Last week we were delighted to announce that PR planning specialist Gorkana is joining Metrica and Durrants to provide a best of breed PR planning, media monitoring and evaluation solution for every stage of the PR process.

I managed to catch up with Celina Maguire, Gorkana's Consumer Director, and asked her to answer a very vexing public relations problem.  Over to Celina:

Pet Peeve, noun: something about which one frequently complains; a particular personal vexation

Speak to any journalist and ask them their pet peeve about PRs and they will usually say one of two things:  PRs who ring to “check” they have received their press release and PRs who clearly haven’t read their publication before phoning to sell in their “hot” news.

I hear these two gripes time and again from senior journalists I have in the hot seat as part of Gorkana’s regular breakfast briefing programme to help PRs get under the skin of key publications. On the Gorkana couch to date we’ve had the likes of Lisa Smorsarski, the savvy Stylist editor and her team, Heat editor Sam Delaney and his team, the Glam Media crew, News of the World’s Fabulous team (5.2 million readers and counting) and the boys from FHM revealing all about how they want to be approached by PRs and what stories will work for them.

On May 7, in front of a room full of 250+ PRs, I’ll be grilling Terri White, the editor of ShortList, the free weekly men’s title which has become a media phenomenon, her style director Adrian Clark and features editor Lucy Foster. Terri is planning to spill the beans on some brand new editorial plans for the magazine as well as telling PRs how they can get their client included in its sought after pages.  If you want to know more about the Gorkana breakfast briefings email events@gorkana.com.

In the meantime, I’ve pulled together some little gems - anti-vexes if you will! - gleaned from the journos I’ve interviewed over the last six months about how they want to interact with PRs:

Lizanne Harris, Fashion Director, Stylist

Arrange press events in the morning around 8.30am or in the late afternoon from 3pm onwards as it is very difficult to leave the office once she has started for the day. Central London is the best location for convenience.

Lucie Cave, Executive Editor, heat

Lucie receives around 20 pitches from PRs each day and she and the team can spot which emails are circulars. Offer an exclusive as this will increase the size of the feature, for example they exclusively covered Fern Britton dressed as a man and will always attend celeb parties if they are given a unique opportunity. Lucie’s golden advice is: know the team, read the magazine, familiarise yourself with the sections and pitch to these directly.

Ally Pyle, Editor, Glam.com

Ally encourages personal relationships and one-on-one meetings with PRs wherever possible. She will always try to make time for a coffee or quick lunch meeting. Emails are the preferred method of contact.

Jo Upcraft, Lifestyle Editor, Fabulous

Jo is unlikely to cover anything older than six months, anything that has been placed elsewhere already or anything aesthetically unappealing. Statistics (eg 50% of women saw improved results...) are important and PRs should put those in the first few lines of a concise email, along with an interesting header. PRs should also read the magazine and suggest sections that would suit the story they’re selling in.

Colin Kennedy, Editor, FHM

Colin says PRs should not call before 10.30am – best to aim for between 5pm and 6pm, once the majority of the day’s work is behind the team. He likes PRs to email him, suggesting why a story might suit the magazine, and then follow up with a phone call the following day.

Jon Gripton, Chief News Editor, Sky News Online

Jon prefers to be contacted via email and particularly dislikes it when a cold call is made asking “have you received my email?” However, he actively encourages the personal touch, and appreciates those PRs who have forged a relationship with him over time by understanding the Sky News remit and audience.

Celina Maguire is Gorkana's Consumer Director. Prior to joining Gorkana in 2008, Celina's career incorporated journalism and PR where she has worked both in house and for a number of high profile agencies including Consolidated Communications and Le Fevre Communications.  

Celina is on twitter @celinamary50 where you can follow her to keep up to date with all of her latest PR news and tips. Gorkana itself can be found at @Gorkana. Gorkana also regularly tweets about both journalist job opportunities and PR job opportunities.

Ask most people what they think of Apple Inc and the answers will be fairly consistent.  "Great products", "gorgeous design", "superb functionality", "reliable", "easy to use", "the good guys - not the evil empire" might all roll of the tongue.

Apple's turnaround from near oblivion in the mid 1990s to one of today's hottest brands is well documented. The iMac, iPod, iPhone, and now the iPad have all been welcomed rapturously by an adoring public and it seems that the company can do no wrong. The iPhone and iPad are the products of today's world - both portable devices enabling their users to immerse themselves and engage in a rich world of new mobile media.  Proving the point, the iPad's launch sales in the first few days this week have already exceeded 450,000 units and broken analysts expectations.

Apple's reputation amongst their customers has remained consistently high. But with the world at its feet, Apple has started to play a high-stake game that could put this hard won reputation at risk.

Apple has decided that as the world embraces its products as their media platform of choice, they want to control all access to the platform. Not content with recent hostile comments from Steve Jobs at long time ally Adobe calling the company 'lazy' and ridiculing Google's corporate philosophy, they now appear to have banished all flash and third party developers from the iPhone and in all likelihood the iPad too.  This latest move was done in an underhand manner with a change to the small print in the licensing terms and has prompted Lee Brimelow, Adobe's platform evangelist, in a well written post to exclaim "Apple - go screw yourself!" 

The initial reaction from on-line and social media has tended to back Adobe and their stance.  There are fears that Apple is getting too big for its boots and becoming as arrogant as Microsoft was in its heyday.  It reminds me of when Metrica worked with Netscape evaluating their international media coverage from the birth of the first mainstream browser in the mid 1990s and then throughout the ensuing browser wars. The parallels between Apple and Microsoft are clear and ominous.  Microsoft, coming late to the party, realised how the world was going to consume its media via the internet and wanted to control its access.  Apple is attempting to do something similar.

For a company that doesn't embrace social media, where Steve Jobs has no on-line presence, where the staff are also discouraged from engaging in online conversations and blogs, this is a dangerous game to play.  Apple's behaviour reminds me of closed and failed states like China, the Soviet Union and Iran attempting to do the same with their media channels. State controlled media has never succeeded, in today's world of social media it stands even less chance to succeed (think of the recent Iranian election and subsequent protests viral news coverage). 

Microsoft failed in its attempts to dominate access to the web.  Yes, at the time they damaged Netscape's share of the browser market, but Internet Explorer's gain was shortlived with more and more people now preferring other browsers.  Microsoft's behaviour was at enormous cost to the business both financially and to it's reputation, and for little end reward.  Apple deserves to fail in it's endeavours to control how we access and consume our media too.

Following on in quick succession from the purchase of Metrica by Durrants at the end of October last year, we are delighted to welcome Gorkana to the group today.  The story has been well covered in the national, trade and social media and has stimulated plenty of discussion.

 

We're very excited to be working with Gorkana.  When Metrica came together with Durrants in October, the plan was to build the industry's leading media intelligence organisation covering all of the key stages in the PR life cycle.  Durrants' media monitoring, Gorkana's PR planning and Metrica's PR measurement consultancy means that for the first time it is possible to work with the market leaders as part of one group.

 

In the short term it will be business as usual for all three firms.  As Durrants' Managing Director Jeremy Thompson explains over on Speed MD Wadds' blog:

 

"How soon can we get an enterprise deal for Durrants, Gorkana and Metrica products and services?

 

We’re not going to rush to integrate. The key is stability, and to build something really special for the long term. We are very happy to do enterprise deals from day one though, and have already done a number for Durrants and Metrica combined services." 

 

In the near future, we will create a fully integrated offering in response to the demands and needs of our clients.  We have already conducted significant research amongst the PR industry to help us understand the specific needs of today's PR pros.  But we're always keen to hear more so do please feel free to contact us with your views and ideas.

 

The final thoughts go again to Jeremy:

 

"This move is transformational as it completes the coming together of three market leaders, all with strong reputations for delivering exceptional services and customer support...  Durrants acquired Metrica, the award winning media evaluation specialist in October 2009. Combining Gorkana with Durrants media monitoring and Metrica analysis will give our customers unrivalled access to the ‘best of breed’ solution for every stage of the PR workflow.” 

 

Watch this space!

 

 

Has it really been a whole year since we launched our re-vamped charity benchmarking report, the Metrica Charity Radar? We have seen so many events shape the charity sector over the last twelve months, whether they are global crises, such as the Haiti Earthquake, or UK fundraising events which have captured the imagination, such as Eddie Izzard running an obscene amount in aid of Sport Relief.   

Here at Metrica, we’ve put together an annual version of our Radar report, to be able to see what has driven the news agenda across all the different charity sectors this financial year, and it makes for very interesting reading! 

To begin with, the Haiti earthquake was by far the biggest single event driving coverage, affecting over 20 charities, including Oxfam, the Red Cross and the DEC. This generated sustained coverage throughout January and February, as various organisations offered to help.  

Some stories were slightly smaller, but came back into the public eye throughout the year, such as the case of a policeman who left two police dogs to die in a hot car. The RSPCA were involved in this case when it was first reported, when the trial began and when sentencing occurred, proving that some stories can keep running over a long period of time.  

Political issues often made an appearance in our Radar report, illustrated by the fact that Gordon Brown is far and away the most prolific public figure to feature in charity coverage, being mentioned in over 15,000 articles this year, followed by the ever charitable Gary Barlow with almost 5,000! 

So who emerged top in the annual report? Get in touch to find out! Email the team on charity@metrica.net or give us a call on 020 7922 1670. The Radar report could be a great planning tool for next year’s PR activities, or just a great way to get an overview of all that has happened in your sector over the past 12 months.

A recent PR Week piece entitled, "Recruitment consultants find digital skills in short supply within PR industry," has highlighted again the percieved disconnect between traditional PR and the digital skills needed to operate in the 'new' social world. 

The clients we work with in social media absolutely buck this supposed trend so it seems that it is just taking a while to filter through the whole industry.  The piece is good feedback, however, on the areas that are lacking. 

Metrica will be at the Social Media World Forum talking about these very things.  Be great to see some of you there.