CorpComms Magazine

The Financial Times had spotted a cracker of a story in one of the country's biggest trade magazines. A FTSE 100 company was close to agreeing a deal with its banks over easing the terms of its debt burden. In the midst of the greatest upheaval in the financial markets since the Great Depression, this story warranted a follow-up.

And so the pink 'un re-ran the story, creditably naming the trade title as its source. The company's shares, in dire straits for months, rebounded as a result.

However, the company's corporate communications team was concerned that the leak might damage what were delicate negotiations. When a rival national newspaper journalist rang the corporate communications manager about the story, roughly the following conversation ensued:

'It's not really very accurate.'

'Really? The FT usually knows its stuff.'

'Look, I've spent the morning having to calm people down over what came out of page seven of some trade.'

There was a pause as the journalist thought over his answer.

'Page seven is actually the splash - the main news page - of that magazine. I know, I worked for them until last year. And they don't get things wrong.'

LET DOWN AND IGNORED

An embarrassing situation, made worse by the fact the story was later proven to be broadly correct. This is also a suitable anecdote of how trade journalists often feel badly treated by the corporate communications industry. Business-to-business hacks typically have the sector specific knowledge to provide accurate analysis and dig up great news stories. Yet it is the generalists on the nationals that will garner most of the communications teams' invitations to the likes of Britney Spears concerts at O2 and VIP dinners at Wembley Stadium.

'You get more out of in-house PRs at a national level,' says one former trade journalist now working on a leading daily business section. 'So you tend to cultivate them - and get cultivated by them more.'

As a result, trade journalists and editors are often more distrustful of corporate communications teams than their peers on the nationals. And so hacks are likely to ignore the vital company messages and campaigns that executives would later like to see in those publications, aware that they are read by suppliers, customers and rivals.

David Blackman, deputy editor at EMAP title Local Government Chronicle (LGC), says he finds in-house PRs 'very variable, but mainly unhelpful, not particularly knowledgeable and too secretive'.

The weekly publication has eight pages of news to fill, roughly a quarter of the magazine. A news-led magazine needs juicy tales, yet Blackman says he is mainly offered reports with often insignificant findings, rather than steers on big story areas like council finance.

He believes that organisations offer the trades these types of reports in the hope that they will be given some prominence. Nationals are thought less likely to take on such minor fare, though it is possible the story will be followed up if given space in a sector-specific title.

For example, Blackman says that LGC was recently 'softened up' to publish a story on a think tank's public services report, but in the end it did not run because it coincided with the government reshuffle. LGC is no more likely to run some news on a fairly minor report than a national newspaper during the week of major changes at Westminster.

Blackman admits that his publication is quite technical, covering 'sophisticated national issues' when council communications teams are more geared up for issues raised by the regional media. However, he says that this means that communicators need to practice 'openness, by offering us access to partners [at council advisers, such as the big four accountants] and directors [in local authorities], and comments from experts rather than public relations intermediaries'.

Peter Bill, the former editor of award-winning commercial property weekly Estates Gazette and a columnist for London's Evening Standard, is less critical of the industry, arguing that he has always had 'pretty much unfettered access' to the directors he needs to contact.

KNOWLEDGE MATTERS

However, Bill believes that some communicators pick out 'soft journalists' on the nationals for more complicated stories: those that, if properly scrutinised, could be either damning for the company or noted as not actually that interesting. Had the story been pitched to a trade journalist with specialist knowledge, it is likely that a different angle would have been taken - one that the communicator might not like.

Bill thinks that this is part of a wider problem of PRs trying to 'manipulate' the press. 'In-house communications teams shouldn't play games,' says Bill. 'For example, if I ring for some information, sometimes PRs have tried to come back close to deadline so that the story doesn't get published. And they shouldn't try to trade information.'

Tim Danaher, editor at Retail Week, has experienced this 'game playing'. Retail Week had a potential front page story on a major retailer that did not have a relationship with the publication. 'Before going to press that afternoon, I was told [by the in-house communicator] that if we didn't publish the story, we could have an interview with the chief executive.'

Danaher describes the suggestion as 'amateurish'. Retail Week published its scoop - and later secured an exclusive interview with the chief executive.

However, Danaher adds that such practices have started to decline. The Internet has changed the way many nationals work, looking more and more to trade websites for their leads. Earlier this year, for example, Retail Week broke the news that Baugur, a major investor in well-known retailers such as Hamleys and House of Fraser, was going into administration. The news was published on the magazine's website, as it was unlikely to hold for the Friday print edition, and was followed-up around the globe.

A corporate communicator at one of the UK's leading banks agrees that the Internet is changing trade publications' status within press offices. In the past, the source says that trades would have been treated similarly to Sunday newspapers, because there would only be a weekly, maybe even monthly, deadline to consider. As such, responses to enquiries would take longer than those to the dailies, which had more immediate deadlines.

'Development in the trades is a 24/7 culture. Before, we could go back to the likes of Private Equity News at their print deadline, but now we know that we have to be quick because they could put up a story straight away on their website,' adds the source.

UNDERSTANDING IS KEY

Tom Broughton, editor at Newsquest weekly Insurance Times, adds that the smarter communicators should realise that their chief executives and main board directors often feel more comfortable talking to a trade. That is because there is a sense that they will 'get a more sympathetic ear' from a journalist who understands the industry. An insurance correspondent on a daily might hype up a story as a result of competing for space against reporters covering other sectors.

'The clever ones [communicators] take their leads from the chief executives,' says Broughton. 'Sometimes we get better access than the nationals. For example, an insurer was making a number of redundancies and called us up for a briefing on his plans.'

However, some problems that Broughton have encountered surround 'legacy issues'. Even if there is essentially a new editorial team at a trade, it gets 'tarred with the same brush' as any predecessors who perhaps reported an incorrect story or had been needlessly negative in their work. National newspaper journalists are more likely to be treated as individuals, so though a company might wish to not engage with a particular hack, it will continue to talk to others at the publication following a disagreement.

A head of corporate communications at a FTSE 100 natural resources group says that the problems are not just one way. While he will always treat big trade magazines that have a clearly defined audience, such as Metal Bulletin, with the same respect as a national, other business-to-business titles seem less focused.

For example, one has asked the company to set up an event that will take up the time of several company directors. 'I can't get out of them exactly what it is they want to cover. Some of these magazines seem to simply exist to get advertising, so it's hard to work out what their focus is,' he says.

As ever, then, communication is a two-way street. But perhaps communicators are the ones who need to make the introductions with trade journalists. As the anecdote at the start of this article and the Retail Week scoops show, trade publications are becoming sources for major corporate stories in nationals. Which means that relationships with trade hacks are at least as important as those with their peers on the nationals.

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