Chris Lewis on media & PR

Q4 blues

Todd Defren's blog is always worth a read. Todd is one of the most experienced PR people in North America. Better still, he's gained the miles on the clock without losing his sense of humour. In this candid piece he describes Q4 mentality among his clients.

I would add a couple thoughts to Todd's. Firstly, it's not just clients who get a touch of the 'Q4's. It's colleagues, suppliers, partners, everyone. Secondly, it's not one dip. It's two. The second comes just after Christmas in week three of January. It's when everyone gets their credit card bills for the yuletide binge. This is not just a PR or media effect (although young-cultured, marketing organisations do feel the impact more). Many of the recessions in the last fifty years have been triggered by the onset of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, because that's the location of the world's financial and commercial centres.

So just grin and bear it? No, anticipate it if you can. You can pay annual bonuses in November which gives a boost before Christmas and helps offset the inevitable tendency to overspend. You can also attend sales kick-offs in January and adjust working practices. Different people respond to different things. Sometimes, it's just enough to be aware of it and blog it out like Todd, whom I thank for his honesty and good humour.

Loic Le Meur

This morning I met a man who will change the world. His name is Loic Le Meur EVP at San Francisco-based  Six Apart, the company hosting this blog and about 9 million others. He said loads of things which were interesting, but this one struck me particularly - in Europe blogging is more popular in the South rather than the North. The Germans in particular have been slow to take up the technology. The reason, according to Loic, is simply national characteristics. The French, by comparison, are way ahead. Have a look at the European Blogosphere, a wiki site he created.

I'm grateful for him giving up his time. For anyone thinking about hearing him speak, he is entertaining, informative and massively experienced. He was an entrepreneur in this space before joing Six Apart.

He was one of the presenters at a breakfast seminar held at LEWIS. The other two were my colleague the brilliant Morgan McLintic and the BBC Online journalist, Dr. Jo Twist. Jo explained how BBC Online worked and the speed at which it operates. Her news judgment under such time pressure is astonishing. Basically, the first cut of news is done by 1000hrs, then updated subsequently throughout the day. Blogs are an important part of the news scans, especially when used in conjunction with RSS feeds. When I was a journalist, you were lucky to be in for 1000hrs (well I was).

The whole event was held in the company's media centre and was also attended by other industry specialists like Niall Cook from Hill & Knowlton and Charlie Cannell from Edelman. It was also nice to see my friend Sinclair Beecham founder of Pret, the sandwich chain. He is one of my heroes and I could see his agile mind turning over the ideas.

The event was attended by around 80 people and was a tremendous success. For anyone interested the webstream is here.

My thanks goes to everyone in the events and marketing team who worked so hard to make it so.

The Guardian again

Seems the new format Guardian is also still being printed with oil-based ink. The Daily Mail and Evening Standard moved over to water-based inks years ago. This was following research that showed readers didn't like getting their hands dirty. This must have been considered in the Guardian re-design process. Sounds like an easy switch but it isn't. Water-based inks frequently stretch the web during printing causing colour registration problems. The two Associated titles have mastered the technology now and remain superb editorial products. The Mail especially has done well. In thirty years, it's refined it's product from broadsheet to tabloid, water-based inks and more run of colour. It's not just format, it's all aspects of product design. The new format Guardian though has been well-received and it's great to see its refreshing use of photo-journalism. Reminscent of the great Harold Evans on the ST. Yeah, yeah. I know. That really is dull.