Pressman PR

I love this story from BBC news today…

Dog shoots Iowa man during hunt

A man out hunting in Iowa was shot in the leg after a hunting dog stepped on his gun, authorities said.
The accident happened after James Harris, 37, put his gun on the ground to retrieve a fallen pheasant.
One of a pack of hunting dogs following behind stepped on the trigger, and up to 120 birdshot pellets hit Mr Harris in the left calf at short range.
A local official told a news agency the injury was “not life-threatening, but will give him trouble for a long time”.
Alan Foster, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, told AFP it was not uncommon for hunters to be shot by their dogs.
“I hear about it a couple times a year,” somewhere in the country, he said.
“They’ll step on the trigger assembly and, if the gun for whatever reason wasn’t on safety, it doesn’t take a whole lot to trip a trigger.”
Mr Harris was treated at Grinnell Regional Medical Center and later transported by helicopter to University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City, following the accident in Poweshiek County on Saturday afternoon.
An investigation into the accident is under way.

It’s fantastic that more people than ever are waking up to the wonders of PR. A well executed PR campaign can do far more to raise the profile of an individual, product or organisation than expensive advertising. But why is it that having discovered the effectiveness of public relations so many people believe they can do it themselves?
If my car failed to start tomorrow morning would I call the AA or would I pop open the bonnet, grab my claw hammer from the shed and start clobbering the engine with all my strength? Granted, a person’s business is not the same as their car. No, it’s far more important than that (to paraphrase Bill Shankly). So why so many want to jeopardise their reputations with ill conceived and poorly written PR leaves me scratching my head in disbelief.
Admittedly some have done an okay job at DIY public relations but they are the exception rather than the rule. Generally speaking, unless you’ve spent years inside a newsroom yourself, you’re better off hiring someone else who has (my contact details are on my website – click here). Professional PR can be a lot cheaper than you think. Certainly much less expensive than making a laughing stock of yourself and trashing your own reputation with lame PR.
And before you say, “He would say that wouldn’t he?” let me give you a case in point.
The following is a press release which was sent to me today. I have changed the woman’s name to Jane Doe through sheer kindness – although she seems more than happy to send this out to the whole world with her real name, address and contact details intact! This is a professional lady in a serious business. Yet she seems to think the only way to promote herself is to make a complete fool of herself in the media. I’ve spent years in newsrooms and, believe me, press releases like this only end up in one place – the bin.
This is real, I kid you not…

PRESS RELEASE
19 October 2007

Have I made my point? Would you hire an accountant who is, by her own admission, away with the fairies? Me neither.
At best doing your own PR if you don’t know what you’re doing is an expensive waste of time. At worst it could cost you your good name. Reputations take years to build but they can be destroyed in a moment. So do yourself a favour and hire a consultant who knows what they’re doing.

During a visit to one of my erstwhile employers the Nottingham Evening Post yesterday I was reminded of how technology has changed the face of the media in recent years.
I joined the paper as a rookie reporter in the 1990s (or a cub, as we used to be called). Mobile phones were just coming in, although anyone who had one was considered a flash git. I remember the editor acquiring two early Nokias which were used as “pool phones”. That meant they sat in a little box on the newsdesk and a reporter would take one with them when they went out on a story so they could give the desk a “heads up” if the story looked like a winner. Of course with only two phones between a staff comprising around 30 reporters, it meant more often than not there was no phone available.
Those were the days of having to find a payphone to call into copytakers. Now copytakers are no more and every reporter has their own mobile.
But perhaps the biggest change of all since my day is the demise of the fax machine. Back in the 90s the fax was the hub of the newsroom. Reporters would loiter suspiciously around it in the hope of pinching an incoming story marked for the attention of a colleague before he or she got their hands on it. One chap I recall was particularly skilled at this form of “story rustling” earning himself the nickname “The Fox”.
Now though the once coveted fax machine is gathering dust in the cellar and everyone receives information by email. How much easier it must be for young reporters who now just have to cut and paste. No tedius keying-in like in my day. They don’t know they’re born.
What goes around comes around and I can remember “oldies” saying exactly the same thing to me back then. They couldn’t believe how easy we had it with computers on our desks instead of the old style manual typewriters. I can only imagine how hard that must have been. Having to tipex out typos or worse, start again. Yes our PCs were the size of your Nan’s TV, the display had one colour - a sickening shade of green, and e-mail hadn’t arrived yet. But at least we could word process our stories. We would compete with one another to write the most words each day. My record was a RSI inducing six thousand words. Young reporters these days probably manage that before morning conference thanks to the wonders of cut and paste.
It’s either an “exciting” or a “frightening” time for newspapers depending on who you talk to. The arrival of the internet has led to a drop in sales as more people choose to read their news online. The dilemma for papers is, do they embrace the new age and seek to make their website into a leading resource for people seeking news - effectively giving their product away for free and therefore forcing them to rely more heavily on advertising. Or do they stick with the traditional media and run the risk of becoming obsolete in an increasingly digital age?
I think the Evening Post seems to have made the right decision. Their website is widely regarded as THE site to visit to find out what’s happening in Nottingham. Click here to visit it.
It felt good to be back there yesterday. It hadn’t changed all that much. The computers are slimmer, meaning more desk space and the “pool” Nokias have long since disappeared along with the fax, but apart from that it was almost as if I hadn’t left for the nationals all those years ago. I wonder where “The Fox” is now? I bet he’s missing his trusty fax.

Every time I turn on the TV set these days there’s a programme extolling the virtues of emigration: A Place In The Sun, Build A New Life Abroad, Build A New Life Down Under, etc. It feels like these TV types are set on getting as many of us as possible to turn our backs on dear old Blighty, smother ourselves with the factor 16 and head for the nearest airport with a one way ticket clutched firmly in our mitts.
Now I like a good holiday as much as the next man, but am I alone in thinking that one of the best things about going away is the coming home bit? Maybe I’m actually some kind of freakish flag-waving patriot at heart, but, unfashionable as it is to admit it, I love Britain.
Unfashionable because us Brits like nothing more than a good moan. Yes, the weather’s a bit crap, the streets are a bit dirty, and there’s far too much crime. But, y’know what? It’s home.
Sad then that the only people I hear praising the UK these days are the growing number of immigrants.
Today I had a meeting with Spanish born Beatriz Hunter and her English husband Mike. A few years back the couple left the UK with the masterplan of setting up a language school in Beatriz’s home town of Madrid. Two years ago, tired of the bureaucracy which comes with running a business in Spain, they decided to jack it in and come back to the UK. They haven’t looked back since. Once back on British soil they started up betterlanguages.com a company which provides translation services for many clients in both the private and public sectors. Click here for details.
They have been shortlisted for a UK Trade and Investment award and business has never been better. As Beatriz said: “Britain is a great country.”
Now if only those TV execs thought so. Get Fed Up Abroad Come Home And Build A New Life Back In Britain is a programme I for one would like to see.

MG Solar Solutions is a new company founded in July 2007 by Irishman Martin Dowd and his Scottish pal Gerry Kennedy (the MG in the company name comes from their respective first initials and has nothing to do with the car makers).
Martin and Gerry are experts in solar power and renewable energy and hope to help both families and businesses to reduce their carbon footprint and save cash on their energy bills by supplying solar panels.
With green issues being on the rise and global warming in the news on a daily basis Pressman PR is delighted to be working with MG Solar Solutions to help spread the word about this great company.

Please visit Martin and Gerry’s website www.mgsolar.co.uk to find out how to save the planet and spare your wallet.