What we do – and how you can get involved

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.

The Mind the PR Gap conference is at University of Greenwich on Saturday 11 July. Photo: Granito on Pixabay
The Mind the PR Gap conference is at University of Greenwich on Saturday 11 July. Photo: Granito on Pixabay

We launched PR Place in 2017 to address the space where professional practice meets academic research and inquiry. The purpose was to support individuals aiming to become qualified in public relations, internal communication and public affairs and to encourage thinking about career development and the public relations professional project.

Those aspirations remain, though for management reasons we have since integrated PR Place within the new PR Academy website.

We’ve produced a series of free guides that support those studying and practising public relations, and we have provided a showcase for new books, new thinking and student and alumni thought leadership. But with your help, there’s much more that we’d like to do.

Here are six ways you can get involved in our PR Place Insights section this year.

  1. #ThisWeekinPR
    You’d expect public relations practitioners to be thoughtful and to be good communicators. You’d expect them to be on top of the news agenda and emerging trends. There’s so much good content out there that one service we provide is simply to provide a weekly digest of what’s new and what’s interesting, linking to the original sources. You don’t need to pitch your posts, but it can’t help to follow us on social media so we can follow you back and keep up with your thoughts and your articles. There’s no science to what we include: it’s an unashamedly subjective process, but it also shows how PR works. If an article gets lots of shares on social media, we’ll pay it more attention and are more likely to include it.
  2. Mind the PR Gap conference, Greenwich, Saturday 11 July 2020
    We’re finalising the agenda right now, so will provide more details and booking arrangements shortly. But please save the date if you’re interested in meeting up with some prominent practitioners, educators and academics to consider topics of shared interest at a low cost event. Expect plenty of discussion around careers and competences and around the implications of automation and artificial intelligence (AI).
  3. Book reviews
    We publish reviews of selected new books by practitioners and academics. So if you’re an author or publisher, do please make us aware of your forthcoming and new publications. We’re also looking to expand our coverage and to encourage new perspectives so we welcome offers to write occasional reviews for the site.
  4. Guest posts
    We receive a stream of pitches of stories and offers of guest posts, but have to be selective about what we accept. To increase your chances, here are some helpful questions. Does your article fit with our stated editorial interests as outlined in this article? (To repeat, we cover careers, professionalism, education, new thinking.) Is your article original and exclusive? If it’s been published elsewhere, then we’ll consider it for #ThisWeekinPR, but not for repeat publication. Does it add value to our site and our readers, or are you merely hustling for the link? Does the article offer a fresh perspective, backed by evidence and experience?
  5. Careers focus
    We’re interested in the whole lifecycle from university education, through professional qualifications and CPD and onto (un)retirement. We’re keen to share obituaries of those who have made a significant contribution. And to address one glaring gap, we’ve been celebrating experienced practitioners and educators through our occasional #50over50 series. (We welcome suggestions of who else to profile). But we recognise that careers are not linear and we’re keen to hear from and to profile individuals at all stages on their aspirations and challenges. Upcoming guides will look at ‘freelance and flexible working’, and at ‘coaching and mentoring’. We’ll be providing guidance to beginners on how to find work in public relations. In a word, we’re focused on talent: how to identify talent, and how to develop and demonstrate it.
  6. Student showcase 
    We publish a selection of thought leadership posts written by candidates for the CIPR Professional PR Diploma. We’re now half way through the academic year, and are sharing a selection of PR student blog posts each week (#bestPRblogs). While only one individual can emerge as the winner will emerge at the end of the academic year, there are multiple opportunities for new voices and different universities to feature each week, so we’re on the lookout for new names to include. The best way to bring your posts to our attention is to tag them with #prstudent on social media.

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