A weekly roundup of media news and talking points, sans effort

Thought for the Week 

“The definition of relief is being the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and ringing the Queen and saying ‘It’s all right, it’s OK’. That was something. She purred down the line.??? David Cameron, in what was supposed to be a private conversation that has since been made public, meaning he now needs to apologise to The Queen following what must be one of the most off-putting displays of smugness ever.

Weekly High

Over the last five days the annual Social Media Week has been held in London and SGPR were lucky enough to send no less than three representatives down for the event. Comprising conferences, debates, discussions and workshops on all things socially-minded, we’ll be bringing you our own thoughts on what went down next week, but for the time being it’s definitely this edition’s high point.

 

Weekly Low

In the world of modern marketing and PR, it’s  normal to develop micro-sites. What’s less acceptable is when an oil giant develops a web address that has the front of an objective news site, and posts articles criticising people involved in protests agains the company. That’s the tactic Chevron decided to use with its Richmond Standard digital publication, which on Monday ran an article describing ‘rude’, ‘messy’, and ‘smelly’ activists speaking out against the multi-billion dollar firm. Not OK.

 

Stories to keep an eye on

Britain’s Mirror Group is facing a further 50 allegations of phone hacking instances, a court was told this week. 
The former BBC 3 documentary boss, Fiona Campbell, has been appointed head of Auntie’s current affairs programming. Whether that means Newsnight will go all teeny bopper is another question.
The latest ABC figures for digital readerships in the UK have been released, with The Mirror and Metro seeing the biggest year on year rises of 99% and 175% respectively.

Just in case you missed it

This week we enjoyed ourselves listing some of the best and worst public relations stunts and campaigns in the history of travel PR. Take a look at our run down here.