The Guardian- A demographic breakdown

Editor- Alan Rusbridger
Features Editor- Ian Katz/Katharine Viner
Business Editor -Deborah Hargreaves
Sports Editor- Ben Clissitt
Showbiz Editor -Marina Hyde

ABC- Audit Bureau of Circulations
April 09 - September 09

Circulation- Average daily sale- 327, 937
Readership- Average issue readership- 1,205,000

* http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/table/2009/oct/16/abcs-national-newspapers

NRS - National Readership Survey

ABC1- 90%
58% men 42% women
Age highest % readers-
15-24= 18%
35-44= 19%

http://www.adinfo-guardian.co.uk/the-guardian/gua-demographics.shtml

Political Stance

· The Guardian is generally seen to be middle class orientated, tending towards a left wing and liberal political approach

· It rarely publishes sensationalist articles, preferring a quieter more balanced and ineptly researched approach by writers and contributors

· Individual opinion pieces written by the readers do occasionally have a right wing attitude, but are dominated by the left wing point of view due to the general stance of The Guardian

Ryanair IM Task Force

Irish budget airline, Ryanair, recently received negative media attention due to Jason Roe, a Dublin based web designer, posting a blog stating he found a potential error on Ryanair’s website that resulted in the ticket price becoming £0.00. A number of Ryanair’s staff members reacted anonymously yet insultingly to Jason Roe’s blog, creating huge amounts of negative press and online attacks from social networking sites.

An established IM task force team could have prevented this negative online debate, by anticipating the issue and effectively identifying their stakeholders and listening to individuals. The company should have identified key members of the organisation to take immediate action:

Chief Executive- Micheal O’Leary

The senior leader ultimately makes the decisions, influencing the rest of the team. Listen and advise all members of the organisation for successful issues management.

Head of Communications- Stephen Mc Namara

Create PR strategy; communicate with the key stakeholders of the organisation, admit there is a problem and attempt to close the gap. Prepare statements and press releases for the media to ensure positive online pages appear on search engines. Identifying negative networking sites and rebuilding reputation through the online social sphere

Head of Customer Service- Caroline Greene

Instigate a blogger outreach programme to ensure issues can be turned around into positive PR. Ensure all staff members complete a customer service course to ensure cross organisation behaviour.

Week 3- Marks and Spencer CSR

Marks and Spencer annually create a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) report to ensure stakeholders receive a clear view of the company’s issues and core business values. The report maintains reputation and obtains trust from the stakeholders, thus increasing the company’s financial value. From the latest CSR report on the Marks and Spencer website I have found the following:

· The company actively launched the ‘Look behind the label’ campaign to relate and communicate effectively with the stakeholders interested in the company’s social, ethical and environmental performance

· Marks and Spencer clearly highlight the company’s key values of being Fair Trade, ethnically diverse and environmental

· The report states how issues are responded to through listening to the customers, employees, shareholders, social, ethical and environmental groups and then taking positive action to benefit both the company and the stakeholders.

· A detailed list of product issues and management is used to state the consistently high expectations and values Marks and Spencer sets for itself. From food monitoring to packaging

· Two way communication is vital to ensure a constantly changing and emerging CSR is maintained to a high standard to assure key stakeholders of success and to encourage support. Overall this report increases the company’s financial value whilst maintaining a reliable reputation

Week 2- Closing the Gap

During this lecture we explored the various ways in which the role of issues management within an organisation is critical for overall planning and management. We also looked at the key functions at the heart of IM such as SWOT and PEST to prevent issues developing into a crisis. Most importantly we discovered the importance of planning whilst keeping focus and key players in mind

• Issues Management not only is critical for a crisis free organisation, but it can also add significant value by simply enhancing reputation and building strong relationships with stakeholders to become advocates

· Who creates an issue- such as your associates or the media. As momentum builds the lifecycle begins from the origin through to amplification until resolution leading to capitulation

· PEST/ EPISTLE- Political, Economical, Social, Technological. These all factors that may have influence on an organisation. Access of Information, the changing Legal environment and environmental and globalisation issues all impact an organisation as well

· SWOT- Strengths, Weaknesses- usually internal. Opportunity and Threats- usually external. All used to analyse an organisation

· Marketing has a relevant in important role within the function of PR. The 4 Ps- Price, Product, Place, Promotion.

Week 1- Brand Reputation and Effective Communciation

• Mismanaged issues becomes a crisis, leaving a business in tatters lacking all confidence

· To ensure stakeholder loyalty, effective communication and understanding is needed throughout an organisation

· Reputation is the key asset. By listening to consumers and respectively treating stakeholders intelligently, an organisation can avoid issues within a management system

· External PEST issues, Politics, Economics, Social, Technological, can all shape the way an organisation works

· Economics, Security, Job Security, Environmental Issues, QSV and VFM Issues, Accountability, Empowerment are all concerns a society has effecting activism to consumerism

· Micro Issue and develop into Macro Issue then Beyond Crisis

· Tipping points time line- Initiation, Interpretation, Implications, Ignition, Influence, Imposition

· “The consumer must be protected at times from his own indiscretion and vanity”, Ralph Nader (NGO)

· Direct Action- single issue campaign groups seeking immediate results through a form of activism

· DA and NGO’s have a greater influence in stopping government policy and public practice. These issues can gain immediate momentum through media such as the web

· “A stakeholder is someone with a vested interested in an organisation’s operations”, Trench and Yeomans. Stakeholders can influence an organisation therefore analysis of their needs is paramount for the organisation

· Aware and active stakeholders then become publics

Bernard Matthews- Case Study

· Outbreak of Avian Flu- badly managed communication resulting in poor relations with the media. Outcome- failure to engage stakeholders the consumer was left unconvinced of their health and safety being protected. Ultimately the company clearly lacked issues management and all trust was lost

Guest Speaker- Tim Bowcock, Managing Director of Black Cat Public Relations

Agency vs in-house Public Relations 10th October 2008

Tim Bowcock of Black Cat Public Relations began his inspirational presentation by explaining how he got to where he is today. His career in journalism started by working for Pirate Fm radio, where his tasks involved news reading and producing. Three years later he moved to Spotlight, concentrating on documentaries and transport. With this experience Tim realised his passion. Transport. Especially trains, which saw his move to Railtrack, and then finally to First Great Western five years ago. During his time working in-house for this relatively large company, Tim’s role was to be the face of the company. Here he was in charge of press releases, calls and radio shows. So he had to use a variety of PR disciplines, including learning a lot about the product itself, as well as being very strategic and hands on.

Black Cat was set up in May 2006, by Tim himself, when he saw a niche in the market. Through research he discovered that companies in Cornwall didn't have the luxury of a good PR agency. So Black Cat grew. Although Tim said he was, "not visible, not front line", when working in an agency, he did get varied clients. From organising concerts for girl bands, to community consultations for Tesco and setting up events for more corporate campaigns. Tim explained the downside to being the managing director for Black Cat is that it’s slower and less vibrant, and bringing in the clients is hard and long hours.

My thoughts on which career path would suit me before the presentation were unsure, simply because I was unaware of the differences of in-house and agency. But Tim went on to present the plus sides of both in-house and working for an agency. A very reasonable £23,700 average starting wage for press officer in-house, as opposed to £19,000 for an account executive in an agency, was a good head start for in-house. But Tim also mentioned that the increase in wage and career progress was steeper in an agency. Both consultancy and in-house offers diversity, but the latter provides variety in PR disciplines rather than variety in products and people. An attraction to in-house is that you would, in most companies, be the only PR specialist so therefore the decision maker. Although consultancy offers the chance for advice and joint discussions within the work place and you are surrounded by "PR types".

Limited opportunities lie in-house, and the product may become a bore when your mind is occupied by it every day with little variation. Although the response you receive when working in-house would be more professional than that of an agency, therefore would build up your confidence in PR practice. With the excitement of not knowing who your next client will be, consultancy would be more appealing for me after a few years in house. After hearing Tim share his experience, the majority of the class agreed that the most obvious career path is to start in-house working for a company you feel passionately about. Subsequently gaining the experience and PR skills, move to a more traditional agency that offers long term job safety and the opportunity to choose the clients in areas of your expertise.