Yesterday Chief Inspector Mark Payne of the West Midlands Police spoke to the Isle of Man Social Media Club . Following the Third Thursday meeting, he and I had a fascinating conversation about how social media is changing the police’s relationship with the media.  What follows is a blog post on the subject that Mark published a few days ago and he’s kindly allowed me to republish it here.

I tweeted about an interesting article in the Guardian last week. The thrust of the argument is that police forces are pumping out PR based press releases, which papers print unedited due to lack of resources. Police are therefore writing their own headlines, and not telling the public about crime. Using my newly acquired media monitoring skills, I noticed that this link had created a huge amount of interest, so I thought it might be useful to give people a personal insight into the relationship between the police and the media.

Firstly, it is right to state that society in general would be a worse place without journalists, both local and national. The role they perform in holding public authorities to account is crucial to a democracy, and as we have seen with the recent MP’s expenses debate, they can foster change on a grand scale. I would not want to live in a world where the media is supressed or controlled. Although nobody likes to be caught out or embarrassed by the media, it beats the alternative where public bodies do what they want without fear of exposure.

Although I now run the press office for West Midlands Police, I have spent most of my career as a Detective. I have investigated murders, rapes, serious violence, taken guns off the street and dismantled drug rings. I am therefore well placed to offer a rounded view on the police relationship to the media.

I have first hand experience of working with the media at the coal face  with varied results. For example, I used a newspaper appeal to trace a crucial witness to a murder, and I have also found the media to be really accommodating when there are important messages that we need to get out to the public. I have also found myself on numerous occasions having fairly heated disagreements with journalists when they want to publish stories that would have a detrimental impact on live investigations.

I have always struggled with the concept of a journalist insisting they want to publish a story, when the police are telling them that doing so would make it more difficult to either arrest or convict the offender. My instincts as a police officer are all about getting the bad guy locked up, whereas journalistic instincts tend to be to get the story out before another media outlet. This is often the cause of friction between police and media.

In the time that I have been in the press office (approaching 18 months) there has been a marked change in the media world. There are many fewer journalists, and less local papers. Although the media are still an important part of our communications plans, we now place greater emphasis than before on local communications, delivered by way of officers contacts in the community, newsletters, local meetings and with web based communications. This is not because we are trying to provide less information to the public, just a recognition of the changing landscape.

One of the assertions in the Guardian article is that police do not tell people about crime. I would argue that there is more information available than ever before. If you click on this link http://bit.ly/54BEsF and type in your postcode, all of the information about crime in your neighbourhood is available at the touch of a button. Even in the halcyon days to which the reporter refers, there was never this amount of information available, so it is a little unfair to suggest we are hiding crimes. What I think the article means is that we are not giving it to journalists in the way they would like to receive it.

In my current role, I have daily conversations with a wide range of journalists. They are generally easy to get along with, and we have good relationships with most local papers. There are clearly competing demands and occasional fall outs over stories, but on the whole the relationship is positive. Often queries from journalists will make us look again at an issue and ask whether we have actually done the right thing. Where we haven’t I encourage officers to say so, and put it right. This seems to me to be a quite healthy relationship, and one that I encourage.

It is not our role to fill the newspapers with stories. We will issue a press release if there is a policing purpose behind it, for example, we want public help to identify an offender, or want to warn the public about a specific crime type which they can guard against.  We will also issue press releases where there is good news to report, so that the public get a balanced view, and are not left afraid to go out at night.

The relationship between police and the media will continue to evolve. I remain optimistic that the traditions of policing and journalism can continue to co-exist for the good of everybody, and I will continue to look forward my local paper every week.

Johnston Press, parent company to the Isle of Man Newspapers, is introducing subscriptions fees on their websites in a pilot scheme starting next week.

The Worksop Guardian, Ripley & Heanor News, Northumberland Gazette, Whitby Gazette (all in England), and the Southern Reporter and Carrick Gazette (in Scotland) will restrict access to non-subscribers, in an attempt to create revenues  from their websites.

The papers will allow access to the homepage of each paper, but stories away from the main page will require a subscription of £5 for a three month trial. Johnston Press says it will review whether to extend the scheme past this date and to other sites depending on the pilot’s success.  So far, there has been no announcement concerning the Isle of Man Examiner, Manx Independent or the Isle of Man Courier.

Rupert Murdoch has been threatening to do much the same with the web content published by his news companies around the world.  It’s already been introduced at the Wall Street Journal.

Will it work?  I do hope so.  I hate to think about the news media and publishing companies being on their knees, unable to attract advertisers or to sell hard copy newspapers.

But local and regional newspapers are going to have to raise their game if this going to work.  People are not going to part with hard cash for cheque presentation stories or for information they can get free elsewhere.  They will pay for quality reporting and exclusive content.

The eyes of the news media industry will be on Johnston Press to see how this pilot plays out.  If it works, we’ll see a bunch of publishers introducing the paid subscription model before long.

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The key finding: “The project also reveals that the practice of making ‘follow-up’ calls by PR practitioners is intensely annoying and ultimately counter-productive…”

This is nothing new; I’ve heard it time and again from news professionals all over, many of whom get more than 50, 100, 200+ story pitches each and every working day.  If they took a call about each story pitch, answering the phone is all they’d ever do!

But here’s the rub. Based on my 18 years’ experience in the front line of media relations…the phone calls work.  They do. Doing a ringround within a day of issuing a news release significantly increases pick up of the story;  there is no doubt.

So what is the solution?  I do feel for our colleagues in the media, and understand how they must feel undersiege. But the results speak for themselves…making that quick call to make sure the reporter notices your story helps get coverage.

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Time was, when asked this questions, I’d start to recite deadlines, copy guidelines and descriptions of newsroom teams.  But that was before the Internet changed everything.

Now print journalists are producing video reports and podcasts.  Radio and TV journalists are blogging. And then there are bloggers, who many say are a law unto themselves.

So how does today’s media work?  The only definitive answer is:  All the time.

What are the deadlines?  As soon as the story breaks. Who should we be pitching?  Depending on the story. What do journalists need to cover our news? Just about every kind of content you can lay your hands on, and add to that access, exclusivity, transparency and truth.

Simples!

Well maybe not.  In the online world, an organisation’s relationship with journalists is more now complex than ever before.  It takes time, thought and expertise to navigate the media landscape.  And as soon as you think you are finding your way, the route is bound to change.

<shameless plug>

To find out how the media relevant to your organisation works, why not come out to our one day workshop Getting to grips with PR, 06 October in Douglas Isle of Man.

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Most newspapers have moved online either wholly or within a mixed publishing model. There is a myriad of benefits to both the publisher and the reader, but there is one downside that comes up time and again.

People like to read the newspaper.  They like to spread it out on the table and take their time dipping into the news, especially at the weekend.  Getting their news served up online eliminates important rituals and some of the enjoyment of a Sunday morning.

That’s why the New York Times has just introduced an online article skimmer that organises and lays out stories to look similar to a hard copy newspaper.

The reader can easily scan sections and dip into the stories that interest them most. And the articles will gradually fade as they get older, so the newest content is identified at a glance.  Of course it doesn’t look exactly like a newspaper, because that format would be too difficult to navigate and would be counter intuitive to Internet users. But does spread the news out across the screen instead of displaying a list of links.

Unfortunately,  graceful flutter of turning pages is not there, but then neither are the blackened fingers.

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January was a particularly busy month for me, what with one week’s hols, one week in London at a trade show and one week caught up with family business, I’m still trying to grasp that it’s February already.

So  I was  probably the last one in the Isle of Man to know that Richard Butt, editor of Isle of Man newspapers is keeping a blog.

And it’s really good.  It gives readers and insight into the workings of the newsroom and explains what goes into publishing a newspaper three times a week. Check it out here.

And Richard, welcome to the IoM blogosphere!

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Image via Wikipedia

1. Stephen Davies must have spent a lot of time in compiling this list of UK jounalists on Twitter.

2. Christopher Howse asks if we should abandon the use of the apostrophe.  I vote no!

3. Look who made the UK top 50 PR people by Twitter influence!

4. Chris Brogan has a case study of an individual told to stay out of social media by his boss. Sadly I’ve heard similar stories myself.  Talk about baby and bathwater.

5. Should you or shouldn’t you? Niall Cook posts a list of questions you should ask yourself before taking your company into Twitter.

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• Jeeple and Preeple

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been to dozens of awards dinners over the years and on the whole they are generally either very tedious affairs or very boozy parties, depending on whether you’ve won an award.

Last night I had the opportunity to attend the Awards for Excellence gala in Douglas, Isle of Man.  This was not your run of the mill awards ceremony.  In true Manx style, Isle of Man Newspapers made their event a real fun night out. It didn’t matter if you were a winner or not, you were glad to be there.

From having the event compered by Graham Davies, known as one of the funniest men in Britain, to the fabulous multi-media show by Paul Moulton to Geoff Corkish’s song, to the dancing ladies in skimpy costumes to the surprise performance by Robin Gibb there was something for everyone.  And the event was broadcast live online so if you didn’t make it to the Gaiety Theater, you could still enjoy the show from anywhere.

Oh yeah…a lot of people from the public, private and not for profit sectors picked up awards too. Well done to Trudi Williamson and her team at Isle fo Man Newspapers.

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• Third Thursday

Anyone who is interested in journalism, publishing, communication, art, media, teaching, learning, Internet, marketing.  In short, anyone who is curious about how humans communicate should come along.

Bloggers, podcaster, Facebookers, MySpacers and Twitterers are all welcome.  Or maybe you are just curious about these online social platforms and wonder how they fit into your life and business.

The idea behind the Social Media Club is to share best practices, establish ethics and standards, and promote media literacy around the emerging area of social media.

It costs nothing but the price of your meal and you’ll definitely learn something.

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Every once in a while a journalist, a blogger or commenter will push things just a little too far. I’ve been accused of it myself once or twice.  Usually I’m happy to make things right.

Today the Independent on Sunday teaches us all a lesson on how to write an apology for publication (blame the reader!):

“As we are happy to point out, we, The Media, have been keen supporters of Mrs Beckham since day one, and any indications to the contrary have been entirely in the imaginations of you, the reading public. Shame on you.”

Love it!

Last evening, after a pretty trying day, I spoiled myself by sitting down in a quiet room and reading the newspaper.  For someone who usually only finds time to scan a website, it was a real treat. The Isle of Man Examiner is still published as a broadsheet, and I spread the pages out and thoroughly enjoyed myself as I ruffled and turned them and took in stories of every description from all over the Island.

You don’t often get to see a 36 point headline on a website.  You miss many of the colour stories and much of the comment,  With search you see only what you are looking for and inevitably you miss out on a lot. You don’t get to see how the editor has organised the page to give prominence to one story or another; you rarely look outside your own world.  And for all the crowing I do about the long tail and the future of online, this is surely a great weakness of this media.

The people at the Isle of Man Newspapers tread a fine line in reporting on a community of which they are an important part.  Each week, three times a week, they publish news, information and opinion of interest to the whole of the community and at the same time they carry enough specialist information to satisfy most individuals on the Island.

You can’t please all of the people all of the time, it’s true.  But I think on the whole, Isle of Man newspapers usually gets its story mix right.  News publishing is a tough, increasingly competitive business and much respect is due to professionals at our newspaper for their efforts in reflecting our community.

At the very least, I thank them for providing me an enjoyable read last night.

Full disclosure: I write a weekly column, Tech Talk, in the Isle of Man Examiner.  This comment does not relate to my own copy. (I’d already read that!)

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Total revenue fell 6.3% to £293m for the first six months of 2008, year on year, while operating profit fell 15.6% to £81.6m. Interesingly, the group reports that digital revenues grew by 52.1%, but I suspect they were starting from a very low base.

The company said it has cut costs by £7.6m in the first half and will continue to do so.

Well cost cutting is all well and good as long as the quality of the reporting doesn’t suffer. Management needs to ensure editorial staff is sufficient in both number and ability to turn in the content that that readers need.  Otherwise they’ll leave in droves and advertisers will follow them.

I’ve seen a real change in the Examiner’s business pages since reporter Julie Taylor left several months ago and haven’t heard anything about a replacement being sought.  The Editor’s post too has been vacant for some weeks now, but Richard Butt will soon be arriving to take the helm.

It’s comforting to know that Isle of Man newspapers is one of the most profitable outfits in Johnston Press’s stable.  Hopefully the cuts here won’t go much deeper.

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It seems a whole bunch of people have their knickers in a twist about a split second view of a portrait of murderer Myra Hindley in a Visit London promotional video shown in Beijing.

• A spokesperson for Boris Johnson said the use of the image is ‘deeply disturbing’.
• A senior government official told Sky News that someone ‘should be fired immediately’.
• Downing Street says the use of the image was ‘in poor taste’.

Google News shows about 30 mentions of the Hindley image’s use in Beijing.

But let’s get some perspective. The majority of the 30 mentions of the use of the Hindley portrait is from the UK.  Run a Google News search for Jimmy Page + Beijing and you get more than 1,800 hits from all around the world.

I’d guess the message received by the outside world is that London is planning to have a real good party in 2012. And that wasn’t that the real objective?

As I mentioned on Simon Wakeman’s blog this morning, artists’ best work is often a reflection of a society. Britons don’t like this particular reflection, but that’s the point. It’s not inappropriate; it’s art.

And when you consider that video in question is a couple of years old and the glimpse of artist Michael Harvey’s portrait was an ambient gallery shot meant to highlight Britain’s vibrant art scene, it’s clear that no offense was intended. So why are people calling for heads to roll?

As Simon rightly points out, this tempest in a teapot gives an excellent insight into what organisers of London 2012 are up against.  One false step and UK media is ready to pounce!

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Employer: Pear Publishing

Beat: Worldwide celebrity music, culture and business.

Career highlight: Oh god, I have a few! The first one was when I launched my first celeb mag back in 1997. I was still at university in Swansea. Basically, I was a typical student and I wanted to get into nightclubs/gigs for free and reviewing was the way to go! But also, there were no other cool media outlets in Wales that I could work for, so the answer was to launch my own mag. At the time I thought it was just a normal everyday thing to do… looking back now I was young stupid and completely reckless! The truth is it became an overnight success and it catapulted me into the London media scene.

The other highlight probably sounds very superficial but I’m going to say it anyway…It’s the endless round of after show parties! Even after 11 years, I still get a thrill when I receive my VIP pass. Getting wasted with Hollywood A list babes backstage at Glasto, it doesn’t get much better than that!

Your first job in media: When I was at uni I did a placement at a local newspaper as a typesetter. Then I worked part-time as a media co-ordinator for Radio One. My first full time job was media co-ordinator at Kiss FM.

Your dream job: What I do now! I know it probably sounds a bit cliché but I own my own media company so I get to alter my job to suit my mood which means I’m always doing exactly what I want to do. It’s perfect.

Oddest story you’ve ever covered: Well I work with celebrities a lot so pretty much every story I cover is weird in one way or another. I have to say the weirdest one was quite recently. I went out to the Czech Republic to cover Creamfields Central Europe. The event was hit by a hurricane so I found myself in a field with 40, 000 fans all running for cover from the pieces of equipment all flying off the stage. I ducked for cover under this massive Hummer with some blonde, curly-haired chick. We were talking for a while then some guy asked her for her autograph…turned out she was some famous Czech singer from a drum and bass band, talk about an exclusive!

I hate when PRs: Forget they wouldn’t have a job if it wasn’t for us. That should really set the cat among the pigeons!

I love when PRs: I really respect their ability to put enthusiasm into even the most mundane of stories. That’s not really a compliment is it? I know…I admire the unnerving way they come to the rescue of their clients’ public persona, even in the face of the most vicious media attacks.

Thanks to Franchisor Marketing for highlighting this campaign.

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According to the Social Media Club blog there are nine get togethers organised before the end of the month. All of them are in American cities, plus there is one other taking place right here in the Isle of Man.

The Isle of Man Social Media Club meets the Third Thursday of each month and that means next week, 21 August, we’ll be meeting for lunch at Paparazzi on the Douglas Promenade.  12.30 -14.00.  Everyone with an interested in blogging, Facebook, podcasts, Twitter, etc are welcome.

The Third Thursday initiative has four main aims.

We want to share knowledge and experience.  Each of us has a different perspective on social media; we’ve learned different things. Our meet up is a great way to exchange ideas and information and have a nice social lunch at the same time.

We want to expand the use and understanding of social media generally. That’s why anyone who is curious about online communication and networks is welcome, whether you’re interested because your kids are on MySpace or your employees are congregating on Facebook, or you want to find out how to blog your travels.

We want to promote ethical behaviour online.  Issues such as privacy, plagarism, fraud, reputation, freedom of speech, libel and others all need to be explored and discussed.  We’d like to do our part in raising standards.

We want to encourage adoption of industry standards. By raising awareness of Creative Commons, data protection, best practice we’ll improve the credibility of social media and make the blogosphere a safer place.

But most of all these meet ups are just a great way to meet people who share your hobbies and interests.  You’ll definitely learn something new.  You get to actually meet people you’ve corresponded with online.  You’ll make new contacts too.

Please come!  Tweet me if you can make it. Or even use email or the phone if you like

Ok, I know I’m a bit late on this one, but I wanted add my two pennies on the incident where journalist Martin Bashir’s attempt at humour managed to offend his audience and most thinking people who heard about it.

This professional communicator, a journalist who until now has been respected worldwide, was invited to speak at Asian American Journalists Association annual banquet and decided to say that he was “happy to be in the midst of so many Asian babes. In fact, I’m happy that the podium covers me from the waist down.”

Known as the man who heard Princess Diana’s confessions and who told the real story about Michael Jackson, he has in space of a few seconds, demolished a good reputation that has taken his whole career to build.

He told the assembly that a speech should “be like a dress on a beautiful woman – long enough to cover the important parts and short enough to keep your interest.”  Nice. Way to neatly objectify women in general. But then he went on to refer this analogy directly to Emmy Award-winning journalist Juju Chang, his co-host for the event.  Could he possibly be more offensive?

He has since issued an apology, and quite right too. But really, what was he thinking?  Under what circumstances did he think such a tasteless joke in the first place? He says he was being ironic.  Really?

What a dork.

Why the exodus?  Well I presume the pressures of a drop in ad revenues can’t be helping.  But perhaps there is just a general lack of opportunity in Isle of Man media for ambitious journalists. Pay is said to be below par and many claim that press freedom is strangled by commercial imperatives. It can’t be much fun, or people would be staying put.

Good luck in your new position Dan, but Saturday nights will never be the same.

A quick glance at page one of this week’s issue reveals that it’s undergone a facelift.  I noticed it with dismay. “Oh no!” I thought, “I hope they haven’t screwed around with MY PR Week.”

Over the past couple of years I’ve been disappointed to find some of my fave mags being ‘dumbed down’.  The tendency is to go for lots more white space and a lot fewer words. What had once been thoughtful features tend to be restructured into shorter Q&As filled with soundbites and quick facts.

Now, I am a self confessed media snacker.  I tend to dip in and out of online content, skimming, scanning and sometimes, if it’s not too long, actually reading copy.  But with PR Week it’s different.  I read the magazine, not the website. I have always thoroughly enjoyed and looked forward to it.

So I am relieved to report that the new PR Week is not that much altered. Yes there is more white space and a few more box outs. Editor Danny Rogers says the revamp makes the content ‘more user friendly’.

The masthead is bigger and proclaims the readership to be ‘professional communicators and reputation managers’.  Contact book update is gone and Charlie Whelan seems to be missing , but both are unlikely to be missed.  Ian Monk has a new mugshot and Diary is now ‘Flack’.

But for most part, everything I love about the magazine is still there.  So it will remain a nice part of MY PR week.

Name: Stuart Peters

Title: Senior Broadcast Journalist. Producer and presenter of ‘Mandate’ – our early morning news and current affairs hour

Employer: Manx Radio

Beat: Isle of Man with a bit of UK and international content

Career Highlight: Getting the job in the first place! I was doing holiday relief as a freelance presenter and got a summons to see the (then) MD. I assumed I was in trouble! He asked me what I thought of politics in the Isle of Man and I said it was dull and boring. He then asked what I thought of the station’s coverage of it, and I said that (with all due respect) that was dull and boring too – why? At that point he said he’d been thinking of offering me a full-time job in the newsroom…

Overall though, it must be in my previous life and a conference I produced around 1990 for 7000 networker marketeers at the NEC Arena in Birmingham. My client loved gadgets, guitar music and technology, so it was more rock and roll than business. We had moving lights (VERY cutting edge back then), a huge sound and lighting rig, massive lasers, a stage set that Spinal Tap would have loved, a complete broadcast OB truck with cranes and Steadicam, blokes in the lighting truss on follow spots…it was sensational. We took the same show to Docklands Arena in London, and the management there said we had more crew and kit than David Bowie who had been in the week before.

Oh, and there was the weekend in 1999 that I went to war in Kosovo with the RAF filming for a documentary I was making – and hanging out of the back of a Chinook in a flimsy harness with a TV camera on my shoulder. The Director had wobbled about going into a war zone, so I said I’d do it my bloody self! We fell out shortly afterwards so I didn’t even get a credit!

Your first job in media: 1971 – Production Assistant at John Yates Publications in Manchester. Worked on two august and worthy trade organs – Pet Shop Trader and Decorating Materials Trade. Within a year I was advertising manager (my boss was fired during one of the proprietor’s famous rages). But at 17 I had no power, and I was still only earning £6.50 a week, so I left to become a junior at BDH Advertising (on eight quid a week!).

Your dream job: Something easy and relaxed – like being the token Brit jock on an FM rock station in the USA. Or Jeremy Clarkson or Ron Jeremy’s stunt double…(to avoid confusion, the name Jeremy is unimportant to this answer).

Oddest story covered: Probably the King of Mann. Fat American windscreen fitter checks his genealogy online and decides he’s a cousin of Queen Betty and a descendent of Manx royalty. King Ralph but without John Goodman. Nice bloke too. He made me a Knight.

I hate it when a PR: Invites me to a launch at the British Museum in London, of a device that’s going to prove invaluable to Tube passengers. Target your mailshots please.

I love it when a PR: Takes 30 seconds to check my listing and 30 seconds to convince me that their client’s product or service IS available on the Isle of Man, that they have a good spokes lined up and have booked an ISDN studio.

The Apprentice is over, long live the queen (Lee Mc that is)

Sorry, Lee didn’t ‘lie’ but said he ‘misconstrued information’which is, in itself, a good example of misconstruing information or, indeed, lying … about lying …

The Apprentice provided good fodder for blogging about grammar so more’s the pity it has gone. But there are plenty of other apostrophe crimes out there like a festering spots just itching to be squeezed.

One excellent example was spotted by Michael Scott in April 2008. Michael noticed Tesco was selling packs of ‘Children Hangers’. Interesting concept that could, finally, provide the answer to messy kids. They could dangle like diminutive vampires in a darkened closet making no mess or noise … just waiting for you to open the closet and release them for school the next day. Where they wouldn’t learn any grammar anyway.

This proliferation of incorrect grammar must stem from schools because that’s where most of us picked up such education. The current generation of text-speaking kids, where minimalisation is all, really should wake up to the horrific potential of the missing apostrophe … take Children Hangers.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

With the news that JK Rowling‘s 800 word short story was sold at a charity auction for £25k and that London Mayor Boris Johnson will pocket £250k a year for a weekly column in the Telegraph, I do believe it’s time I should have a chat with my editor at Isle of Man newspapers.  It seems a salary review is in order!

Image by jovike via Flickr

Britain’s brightest lie and they can’t spell either. That’s the conclusion you can draw from The Apprentice that speeds to its conclusion next week with four, rather than two candidates who are, the programme makers tell us, the tycoons of tomorrow.

They include Lee McQueen who’s a likeable chap, tall, good looking, funny and enthusiastic, he also gets the thumbs up from fired candidate Lucinda.

He’s obviously had a tough life, dragged himself up from a council estate through sheer grit and along the way has found a bizarre aptitude for dinosaur impersonation.

But what a mistake he made on what is arguably the most important document he has ever written – his CV to enter The Apprentice.

Not only did he lie, saying he had spent two years rather than four months at university. Then in just one sentence he strung together a series of spelling mistakes including ‘tommorrows’ which also – quelle horreur! – excludes an apostrophe!

What’s worse? The deceit, or the idiotic perception that spelling just doesn’t count?

We all know about spell check, or Lee must have at least one friend who can spell and could have proofread it for him. Unless, of course, he didn’t dare admit this to a friend.

Pretending to have spent longer at university than was the case, and can’t spell, perhaps both reflect Lee’s deep-seated insecurity about his own background and education.

We forgive you Lee for being brought up on the wrong side of the tracks. It doesn’t matter that you can’t spell and are, perhaps, borderline dyslexic. But it’s harder to forgive the idea that you think it’s not that important!

More alarming is the thought that Sir Alan Sugar, doesn’t rate them either or he’d have fired the lovely Lee on the spot. Fancy instead firing Lucinda, for being ‘zany’ and being a good leader! I’ll bet she spell ‘tomorrow’ and ‘beret’.

Dos and don’ts for jounros if you want to get the best out of a PR.

• Don’t agree to interview our client and then be unavailable at the appointed hour.
• Do let us know if something unexpected comes up and you can’t make it to a call.
• Don’t ignore our calls and emails after standing us up; do offer an apology or explanation.
• Don’t reschedule a call three times and still miss it. If you don’t want to have a discussion, tell us.
• Don’t commission a story, accept it and never run it, if it fits the brief.
• Do explain why a commissioned article will not be used in the end.
• Don’t interview our client’s customer, take up an hour of their time asking tons of questions, then not write nor offer any explanation of why not.
• Don’t blank us. We can’t help you if you don’t talk to us.
• Do be courteous even when we screw up. We’re all human and just trying to do a job.

Thank-you. I feel better now.

Here & There will be an A5 glossy magazine published on the 1st of every month and will contain a lively mix of news, business, entertainment and lifestyle together with features on all Manx2.com destinations including hotels, places to visit and dining out. ‘Here & There’ will also carry Manx2.com news and schedules.

This is good news for the Isle of Man.  With the demise of EuroManx airlines a few weeks ago, we also lost an important in flight publication that was widely read by business travellers.

Manx2.com says they expect to carry in excess of 100,000 passengers over the next 12 months with a passenger profile split 50-50 between business and leisure travel.

Now business travellers on Manx2.com can also read expanded business news and features in Keith’s excellent ‘Isle of Man Portfolio’ magazine, which will also be offered in-flight by Manx2.com from June.

Portfolio is an excellent, quality publication and having it available on flights will add to it’s credibility, imho.

This is the exactly the challenge faced earlier this week by the PRs at 10 Downing Street when Prime Minister Gordon Brown faced John Humphry’s on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, which airs weekday mornings to an audience of almost 9.5 million.

Would you:

1. forget the incident and just move on?
2. complain to the reporter’s boss and demand an on-air apology?
3. issue a statement, citing proof of the journalist’s error to the rest of the national media?
4. request supplementary interview where your spokesperson can personally set the record straight with listeners?
5. something else?

The folks at 10 Downing Street chose to No. 2 as their strategy. As a result they got a ‘clarification’ delivered in a light hearted tone on air the very next day which, it’s been reported, has further deepened the rift.

Reporting a journo to the boss when a mistake is made is no way to make friends, even if the journalist in question is one of the nation’s highest profile and most respected.

And having done so, it was folly to expect John Humphrys to deliver the corrected message to his audience, on behalf of the Prime Minister. I just can’t imagine him saying, “You know listeners, Mr Brown was right; I was wrong. My researchers screwed up my briefing notes, and I was unnecessarily aggressive towards the Prime Minister. ”

Me? Well No. 2 would not have been my choice. With No. 3 you’re just fanning the flames and broadening the story’s reach (not to mention making your spokesperson a target going forward). No. 1 does have appeal. The old ‘change the subject’ strategy has served many of well time and time again.

But I think I’d have picked No. 4 on this occasion. Our job is to build strong relationships with people working in the media. Once the facts are established why not ask the journalist to book the spokesperson for a second interview where he can speak directly to the audience and have a better chance of getting his message across? It would be a tough interview, but nothing Mr Brown isn’t used to already.

I’m not British. I don’t live in the UK. I’ve no particular political axe to grind here. But as media relations practitioner I am interested. I’d love to hear what the rest of the PR blogosphere thinks and how they would have handled it.

Name: Sally Whittle

Title: Freelance journalist

Employer: I write for a mixture of magazines, newspapers, trade mags,
websites and commercial clients. I also run pitching workshops for PR
agencies, I blog from time to time, and I just set up a free media request service. I keep busy!

Beat: Originally technology but have now broadened out to include general
business, HR and training, charities and the public sector. Also just sold my first true-life story to a newspaper. Hurrah!

Career Highlight: Every time you break a story or a new publication is a bit of a thrill. But I really enjoyed working for an online newswire from 1999-2001 covering European Internet start-ups. I got to travel a lot and meet really inspired people who wanted to change the way we did things ­ and some of them succeeded. Of course, a lot of them just blew millions on inflatable boardrooms but that was fun to see, too.

Your first job in media: I was a reporter for InformationWeek UK back in 1998. Sorry, I can¹t think of anything very cheerful to say about it: rubbish money, evil boss, no air-con in the summer. But I learned stuff, and it got better from there.

Your dream job: Fortunately, pretty much what I do now. The only things I¹d change would be all my clients accepting articles without any revisions, accountants paying me on time and my editors rewarding me with chocolate when I hit a deadline.

Oddest story I covered: The one predicting an epidemic of vocal RSI from using voice recognition software ranks pretty high. I also really enjoyed meeting the scientist who spent years developing a bit of technology that could analyse scents ­ even though perfume gave him migraines. But my
favourite was probably the intelligent Barbie doll that could select and buy her own accessories without human intervention. It reassures me to see the awesome power of human innovation and creativity is being put to use solving the big problems.

I hate it when a PR: calls an editor to complain about me. I think it¹s the only time a PR has made me angry. Everything else ­ daft pitches, relying on outdated media lists ­ is just part and parcel of the job. I try and educate people about that stuff through the training courses, but it doesn¹t make me angry.

I love it when a PR: says something they learned on a course helped them get coverage. Or when they get in touch with a really good, exclusive story idea with good case studies and nice pictures. I¹m easily pleased.

Other journalists featured:

• Reg Crowder