This week in PR (27 September)

About the author

Richard Bailey Hon FCIPR is editor of PR Academy's PR Place Insights. He has taught and assessed undergraduate, postgraduate and professional students.

Westminster Alex Woolfall @woolfalex
Westminster Alex Woolfall @woolfalex

News in brief

  • Who offered this sound advice on grammar to communicators? “The communicator must make people understand the weight of the reality of nouns that reflect the reality of people. And this is a mission of communication: to communicate with reality, without sweetening with adjectives or adverbs.” It’s Pope Francis, according to this story in The Guardian.
  • Here’s a summary of Francis Ingham’s bullish report given at the start of the PRCA Conference.
  • Andrew Bloch, co-founder of Frank, appears at number 52 of a celebrity-studded list of top 100 British entrepreneurs. Evadney Campbell MBE, founder of Shiloh PR, appears at number 98.

Academic and education

  • Stephen Waddington: Report finds communicators fall short on trust and emerging areas of practice (25 September)
    ‘The European Communication Monitor (ECM) 2019 explores trust in the public relations profession and organisational advocacy. The report finds that both fall short of expectation.’
  • Arianne Smart: Ten top tips for your PR degree (21 September)
    ‘PR is all about reputation and it’s not just the reputation of your clients or company that you have to think about. You need to make sure that you have a good reputation too – perhaps work on your social media presence, try networking and start making your name known.’

CIPR strategy

Ethics and professionalism

Gender, diversity and wellbeing

Details have been announced for the first BME Pros Conference: comms in a post-mainstream world, Friday 29 November 2019 at Amnesty International, London.

Elizabeth Bananuka

  • Katrina Marshall: That Time I Unplugged (22 September)
    ‘The whole point of mindfulness, being present and tapping into the feelings that the “always on” culture supresses, is to recognize that nothing’s perfect … and to be ok with that.’

Politics and public affairs 

  • Simon Fitzpatrick: What did we learn at Labour Party Conference 2019 (25 September)
    ‘The ambiguous position which Labour has ended up in on Brexit – backing a second referendum but not clearly committing to campaign to remain – is perplexing to many in the party.’

Public and third sectors

  • Ross Wigham: Weather warnings and political engagement (26 September)
    ‘The political environment is more volatile and febrile than we’ve known for a very long time, with even veteran journalists and PR people admitting they’ve never known anything like it. This is impacting the NHS in lots of ways with Brexit sucking the time away from everything else.’
  • Darren Caveney: Nominate someone brilliant in the UnAwards19 (21 September)
    ‘When I set up the UnAwards six years ago it was with the very clear mission to make them the most accessible industry awards around.  And where the community were actively involved in shaping and deciding some of the winners.’

Issue, Crisis and Reputation management

  • Maja Pawinska Sims with Arun Sudhaman: Hong Kong’s Reputation Challenge [podcast] (23 September)
    ‘What’s in the brief is a description of the challenge Hong Kong is facing… It’s an assignment for global PR firms that’s more trouble than it’s worth. No one turns this assignment down because they’re worried about the reputation of the industry. They’re worried about their own reputations.’

Internal communication

  • Katie Macaulay with Nita Clarke: How to start a movement [podcast] (24 September)
    ‘We’ve always had a huge productivity gap in this country. It seemed to me it could be related to the fact that only about a third of the UK workforce are actively engaged.’
  • Rachel Miller: Thomas Cook’s Sunny Heart breaks for employees (23 September)
    ‘Employees are taking to Twitter to express their pride in the brand, sadness at the end of the company they know and love and concern for customers and their own financial futures.’
  • Agnes Costa: Effective line manager communication – John Clegg, Oxford University Press (23 September)
    ‘Line managers are individuals, and each approaches their communication responsibilities differently, based on their individual background and skillset.’

Brands and influence

Campaigns and creativity

Media and digital

  • Ste Davies: Why I’m A Practicing Digital Minimalist (no date)
    ‘The first step to conquering an addiction is to first admit you have a problem. My name is Stephen and I’m addicted to technology.’
  • Tim Williams: Media 102? A brief update to media 101 (24 September)
    ‘A story that is right for social media and has the potential to go viral may not immediately capture the imagination of a traditional journalist.’
  • Paul Sutton with Euan Semple: Is social media broken, or are people broken? [podcast] (22 September)
    ‘In some ways the internet is a mirror and it’s showing our true nature. Just to blame somebody else or to expect the social media companies to tidy it up seems a missed opportunity. It’s our human characteristics we should be dealing with.’

#prstudent #bestPRblogs

It’s early days. We’re in discovery mode for new PR student bloggers and social media communicators. You can read more about our contest and community here.

  • Niamh Murray (Ulster): The rise of the millennial (22 September)
    ‘Millennials:  we’re a “live in the moment” kind of generation – and we spend accordingly; because thanks to previous generations, we’ve no idea how many moments we’re going to have.’