Archive for PR Week

PR Week Soap Box

By 2015 more people will use social networks than vote

8 August 2012 , ,
The latest PR Week Soap Box features this from myself on how social media is changing public affairs: At the time of the 2010 general election, more adults had broadband than voted. By the 2015 election, on current trends*, there will be more adults using social networks than vote. There will, no doubt, still be [...]

34 PR agencies agree to internship pledge

27 October 2011 , , ,
A quick update to my previous post about the campaign, backed by Nick Clegg, to get PR agencies to pay interns at least the national minimum wage: Thirty Four Agencies Sign Up To PRCA Pledge To Pay Minimum Wage To Interns… But of the ten biggest UK agencies – according to the PRWeek Top 150 [...]

Nick Clegg backs campaign to ensure PR industry interns are paid

15 October 2011 , , ,
PR Week reports: Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has thrown his weight behind a campaign being launched this week by PRWeek and the PRCA [one of the PR industry trade bodies] to end the practice of unpaid internships. To launch the campaign, the PRCA will today take the step of placing a list on its [...]
Oxford University

Social exclusion at Oxford and Cambridge universities

7 December 2010 ,
In what seems to have become a regular double-act, both George Pascoe-Watson and myself are quoted in a story today from PR Week: On the eve of the crucial Commons vote on whether to raise tuition fees by up to £9,000 a year at top universities, official data has shown that over 20 Oxbridge colleges [...]

What to make of the paywall figures from The Times?

2 November 2010 , ,
PR Week has a piece on today’s figures from The Times and Sunday Times, including this from me: Mark Pack, head of digital at MHP Communications said: ‘In order to make full sense of these figures we need to know how they break down between people making a one-off payment for 24-hour access, people buying [...]

Comms director appointed for Yes to Fairer Votes campaign

15 October 2010 , , ,
PR Week reports: The ‘Yes to Fairer Votes’ campaign has recruited Hill & Knowlton consultant Paul Sinclair as director of comms. A former journalist and special adviser to Gordon Brown, he will lead the campaign’s communications team and act as a spokesman. PRWeek has also learned that key figures supporting the Yes campaign are keen [...]

The mixed messages of Philip Green

11 October 2010 , ,
Philip Green is very good at two things: minimising his personal tax bills and minimising his firm’s costs. Hence my comment for PR Week: Pack said: ‘It seems his appointment and the work of the team have produced some good advice. ‘But his own aggressive approach to minimizing the tax he pays himself sends out [...]

George Osborne and child benefit

PR Week has a story about the Chancellor’s announcement on child benefit, including a quote from myself: Conservative spin doctor Andy Coulson should get ‘top marks’ for timing announcements about child benefit cuts with the start of the Tory party conference – that was the message from former Sun political editor George Pascoe-Watson as Chancellor [...]

William Hague's got it half right and half wrong

3 September 2010 ,
I’ve not blogged about William Hague this week as others have already said what I think, expertly and eloquently. The dignity with which he’s handled his personal life is matched by my feeling of distaste about the way it’s been forced into the public’s eye. Where he’s not been so impressive is at handling the [...]

PR Week's piece on party websites

27 April 2010 ,
PR Week has a report up today, including a comment from myself about the (lack of) role for user-generated content on political party websites. You can read the piece here.