PR Week rival launches in March

February 22, 2006

PR Week is to lose its virtual monopoly in the UK market, according to a report on Media Guardian‘s site today.

A new publication will be called PR Business and is being masterminded by Geoff Lace, the original founder of PR Week itself.

In a cunning strategy to out-flank its established rival, PR Business will hit the streets a day before PR Week and be free to all 8,000 members of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

PR Week has had the market to itself for a while, so it will be interesting to see how things pan out for both publications.

Especially of interest to me will be its approach to online media, both in terms of its coverage of the rapid development of new models and services in social media and its own web presence.

PR Week UK, unlike its US sister title, has not given extensive coverage to issues around blogging, podcasts, wikis and the potential for PR professionals in this area. Be nice to see a technology industry focused section too – it’s a big market but gets lumped into general news in PR Week.

At the moment a holding page is to be found at PR Business. Watch that space…

Antony Mayfield

Public notebook

6 responses to “PR Week rival launches in March”

Stephen Davies

February 22, 2006 at 6:55 pm

Good find, and nice to know I’ll be receiving another PR publication in the post shortly.

I do hope they give more prominence to online media. As you say, PR Week UK tends to shy away from it slightly.

I actually called the deputy editor a few weeks ago to ask if they’d considered running an article on blogs, but he just dismissed it saying they already had.

Oh well, just trying to do my little bit of evangelising.
Antony

February 22, 2006 at 7:33 pm

Fair play to you, Stephen. You should pitch the life of a PR student who blogs and how you formed your network of professional contacts and an industry profile before you even graduated – that’s a story about the power of blogs in itself, surely?

I just don’t recall the articles in PR Week. There was one on RSS – but if you look at the US title there’s a few stories every week and some in depth pieces from the likes of Mr Rubel.
Drew B’s take on tech PR

February 26, 2006 at 1:24 am

Just playing devil’s advocate – PR Week often writes about blogging. Just not in much depth or very well. There was a column on it the other week, something not that long ago which was more in-depth, and perhaps a year ago there was a big feature. Then there’s little mentions here and there. Pity though that whenever it covers blogging it is blatant that the writer knows v little about the topic.

Heads up 1: I hear there’s a blogging feature coming up next week in PR Week

Heads up 2: I am interviewing Steve Rubel on the phone next week as part of his media tour, on blogger relations, his Edelman aspirations, and his tips for UK PRs. Watch for the write-up on my blog.

And Stephen – I agree with Antony – your status if far beyond what any other grad/intern could manage without having been blogging. That’s your story for PR Business if not PR Week!
Drew B’s take on tech PR

February 26, 2006 at 1:42 am

Rival to PR Week – PR Business – to launch March 16th

PR Business, the new magazine to rival PR Week, is going to be launching on March 16th. It’ll be free to CIPR members, and will come out a day earlier than PR Week. Nothing like a bit of healthy
Antony

February 26, 2006 at 10:14 am

Drew – I saw you’d signed up for the Rubel tour for the UK blogosphere, which is excellent and I’m looking forward to the write up.

Be interesting to see what PR Week comes up with this week on blogging too. I’ve seen a few bits in PR Week on blogging, but as you say there’s not been much depth to them.
David Davis

March 14, 2006 at 7:24 am

Any argument as to who covers what is academic in the case of PR Week versus PR Business. PR Week has, rightly so, ruled the roost for many years and has continued to extend its online service to the PR community. Yet, it is timely they faced competition and I know that Geoff Lace and the team of professional journalists he has put together will give them a good run. In the final analysis it will be us, the readers, who will determine the winner.