By Nicki Bourlioufas

Reporters and editors these days aren’t all what they used to be. You’ve probably noticed that news is becoming more generic despite the proliferation of publishers, news websites and other content providers purporting to publish ‘news’.

Indeed, despite the burgeoning number of social media and online news outlets, the same information regularly appears across websites. There’s more volume, but less original material, often triggered by a press release or publicity announcement or even a celebrity tour or book launch. You know when your favourite actor is on the front cover of a news magazine or all over online – he’s got a movie to promote. And many editors and reporters lap up the material. Reporters copy and paste and so, news becomes more generic. Sometimes there is no news, it’s all spin.

 

Indeed, some reporters have become lazy. Rather than source original material, some are used to receiving media releases in their inboxes and copying information verbatim from PR or marketing material and representing that information as news, rather than investigating the facts first. 

On top of this is the proclivity by many journalists and editors to ‘match’ the competition. Too often this means that reporters and editors publish the same information that is on a competitors’ websites without actually asking whether it’s newsworthy. So there is a real sameness to much of what is represented as news.

This is, of course, a great opportunity for those of us who work in public relations who have previously worked in the media ourselves. We know what will catch the eyes of editors and reporters. I can create news by seizing on little-known facts and asking questions that other reporters don’t think to ask.

By sculpting a news story in a media release with newsworthy information, I can then take the next step and set the news agenda. It’s all a matter of writing a media release like a news story with a catchy headline and newsworthy information.

So the PR’s expertise, or at least my own, comes through in two key ways. Firstly, writing like a reporter. Secondly, gathering, interpreting and publishing newsworthy information that I verify as much as possible from third party sources, even as I quote my clients.

So if you are shopping around for a PR professional, it’s worth doing the due diligence and asking if their background is in the media. If it is, you might be getting more bang for your buck than you’d expect. No degree in PR or communications can replace the training received in a newsroom which a PR consultant trained in a newsroom can give you.

In some cases, negative performance of absolute return funds matched market declines, despite the promise of positive returns over time and less volatility. But there are examples of so-called absolute return funds beating the index during this period. [Read more…]

Capital raisings have paid off for participating shareholders, with those priced at bigger discounts such as Flight Centre’s entitlement offer delivering immediate returns and surprising investors.

According to data from consulting firm Vesparum, $20 billion of capital raisings were announced between 1 April and 15 May. The surge in capital raisings came as market volatility levels subsided and the ASX temporarily relaxed capital raising rules in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Most of these capital issues have been offered to existing retail shareholders at discounts to their market prices in the form of share purchase plans  or entitlement offers to buy additional shares in proportion to existing holdings. Investors have mostly made attractive returns by participating in these COVID-19 raisings, with a median return of 14 per cent for capital issues and 58 per cent for offers priced at a 30 per cent-plus discount to a company’s market price. [Read more…]

With the focus on Black Lives Matter, it’s time to consider the stats on indigenous mortality in Australia – as per the most recent ABS data, Deaths in Australia 2018, there is a whopping 20-year-plus difference in the median age of an indigenous and non-indigenous person, with the median age at death for males at 57.7 years in 2018, 63.0 years for females. In comparison, the non-Indigenous median age at death was 82.0 years. The ABS understates the difference: “While the median age at death for non-Indigenous males and females varied across the five jurisdictions, they were consistently higher than medians for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.” With ScoMo saying “aren’t we lucky to live in Australia,” clearly that luck doesn’t include indigenous Australians. Before we question police, let’s question the institutions that enable these stats. Or the fact that of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody’s 339 recommendations in 1991, almost none have ever been implemented. Black Lives Do Matter in Australia – so does indigenous health and living standards, which still mimic conditions in the third world. [Read more…]

Each and every week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes a plethora of data that reporters often don’t look at. Some of my greatest successes in the PR world have been to pick up on a piece of newsworthy data, get a client commenting on it, put the data and commentary in a media release, then issue the release to reporters who have no idea that the newsworthy data exists.

As an example, I have a couple of technology clients that like to be in the media commenting on IT trends. So I prepare for them a diary of all relevant ABS releases concerning IT investing, spending and activity, including the bi-annual Internet Activity report, quarterly GDP data which includes data on software investment and the ABS’s annual report Summary of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Business. [Read more…]

Reporters and editors these days aren’t all what they used to be. You’ve probably noticed that news is becoming more generic by the day despite the proliferation of publishers, news websites and other content providers purporting to break the news.

Indeed, despite the burgeoning number of social media and online news outlets, the same news regularly appears across websites. There’s more volume, but less original material, often triggered by a press release or publicity announcement or celebrity tour. You know when your favourite actor is on the front cover of a news magazine or all over online – he’s got a movie to promote. And many publishers lap up the material.

Many reporters have become lazy. Rather then source original material, some are used to receiving electronic media releases in their inboxes and copying information verbatim and representing that information as news, rather than investigating the facts themselves.

On top of this is the proclivity by many journalists and editors to ‘match’ the competition. Too often this means that reporters and editors publish the same information that is on a competitor’s websites without actually asking whether it’s newsworthy. So there is a real sameness to much of what is represented as news.

This a great opportunity for those of us who work in public relations who have previously worked in the media ourselves. We know what will catch the eyes of editors and reporters. I can create news by seizing on little-known facts and asking questions that other reporters don’t think to ask.

By sculpting a news story in a media release with newsworthy information, I can then take the next step and set the news agenda. It’s all a matter of writing a media release like a news story with a catchy headline and newsworthy information.

So the expertise comes through two ways. Firstly, writing like a reporter. Secondly, gathering, interpreting and publishing newsworthy information.

So if you are shopping around for a PR professional, it’s worth doing the due diligence and asking if their background is in the media. If it is, you might be getting more bang for your buck than you’d expect.

No degree in PR or communications can replace the training received in a newsroom which a PR consultant trained in a news room can give you.