As a Director of Britain's leading PR company Weber Shandwick and as Chief Whip of a Labour Group comprising no fewer than seven Councillors whose day job is in PR and seven or eight others in some form of political research and advisory roles, I'm sometimes asked why nobody ever hears the breaking news about Hackney Council.
As an example, almost 24 hours after the sacking of Hackney's Chief Executive Penny Thompson, not a word has appeared on the Council website, on any blog sites, in any media web pages or elsewhere. Even my spoofster, usually quick on the uptake, has failed to report on this story.
Well, there are two reasons for this.
The first explanation is in the question. Precisely because we are all in PR, we don't like news to leak out. The sacking of Hackney's CEO is not a matter for random unprofessional news speculation and idle gossip, but a subject that requires careful shaping in order to present it in a proper context and in the best possible light. Otherwise people would start to speculate that things were not right with our Council.
The second reason is, of course, that we don't like to tell the Hackney Groveller anything, in case they muck up a good story for Hackney Toady or its sister publication Hackney Grain Harvest Today. Thankfully, left to its own devices Hackney Groveller couldn't find a news story in a media centre.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Public Relations
PS. Note to Professor al-Huq: I love to see you here, but please try to visit my site anonymously in future, as Linda checks my visitor stats and she is becoming jealous of your frequent attentions.
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I'm Luke Akehurst..... aka. "Luke The Nuke".
1 comment:
Gosh, all that jogging in the park has worked miracles for your body shape and tone. Where do you hold your surgeries? I'd like to pay a visit and tell you about the problems on my housing estate.
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