Posted on Seasoned Posts

Results of European wide survey: corporate pr to overcome marketing pr; social media relations to catch up with mainstream

I am sure that our visitors will be interested in reading results of the survey ecm2007-pressrelease-20070927.pdfof a ecm2007-resultsfindings-20070927.pdf conducted on more than 1000 well experienced European public relations ecm2007-summary-20070927.pdf by the University of Leipzig in cooperation with Euprera (association of european public relations education and research) on the profession, which has just been released. Good reading.

Posted on Seasoned Posts

New Zealand Police open up law-making to the public

As a follow-on to the posts regarding Madeleine, the Portuguese police and the public interest, I thought you might be interested in a real life ‘open conversation’ involving New Zealand police. They have created a wiki to encourage public participation in the revision of the current police act, written in 1958.

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Can PR convert Rugby World Cup sponsorship?

Like other global sponsorship opportunities, the Rugby World Cup (RWC), currently taking place in France, has a long list of sponsors each aiming to exploit the millions spent on linking their name to the tournament.  But are sponsors really connecting with the game – and could public relations help convert the tactical spend into a strategic advantage?

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What is ‘the public interest’?

A run on the Northern Rock bank in the UK this week got me thinking about ‘the public interest’ again, especially after Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England told a House of Commons select committee that he would have preferred to give covert aid to Northern Rock, without the public being aware of the Bank’s intervention, but that would be illegal.

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Web info sessions on new master of communications management degree program

Back in May my post Stamp of approval on (distinctly Canadian) master’s of communication management degree program generated some great discussion and interest; this DeGroote School of Business program at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario) continues to receive a decent number of hits from searches. Great news! Now interested individuals can take advantage of a series of web-based information sessions, to learn more about the program.

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PR jobs of the future

Thinking about the recent conversation regarding the merits or otherwise of studying public relations, I am reminded of Karl Fisch’s statement in his fascinating Shift Happens presentation (now available at The Fischbowl as a pdf or word file) that: “We are currently preparing students for jobs and technologies that don’t yet exist . . . in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet”. What should we be doing in PR to prepare for this...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

How Philip Morris uses public relations to change the regulatory environment of the tobacco industry… Ann Landman exposes an apparently effective plan

Recently, an articulate and highly informative article by Ann Landman appeared on pr watch. Although quite critical and explicitly biased, it details Philip Morris’s current public relations activities to modify existing regulation of the tobacco industry in the United States, and (I believe) provides a most interesting backstage analysis of our profession—very stimulating food for thought for all of us.