and The Sunday Times new websites went live yesterday.  There is an initial free trial period of one month for registered users, who will see a host of new digital features to enhance coverage and encourage interactivity.  The launch of the newly-designed sites, which will replace the combined Times Online, marks the first time that each title has had a dedicated online presence.

The sites can be viewed at www.thetimes.co.uk and www.thesundaytimes.co.uk respectively. From June, a charge of £1 for a day or £2 for a week will give customers access to both sites.  Access to the digital services will also be included in the seven-day subscriptions of print customers to The Times and The Sunday Times.

We will closely monitor the performance of the site traffic and keep you posted as to the implications of this move by The Times.  One assumes that where Rupert Murdoch goes, other papers may follow, but nothing is set in stone as social media, user-generated content and free content.  The FT reported that the paywall on the new Times website may deter 90% of Times online readers

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3f99bac0-685d-11df-a52f-00144feab49a.html - but they would say that, wouldn’t they!

Computing
As of 10 June, Computing is changing from a weekly to fortnightly publication. The publication will also be undergoing some content and design changes, including changes to page size and increasing the number of pages. The new-look Computing will aim to provide an informed analytical view on the industry news and developments that have an effect on a senior IT audience. It will contain more in-depth articles, analysis and opinion as well as interviews with leading figures from the IT industry. In addition to this, Computing’s new website is due to go live in early Autumn.

Financial Times
Alec Russell has been appointed Comment and Analysis Editor at the Financial Times. Alec, who is currently World News Editor, will replace Caroline Daniel, who will become Editor of FT Weekend in June.

Telegraph Media Group
Telegraph Media Group has announced that James Hurley starts today as the new Business Club Editor. He will be working with Richard Tyler to expand TMG’s coverage of small business and will, in particular, be developing the Business Club community in The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and Telegraph.co.uk.

Guardian News & Media
Julia Kollewe has joined The Guardian / The Observer business desk as a Financial Reporter, covering property, insurance and other financial and business stories.

The Independent
The Independent now has a new Families section within the daily paper. The section, which used to be combined with health, is edited by Associate Features Editor Louisa Saunders.

Source: Gorkana

Reputation: Are management consultancies a threat to PR? - http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/features/1002720/Reputation-management-consultancies-threat-PR/