January 5th, 2010 by
Claire Jones
I am not embarrassed to admit that during my delicious two week Christmas vacation, I deliberately tried to remove myself from all news sources in order to give my fragile brain some well deserved recuperation. However, despite my best efforts to take up residence in my holiday home of current affairs denial, all it took was a family debate on BBC salaries to well and truly grind my gears and get me back in the swing of things.
No doubt you will already realise I am referring to Ms James’ public disgust that 37 BBC executives – not including on-air talent HEAVEN FOREFEND – earned more than the Prime Minister’s salary of £198,000, with more than 300 being paid over £100,000.
Whoa – lets hold onto those wild horses one second. Firstly, and most importantly. lets put the PM’s salary into context. Poor old Gordy isn’t exactly taking one for the team, roughing it up and just scraping by receiving £130,594 in Prime Minister’s salary, and £61,820 as MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath is he? In fact, that mullah he receives pretty much gets well and truly banked. Its not like he has much outgoings for the likes of rent and utilities (does he??) and he can be safely assured of raking in the cash when his term ends with book deals; speaking opportunities… or Christmas lights, whatever.
Will any of the BBC bosses be so fortunate? I think not. Leave them be and stop using the PM’s salary shepherd’s crook of a pay packet as a yardstick – its not fair on the people who have worked their arses off and truly deserve their triple-figure salaries.
September 24th, 2009 by
Claire Jones
Munching on my lunch and perusing the BBC website, I was horrified to see this story:
“BBC seeks older female newsreader”
Remorse over Arlene aside, it sends out totally the wrong message. It looks like the BBC is looking to up its old biddy and women quota, in order to appease grouchy viewers.
This positive discrimination approach is rife across the UK. I also saw it at a recent Girl Geek Dinner gathering, whereby some die-hard feminists were complaining that women were discriminated against in technology and there should be more jobs open to them…
Now I for one do NOT want businesses to feel pushed into employing women over men. In my opinion, it should always be the best person for the job. These whiny women are doing the rest of us a disservice, because quite frankly, when I get to the top I don’t want anyone tarnishing my achievement by claiming it was easier for me to get there… I want my success to be my own!
September 11th, 2009 by
Claire Jones
There’s an hilarious spoof story worming its way around the web today, claiming that last nights ‘Twestival’ was thwarted by a group of fanatical Facebook fans. Scenes akin to the recent Milwall/ Westham riots ensued, whilst delegates from each camp updated absent friends on the fight status via their PDAs .
Joking aside, it’s interesting to see exactly how much competition exists between the two social networks, especially given the news that Twitter has expanded its terms of service to allow advertising on the site.
Facebook is currently the world’s largest social networking site with 200 million users, but Twitter is fast catching up with 44.5 million users and 15-fold growth year-on-year.
Let the fight continue…
August 17th, 2009 by
Claire Jones
Normally the NHS can’t do anything right. Health and politics is always a volatile mix, but couple that with the British predilection for a good moan and it understandable why it’s the perfect gear-grinding subject over an afternoon tea.
That also makes it the perfect election topic. The Conservatives were on quite a roll with their NHS-bashing “we’ll just rip it all out because it smells of Labour” manifesto. Until now.
Turns out there’s something we Brits do better than moan: we look after our own. As soon as the Americans started bashing the NHS, all our hitherto grumbles were forgotten and replaced with big fat NATIONAL PRIDE. Akin to our kids and parents, we can say what we want but everyone else can just keep their big mouths shut.
All thoughts over over-investment; under-delivery; waiting lists and postcode lotteries were cast aside as a distant memory. Instead we started joining Twitter groups to talk about the beautiful institution that is our wonderful National Health Service – check out the #welovethenhs stream .
In fact, it’s been so successful at resurrecting some NHS love that I’m getting a little suspicious that there may have been some underhand PR wizardy at play… Thoughts on a postcard please ;o)
July 20th, 2009 by
Claire Jones
PR 101 tells you that you need to develop a third-sense antenna for tracking industry issues may be relevant to your client.
Every PR company has their own name for it: news-jacking, issue jumping, trend tagging – but let’s be fair, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet ;o) Any PR worth their salt is like a raved dog when an issue breaks and they want to get in first with their client comment.
I mention this because sometimes I see examples in the media that can only be described as shameless and I am rather annoyed I didn’t think of them.
The most recent and, in my humble opinion, FABULOUS example was by accountancy firm Baker Tilly that jumped on the release of the film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and worked out that Hogwarts wouldn’t be able to retain its status as a charitable independent school without offering almost £1m in bursaries to disadvantaged magic folk.
Its fun, interesting & refreshingly NOT about the “current economic climate.” Pure genius!
June 26th, 2009 by
Claire Jones
Did you always want to write about new media?
I worked for a music website called breakbeat.co.uk for several years before joining New Media Age (NMA). We were heavily into trying innovative new services and online communities and content so it’s always been an area that’s interested me.
How competitive was it to get your role?
Having worked for a year at Informa on its Mobile Media newsletter I was very lucky to be asked to work at NMA by the editor Justin Pearse. Randomly it took place on a yacht in Brighton – with several page 3 girls. But that’s another story.
What’s the biggest issue in New Media for 2009?
Coming up with sustainable business models which rely on actual revenue generation rather than simply advertising.
Do you think that new media is growing? If so, what sector?
New media continues to grow while other industries struggle – albeit from a relatively small base. As new services such as video or behavioural targeting become increasingly popular online there is a good opportunity to get involved in these areas.
What kind of jobs will become available?
I think anyone with good technical skills is still in a really strong place when it comes to securing jobs in new media. There is still demand for these roles as employers increasingly require these skills.
What do you think the graduate opportunities like?
I think it depends what course you’re studying – but as I’ve said the entire industry continues to grow. Almost all business sectors touch online in some way so if you’re interested in working in digital there is a broad opportunity to get involved.
June 24th, 2009 by
Claire Jones
I can’t imagine that RBS boss Stephen Hester will be winning any popularity points among the recently redundant, with the news of his £9.6m pay deal
.
This is, however, an indictment against the government’s and FSA’s ability to control these huge payouts. It gives RBS a bad name, it gives Hester a bad name, but, perhaps most importantly, it gives bonuses a bad name.
While I can’t really comment on the first two, for the 14.27 million of Brits on variable pay, I think that the “bonus culture” deserves some defense. I am sure they wouldn’t turn their noses up at £9.6m, in actual fact it usually comes in much smaller forms as a reward for good performance. A lot of companies are also trying to motivate staff by non-monetary means: extra holidays, booze Fridays, shopping vouchers etc.
In a time when we are all feeling the squeeze, a little “bonus” goes a long way – lets not all pay for Hester’s payout.
May 11th, 2009 by
Claire Jones
It cannot be ignored that both print and online publications rely heavily on an ad-based business model. However, as advertising is typically one of the first casualties of the recession, it is perhaps rather shrewd of Murdoch to raise the issue of charging for online content. The pros and cons were covered very well today in The Guardian, but many questions remain unanswered:
- How can you make people charge for something that they are used to getting for free?
- How will newspaper sites be able to compete with free sites like the BBC?
However, it is worth noting that people still pay for newspapers over the free dailies – so there is scope for co-existence. Perhaps the best model to look at is FT.com, whereby the user must pay for content after accessing a certain number of articles for free. WSJ also has a profitable pay-per-view model.
So, how can we as PRs benefit? Well let’s face it; it’s highly unlikely the average consumer will pay for content. It is more probable that the online pricing models will be geared towards business subscriptions – meaning more business content. Its my theory and I’m sticking to it….
