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Political Headlines – Sajid Javid, Brexit, trade tariffs and Netanyahu

May 1, 2018/0 Comments/in Political Headlines, Government, Public Affairs Political Services, Political Database Blog Posts /by Jennifer Prescott

Today’s Political Headlines include Javid’s Home Secretary debut, the Government’s Brexit defeat in the Lords, Trump postponing his trade tariff decision and Netanyahu’s accusations against Iran.

Sajid Javid makes his debut as Home Secretary
Both the Guardian and The Times lead on Sajid Javid’s debut as Home Secretary, questioning the extent to which he may amend policy on immigration. The Times has reported that Javid has told the Home Office that he will ditch the policy of creating a ‘hostile environment’. He criticised the use of the term ‘hostile’, calling it ‘unhelpful’ and not representative of the UK’s values. The newspapers claim that Javid will consider the department’s structures, as well as reviewing individual policies in the upcoming weeks.

Lords defeat Government in Brexit vote
The Daily Mail’s front page features an editorial on the Lords’ Brexit victory yesterday. May was compared to Adolf Hitler during the debate last night as peers handed the Government another defeat over Brexit. The House of Lords voted in favour of giving Parliament powers to stop the UK from leaving the EU without a deal. 19 rebel Tories backed the amendment, which was passed by 335 votes to 244. If the amendment is not overturned by the Commons, May will lose the option of walking away with no deal. The Mail says that “the Remainer elite, in cahoots with Brussels, is fighting a guerrilla war against Brexit using any means it can”.

Trump postpones decision over EU trade tariffs
The Guardian has reported that Donald Trump has postponed a decision on the introduction of EU trade tariffs. The White House has extended the EU’s exemption from tariffs on steel and aluminium, which was due to expire today. In March, Trump imposed a worldwide 25% tariff on steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminium, granting temporary exemptions to Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the EU. The White House has announced that, in addition to those involving the EU, negotiations with Canada and Mexico have also been extended.

Israeli Prime Minister accuses Iran of lying about weapons programme
The Daily Telegraph devotes its front page to the television broadcast delivered last night by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing Iran of lying about its weapons programme both before and after the 2015 nuclear deal. Netanyahu claimed that Israeli spies had obtained ‘half a tonne’ of confidential documents proving that Iran’s leaders had failed to provide a full account of their past nuclear activities and that they were maintaining the expertise to build a bomb in the future. Netanyahu declared ‘the nuclear deal is based on lies. It is based on Iranian lies and Iranian deception’.

Theresa May faces mounting pressure to resign
The Daily Mirror’s front page features the headlines ‘Mayday Mayday’, referring to a ‘Prime Minister in Crisis’. The story reports on the mounting pressure on Theresa May to resign over the Windrush scandal. The newspaper speaks of May being left exposed to attack, after the resignation of her close ally Amber Rudd and criticism from new Home Secretary Savid Javid over her previous ‘hostile environment’ immigration policy.

The UK faces a care crisis
The Daily Express leads with two stories that it claims highlight a ‘caring crisis’. One is about a man suffering from Parkinson’s who was reportedly beaten in a care home, while the other story is about a terminal cancer patient’s 16-hour wait for a hospital bed.

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The fashion editor’s guide to global travel

April 30, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Holly Hodges

Bonnie Rakhit is The Style Traveller. Bonnie was previously fashion editor at British Elle Magazine, Sunday Times Style and Grazia, and uses this expertise to show off the most stylish places on the planet. The luxury travel blog, which was recently named in the Top 10, gives a unique perspective on hotels, destinations and experiences.

We caught up with Bonnie to talk beautiful places, her favourite bloggers and working with a diverse range of brands.

What makes your blog successful?
I think authenticity has a lot to do with it. I only feature hotels and destinations that I have personally visited and stayed at myself, which means my reviews are genuine and honest. I also love aesthetically beautiful properties and locations so the blog should hopefully deliver a bit of aspirational wunderlust.

What makes luxury travel better than other types?
Everything! From the organisation, the service, the hotel decor and quality of food and staff. I’ve done my fair share of backpacking and loved it at the time; there is definitely a place in my heart for the good old days of roughing it. But a little older, wiser and few more pennies in the pocket, I feel like I’ve worked long enough and hard enough to deserve a bit of luxury on my holidays.

What destination would you suggest to first time travellers?
I think rather than easing yourself in, go big for your first destination and pick a location that is as far removed from your day to day life as possible. Go for adventure and stunning locations that will assault your senses. My top destinations of all time are India, Cuba and Brazil.

What about seasoned travellers?
I feel that if you’re an avid traveller you’ve seen and experienced so much already that you need to push the boundaries a little further and experiment more. If you’ve ‘done’ all the big tourist vacations why not try off-the-beaten-track places. Pick Anguilla rather than Jamaica, Boston rather than New York or Bilbao rather than Barcelona. There’s so much to discover wherever you go.

Is there anywhere on your bucket list you’ve yet to visit?
I’m currently planning a trip to Peru in August. But otherwise I still haven’t been to Hawaii, Tahiti or Fiji. The Pacific is still my oyster to discover.

If you could only take three items with you when travelling, what would they be?
My phone is a must, from photography to itinerary I can’t live without it. A scarf or wrap is so useful, covering off everything from a blanket on the flight, cover up in the cold or religious temple to beach towel and sarong – it’s a versatile bit of kit. And sunscreen!

What should PRs know about you?
I love all things luxury and aesthetic experiences. If it will make for a beautiful photograph and content, I’ll be there.

What’s the best PR/brand campaign you’ve worked on?
I’ve worked on hundreds of campaigns over the last few years from Mercedes Benz to Veuve Clicquot, from Peru to Prada and Primark. I also work with lots of hotels and tourist boards. If you think your brand or product will be a good fit for me then just reach out and contact me directly.

What do you call yourself (blogger/influencer/content creator)?
All of the above.

What other blogs do you read?
I like Angie Silverspoon for a more foodie perspective and also Feya from Fitness on Toast for all things health and fitness. I also love Aggie Lal from Travel In Her Shoes and Sam Kolder’s YouTube.

Bonnie and her blog are both listed on the Vuelio Database, along with thousands of other fantastic bloggers, journalists, editors, MPs and SpAds.

Politics on Sunday: What came before the resignation?

April 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Politics on Sunday, Government, Public Affairs Political Services, Canvas Blog Posts /by Daniel Loman

Much of the Sunday political shows was focused on Amber Rudd’s future, which we now know was severely limited.

Brandon Lewis was sent out on the Marr show to defend Rudd. The interview had the potential to be quite interesting as Lewis was the immigration minister last year so he may have been sent out to defend himself. Beyond the standard defence of ‘tackling immigration is the right thing to do’, what the Chair of the Conservative party did manage to do was say Rudd knew of the ambition to increase deportations but it was not a target. When asked whether he and Amber Rudd had ever directly discussed deportation targets, Lewis replied by saying he has been in a room talking about increasing the number of returns.

Defenders of Rudd were also on Peston. Jo Johnson said he is a ‘big big fan’ of Rudd and she’s a great Home Secretary. Johnson also went on to say that it is unrealistic to expect a Secretary of State to see every single memo, which may be true but it is still that Secretary of State’s responsibility if things go wrong. Thankfully Robert Peston pointed out that this is not a trivial matter and is a central element of the department’s work. Ed Vaizey was also on Peston and he said Rudd is fantastic but the last week had not been great and she will have questions to answer (which she now won’t as she has resigned).

Various other matters were discussed throughout the shows. Leader of the Lib Dems, Vince Cable, talked about immigration, saying that several governments have decided the public are bigoted and they need policies to feed their desires. Cable said, ‘race has been a key factor in British politics’. Cable also took a more considered approach when speaking about Rudd’s future saying he wanted to hear what she had to say for herself. Marr did point out that this considered approach may be due to the Lib Dems perhaps being somewhat responsible for the hostile environment policy as they were in government at the time. Cable defended his approach and party by saying for much of his time in power he and his party were fighting against these policies.

Andrew Gwynne also appeared on Marr and he was asked about anti-Semitism. He said it has been made clear by Jeremy Corbyn that Labour party members should not be sharing a platform with anybody found guilty of anti-Semitism or expelled from the party. When asked why this was not put into the party rule book, he repeated his previous point saying it is clear what should and should not be done. He also said the Labour party wants to work with Jewish community groups to change the rules of the party to provide a wider definition of anti-Semitism. Marr provided an example of Jewish people being held responsible for the actions of Israel, Gwynne responded by saying people can criticise any government in a democracy but criticising Jewish people should not be happening. Gwynne is also managing Labour’s local election campaign and he attempted to cool expectations saying it would be difficult to get as good a result in 2014.

Mayor of London, Saqid Khan, also appeared on Peston. He said he thinks there will be protests when Donald Trump visits the UK but said it would probably be inappropriate for him to join in with the protests. He also spoke about how both Theresa May and Trump have created hostile environments in their own countries. Khan would back the Prime Minister if she was to give preferential immigration rights to EU citizens after Brexit. He also spoke about former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, saying that he feels he should be removed from the Labour party and he cannot understand why it is taking so long for a decision to be made.

The leader of UKIP, Gerard Batten, appeared on Robert Peston and when speaking about anti-Semitism he accused the religion of Islam as being inherently anti-Semitic. Robert Peston later sent out a tweet saying Batten’s slur on Muslims is appalling and are the views of the UKIP leader. Batten was then questioned on a statement he has made saying that being called a racist is now worse than being called a murderer or a paedophile; Batten answered by saying he meant you are guilty until you can prove your innocence. Batten also spoke about Sadiq Khan’s statement that he wants an immigration system where EU migrants are given preferential treatment, Batten questioned whether this is racist as most EU citizens are white.

Other guests included: Kate Hoey, who said the one good thing that may come out of the Windrush scandal is that the Home Office may be properly reformed so we no longer see such ridiculous things happen like letters and passports being lost; Jo Swinson said she will be protesting Donald Trump when he visits in the Summer due to the values that he stands for; Ed Vaizey feels the Conservative will have to work doubly or triply hard to win back voters from a BAME background; and John McDonnell spoke about the local elections and said too many factors come into play for any prediction to be made now.

Check out our Canvas of all the best coverage from the Sunday Political shows here and find out how to make your own Canvas here.

Is Amber Rudd’s departure good crisis comms?

April 30, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, PR News, PR Club PR, Comms Blog Posts /by Jake O'Neill

The latest episode in the Windrush saga was Amber Rudd’s departure from her role of home secretary last night. But rather than a sign of things falling apart, is this actually crisis comms gold?

One of the main aims of any crisis communications is protecting the reputation of an organisation. That can come in many forms: stopping customers from leaving, protecting figureheads or keeping the company together. For the Conservatives and the Windrush scandal, it’s been all three.

It’s accepted that the Windrush scandal was borne out of Theresa May’s ‘hostile environment’ policy created when she was home secretary, and Amber Rudd was just in charge when the policy exploded.

It’s also widely accepted that Amber Rudd was a buffer between Theresa May and the scandal, protecting the prime minister in her role, and therefore the Tory party’s stability.

Rudd was May’s human shield, so surely her resignation is a misstep?

Well, no.

Amber Rudd has not resigned over the Windrush scandal, a move that would have inevitably led to Theresa May’s position being untenable as the architect of the offending policy, but due to ‘inadvertently’ misleading Parliament.

This stops Windrush becoming a career-ending issue and instead means Rudd has gone for the same reason as Priti Patel and Damian Green. Theresa May gets to continue in her role and quickly fill the Home Office vacuum with an MP who can clean up the Windrush scandal and maintain the ‘Prime Minister Buffer’.

Sajid Javid, housing and communities secretary, has been touted as the favourite for Rudd’s replacement, and coincidentally he was in the press over the weekend discussing the Windrush scandal, saying, ‘It could have been me’.

Some commentators are still questioning Theresa May’s future, including Labour MPs David Lammy and Diane Abbott, but it now seems unlikely the Windrush scandal will have the legs to take her down. With a sympathetic press, the perception of a political scalp (Rudd’s) and a new home secretary to fix the Windrush scandal, this story is likely to die fast.

The Tories will chalk this one up as a win, and whichever comms pro handled it will be commended. But the celebrations won’t last long, May’s Brexit secretary, David Davis, is threatening to quit if she joins a European customs union. Let’s see how this one plays out.

What do you think? A crisis disaster or a communications triumph? Let us know on Twitter @Vuelio.

Update: Sajid Javid has been appointed Home Secretary, and James Brokenshire has been appointed housing and communities secretary.

Political Headlines – Rudd’s resignation, better roads, debt trap and David Davis

April 30, 2018/0 Comments/in Political Headlines, Government, Public Affairs Political Services, Political Database Blog Posts /by Thomas Stevenson

Today’s Political Headlines include Rudd’s resignation, utility companies avoiding roads, capping interest payments and David Davis backlash.

Rudd resigns, having ‘inadvertently misled’ Parliament
Home Secretary Amber Rudd resigned last night, admitting that she ‘inadvertently misled’ MPs over targets for removing illegal immigrants, the BBC reports. The BBC expects her successor to be announced ‘within hours’. Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said that Amber Rudd had ‘done the right thing’, but that as ‘architect of the crisis’ Theresa May must come before the Commons to explain what she knew.

Government plans to order utility companies to avoid roads
The Times reveals that the Government intends to order utility companies to put new pipes or cables under pavements and verges under plans to cut congestion and reduce potholes. The paper has conducted an investigation into British roads, which also finds that they are 27th for quality in the world, the use of variable speed limits will be cut and that local councils are using bureaucratic measures to avoid repairing potholes.

Labour announces plans to cap interest payments and overdraft fees
The Financial Times reports that Labour is to announce plans to cap the total amount that can be paid in overdraft fees or interest payments in order to help those caught in a ‘debt trap’. The party proposes that the cap on charges by payday lenders should be extended by the Financial Conduct Authority to cover the cost of overdraft borrowing.

Davis faces backlash after urging Prime Minister to ignore top Brexit civil servant
According to The Daily Telegraph, Brexit Secretary David Davis is facing a backlash over claims he told the Prime Minister to ignore a customs partnership plan backed by Oliver Robbins, her top Brexit civil servant. Writing in The Sun, Davis warns that a bid by the House of Lords to let Parliament control the negotiations would lead to a major constitutional crisis. The paper also claims that a senior cabinet minister has told it that May’s favoured customs plan ‘would be a disaster’. DUP leader Arlene Foster has told the BBC that Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, does not understand the unionist stance on Brexit.

McDonnell dismisses Russian Twitter bot claims
According to The Guardian, John McDonnell has said that claims made by The Sunday Times that Labour was supported by Russian Twitter bots during the general election are similar to smears against Neil Kinnock before the 1992 election. He dismissed the assertion that 6,500 suspect accounts published pro-Corbyn, anti-Conservative messages as ‘ludicrous’.

£15 congestion charge may be imposed at Heathrow
The Daily Telegraph reports that Heathrow may impose a £15 congestion charge on 82 miles of road surrounding the airport in a bid to meet emissions targets. The airport is consulting on the plans, which it views as a ‘last resort’, but according to ‘Whitehall sources’ Transport Secretary Chris Grayling believes they are the only realistic way to meet emissions targets.

Hancock to hold talks with FA over Wembley sale
In an exclusive, The Sun reveals that Culture Secretary Matt Hancock is to hold talks with the Football Association to ensure that Wembley remains England’s base ‘for generations to come’. The paper claims that ministers are ‘furious’ that the FA did not give the Government a warning about how advanced talks to sell the stadium were.

Politicians call for Sainsbury’s-ASDA deal to be investigated
As the BBC reports, senior politicians have called for an investigation into the deal between Sainsbury’s and Walmart-owned ASDA. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable warned that local monopolies would be created, while Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey expressed concern about the impact on suppliers.

Vuelio political services create these headlines and are available to support your political needs.

Five Things: Top 150, Millicent Fawcett, Facebook, Kanye and Daily Express

April 27, 2018/0 Comments/in Five Things, PR Pulse, social media marketing, journalism, PR, PR agency Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Jake O'Neill

Much to Amber Rudd’s delight there have been other news stories this week. But with Prince Louis, historic scenes in Korea and Trump’s announced visit on Friday 13 July – you probably missed some of these…

1. PRWeek Top 150

Okay, so if you’re in it, it’s very unlikely you missed it. PRWeek has released its Top 150 UK PR Consultancies, which once again sees Edelman sitting pretty above the rest. Though with only 0.9% revenue growth year on year, 2019 may see a new contender for the crown. The mostly likely choice? Weber Shandwick. The multi-discipline agency has seen a massive 19% year-on-year revenue growth, and it’s now snapping at the heels of Edelman.

This ranking is the first without Bell Pottinger, which in 2017 ranked 13th. The top 20 in 2018 are no doubt benefitting from the redistribution of the fallen agency’s £27m of revenue.

Other key stats from the 150:

23 saw a fall in revenue, two didn’t change and the remaining 125 all grew – The Romans by 108%!
Only 27 agencies are based outside London, none of which make the top 20 (the biggest non-London agency is Pegasus in Brighton at 26 on the list)
Edelman has the most staff with 497 employees, and Steinreich Comms Group has the least with just nine
38 agencies shrunk, 21 remained the same and 89 took on more staff – Yellow Jersey growing from six staff in 2016 to 23 in 2017 (that’s a rise of 283%)
Finsbury is the best performing agency in terms of revenue per employee, with each staff member accounting for £294,118

2. Millicent Fawcett

A statue of the suffragist Millicent Fawcett has been unveiled in Parliament Square. The statue, which shows Fawcett holding a banner that reads, ‘Courage calls to courage everywhere’ celebrates 100 years since the Representation of the People Act (when the first women were allowed to vote). The statue has proved controversial, with the Guardian collecting views that the words on the banner are a ‘travesty’, or the statue is of the wrong person; City A.M. suggests Fawcett would be ‘outraged at today’s feminism’, as it is ‘creating an unnecessary victimhood narrative, to which women are encouraged to subscribe’; and the Spectator calls the statue ‘embarrassing’ as it is ‘timid, ponderous, confused’.

Fawcett’s statue is now one of the few in the country that represent real, non-royal women, which can only be a good thing and hopefully a sign of change.

3. Facebook joy

It wouldn’t be Five Things without a Facebook story but it’s rare that it’s good news. The social giant has posted record revenues in the first quarter of the year, despite all the negative press (covered here, here and here). Beating analysts’ expectations, the company brought in $11.97bn of revenue, which is up 49% from 2017. Twitter also benefitted from social media growth, posting a quarterly profit, with revenues up.

In further good news for the Zuck, the #DeleteFacebook campaign seems to have had no legs. Daily active users grew quarter-on-quarter by 48m to 1.45bn, and monthly active users are also up to 2.2bn. Both numbers are 13% up on the same quarter last year.

Repurposing the word ‘important’, Mark Zuckerberg said: ‘Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018. We are taking a broader view of our responsibility and investing to make sure our services are used for good. But we also need to keep building new tools to help people connect, strengthen our communities, and bring the world closer together.’

All this good news has been offset (a tiny amount) by Ofcom’s report that only 70% of British social media users consider Facebook to be their main platform, down from 80% last year. Of course, this means nothing when we see that Facebook is losing out to WhatsApp and Instagram, both of which it owns.

As a lot of noise around the Facebook scandal came at the end of March into April, we may yet see an impact from the deluge of negative news. So we’ll see it in a Five Things story in about three months.

4. Not losing fans and influencing people

Kanye West has become a prolific tweeter in recent days as he gears up for his new album. Among his many, many words of wisdom – including: ‘I don’t believe in horizontal hierarchy. If you build a ladder too high it’s actually most dangerous for the people at the top’, and ‘we have freedom of speech but not freedom of thought’ – were his thoughts on Trump. In two tweets Kanye said:

You don’t have to agree with trump but the mob can’t make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don’t agree with everything anyone does. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

If your friend jumps off the bridge you don’t have to do the same. Ye being Ye is a fight for you to be you. For people In my life the idea of Trump is pretty much a 50 50 split but I don’t tell a Hillary supporter not to support Hillary
I love Hillary too.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

And, almost like a joyous child:

my MAGA hat is signed ?????????????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/DrDHJybS8V

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

Trump responded to Kanye, saying ‘very cool!’

Rumours that Kanye lost millions of followers because of the MAGA hat tweet have been quashed by Twitter, who said any discrepancies in numbers are actually just ‘inconsistencies’. But that didn’t stop Kim Kardashian rushing in to Kanye’s rescue:

my wife just called me and she wanted me to make this clear to everyone. I don’t agree with everything Trump does. I don’t agree 100% with anyone but myself.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

We could obviously make this post go on and on, and surely books will one day be written on Kanye’s musings. Except his musings are a book, which Kanye is writing in ‘real time’. So maybe one day his musings will just be published, and all of us will have the Book of Kanye on our coffee tables. I look forward to chapter 26:

I’m nice at ping pong

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018

5. Express concern

Trinity Mirror’s takeover of the Daily Express hit further trouble this week as Matt Hancock (Yes, the one who is, is a founder of, and is on: Matt Hancock) suggested there might need to be a public interest intervention on the deal. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is already deciding whether it needs to investigate the acquisition, so Trinity Mirror currently has to keep the Express and Star Newspapers as a separate entity until the CMA comes to a conclusion.

Though that didn’t stop them installing new editors across the titles. Gary Jones, who was made editor of the Daily Express, told a Government committee that some previous Express front pages were ‘downright offensive’. For some reason this was misconstrued by the British press as an ‘admittance’ of some sort of failure or guilt, rather than a new editor (from a left wing background) distancing himself from his paper’s past (of a right wing persuasion).

Read more about Trinity Mirror’s Express concerns here, including why the acquisition is very unlikely to be seen as a competition issue.

Did we miss anything? Let us know on Twitter @Vuelio.

Time for a blogging trade association?

April 27, 2018/1 Comment/in PR Pulse, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

This is a guest post from John Adams, blogger at DadblogUK.com, about the need for a blog association. Have your own opinions about this? Want to write a guest post? Email Jake O’Neill or tweet us @Vuelio.

There’s been a fascinating conversation on Twitter recently. It was sparked off by a post on the Dad v World blog.

While David, the author, was questioning the merits of being known as a dad blogger, it created a lot of chat about changes in the blogging world. Some questioned the way blogging has become monetised, others felt it was acceptable, others sat on the fence but acknowledged blogging has become more competitive over recent years.

I launched my blog, Dadbloguk.com, six years ago. In that time, I have noticed an increasing number of people have turned blogging, not to mention vlogging and Instagramming, into an occupation. For some time now, I’ve been wondering if we’ve reached a point where some form of trade association for bloggers would be a good idea.

In fact, I’m not the only person to have had this idea. A short while ago I was quietly approached by what I’ll euphemistically call an interested party. I was asked whether a trade body was needed for the blogging community.

The approach was very timely. I had, just days previously, joined the Federation of Small Businesses. The FSB is a great institution that offers SMES some amazing services. You can call upon it for crisis communications help, it’s presently offering members workshops on the GDPR, it will help you out if you find yourself on the wrong end of a tax investigation by HMRC and so on.

It doesn’t, however, provide specific, targeted services for bloggers. Blogging is specialism that requires special skills and knowledge and, at this point in time, bloggers have no body to represent their interests.

Here are a few issues I think a trade body could help with:

Continuous professional development
We all need to know about the GDPR. We all need to keep up with the latest SEO developments and learn how to use social media channels effectively. A trade body could organise events and workshops to help its members keep their skills up to date.

Late payment assistance
A trade body could help bloggers when invoices go unpaid. It’s easy to ignore one blogger chasing up an invoice. A trade body, however, would be much more powerful and repeat offenders would find it harder to do business with reputable bloggers.

Code of Conduct
This, I feel, could massively help both bloggers and the PR industry. Let’s just take the issue of paid-for content as an example.

We’re all supposed to be playing on a level field and declaring paid-for content. Yet we all know that not everyone follows the rules.

Members of this yet-to-be-established trade body could abide by a code of conduct requiring them to declare paid-for content in line with Advertising Standards Authority rules, just as the print industry has done for years. This would make life much more difficult for those unscrupulous PR and SEO agencies that frequently ask bloggers to host paid-for content without declaring it or pay tiny amounts in return for bloggers taking part in link building schemes.

Think also of those bloggers who ask for and receive expensive review items and then never do anything with them. This harms the reputation of the blogging industry. If bloggers signed up to a code of conduct, it would give our colleagues in the PR industry some comfort that we were going to produce the goods.

Representation at Government level
Yes, yes, I know this sounds very boring, but I think this is one of the most compelling reasons for the establishment of a trade association for bloggers. The Brexit talks are a fantastic way to demonstrate this.

Representatives from the motoring, fishing, farming and financial industries have been consulted as part of the Brexit talks. As bloggers, we need standardised technological protocols and data protection regulations with the EU and beyond. Without it, it would be very difficult for our blogs to operate.

Who is lobbying for bloggers’ interests at this point in time, to ensure this happens? I’ll tell you who: no one.

Press regulation is another issue. At one point it looked like bloggers were going to fall under the remit of the press regulator. Thankfully it didn’t happen, but there was no trade body in place to argue our case.

Limits of any trade body
While a trade body would be an amazing development, I think it needs a clear remit. It shouldn’t be a union, I don’t think it should negotiate rates of pay. Us bloggers are probably a little too individualistic to want to be constrained by union rules!

Challenges of setting up any trade body
I have heard it said that it would be ‘too difficult’ to set up a trade body for bloggers. I think that’s very defeatist.

The closest organisation I can think of is the National Union of Journalists. The NUJ represents news reporters, features writers, trade journalists, broadcast journalists, freelancers, staff writers, photographers, sub-editors, editors, art critics, political correspondents and so on. Yes, okay, it’s a union so not quite the same thing as a trade body, but if the NUJ is such a broad church, then a blogging trade association could represent fashion bloggers, news podcasters, travel Instagrammers, mummy and daddy bloggers and so on.

I imagine there would be some resistance from people who either make very small amounts of money from blogging or who do it solely as a hobby. I can see ways around this, but there are very few occupations where you don’t get professionals and amateurs rubbing along nicely side by side.

You get professional and amateur sports people, professional and amateur photographers, writers, actors, painters and so on. Yeah, okay, the day I see an amateur fire fighter tackling a blaze I’ll get very concerned, but you get my point.

Often, it’s a career path: you start off as a hobbyist and become professional. Blogging is no different.

Blogging is no longer ‘new’ media. It is established media and no properly organised media campaign takes place without the involvement of bloggers. A trade organisation would help give us the respectability we deserve but frequently don’t get.

There could be different tiers of membership depending on income, age of blog etc. maybe those blogging for the love of it could receive associate membership. Who knows, but there are possibilities to explore.

Final thoughts
Setting up a trade body for bloggers would have its challenges. It would definitely have its opponents.

I personally feel that the industry has developed to a point where it would be no bad thing. It would provide some security and protection both for bloggers and to the people we work with in the PR and SEO agencies. I think there’s real potential for it to drive up standards and to make it a recognised and understood occupation.

What do you think? Would you be tempted to join a blogging trade body? Do you think it could drive up standards? Would it bring some respectability to the blogging world?

One final thought, if I ever saw an amateur firefighter, I’d probably ask for a selfie and post it to Instagram. I am, after all, a blogger and, trade body or not, that’s the kind of thing we do.

Political Headlines – Rudd (again), rail franchising, customs plans and shock collars

April 27, 2018/0 Comments/in Political Headlines, Government, Public Affairs Political Services, Political Database Blog Posts /by Thomas Stevenson

Today’s Political Headlines include Rudd accused of muddying the Brexit waters, the Committee report criticising rail franchising, May warned to abandon customs plans and Gove stands down in shock collar row. Oh, and Trump is visiting.

Rudd accused of widening tensions over Brexit and abandons immigration targets
The Times says that Amber Rudd has been accused of deliberately widening Conservative tensions over Brexit by saying that she was ‘not going to be drawn’ over whether the UK would stay in a customs union with the EU. It also reports that she has promised to end immigration removal targets, having previously denied their existence, and that new statistics show that knife crime has increased 22% in the last year.

Committee report heavily criticises rail franchising
The Guardian carries details of a report on rail franchising by the Commons Public Accounts Committee. The report finds that the current system is broken, with passengers carrying the cost. It accuses the Government of ‘completely inadequate’ management of two franchises, of failing to learn from its mistakes, and of being too ambitious. The Government has described the report as imbalanced and disappointing.

May warned to abandon Brexit customs plans
The Times claims that Theresa May has been warned to abandon her plans for a ‘blue skies’ customs deal with the EU after both remain and leave supporting Conservative MPs rejected it, with ‘senior Government figures’ expecting the plan to be dropped before a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The Financial Times says that the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, told a financial conference that claims that ‘the EU desperately needs the City of London’ were false. The Daily Telegraph reports that Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has accused Nicola Sturgeon of rejecting the Governments EU (Withdrawal) Bill for ‘nationalist’ reasons.

Gove stands down in shock collar row
The Times reports that Michael Gove has stood down in a row over shock collars for pets, limiting proposals for a ban to those used to train animals as opposed to those used to contain them. The move was confirmed in what the paper calls ‘a carefully scripted exchange’ with former Conservative minister John Hayes.

New poll puts Labour on 51% in London
The Sun reports on a new poll, showing that Labour has the support of 51% of voters in London ahead of the local elections next week, compared to 29% for the Conservatives. The paper warns that this would mean that Labour would not gain control of Wandsworth and Westminster councils, with its support having dropped 3% since February.

Starmer attacks Len McCluskey in antisemitism row
The Times says that Sir Keir Starmer has attacked Len McCluskey, after the general-secretary of Unite accused ‘Cobyn-hater’ Labour MPs of presenting the party as a ‘morass of misogyny, antisemitism and bullying’. However, Starmer said that the party’s antisemitism problem was ‘obvious’ and those who denied it were ‘part of the problem’.

Ruth Davidson announces pregnancy
As the BBC reports, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has announced that she is three months pregnant. She and her partner Jen Wilson are expecting their first child in October, following IVF, and she has confirmed that she will be taking some time off for maternity leave.

Date for Trump visit set
The BBC reports that President Trump is to visit the UK on Friday 13 July, after previously cancelling a trip. It will not be a state visit, although the BBC understands that an invitation for one still stands. He will hold talks with Theresa May and is likely to meet the Queen.

Vuelio political services are responsible for the headlines.

Emma Spencer: Relaunching The Emasphere

April 26, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Jake O'Neill

Emma Spencer is ‘the poser’ at The Emasphere, the luxury travel and lifestyle blog. Recently relaunched by Emma and her partner Tim, The Emasphere tracks Emma around the world, and showcases the restaurants she eats at, the outfits she wears and the beauty products she uses.

The Emasphere was one of 11 blogs we said you needed to follow in 2017 – and now we can reveal why we were right!

Why have you relaunched The Emasphere?
My partner and I kept saying we needed to change it up and do something different in the blogging sphere. We finally had our photography style down, and we were getting recognised for our quality content and crazy poses. But there was something missing. We didn’t have a proper strategy, and to be honest with you, we couldn’t properly describe what The Emasphere was all about, apart from being a blog where I shared my favourite things. So, we knew something had to change.

We wanted to create a good strategy, so we had a clearer direction of where we were going and what kind of content we wanted to produce. We also wanted to stop creating content just for the sake of it, and focus more on quality and adding value to our readers. We wanted to build a website, which not only looked good, but was easy to navigate, showcased our imagery well, and moved away from that ‘blog’ look and feel to become more of a professional online lifestyle destination.

In regards to content, we still have a mix of travel, fashion, lifestyle and beauty, but are now introducing more food, wine and dining articles; having regular interviews with unique brands and go-getting entrepreneurs; highlighting cool and individual brands I love (this includes lots of Australian brands); and providing both luxe and attainable travel advice, from hotel and restaurant reviews, to 48 hour travel guides. As I’ve always wanted to be a TV presenter/actor, so we’re also focusing more on YouTube this year!

What makes your blog successful?
Our quality content is definitely something that stands out. We put a lot of time and effort into creating editorial-worthy imagery and valuable content. By heading to theemasphere.com or our Instagram feed, our readers and followers know they’ll come away with advice or inspiration, whether it’s in travel, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, food and drink.

We profiled you at the beginning of 2017, what have you been up to since?
Travelling a lot! My partner and I aim to go to a new destination each month, so we’ve been here there and everywhere – from eating pasta and drinking wine in Rome, to skiing in the French Alps. I also spent a couple of months back home in Australia last year, while my partner sorted out his visa. We realised although we love Australia and love spending time with our family and friends, we really enjoy living in the UK. There are so many opportunities here, both professionally and personally. We also love the fact we can easily jump on a plane and spend the weekend in another country! Apart from travelling, I’ve been working on building The Emasphere and moulding it into a lifestyle destination!

Who/what is your favourite fashion designer/brand?
That’s a hard one! I’d have to say I love Australian brands so much. Every time I wear something from an Aussie label, everyone falls head over heels! Some of my favourite Australian brands include Talulah, C/MEO Collective, Finders Keepers, ASILIO, Thurley and Dion Lee.

What’s the best place in the world to visit for a weekend?
Anywhere with good food and wine, ha! Rome is without a doubt one of my favourite cities in the world. The food and wine are to die for, the culture and ambiance are both romantic and dreamy, and the Roman style is so unique and sophisticated.

Is there anywhere you haven’t been that you would still like to visit?
There are so many places I’d love to go to! I’m dying to go to the Amalfi Coast, New York, Greece, the Maldives, Provence, Bahrain, Oman, Dubai, South Africa… there are still so many areas of the world left to explore!

How important is social media to your blog?
Social media is super important to help you build your online presence and promote your blog and brand. Our largest social platform is Instagram, where we’ve been able to present The Emasphere’s aesthetic and our quality imagery to a large audience, giving them a snippet of what the brand is all about. Instagram is also a great way for our followers and readers to find out more about me as a person, by seeing daily personal insights, from where we’re travelling to and what restaurants we’re eating at, to what I’m wearing and the beauty products I’m using.

What should PRs know about you?
I’m a full-time blogger, originally from Australia, but I’ve been based in Liverpool in the UK for nearly three years. Although I’m based up north, I do come to London regularly for meetings and events. I have a mixed audience, predominately from the UK, Australia and the US, so I have the ability to introduce Brits to Aussie brands and vice versa.

We pride ourselves on creating quality content, with editorial-worthy imagery and in-depth, well-written articles. Videos are a new thing for us, but they’re something we’re focusing a lot more on this year. I love working with a mix of brands from travel and fashion, to food and wine, to beauty and lifestyle, and discovering new and unique brands and destinations.

I love creating stories with our content. Our audience knows whenever we travel somewhere, they’re going to be taken on a journey, which will not only inspire them to go to the destination, but they’ll have all the information they need to have a great trip, including what to wear, the best places to eat and drink, what stylish hotel they should stay in, and how to get there. I’ve been told quite a lot recently that our travel content has spurred on our audience to book more trips this year, which is super exciting!

What are your favourite campaign collaborations?
Recently, Havaianas Europe (who are represented by Alter Agency) had an opportunity to take one person from the press in the UK to Lisbon to interview Naia Cheschin, a Brazilian illustrator and graphic designer they recently collaborated with to create beautiful bespoke prints for the brand. I was chosen to go on the trip, which was a huge compliment to me; I was absolutely thrilled. While I was in Lisbon, I interviewed Naia, and as I really want to get into presenting, this was a dream come true.

On top of that, while we were in Lisbon, I was also able to create and style content for Havaianas, to show how you can style their latest range of sandals with any kind of outfit, from casual to dressy.

Having the ability to work with a brand you’ve loved for years and come up with and create fun content for them, is what I enjoy most about my job.

Collaborating with rentalcars.com at the beginning of the year, was another amazing campaign I worked on. We spent a week skiing in the French Alps, while sharing our journey of renting a car and driving around and exploring the Alps.

It was our first time in this area of France and our first-time skiing, so it was an incredible experience. The content we created for the trip has been our best yet and we had such incredible feedback from rentalcars.com and our audience. With the outfits I wore and the wonderful car we rented, we were able to successfully show how to take on the slopes stylishly.

What do you call yourself (blogger/influencer/content creator)?
I call myself a blogger, but as I create videos and imagery, and work a lot with social media, content creation is the core of what I do. So, I guess I can call myself a content creator too!

What other blogs do you read?
I read a variety of blogs, some of my favourites include Margo & Me and Harper & Harley for fashion and beauty, and Wood & Luxe for travel and wellness.

Emma and The Emasphere are listed on the Vuelio Database, along with every other Vuelio Blog Awards winner and thousands of other fantastic bloggers, journalists and editors.

PR industry welcomes £1bn AI investment

April 26, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Government PR, Comms, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Jake O'Neill

The Government this morning announced a deal to back the British artificial intelligence industry with £1bn of investment, including £300m of newly allocated Government funding.

More than 50 businesses have contributed to the £1bn fund, including Hewlett Packard, BT, Rolls Royce and the UK Space Agency. The investments are being spread across a vast number of projects as the UK looks to seize on the potential £232bn opportunity AI can bring to the UK economy by 2030.

The PR industry has welcomed the announced investment, with the CIPR’s #AIinPR panel commending the focus on ethics, knowledge and skills. Among the projects receiving investment include a £9m Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, which will advise on the measures needed to enable and ensure safe, ethical and innovative uses of data-driven technologies.

The CIPR also praises the fund’s focus on developing AI skills, with announced training for 8,000 specialist computer science teachers and funding for 1,000 new AI PhD places by 2025.

Ketchum’s Stephen Waddington, who leads the AI panel, said: ‘The deal places ethics at the heart of the country’s AI strategy, in line with our previous calls for Government to claim a leadership position in education, investment and the development of AI.

‘The CIPR’s #AIinPR panel has found that while the current use of artificial intelligence in PR is limited, it is likely to have a greater impact over time as it enables the elimination of repetitive, administrative roles and automation of simple tasks and workflows.’

AI already plays a big role in Vuelio software, with much of our product now intelligently automated to provide our clients with the best results.

Joanna Arnold, CEO of Vuelio, said: ‘We’re delighted with the Government’s investment – AI plays an increasing role in all of our lives, and it’s fundamental to the work we do at Vuelio.

‘We are continuing to develop Vuelio’s AI capabilities to better support communications, whether PR and marketing, public affairs or other stakeholder management activity, and look forward to seeing how we can work within the new framework to further enhance AI’s role across the industry.’

Find out more about Vuelio software and how you can benefit from our artificial intelligence.

Political Headlines – Brexit, migrant targets, Dominic Raab and Tory rebels

April 26, 2018/0 Comments/in Political Headlines, Government, Public Affairs Political Services, Political Database Blog Posts /by Thomas Stevenson

Today’s Political Headlines include the UK attempting to outmanoeuvre the EU, Home Office migrant targets, Raab’s aide selling sex and Tory rebels forcing the Government to be more transparent.

UK to try to outmanoeuvre EU on post-Brexit relationship
The Sun says that the Government has agreed a ‘high-risk’ plan to publish a post-Brexit trade deal wish list. It will publish the draft text of the political statement on the future relationship in a bid to outmanoeuvre the EU. The Daily Mail warns that British citizens may have to pay £6 every time they visit the EU after Brexit, while The Daily Telegraph says that the DUP has threatened to bring down the Government if the UK stays in the customs union or single market after Brexit, ahead of a symbolic vote by MPs on the customs union today.

Home Office had migrant removal targets
The BBC reports that immigration enforcement teams had been set targets to remove people with no right to stay in the country. Giving evidence to MPs over the Windrush scandal, Home Secretary Amber Rudd had denied that targets were currently in use, but a report shows that they existed in December 2015.

Raab aide caught selling sex online, sparking security fears
In an exclusive, the Daily Mirror reveals that an aide to Housing Minister Dominic Raab has been caught selling sex to ‘sugar daddies’, telling an undercover reporter that ‘I know everything about him. I know his every move’. The paper calls this a ‘huge potential security breach’ as it makes the aide a possible blackmail target.

Tory rebels to force Government to make overseas territories more transparent
The Times claims that new laws forcing the UK’s overseas territories to improve transparency and expose ‘corrupt Russian oligarchs’ are to be forced on the Government. A coalition of Tory rebels, Labour, the SNP and other opposition parties will challenge the Government next week. Andrew Mitchell, leader of the rebels, said that he had the backing of 19 Conservative backbenchers.

£300m investment in AI in new sector deal
The Financial Times reports that the Government is to invest £300m into artificial intelligence research in a bid to fend off competition from France and Germany. The new AI sector deal will be jointly overseen by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Food and drink firms join forces to eliminate plastic
The Daily Mail says that 42 of the UK’s supermarkets and food and drink firms have joined forces to create the ‘UK Plastics Pact’. They have agreed to eliminate non-reusable packaging by 2025, in a move backed by Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

Task force to support veterans will be announced today
The Sun says that the Government is to launch a task force of ministers from every department to support veterans. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson will launch the Veterans Strategy today at a meeting of the Ministerial Covenant and Veterans Board.

Heidi Alexander may quit Commons to work for Mayor of London
According to The Guardian, Labour MP Heidi Alexander is considering leaving the House of Commons in order to work for the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, in a ‘prominent role’. The Lewisham East MP quit the frontbench in protest in 2016 and co-chairs Labour’s campaign for the single market.

Vuelio political services can provide tailored content from the world of politics.

MK: The Best PR Blog in the UK

April 25, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger, Blogger Spotlight, Blog Awards Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Jake O'Neill

Marcel Klebba is MK, author of the eponymous blog that was crowned Best PR, Media & Communications Blog at the Vuelio Blog Awards 2017. MK started his blog while studying at university and it provides a unique insight into a PR student turning pro.

We caught up with MK to talk about winning his award, the importance of mentors and reaching high profile people.

What’s your background?
I’m originally from Poland. Four years ago, I came to study PR and advertising at the University of Westminster and while I was studying I aimed to get as much work as experience as possible. In my final year, I started a blog, which became my playground to explore ideas, connect with likeminded people and learn more about the industry.

You studied both advertising and PR, how did you choose one over the other?
I don’t think I would be the right fit for advertising. PR appealed more to me, because I’ve always loved media and been surrounded by it growing up. I really appreciate the power of media and PR, and I wouldn’t be exposed to that so much in advertising.

You’ve interviewed some really high-profile journalists, is that thanks to you or the blog?
The blog is massively helpful when it comes to approaching people, because I can say: ‘I’ve got a platform and I want to interview you/I want your opinion/I want your quote – just for my blog’. I think that’s very enticing for people. Twitter is also a great place to chat with people, especially journalists. I don’t think journalists like to be pitched to on Twitter but it’s definitely a good place to build a rapport and relationship.

Does connecting with people through the blog help you professionally?
Definitely. Whenever an email pops up in a journalist’s inbox with my name, and they saw my name on Twitter the other day, it’s probably more likely to be opened and read. And they know I’m not going to jeopardise the relationship we’ve built with a bad pitch.

It sounds like having a blog has helped you a lot, do you think other PRs should have their own blogs?
I don’t think blogging is for everyone – it’s a massive commitment. Blogging is a great idea for PR students, but there are so many sites that have been abandoned after a few posts. It’s great from a career standpoint, but people should be aware that it’s a responsibility, and a blog needs to be constantly updated and it needs attention.

You mentioned students, and they make up some of your readers. How do you interact with your audience?
Through Twitter mostly – it allows to see who is interacting with my blog and commenting on my posts. Also, I get feedback from PR students that enjoyed my blog, which is great, and other people in the industry including my colleagues.

Talking of industry colleagues, I know how important mentors and mentorship is to you. What roles do they play in your development as a blogger and PR?
It’s huge. I started the blog because two people specifically – David Gallagher, then Ketchum but now Omnicom PR Group, and Stephen Waddington – told me I should be writing in order to have a great career. There always seems to be people around you that supply you with good advice, and it’s always good if you’ve got an issue or questions, to go to them directly. I wrote a blog post about mentorship, and in that I wrote that it doesn’t have to be one-to-one sessions, it can be reading something they’ve written or listening to a podcast they’ve made. In the digital world, mentorship can be more virtual and those people don’t necessarily even need to know they’re mentoring you.

You’re at the Vuelio Blog Awards, sitting with, among others, your mentor Stephen Waddington (pictured above), and you win the Best PR Blog award. What’s that like?
A little bit of imposter syndrome. It was huge, a highlight – I didn’t believe it and I definitely wasn’t expecting it. Now, I feel like I’ve got a mission and I still need to plough through, even if there’s difficult times or I’m lacking inspiration. I need to think how I could bring value to the industry and tell people things they might find interesting or to engage people who are just starting out and are thinking about a career in PR.

What’s the community of PR bloggers like?
I think it’s small, but everyone has their own speciality: Ella Minty is all about reputation and the power of influence, Stephen Waddington is all about the tech and professional practice, Scott Guthrie covers influencers, PR Examples covers stunts, and Richard Bailey is doing amazing work bringing everything together and supporting student communities with PR Place. There are also some really remarkable student blogs, including my friend Orlagh Shanks’, Jessica Pardoe’s, as well as the community blog Ulster PR students.

What’s your speciality?
Careers, starting out in the industry and documenting my journey.

You’re making a name for yourself in the PR world, what do you think has contributed to the opportunities?
Because of the blog, I built relationships. I was recently on a panel with Women in PR about personal branding and the people from the panel knew that I wrote my dissertation on personal branding, and I wrote about the dissertation on my blog. So, I think it’s everything all together.

The blog leads to so many opportunities. We are in a niche area – so I’m not a beauty blogger and I’m not getting free cosmetics – but the biggest benefit of having a blog is building relationships with likeminded people. In the last year, I’ve been running the Four PR Questions series, which is all about interviewing high profile leaders and I think this made me connect with other people and get my name in front of them.

What are your top tips for reaching high profile names for interviews?
The majority of people who are afraid of reaching out to the high-profile figures, think they are not reachable. They’re afraid of failure. I was rejected loads of times and lots of people didn’t respond, but there are plenty who did respond and let me interview them.

I think it’s a case of trying and not being afraid you’ll be rejected, because rejection will happen. Also, high profile people are just human – and if there’s someone junior approaching them – they will be impressed.

What are your future plans?
Obviously I want to remain in Vuelio’s Top 10 PR Blogs. Professionally, I want to stay in the agency side of things, and start managing people and thinking about strategy, and implementing digital. I want to keep learning and be challenged every day.

Marcel Klebba, MK, is listed on the Vuelio Database, along with every other Vuelio Blog Awards winner and thousands of other fantastic bloggers, journalists and editors.

Guardian on track to break even

April 25, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, journalism Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Jake O'Neill

The publisher of the Guardian and Observer has announced that it is on track to break even this year – in line with its three-year plan.

Guardian News & Media halved its losses in the last financial year, reporting a £19m loss, which is down from £38m the year before. The publisher is now in the final year of its three-year plan to break even, which started with the company making a loss of £57m.

Better than expected revenue growth and cost reductions of some £20m, which includes the new tabloid-format paper, means the paper is ahead of schedule to break even.

The Guardian is famously a loss-making paper financed by The Scott Trust.

In a joint statement, Katharine Viner – editor-in-chief of the Guardian – and David Pemsel – chief exec of the publisher’s parent company Guardian Media Group (GMG) – said: ‘We are well on track with our three-year strategy to make the Guardian sustainable and break even at operating level by 2018-2019. Thanks to outstanding collaborative work in the UK, US and Australia, we have finished the second year well ahead of our forecast.’

Revenue at the publisher is up by 1% to £216m, but it is the source of income that is changing dramatically. Print ad revenue is down industry wide, but the Guardian has picked up more than its lost in reader revenues, which now exceed its advertising revenues.

The paper has 800,000 ‘supporters’, including 200,000 subscribers, 300,000 members or regular contributors and 300,000 one-off contributors.

Viner and Pemsel’s statement continued: ‘We have achieved very rapid growth in our reader revenues – contributions, membership and subscriptions – across the UK, US, Australia and the rest of the world.’

The Guardian reports that GMG incurs its own additional costs so the overall loss is likely to be between £24m and £25m when the group officially reports its annual results later this year. In the previous financial year, GMG reported a £45m loss.

How to have an ethical and effective approach to influencer relations

April 25, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Blogger Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Influencer relations is a hot topic in communications and done well, can be employed strategically as part of a PR programme to achieve campaign objectives. But, as a professional communicator, how do you go about having an ethical and effective approach to influencer relations?

In this guest post, Anne-Marie Lacey [pictured above, left] and Deb Sharratt [pictured above, right] share their top tips.

Approach
You know the saying, ‘If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing well’ – it goes without saying that when it comes to identifying influencers to potentially engage with on behalf of the brands you’re representing, it’s worth doing well.

Vuelio lists 11,000 bloggers and vloggers, and across the world, millions of blog posts are written every day. So how do you sort the wheat from the chaff? Ensure that you’re putting your brand in front of the right people, who have the potential to help you reach a highly-engaged audience? And, those who share an affinity with your brand, its purpose and products?

There’s no short answer. You can use a platform to help you whittle down your search, but by no means is it a case of job done. Just like a traditional press list, creating and building an influencer list needs the same time, care and dedication.

Take the time to look up these influencers and make sure you do your homework. Does size matter? Don’t be bedazzled by big follower numbers if the target audience is all wrong and engagement figures are low. Otherwise, it’s just vanity metrics and ultimately won’t help you to achieve your strategic objectives.

First, take the time to get to know the influencer, their style and content. There’s only one way to do this and it’s a case of getting stuck in. Read their posts, watch their vlogs and follow them on social media to be sure that they are the right fit for the brand you’re representing. Look at what they write and talk about. Are they authentic? See how they engage with their audience. Do they only post quality content or are some of the blogs full of low-quality, paid-for follow links?

Ask to see media packs if they’re not clearly visible online, and really interrogate the data and their profile on Vuelio to whittle down your list. Above all, are they an influencer that you want your brand to be associated with?

Pitch
Apply the KISS rule and keep your pitches simple, short and straight to the point. For fear of sounding like The Four Tops, when you ‘reach out’ to your target influencers, remember to answer the W questions in your pitch – who, what, where, when and why.

This is your opportunity to show the influencer that you know their channels, content and editorial style, as well as clearly being able to demonstrate how and why that influencer is the right fit for the brand. Remember, influencers ultimately create content – whether it’s a blog, YouTube video or Instagram post – for their audience. Make it clear in your pitch why their audience would be interested in the brand and in turn, why their channels are the right fit for your brand placement.

One last top tip when pitching is to try to avoid the scatter-gun approach – contacting a long list of influencers and offering them all the same thing. Asking for a product review? There’s nothing more frustrating for an influencer than when they work hard to produce essentially the same content as a handful of other influencers. It’s a competitive market out there for them too, and so they need something unique to engage their audiences with and keep them coming back to their channels for more. Consider exclusives, or different angles for the same product. Think about long-term relationships too – how can the influencer help you to progress the brand’s story and what opportunity is there for follow ups?

Be clear about payment too. Content creators are not the same as traditional media. Many will be expecting to be paid for the collaboration.

Work
Now this is where we need you to listen, and listen carefully… the ASA has announced a review into how paid-for influencer and native advertising is signposted online, saying that misleading posts damage consumer trust in advertising and that filters back to the brands participating in this bad practice. We totally agree.

As professional communicators, we work hard to build relationships between brands and their target audiences, while doing all that we can to protect and preserve brand reputation. So, when working with influencers, it’s not only a legal requirement for you to get it right, ethically it’s in everyone’s best interest to ensure the integrity and trust in the brand you’re representing.

Once your influencer has engaged with you following your pitch and you’re working out the finer details of the agreement, you need to clearly outline your expectations – what you expect, deadlines, budgets and so on. This includes following the regulations set out by the ASA, CAP Code, CMA, Google and the different requirements of each and every social media platform this branded content will appear on. Not to mention, if you’re a member of the CIPR or PRCA, you also need to keep in mind the ethics of the respective Codes of Conduct too.

As a starter for ten, any paid-for content should also be clearly marked as an advert, when paid for, or when receiving product or experiences in kind and there has been some kind of editorial control by a brand – even just asking for a post, inclusion of a specific link or website hashtag is a form of editorial control.

It’s no good having this info buried at the bottom of a blog post – the nature of the brand’s relationship should be clearly marked in the title at the top of any piece of content so as not to be misleading to the audience and run the risk of unethically influencing followers, thereby potentially damaging the brand’s reputation. If the influencer is receiving payment or payment in kind by being gifted a product in order to fulfil their end of the contract, all links back to your brand’s website should be ‘no follow’ links. To be totally transparent, this should also be very clear on any social post linking to the article too.

We appreciate that influencer relations is an emerging discipline and can be a minefield to navigate. A handy way of asserting the nature of a piece of content created by an influencer is to remember the PESO model. If the content has been generated by an exchange of money or something of a monetary value, it is paid and therefore needs to be disclosed as such. If an influencer writes about your brand as your approach has brought it to their attention but there has been no value-exchange-transaction, that piece of content is earned, and so can contain follow links according to Google’s rules.

Moral of the story is, to get the most out of your influencer relations efforts, do your homework. From researching the right influencer, tailoring your approach and keeping up-to-date with the latest rules and regulations to setting out your stall and terms of business. As a professional communicator, it’s your job to protect the brands you represent, and the nuances of influencer relations is something we all need to get-up-to-speed with to do our job ethically and effectively!

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Political Headlines – antisemitism, junk food, illegal immigrants and a customs partnership

April 25, 2018/0 Comments/in Political Headlines, Government, Public Affairs Political Services, Political Database Blog Posts /by Thomas Stevenson

Today’s Political Headlines include Labour’s promise to settle antisemitism cases, action on junk food, amnesty for illegal immigrants and the completely cretinous customs partnership.

Labour promises to settle antisemitism cases by July
The BBC reports that Labour has promised to settle the ‘vast majority’ of antisemitism cases by the end of July, following a meeting between Jeremy Corbyn, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies of British Jews. The organisations said that the talks were a ‘disappointing, missed opportunity’ and that a plan of action was not agreed, although Corbyn claimed that the meeting was ‘positive and constructive’.

Opposition parties offer support for Government action on junk food
The Times reports that buy-one-get-one-free deals on junk food will be banned, with action to combat unhealthy lifestyles due to be announced before the end of June. Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party have written to the Prime Minister in a joint letter co-ordinated by Jamie Oliver, warning that she must not backtrack on the measures and offering their support for ‘bold action’.

Johnson challenges May to introduce amnesty for illegal immigrants
The Daily Telegraph claims that Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson challenged the Prime Minister to introduce an amnesty for illegal immigrants at a meeting of the Cabinet, providing that they are ‘squeaky clean’ and don’t have criminal records. Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that the number of cases of Home Office mistreatment of non-Caribbean Commonwealth-born citizens is increasing.

Rees-Mogg describes ‘customs partnership’ plans as ‘completely cretinous’
The BBC says that Conservative backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg has described Theresa May’s plan for a ‘customs partnership’ with the EU after Brexit as ‘completely cretinous’. Speaking at an event organised by the thinktank Open Europe, he said that Theresa May’s attitude to Brexit was ‘enigmatic’ and that ‘it’s hard to read what level of enthusiasm she has for it’.

UK and Welsh Governments reach agreement over post-Brexit powers
The BBC reports that the UK and Welsh Governments have reached agreement over changes to devolved powers in the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, with Welsh Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford saying that powers in areas ‘currently devolved remain devolved’. However, the Scottish Government has rejected the latest offer.

Greg Clark under pressure to review takeover rules
The Daily Mail says that Business Secretary Greg Clark is under pressure to review takeover rules after the Government approved Melrose’s takeover of engineering firm GKN. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has secured a veto on the sale of sensitive parts of the business by Melrose to protect the UK’s national security.

Record number of EU nurses leave UK
The Guardian reports that record numbers of nurses and midwives from EU27 countries left the UK last year, which it says fuels ‘fears that a Brexit brain drain will deepen the NHS’s already chronic staffing crisis.’ The number of EU nurses and midwives arriving to work in the EU has also fallen to its lowest level.

UK exploring launch of rival to EU’s Galileo system
According to the Financial Times, the Government is exploring plans to launch its own satellite navigation system as a rival to the EU’s Galileo system, while Business Secretary Greg Clark is also taking legal advice on whether the UK will be able to reclaim the €1.4bn it has invested in the project since 2003, after the EU’s decision to exclude the UK from secure parts of the project.

Vuelio political services curate these headlines as part of their political intelligence.

Journalist Spotlight: Mark Taylor on your Radar

April 24, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, journalism, PR, PR News, Blogger Spotlight Media Database, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Christina Pirilla

We recently caught up with Mark Taylor, editor in chief at the newly launched Radar Magazine. Mark reveals what goes into launching a new and niche magazine, including international launch parties and a lot of planning!

Can you tell us a bit about Radar magazine and the idea behind it?
Radar is a publication for financial services professionals who are usually too busy to pick up magazines; those who work in compliance, regulatory, risk and surveillance. Our articles and features will hopefully help them catch breath but also make their lives and high-pressure jobs a little easier. One of the main recurring themes is how technology is revolutionizing every aspect of finance.

How did you go about getting the magazine up and running?
In The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Arthur Dent learns to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing, and then to stay in the air he has to not think about it, so something like that. Our parent company Behavox has a large client and contact base, which we leveraged, along with tapping up luxury brands for ads. Some of the in-depth articles took a long time to pull together, both because it’s a lot of research and interviews with people in various timezones takes planning.

What sets it apart from other publications? Who is the target audience?
We recognise it is niche, but it’s also full of colour and we hope it has a bit more life and bite than most other financial services publications. We’re aiming it at compliance and risk professionals, and to banking executives whose job it is to look ahead and see what threats are coming and how their firms can respond. Aside from being crammed with views and insight from top industry experts, we also tap into the considerable knowledge and skill set of our parent company, a leading UK artificial intelligence technology and people analytics firm, to give the articles an extra dimension.

What role does social media play in your work?
At the moment it’s fairly minor, but we plan to do more and we will be using it as a way of growing the wider community beyond the magazine, through the website and events. LinkedIn is probably best for our line of work; financial services professionals tend to use that more than anything else. Social is a huge part of any marketing strategy, at this point we don’t want to steam in and make mistakes that would be hard to rectify, like promising more than we can deliver, which can be easy when things are shiny and new.

What are your future plans for Radar magazine?
Launch parties in London, NY and Singapore, and a website that will house the articles and more content such as expert opinion and commentary. We want the magazine to help us build a community of compliance professionals and be the backbone of the offering.

What do you enjoy the most about your job? What are the main challenges you face?
I love writing articles and knocking them into shape, always have and (probably) always will. That’s been the same since I started in regional news. We have a small but very powerful team here, and working with them is great; team spirit is crucial in journalism. The main challenge is getting the work in front of the people who should be reading it, which is where helpful PRs come in.

Do you have a good relationship with PRs? What top tips would you give to PR professionals who want to work with you?
My relationship with PRs is for the most part excellent. They should use Vuelio and get in touch with me! We’re always looking for interesting people to talk to. I will usually answer although it is tough sometimes to respond to every query.

What type of press material are you interested in receiving?
Financial services compliance, regulatory, risk and surveillance, in UK, US and Asia. Anything financial technology related is worth sending me, although regulation, enforcement and compliance will get more attention.

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Mark Taylor and Radar are both listed on the Vuelio Database along with thousands of other leading journalists, editors, bloggers and outlets.

Trinity Mirror’s takeover of Express and Star titles in doubt

April 24, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, journalism, PR Media Analysis, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Jake O'Neill

At the beginning of February, Trinity Mirror agreed a deal worth £126.7m to acquire the publishing assets of Northern & Shell. Assets included the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and OK! among other titles. As reported by the Guardian, culture secretary Matt Hancock has now said he is minded to issue a public interest intervention notice for an in-depth inquiry.

The announcement is another blow to Trinity Mirror, after the Competition and Markets Authority opened an initial investigation into the deal and forced the publisher to leave Express Newspapers as a standalone business until that investigation is concluded.

Concern has been raised by Hancock, who said: ‘The first public interest ground is the need for free expression of opinion, and concerns the potential impact the transfer of newspapers would have on editorial decision making.’

Trinity Mirror’s papers are generally left-wing, whereas Northern & Shell’s papers have been traditionally right wing, and Simon Fox, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, claimed the papers would remain independent. Shortly afterwards, Trinity Mirror appointed Gary Jones, editor of the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, as editor-in-chief of the Daily Express, among other high-profile changes.

Hancock continued: ‘The second ground is the need for a sufficient plurality of views in newspapers, to the extent that it is reasonable or practicable. The merged entity would own the largest share of national titles within the UK newspaper market, owning nine out of 20 national newspaper titles.’

While it does own a large number of the UK’s national newspapers, Trinity Mirror’s readership numbers are much smaller as a proportion. According to the latest ABCs, it falls far behind News UK and DMG’s papers by over a million copies a day, and even its combined digital output is dwarfed by the Mail’s.

Hancock and the CMA will decide whether a full investigation is need by 7 June – and if they do, they have the powers to amend or even block the deal. Any media plurality investigation will be conducted by Ofcom.

Simon Fox said: ‘This is a part of the process that we were aware was possible following our acquisition of the Northern & Shell publishing assets. We continue to believe there are no plurality or competition issues.’

Political Headlines – Home Office culture, Corbyn meeting Jewish leaders and Brexit

April 24, 2018/0 Comments/in Political Headlines, Government, Public Affairs Political Services, Political Database Blog Posts /by Thomas Stevenson

Today’s Political Headlines include Rudd vowing to change the Home Office culture, Corbyn meeting Jewish leaders, Government suffering Brexit defeat in the Lords, and the border issues.

Rudd vows to change Home Office culture
The Times says that Amber Rudd has promised to change the culture of the Home Office, amid concerns that the Windrush scandal could lead the Tories to lose ethic minority support. An emergency package of measures announced by the Home Secretary will see every Commonwealth citizen who arrived in the UK between 1948 and 1988 offered citizenship or settled status. According to the Financial Times, she has also claimed that the post-Brexit registration system for EU nationals will be ‘as easy to use as setting up an online account at LK Bennett’.

Corbyn to meet Jewish leaders
The BBC reports that Jeremy Corbyn is to meet the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies of British Jews today to discuss the steps he has taken to address antisemitism in the Labour Party. The bodies want disciplinary cases to be sped up and elected officials to be thrown out if they share a platform with offenders.

Government suffers third Brexit defeat in Lords
The Guardian reports that the Government was defeated on the EU Withdrawal Bill in the House of Lords yesterday, with peers voting by a majority of 77 to keep the fundamental charter of EU rights in force after Brexit. The Government also lost a series of other votes that could have given ministers the power to restrict the use of EU law principles to challenge the Government, but won a vote on public health protection.

EU note suggests their border plan may not work
The Times has seen a ‘confidential diplomatic note’ in which the European Commission and other EU negotiators admit that their ‘backstop’ plan to prevent a hard border in Ireland after Brexit will not work, as Northern Ireland could become a loophole in the single market.

May urged to confront pro-EU rebels
According to The Sun, Theresa May is being urged by her allies to confront pro-EU rebels with a vote in the Commons, with the paper reporting that May will instead tell ministers to stay away from a debate on the customs union on Thursday. Allies have apparently warned May that avoiding confrontation is ‘emboldening Brussels negotiators’.

MPs launch inquiry into hand car washes
The BBC reports that the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee has launched an inquiry into hand car washes, investigating concerns that they are damaging the environment and exploiting workers. Committee chair Mary Creagh said that though the washes were ‘cheap and convenient’, prices may be ‘too good to be true’.

Food banks hand out record number of meals
The Daily Mirror reports that the Trussell Trust, the UK’s largest food bank operator, handed out nearly 12 million meals in the last year, a record number and an increase of 13% on the last year. The trust called on the Government to increase benefits in line with the cost of essentials and said that some claimants had been ‘let down’ by the Universal Credit rollout.

Government nearing deal over plans to cut gambling machine stakes
The Times says that the Treasury has now signalled that a deal has been reached on plans to cut the maximum stake on highly addictive gambling machines to £2. Allies of the Chancellor said that an agreement with Culture Secretary Matt Hancock was ‘very nearly there’ and that levies on other forms of gambling would increase to replace lost revenue.

These headlines brought to you by Vuelio political services.

Journalist Spotlight: Sarah Shaffi

April 23, 2018/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, journalism, PR, PR News, Blogger Spotlight Media Database, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Christina Pirilla

Sarah Shaffi is a freelance writer who was recently appointed books editor at Phoenix magazine – the lifestyle brand for freethinking modern women. Sarah speaks to us about juggling roles, targeted pitching and having books on the brain…

What’s a typical working day like for you?
There’s no typical working day! I write a monthly piece for Phoenix about books, so throughout the month I’m thinking about whether something would work for the magazine when I see it, and I’m always scribbling ideas on random scraps of paper.

You are also a freelance writer and contribute to various publications. Can you tell us a bit about your work as a freelancer and how you juggle your different roles?
I’m a list person, so my whole organisational process revolves around elaborate to-do lists. I tend to prioritise by week, and juggle things depending on how close the deadline is. My whole career has been spent in journalism, so there’s nothing like a deadline to motivate me. I also find that variety is best. When I’m juggling a number of jobs, then I like to mix and match what I do in a day, so I tend to not spend a whole day writing but break it up by doing some reading as well, or doing one piece of work in the morning and another in the afternoon.

How did you get into journalism?
I got my first job straight out of university at a local newspaper, where I was lucky enough to be sent on a four-month course to learn shorthand and get government and law training before starting work. Since then, I’ve moved around in a number of roles, eventually making the jump from local news to trade journalism, and now in to freelancing.

What do you enjoy the most about your job? What are some of the more challenging aspects?
I love the variety of being a freelancer and getting to work on so many different projects and with different people whose work I admire. The most challenging thing is that constant worry that you’ve not got enough work, and always having to be thinking of the work you’re going to pitch for as well as the work you’re currently doing.

What role does social media play in your work?
Social media is crucial for keeping me in touch with people, especially as I’m now sitting alone at a desk most of the time and not in an office surrounded by people. In the world of books, social media is always great for seeing which books are getting buzz and that I should have on my radar, and it is a place where I can shout about the books I’m really enjoying, as well as the work I’m doing.

Do you have a good relationship with PRs? Do you have any top tips for PR professionals who want to work with you?
Book publicists are notoriously lovely people, and I love talking to them and hearing pitches. My top tip to PRs is to try and familiarise themselves with my reading tastes and the places I work for, and really target what they’re pitching. I don’t want to hear about every book being published, I want to hear about the ones I’ll enjoy and the ones that the audiences I’m writing for will enjoy. Being pitched select titles makes me think you’ve done your homework, and I’m much more likely to respond.

What type of press material are you interested in receiving?
I’m interested in getting book proofs and press releases relating to forthcoming books.

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Sarah Shaffi (and the titles she writes for) are both listed on the Vuelio Database along with thousands of other leading journalists, editors, bloggers and outlets.

Politics on Sunday – Windrush dominates

April 23, 2018/0 Comments/in Politics on Sunday, Government, Public Affairs Political Services, Canvas Blog Posts /by Daniel Loman

Discussion around the awful treatment of the Windrush generation dominated the Sunday political shows, which included all the usual shows but with Nick Robinson standing in for Andrew Marr.

Robinson asked David Gauke, the justice secretary, if he is ashamed of what has happened to people who were invited to this country and have spent the majority of their lives here. Gauke said he was and that the treatment of the Windrush British Citizens was wrong. The Justice Secretary was played a clip from 2004 of Theresa May on Question Time saying politicians should not blame other people for mistakes that are made – Robinson then suggested Amber Rudd should resign due to the failures that have occured.

Rudd is not popular with Brexiteers in her party and it was also revealed that she had boasted about her harsher immigration strategy. Gauke said Rudd should ‘absolutely’ stay in her job despite the clear issue. Throughout Gauke’s interview, he kept reiterating the point that addressing illegal immigration is right, however he did keep clarifying that those from the Windrush generation are not illegal immigrants.

Unsurprisingly, Robinson’s next guest Emily Thornberry, shadow home secretary, disagreed with Gauke and said that Rudd should quit as ‘she is clearly doing very badly at her job at the moment’. Thornberry made a strong case pointing out that people have died and lost their jobs and she does not see how Rudd apologising makes any of this better. Thornberry stated a few factors to show how the policy was deliberate, these are:

Government commitment to get immigration to the tens of thousands despite not being able to control EU immigration
The hostile environment policy and the ‘go home vans’
In new legislation on immigration checks protection for citizens born in the Commonwealth was removed

Thornberry was also asked whether she felt ministers are racist or was it the policy that was racist; she replied by saying she was not going to fling such accusations at people. She said, ‘it is unfair’ to have different rules for people that have not come from or are not coming from the EU.

Poet Benjamin Zephaniah also appeared on Marr and spoke about Windrush. He feels the black community is united and angry about their treatment – he said even black people who do not have any connections to the Commonwealth are angry. He also called for action to be taken ‘immediately’ to assist people who have been affected.

The talk around Windrush was not limited to the Marr show, as all the shows had guests who spoke on the matter. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, spoke about the hostile environment policy and how it was a terrible. When asked who he thought was responsible, McDonnell said he thinks it is Theresa May as she was home secretary at the time and Amber Rudd as she is the current home secretary.

Baroness Warsi, a former chair of the Conservative Party, was interviewed on Peston and said it could have been her family that were victims of the current scandal and many first and second-generation migrants feared a circumstance like this happening and their fears have come true. Warsi was a member of the Government that oversaw the ‘go home vans’ and she was questioned on this by Peston. She said she was not publicly happy with the policy and privately she was ‘appalled’. She also referenced that the kind of thing she never thought would appear again in British politics has appeared again in the last few years.

James Brokenshire, former minister for security and immigration, was asked by Peston whether he felt personally responsible for what has happened. He replied by saying he thinks it is right the Government have apologised and he never foresaw this.

On Sunday with Paterson, Labour MP Dawn Butler said the Prime Minister is leading a Government that is putting institutionally racist policies into place. Butler said that May should consider her own position and an apology is not enough in this circumstance. Butler also said she sees the Windrush scandal as a disgrace. Tobias Ellwood, Conservative MP, represented the Government on Sunday with Paterson – he said the situation needs to be rectified as these are not people who should be facing the current situation they are in.

While Windrush dominated, there was some discussion with Emily Thornberry on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party – where she said it will be sorted out. She also told a story of how a woman started a conversation with her and started being anti-Semitic to show support to the Labour Party, Thornberry condemned this by saying it is unacceptable. Ellwood spoke on whether Parliament should be consulted on military action, he said it could give your strategy away. He also said the rules around war are being eroded.

John McDonnell said the mandate of the Bank of England could be changed, but its independence would be maintained. The change in mandate would likely be looking at giving the bank some responsibility over employment like the American model. Olympian Tom Daley also appeared on Marr and spoke about LGBT rights across the Commonwealth. He said he does not need to be worried about being who he is in the UK but if he was born in another country in the Commonwealth this would not be the case.

Check out our Canvas of all the best coverage from the Sunday Political shows here and find out how to make your own Canvas here.

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