Home time Refreshing news today that some 2.6 million UK properties now host a homeworker either all or some of the time. Flexible working is something which Rainier PR has advocated right from its inception. With the secure and reliable technology on hand – virtual private networks, IP telephony and the like – there’s little excuse for companies to not allow some degree of flexibility.

Just so long as you mix the technology with a good helping of trust and a clear policy, flexible working can significantly improve company productivity. For small companies, being able to offer remote working is essential to attract the best staff. It’s time for a more mature model for employment. Firms that stick to the old school format rather like Cat Stevens’ “Matthew and Son” will simply struggle to recruit.

  Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 1:53 PM

  Inter-not
Newly released government figures reveal that four in 10 UK homes still do not have internet access.

The survey also showed that, surprisingly, 30 per cent of men and 40 per cent of women have never actually been on the internet.

After the story about trust in blogs from Wednesday’s post, I think we should remember that the general public still accesses most of its news through the ‘old’ media. We should consider the features that today’s internet offers when devising our PR strategies (such as social networking sites, blogging, etc), but the industry needs to bear in mind that there are still a fair number of people who do not own a computer and even more who do not access the internet regularly.   Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 10:08 AM

  Porn Free A "huge blunder" occurred when SVT, a Swedish state broadcaster, apparently showed porn in the background of a news bulletin.

The weekend news update usually shows other channels running in the background, but staff had switched the feed to sports channel, Canal Plus, forgetting that it broadcasts porn after midnight. Surprisingly, there were no complaints made over the gaffe.

It’s interesting that in Sweden, porn shown during the national news got no feedback, but in Britain, the Kentucky Fried Chicken advert showing people singing with their mouths full notched a record 1,671 complaints.   Permalink | 2 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 8:16 AM

  Blog Trust New research has revealed that blogs are the least trusted source of information for current affairs and events.

The research, reported in today’s Metro (and various other sources), was compiled by Telecom Express and concluded that national and regional newspapers were more trustworthy than blogs and web sites, with national television the most trustworthy.

To be honest I wasn’t really at all surprised by the findings. The internet is still fairly loosely regulated (at least in comparison with the ‘old’ media) and it is much easier for any person to publish their thoughts. Therefore, although you get a lot of great insider stories and opinions that the more mainstream media couldn’t report, there is also an abundance of poorly researched comments and just plain lies.   Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 4:47 PM

  Michael Jackson to head ITV
Unfortunately not that Michael Jackson, but his namesake, the former head of Channel 4, has been singled out to head the struggling channel after Charles Allen steps down in October.

ITV has not adapted well to the advent of digital TV and the calamity of ITV digital still fresh in many minds (and many football teams’ pockets). With advertising revenues also down in Britain at least, Jackson has a tough task on his hands.

ITV should look to continue producing quality dramas, like in its hey day – with A Touch of Frost and Cracker winning over viewers and critics alike – not being over reliant on ‘trash’ TV like Footballer’s Wives and Love Island. ITV already has its guaranteed crowd pullers like X Factor, Corrie and anything with Ant and Dec, but there will never be a time when the whole nation watches a James Bond premiere again, and ITV must realise this in order to function as both a TV channel and a viable business.   Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 2:12 PM

  Brand it Like Beckham With news that David Beckham has been omitted from the latest England squad and a return seeming unlikely, the Beckham Brand is facing a struggle unheard off a few years back.

Brand Beckham is worth an estimated $375m (Forbes) and despite his recent decline as a football player, his image continues to shift anything from shirts, razors and dolls to films and videogames, especially in the far east.

He has survived several ‘scandals’ already, most notably his alleged affair with Rebecca Loos, and is still idolised universally. He has been a great ambassador for Football and could easily continue being so after his playing career is well over. With his good looks and family man image, I doubt DB7 will be having to sell Viagra anytime soon.   Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 10:50 AM

  Music television (and online games and downloadable videos)
MTV has announced a $200million deal that sees it acquire Atom Entertainment – the internet video and games distributors.

MTV has inspired a whole generation but, having recently celebrated its 20th birthday, finds itself in a precarious situation. When MTV was first born it was about rebelling against the system but MTV’s success has made it the system to rebel against. It’s done well so far with the launch of niche channels such as MTV2 and MTV base (in the UK at least) but the acquisition of Atom speaks volumes about where the biggest music channel in the world thinks the future lies.

Downloadable content on demand is still some way off becoming the norm, but with Sky+ and the like, MTV seems to have, not only a vehicle to survive in this new environment, but a product that can also help reenergise MTV’s rebellious nature again.   Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 9:00 AM

  Careless Talk The BBC Today programme broke the story about how the Met is investigating claims that News of the World journalists have been breaking stories by intercepting the mobile messages of the royal family and celebs. The voicemail on a mobile phone can be accessed when it is switched off by dialling the number and pressing ‘*’ when the voicemail kicks in and entering the four digit pin code.

It is alleged that journalists have either been bribing individuals within the network operators to get access codes or using the operator’s default voicemail codes on the basis that most people don’t use a personalised pin code. This voicemail hacking story follows the news on Monday that AOL has inadvertently released the search records of web surfers.

Maybe there’s an opportunity here for PR companies to advise clients on how to manage personal digital information such as email archives and voicemail. It’s the modern day equivalent of disposing of your rubbish safely.

In the meantime change your voicemail pin code and delete your voicemails as soon as you’ve listened to them.   Permalink | 2 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 8:56 AM

  Google's Space Having raised questions after buying Myspace for $580m last year, News Corp. has struck a deal with Google to the tune of $900 million allowing Google to run the search services and advertising on it.

MySpace - predominantly driven by the teen market - is renowned for its relatively low ad revenue. Teenagers are hardened to corporate messages and with a relatively low income, marketers have always had a hard time advertising to an increasingly media savvy demographic.

I think News Corp. has got the better end of the deal here.   Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 8:13 AM

  Listen Up!
The Q2 RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Limited) results are out for the radio industry and the independent sector (up 0.3 per cent from Q1 to having a 42.9 percent audience share) appears to be gaining on the BBC (down 0.7 per cent to 54.7 per cent). Could this silence some of the commercial sectors complaints about the publicly funded BBC’s ongoing dominance?

However, not all is glum for the BBC; BBC Radio Five Live and Five Live Sports Extra gained nearly half a million listeners between them in the last quarter, and BBC Radio Scotland broke through the million barrier again, with a year-on-year rise of almost 90,000 listeners.

In the independent sector, Chrysalis Radio’s Heart Network was again the UK's No 1 Independent Local Radio Brand and the figures also showed UK GCap Media stations now own a third of the commercial market share, the largest in the commercial radio sector.

And finally the digital sector continues to grow: listening across all digital platforms, including DAB, DTV and the Internet is up in all categories and the percentage of people living in a DAB household grew from 11.1% at the end of 2005 to 13.6%.   Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 4:14 PM

  Death of PR (again)
Charles Arthur - the Guardian tech editor - speaking at a Full Run meeting, stated how PR and journalism were growing apart resulting in the impending collapse of the PR industry.

Relying on blogs and RSS feeds for all his stories, he believed that PROs still within the industry after this collapse would specialise in the manipulation of blogging to generate media exposure. He does not find press releases very useful for communicating the context of a story in order to make it interesting enough for newspaper readers.

Whilst I believe blogging will become more important within the PR industry, I do not think it will take over our daily tasks wholly. Blogs are great for insider news (if you have the correct contacts) but PROs will always be required for generating stories.

...but then I would say that, wouldn’t I?   Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:39 AM

  G24 / heaven
Last week saw the launch of G24, a free online pdf newspaper from the Guardian Group, which the audience is expected to print out in order to read and is readily available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

This seems to straddle the middle ground between the whole new media versus old media / death of the print debate with its up to date information in a format we feel comfortable taking to the toilet.

Except it doesn’t do the job as well as either print or online media.

Firstly, online print is two steps more accessible than G24 in that as soon as it comes on screen, you can read it, and it is easier to scan the pages for relevant stories. Secondly, online news offers moving images and optional access to a wealth of related information to the subject.

With regards to traditional print media, G24 requires you to access a computer and print out the newspaper. In an impatient - or lazy - world this can be time consuming especially when the newspaper with more stories only costs 70p and you can pick it up on the way to work.   Permalink | 0 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:36 AM

  American Strife
Companies have in the past traded on their ‘Americaness’. Coca-Cola, Malboro, Levis are just a few brands that have emphasised their American roots. However, with the America’s role in the collapse of the world trade talks (not to mention Iraq and Israel), the image of American organisations has again come under scrutiny.

With boycotts around the world, can American organisations such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola persist with their all American image – after all, the image is idealistic rather than realistic, so why shouldn’t they still associate with the more positive American connotations?

Because it does not exist. Media is so free now that anyone can access information on any organisation and if, for instance, Nike associates itself with equality in athletes yet continues to hire third world countries to produce its products, this is completely transparent. Perhaps organisations should stop projecting idealistic ideas and instead spend effort actually living up to them.   Permalink | 1 comments | Stephen Waddington @ 11:26 AM