Forgive me, I couldn’t think of a better title in the time I had available and in the past month I’ve watched the Wham documentary – twice, on Netflix.
It’s been a busy month with my main client, a trust which manages five venues in Cheltenham. The comms team has been through significant staff changes and now has a team forming that will really add value to the organisation. Meanwhile I have capacity for some additional work, so do get in touch if you’re looking for communications and PR support on a project or service.
And, so, we’ve reached August, a time of gladioli flowers, grasses in the verges, a feeling of early autumn with all the cool, wet weather we’ve been having. So far this month I’ve managed one night’s camping then we struck camp the following day in high winds. I’ve just ordered a replacement tent pole for a couple of other camping jaunts this “summer”.
I’m running with the Salisbury running club every Wednesday and continue to do a parkrun each Saturday – from the beginning of September I’ll be building up to another half marathon in October.
In other news
Press Gazette ran a candid interview with Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens about his 50 years in journalism. “Anything I like will fail commercially,” he said, self-deprecatingly. You, like me, may not agree with a single word Hitchens writes and have a similar distrust of the Mail on Sunday, but it’s an entertaining interview, worth reading for a perspective on journalism and print media.
Elon Musk has rebranded Twitter as X. This might just prompt organisations to reconsider their use of the platform, although we’re all addicted to being able to communicate relatively freely with mass audiences on the platform. This Guardian piece is at least funny about X’s prospects.
This is worrying, about a fake news story suggesting London Mayor Sadiq Khan was going to exempt religious minorities from the proposed extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in London, which was then amplified by a paid-for Twitter (X) campaign.
Anyone still using X should take note. I see the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) is dropping most of its accounts on X apart from some core ones for Chinese users, headline news and sports. ABC cited the toxic nature of the platform and the departure of several high-profile ABC journalists from the platform earlier this year.
The Audience Agency highlighted this as the best brand response to the rebranding of X.
Things are bad at ITV which says it’s seeing the worst ad recession since 2008. Jus the other days, This Morning staff were telling MPs they faced bullying and harassment while doing their jobs.
If you’re interested, Press Gazette has published lists of MPs’ most trusted news brands (the FT tops the list, followed by The Times) and of the biggest news media companies in the UK (Reed Elsevier now known as RELX, apparently, followed by the BBC).
That’s it for this month. Enjoy the rest of summer and I’ll post again as the new academic year starts in September.
Lucy Rouse PR Blog 