Sad news: this week’s PR Business will be the last one. The title plans to re-launch later in the year as a monthly but has admitted defeat in its attempt to be the second weekly PR title in the UK.
PR Business the weekly never really got off the ground as a rounded title. By that I mean that it was just now really finding its feet, its voice and that it never seriously got its website running.
I think that the editorial effort by Eirwen Oxley-Green has been heroic. She’s worked very long and very hard to produce the weekly with scant resource. Geoff Lace has also provided some really strong lead articles over the pas few months.
Even with its occasional shortcomings, PR Business tried out new ways of reporting and discussing PR in an industry mag. It also embraced discussion of new media’s significance for the industry from the start, a subject very close to my own heart, and one of the most, if not the most, urgent questions for our profession.
That’s why I was happy to write for it every week, and why I was happy to bear with it while it found its way and developed its voice and approach. I also appreciated the opportunity to write about the web and to try and introduce some of the ideas and developments in media that are common currency on PR blogs to a wider audience.
In last week’s issue it took up the PR blog community’s position on CIPR Director-General’s Colin Farrington’s bizarre comments about bloggers. I liked that. I thought it was challenging and daring. That’s what I want from my trade media: leadership and counterpoint.
PR Week‘s carrying sensible articles on new media now, and columnists like Charlie Whelan are acknowledging the significance and influence of social media regularly (even if Colin Farrington thinks otherwise). Maybe that was inevitable, maybe it was spurred on a little by PR Business I don’t know.
Ultimately, PR Business as a weekly feels like an opportunity missed, by the backers (whose strategy and commitment must be questioned) and for the industry. It raises a number of questions:
Is there room or a need for a second PR trade title or is PR Week all we need? My position is that monopolies aren’t good and every industry benefits from having two publications. Even if one is the underdog, it keeps the other one on its toes, makes sure that no one gets too comfortable or staid.
Is an offline industry media brand ever going to work these days? Best of luck with the monthly guys, and I’m happy to help where I can – but the online version is where the future is and where the investment should go first. Given that PR Week content still remains behind a pay-wall this is where there is a wide-open market opportunity.
If no serious online offering emerges for PR Business emerges can the PR blogging community do it for itself? The World’s Leading claims a large readership and has started touting for general news, but it can’t be a forum and a voice for the UK industry while it is still anonymous and aggressive to people on a personal level. What’s the alternative? While my blog-roll keeps me in touch with the network we need an authoritative voice – Media Guardian with expanded coverage of PR might fill this role or PR Week if, as I say, it lowered its pay-wall (but I understand this is highly unlikely).
Anyway, so long PR Business weekly, best of luck with the planning for the monthly.
Tags: PR Business, media, public relations, PR, PR Week, CIPR
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