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Exposed: the ‘dark arts’ used by lobbyists and public affairs firms

Posted by Press Gazette on 6 December 2011 at 10:14
Tags: Journalism, National Newspapers, Newspapers, PR

A joint undercover investigation by The Independent and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has exposed the ‘dark arts’ employed by lobbying and public affairs companies to “bury bad coverage and influence public opinion”.

According to a report on The Independent and BIJ websites, reporters taped senior executives at Bell Pottinger and recorded them: (more…)

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Journalists most likely to tell PRs to sling their hook revealed in the CRAPPS

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 1 December 2011 at 10:43
Tags: Journalism, PR, People

PR Agency 10 yetis has released the shortlist for its cheeky annual Communicative Relations Awards from PR Professionals (The CRAPPS).

After receiving “thousands” of votes from PRs for the awards, which are run in association with Daryl Wilcox Publishing, here are the finalists:

(The winners are due to be announced on 15 December)

The journalist that makes you feel warm and furry on the inside: (more…)

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Hugh Grant ‘warned George Osborne over Andy Coulson appointment’

Posted by Press Gazette on 5 October 2011 at 08:59
Tags: Journalism, National Newspapers, Newspapers, PR

Journalists were tipped off about celebrity crime victims before officers responded to their calls, according to actor and phone-hacking campaigner Hugh Grant.

In an interview with The Independent, Grant claimed he had “personal experience of reporting crimes and discovering the first person who turned up on his doorstep was a tabloid journalist”.

He told the paper:

There were little things. You knew if you ever called the police for burglary or mugging or whatever the first person to come round was not a policeman but a journalist.

For years you would think very much twice about calling the police over anything. I want Leveson to uncover the full extent of the relationship between tabloid papers and the police because I think we have only scratched the surface of that.

(more…)

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Swindon advertiser editor quits after four years

Posted by Andrew Pugh on 2 June 2011 at 06:40
Tags: BBC, Customer publishing, Freedom of Information, Journalism Jobs, Journalism education, Launch Pad, Magazines, National Newspapers, Newspapers, Online, PR, People, Regional Newspapers, Television

Swindon Advertiser editor Dave King is standing down after four years at the helm of the Wiltshire daily.

In an interview with local community news website Swindon Link, King said he was quitting to relocate back to the south coast, but the report also said:

Unfortunately, Dave was not able to bid farewell to colleagues and friends. Having made the decision to leave, Dave was told by Newsquest management not to return after the Whitsun Bank Holiday - although he was due to depart on 6 June.

According to Swindon Link, King is being replaced by Gary Lawrence, the current editor of the group’s Wiltshire weeklies, who has been appointed group editor for Newsquest Wiltshire.

The website also reports that Newsquest is undertaking a “major reorganisation” and creating a publishing hub in Oxford.

It added:

The features department is being folded into news and all the sub-editors jobs are being moved to Oxford where they will be expected to work on a range of titles covering Oxfordshire and Wiltshire.

Quite a few staff have chosen to take redundancy rather than make the 30-mile trek to Oxford to work on non-area specific publications.

King dismissed rumours that the Advertiser could become a bi-weekly or weekly title.

Newsquest was asked to comment on King’s departure but the regional managing director for Newsquest Oxfordshire & Wiltshire, Shamus Donald, yesterday did not return calls.

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Facebook hires top PR firm to place negative stories about Google

Posted by Andrew Pugh on 13 May 2011 at 09:42
Tags: Journalism, New Media, Online, PR

Facebook secretly hired a leading PR firm to plant negative stories about internet rival Google, Newsweek tech editor Dan Lyons has revealed.

Writing on the Daily Beast website, which is owned by the same company that runs Newsweek, Lyons reports on how the move has backfired on Facebook and escalated the “war” between the two companies. (more…)

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Andy Coulson sets up as independent communications consultant

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 22 March 2011 at 08:50
Tags: National Newspapers, Newspapers, PR, People

Former News of the World editor turned Tory spin-doctor Andy Coulson has set himself up as a freelance communications consultant, according to the FT.

Jim Pickard’s Westminster blog for the paper reveals that Coulson has signed up One Young World as his first client.

For chapter and verse on Coulson’s resignation and the phone-hacking affair see Press Gazette’s interactive timeline, which provides an at-a-glance guide.

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BBC correspondent Nils Blythe to take up PR role at Bank of England

Posted by Richard Thacker on 21 February 2011 at 10:07
Tags: Broadcast, PR

BBC business correspondent Nils Blythe is leaving the BBC next month to become interim head of communications at the Bank of England, PR Week reports.

Blythe has been with the BBC for 23 years, working on BBC News 24, The Money Programme and, most recently, as business correspondent on Radio 4’s Today Programme.

He is the latest in a series of high-profile moves from the BBC into the world of PR.

Earlier this month Craig Oliver was appointed the new Downing Street head of communications following the resignation of former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, and former BBC global news director Richard Sambrook was appointed chief content officer at PR consultancy Edelman.

In 2008 former Newsnight editor Peter Baron left the BBC to join Google, and political correspondent Guto Harri was appointed communications director for the Mayor London, Boris Johnson.

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Lucky or unlucky? Journalists get the CRAPPs…

Posted by Sam Francis on 15 December 2010 at 15:16
Tags: Journalism, National Newspapers, National Union of Journalists, New Media, Online, PR, People, awards

The winners of the CRAPPs - a series of prizes to celebrate the ”relationship between journalists, bloggers and PRs” - have been announced.

The Communication Relation Awards from PR Professionals - handed out by 10 Yetis PR agency and Daryl Wilcox publishing - may prove to be a mixed blessing for the recipients (and perhaps even for the nominees). (more…)

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Daily UK journalism news email from midday Mon-Fri - sign up here

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 12 October 2010 at 10:40
Tags: Advertising, Agencies, B2B Magazines, BBC, Broadcast, Consumer Magazines, Customer publishing, Free Newspapers, Freedom of Information, International, Journalism, Journalism Jobs, Journalism Technology, Journalism education, Launch Pad, Law, Magazines, Media Business, Media Metrics, Mobile, National Newspapers, National Union of Journalists, New Media, Newspapers, Online, PR, People, Photography, Radio, Regional Newspapers, Student Journalism, Television, awards, press freedom

To receive a free daily email summarising the latest news in UK journalism simply send us your email address using this online form.

The Press Gazette daily email typically provides summaries of the top ten stories from www.pressgazette.co.uk and around the web. It also includes our daily summary of the latest journalism jobs advertised in the UK.

For busy journalists who are often on the move, it’s the perfect way to stay in touch with what is going on in your industry with an at-a-glance summary and links through to the full version of each story.

We’ve been providing a daily email for several years now, but have just introduced a new sign-up process and switched to a different delivery system - hence this blog post.

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Journalists need to start declaring PR freebies

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 4 August 2010 at 10:50
Tags: B2B Magazines, Consumer Magazines, Magazines, Newspapers, PR

The Guardian reports today on the booming business being done by UK PR  agencies to improve the reputations of foreign regimes with dubious human rights records.
It cites the example of Foreign Direct Investment magazine, part of the Financial Times group, which it says sent a journalist to Rwanda on a trip paid for by the PR company Racepoint.
“You used to Google Rwanda and the first thing you would see would be about genocide,”  Racepoint managing director Cathy Pittman told The Guardian. “Now we are feeding content and stories to journalists about the economy and culture. A lot of it is about images.”
The FDI piece, which is behind a paywall but appears on the journalist’s own site, states: “For the past 20 years, Rwanda’s image has been dominated by scenes of genocide and civil war. However, with its tourism sector now thriving, and areas such as ICT, banking and energy set to follow suit, Rwanda is poised to become Africa’s newest success story.”
And the journalist reports: “…the country has taken impressive strides in everything from the rule of law – it prides itself on having zero corruption – to nine years’ free mandatory education.”
A bold claim indeed.
It is a fact of life that journalists need to accept freebies to do their jobs sometimes, especially when it comes to overseas travel. But it does seem that there is a strong case for the PCC to insist that any report which has been financially supported, for instance by a PR company who has paid for flights, should include that information.

Update 5 August: Rwanda has suspended 30 media organisations ahead of its elections, Africa’s “newest success story” indeed.

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Council’s new PR chief to earn more than David Cameron, claims report

Posted by Oliver Luft on 8 June 2010 at 10:10
Tags: Newspapers, PR, Regional Newspapers

The new head of communications at Suffolk County Council is set to earn more than David Cameron once they move into their post next week – the Telegraph has reported.

The new pr chief will be paid up to £700 a day when they start on a six month temporary contract on Monday. (more…)

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Website offering cash for comments to music journalists smacks of exploitation

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 22 March 2010 at 10:43
Tags: Journalism, New Media, Online, PR

A new website is offering to pay music journalists to listen to bands in a move which appears to overstep a number ethical guidelines.

The website, The Men from the Press, charges aspiring musicians a fee to send their music to journalists. It then pays the journalists £5 a pop to listen to bands and make a comment on what they have heard. The whole process is automated. (more…)

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Journalist’s blog about useless PRs. A PR disaster?

Posted by Press Gazette on 6 January 2010 at 10:50
Tags: Journalism, Online, PR

A possible entrant for lawyers’ meal ticket of the year comes from freelance journalist Kevin Braddock, the Times City Diary has claimed. (more…)

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Councillor: Local authority’s newsletters complement press. MPs: Newsletters are propaganda

Posted by Press Gazette on 28 October 2009 at 11:51
Tags: Advertising, Journalism, Media Business, Newspapers, PR

A councillor yesterday claimed local authorities helped sustain, rather than kill off local newspapers.

Liberal Democrat Gerald Vernon-Jackson told a select committee hearing looking at the future of regional media that Portsmouth Council’s paper Flagship complemented the city’s privately run newspaper. (more…)

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Winners announced for PRCA public relations awards

Posted by Press Gazette on 5 November 2008 at 12:51
Tags: PR

Westminster City Council picked up two awards at last night’s Public Relations Consultants Association awards, run in partnership with Press Gazette sister title Hollis.

The council walked away with the gong for in-house PR team of the year, with a second award going to Alex Aiken, winner of in-house PR professional of the year.

Press Gazette sponsored and presented the award for best new media, digital and broadcast consultancy - which was won by Focus PR for its work promoting the Lotus Evora car.

Eulogy, which handles the PR for ABC and Virgin Media, won specialist consultancy of the year.

The awards were held at the Marriott Grosvenor Square in London and were presented by Channel 4 News journalist Bridgid Nzekwu.

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Police PR spending up 13 per cent, FOI survey reveals

Posted by Martin Stabe on 23 May 2008 at 09:45
Tags: Broadcast, Freedom of Information, Journalism, Law, Magazines, National Newspapers, New Media, PR, Regional Newspapers

Police forces are spending nearly £40 million a year on public relations, a figure that has gone up 13 per cent over the past two years.

The figures where compiled by using Freedom of Information Act requests to all police forces in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Four forces failed to reply.

Heather Brooke, one of the journalists who last week won the high court vicotry forcing Parliament to hand over details of MPs’ expenses, supervised the three-month investigation.

In analysis piece run with the report, she writes: “Many forces now see it as their business not just to cut crime but to manage the public’s perception of crime. This is wrong. The police are paid to do one job: enforce the law. They have no business being in the PR racket.”

The Times notes concerns that as part of their PR efforts, some police forces are withholding information about serious crime in an effort to manipulate the news agenda.

Once of the police forces mentioned in the Times report is Northumbria Police, which has increased its PR spend by 55 per cent in two years. Freelance journalist Nigel Green has lodged an official complaint after finding that the force had failed to release details of many crimes to the media.

Update: A complete spreadsheet of the police spending figures is available on the website of freelance James Ball, who wrote the story (and who is a a frequent contributor to Press Gazette).

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Tickets still available for Commons charity night

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 20 May 2008 at 09:19
Tags: Broadcast, Journalism, Law, Magazines, National Newspapers, New Media, PR, Regional Newspapers, Student Journalism

A note from the Journalists’ Charity:

Some tickets are still available for the Journalists’ Charity’s summer party at the House of Commons on the evening of Thursday, 29 May. To purchase tickets, phone 01306 887511 or check the Journalists’ Charity web site.

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Financial Times is most popular read for PR types

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 28 March 2008 at 09:49
Tags: BBC, PR

Some interesting snippets from PR week’s Power Book: “The most definitive guide to the most influential people in PR”.

It claims that the FT is the most popular newspaper among PR types followed by The Guardian, The Times and then jointly The Sun and Sunday Times.

Their favourite mag is The Economist and their favourite non-print news medium is bbc.co.uk/ Their most respected journalists are, in this order: Andrew Marr, John Simpson, Jeff Randall, Jeremy Clarkson(!) and John Humpries/Matthew Parris.

PR Week’s most powerful PRs in various fields are: City and Corporate: Brunswick founder Alan Parker; politics and public affairs: Downing Street chief of strategy Stephen Carter; consumer and celebrity: Freud Communications chairman Matthew Freud and healthcare:Department of Health director of communications Sian Jarvis.

 

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Ex-People editor Mark Thomas ‘hired by Max Clifford’

Posted by Paul McNally on 3 March 2008 at 06:27
Tags: Journalism, PR

PR veteran Max Clifford is reported to have hired Mark Thomas, the former editor of the People, who resigned last year.

The Observer media diary says Clifford offered a similar deal to ex-News of the World editor Phil Hall when he left the paper.

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Flat Earth News - the debate

Posted by Dominic Ponsford on 25 February 2008 at 10:46
Tags: Journalism, PR

Is a culture of “churnalism” destroying real journalism in the UK?

This is one of the central charges of Guardian writer Nick Davies’ book: Flat Earth News - the gloves-off investigation into Fleet Street which has caused a storm of controversy and debate in UK journalism.

And it is the question Press Gazette will be asking - and hoping to answer - at a debate being held at the London College of Communications, in Elephant and Castle, London, on Wednesday, 5 March.

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