BBC News
Thomas Edgington, currently Economics & Business Analyst at BBC News, has been appointed Broadcast Journalist & Presenter Brief Writer for the channel. Thomas will start his new role on 29 September.

Banking Technology
Neil Ainger has been appointed Deputy Editor at Informa’s Banking Technology. He was previously Editor of FST - Financial Sector Technology and starts in his new role on 6 September.

EuroWeek Asia
Rachel Evans has joined EuroWeek Asia as a Reporter covering loans and structured finance. She was previously Asia Editor at International Financial Law Review.

Source: Gorkana

This second in our occasional series of tips on ‘traditional’ PR techniques looks at writing an opinion piece for a trade publication.

1. First, pitch your idea. Most editors will expect a 3-4 line synopsis covering why you think the article is timely and relevant to their readership. Your synopsis should pose more questions than it answers.

2. Agree wordcounts and delivery times with the editor. At this stage, you can also check where copyright is assigned following publication, and confirm what rights you have to use/reprint the piece after it’s published.

3. Write your ‘essay plan’. A good structure will drastically increase your chances of writing a good article. A basic essay plan could look something like this…

a. Intro
b. Explore the issue
c. Present a range of potential solutions
d. Give your view on which solution might work best
e. Conclude/future-gazing

4. Write your article. Link the paragraphs with phrases like ‘as a result’, ‘consequently’ to make the piece flow. Hedge your bets – you don’t want a lone aggressive phrase to be lifted from your article and re-quoted out of context. Phrases like ‘we might expect’ are useful for toning down your punchier points. Always, always remember George Orwell’s ‘Six Rules’ of writing, as they’ve never been bettered.

5. Send your article to the editor on time, with interesting photography (if you have any) and ask them to confirm receipt, and to send you a link/hard copy when the article is published. Think about how you can maximise the exposure of the article – sending it to prospects, including it in an email newsletter, posting it on your corporate blog, etc. Finally, sit back and bask in your glory.

·         Working Lunch Reporter Jenny Culshaw has joined BBC Radio 5 Live as a business presenter on the Tony Livesey show;

·         Josh Noble has been appointed Asia Beyond Brics editor at the Financial Times. He starts in his new role in late September and will be based in Hong Kong, where he will continue working on the Beyond Brics blog, and also work on the FT’s main Asia news desk;

·         James Charles, previously mortgage writer at The Times, has joined the The Sunday Times as money reporter. James, who is covering all aspects of personal finance, with a focus on mortgages.

Source: Gorkana

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

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.

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 / 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