case study in lobbying, 9 inspirational people & are PR companies sidelining the press?

A case study in lobbying

The story of how the drinks industry here lobbied against a ban on their sponsoring sports events is detailed in today’s Irish Times – well worth a read.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/powerful-play-by-drinks-sector-to-block-ban-on-sponsorship-of-major-sporting-events-1.1645201?page=3

“PRs turn their back on the press”

“Rather than seeking the approval of journalists, the PR industry and its clients would rather reduce the press to the margins.”  Rubbish!  This article makes the UK Independent’s Ian Burrell sound a bit churlish as he states that PR companies are turning their backs on the press and focusing purely on producing content for their clients which is distributed via social media.  He does cite some good examples including a law firm, Mishcon de Reya, which has its own show on Jazz FM and its own TV channel, Morgan Stanley which produces its own financial news, interviews CEOs etc and the international PR company, Weber Shandwick which states that it can’t rely on a ‘middle man’ i.e. journalist to get client messages out in the way that they want.  But content creation is only part of what Weber Shandwick and every other PR company does.  It is true that PR companies – as well as business in general, celebrities etc – use social media to get their messages directly to their target audiences – but I would bet my house that the companies mentioned in this article see social media as an additional – albeit very powerful – communications channel – not as their sole distribution channel - and that Mishcon and Morgan Stanley target ‘traditional’ media as well.  The important thing to remember when deciding on your target media is to ask yourself what is my target customer reading, viewing, listening to etc – and that’s your target media.  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/opinion/ian-burrell-as-corporate-pr-plunges-into-digital-and-socialmedia-does-it-still-need-the-traditional-press-9040288.html

9 Inspirational Entrepreneurs

Here’s a bit of inspiration to kick start the new year – 9 emerging entrepreneurs to watch in 2014.   These 9 are finalists in the 2014 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards, the winner of which will be announced on Thursday, 30^th January.  I’m declaring an interest here as I’m on the Awards committee, I’m one of the sponsors and look after the PR for the Awards! http://www.davidmanleyawards.ie/2014-finalists/

www.linkedin.com/company/diy-pr

www.twitter.com/diyPRireland