New opportunities on Twitter for PRs

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Twitter reported its financial results for the quarter ending in December 31, 2015 yesterday (10 February), highlighting its hopes for user growth, its focus on marketing and creating a safer environment for users.

The social media platform has been at the centre of speculation over its future plans and has received some criticism – mainly in reference to a slowdown in the growth of its user base.

Twitter is, however, a fixture of the modern media landscape and a key tool for the PR industry. So, here are some key points you might take from its latest announcements if you want to know more about Twitter’s future plans and what they might mean for media:

User growth is still slowing for the platform

Twitter says it reached 305 million people in the fourth quarter of last year compared to 307 million users in its third quarter between August and October 2015.

While this showed a growth of nine per cent year-on-year, it shows that Facebook, which has 1.2 billion active users, is far ahead in terms of its user base.

However, Twitter’s leadership hopes 2016 will see progress, especially after it made an algorithm change to its service (10 Feb), placing popular tweets at the top of the chronological timeline which each user sees.

Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief financial officer, said it saw user-growth in January: “We’re seeing an increase in new users to the top of the funnel. We’re also seeing an increase in resurrected users to the top of the funnel. And we’re seeing a continued improvement in retention within the funnel, so all three are working for us.”

Twitter is offering a wider range of marketing opportunities for brands

Twitter reported that it worked with 130,000 marketers in its last quarter of 2015. It plans to increase its offering by making timeline changes, providing further tools for “influencers” and providing further “promoted video” functions.

Twitter will now place a batch of Tweets at the top of the timeline each user sees, showcasing important Tweets users may have missed. In turn, brand messages with lots of interaction will not get lost. In addition, the platform plans to give influencers ‘better tools’ to interact with fans, according to its end of year shareholder letter.

Twitter also continues to invest in its ‘promoted video’ formats, which auto-play within a consumers timeline and have shown promising results since its launch in June 2015, according to the executives. The platform is set to launch a “conversational video ad unit”, which features customisable call-to-action buttons that encourage consumer response.

Twitter’s shareholder letter said EA Sports piloted the new unit: “One of the first marketers to use this new video ad unit in the pilot was EA Sports, who drove over 19 million paid impressions and 15 million organic impressions – delivering an earned media rate of greater than 78% – for their #MyMaddenPrediction contest.”

Safety is a priority

Twitter has announced it’s taking more steps to be a friendlier, safer place by forming the “Twitter Trust and Safety Council”, a partnership with 40 anti-harassment advocacy groups such as the Center for Democracy and Technology, Connect Safely and the Internet Watch Foundation.

The group of safety advocates, academics, grassroots organisations and community groups will aim to reduce aggressive and nasty comments, which will not only reduce the noise on the service and be of benefit to consumers but may also help brands to keep spam off their feeds.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO,  said: “This year we will implement technology to help us detect the use of repeat abusive accounts, make it much simpler to report multiple abusive Tweets or accounts, and give people simpler tools to curate and control their experience on Twitter.”

Gorkana asked Andrew Bloch, founder and group managing director of Frank PR, about the recent changes to the platform and the opportunities they offer for PRs and brands.

He said: “Twitter’s unique characteristics are particularly advantageous to the PR industry: engage directly with key influencers, promote clients, stay informed about current news, and get quick access to the insights of others.  It offers many tools that PR professionals need, and many benefits if used effectively and consistently.”

On Twitter’s algorithmic timeline change, Bloch said:  “From a brand perspective, it means that organic content has a better chance of getting ‘top billing’ – as long as that content is relevant and interesting.”

He explained: “It will allow brands to hijack the news agenda, so that, for example a British follower interested in the Super Bowl would wake up to see content posted by Super Bowl advertisers that they would perhaps have previously missed.  This provides a great opportunity for smart brands to commandeer the news agenda in a relevant and engaging manner.”

Johnston Press in talks to buy the i for around £24m

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Johnston Press, owner of The Scotsman, has confirmed that it is in talks to buy the i newspaper for around £24 million, in a deal it says would make it the UK’s fourth largest print publisher.

Johnston Press is one of the largest local and regional multimedia organisations in the UK, with more than 200 titles across Scotland, the North East, West Yorkshire, the North West and the Isle of Man, South Yorkshire, the South, Midlands and Northern Ireland.

Launched in 2010, i is a national newspaper made up almost exclusively of content directly from its sister title, The Independent, and is published by Independent Print Ltd. In the year ending 30 September 2015, the i made a profit of £5.2 million.

ESI Media, which owns i, as well as The Independent, the London Evening Standard and TV station London Live, also confirmed that discussions were taking place with Johnston Press around the sale of i.

Steve Auckland, Group CEO at ESI Media, said: “I can confirm that we are in discussion with Johnston Press regarding the sale of i newspaper. At this stage no decision has been made and we realise the uncertainty that this news will cause our employees and customers. Johnston Press are bound by strict PLC guidelines so unfortunately we can make no further comment at this time.”

He added: “ESI Media remains committed to our brands, building on our fast growing global footprint, whilst cementing our place as the most important destination for audiences in the capital.”

Gorkana Meets… Digital Spy

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Julian Linley joined Digital Spy as its new editor-in-chief in November. Three months on, Gorkana’s Josh Gray catches up with him to find out how he’s making his mark on the website with a major relaunch, what PRs need to do to grab his attention, and why he’s proud to work on a title with strong credibility.

You’ve been at the helm for three months now. What did you want to achieve with the relaunch of Digital Spy?

The biggest thing was taking Digital Spy from being a website to being a brand. The title has always held a reputation for being thorough. When I first joined Digital Spy, I was impressed that journalists outside the title were visiting the website in order to verify their facts. Post-Leveson, this is an incredibly valuable trait.

However, we were operating like a newswire, posting 150 stories a day, and I saw an opportunity to inject a greater tone of voice and personality into our content. I think people are more likely to share content if it has humour and opinion. We also wanted to capture that energy and excitement that gets readers sharing, like when a new season of their favourite series is about to drop onto Netflix.

A renewed emphasis on video content is also vital to this. I want to create a situation where readers are reliving their favourite moments from TV Shows or games rather than just recalling them.

In an age of consumer blogging, where anyone can go online and start an entertainment site, what is it that keeps Digital Spy ahead of the pack?

As well as providing general entertainment news, we are all professional journalists who are experts in our individual fields. This allows readers to dive deep into a story, be it the gaming industry or the latest Adele track.

Also, the new generation of entertainment bloggers out there can provide content for us. Someone like Zoella is basically a reality TV star whose platform happens to be YouTube. I foresee a time when we will be covering what happens to those online talents with massive followings.

Who are your main competitors?

As we’re the only large UK entertainment website that operates without a print wing, we don’t actually have a direct competitor.

For many titles, entertainment is part of their DNA, but for us it’s everything – and we have credibility. Our writers’ lives revolve around the subject they are passionate about.

Who do you see as the average Digital Spy reader?

It’s something you can easily do as a journalist, but as a digital title there has to be a broader view beyond the “average reader”. We have features on TV soap operas and we have features on Star Wars – I don’t think those audiences are the same people.

I try and think about the energy and spirit of the younger generation we attract. It’s positive, it’s upbeat, and it’s celebratory. It’s also sceptical, which is why facts are so important.

They also want to be first – to see a piece of content and then share it with their friends. And if we’re seen as an intelligent brand then people feel proud to share. That means limiting our exclamation marks and caps lock, which is a risky business.

What type of content do they connect most with on Digital Spy?

One of the challenges we have with our readers is trying to interrupt their constant newsfeed scroll. Articles need to be more than tablet friendly. They need to be specific for who we’re targeting.

What are you looking for from PRs?

Press releases we receive should be as equally customised to us as our content is to our readers. We need to have the attention grabbing hooks up front, which I think a lot of PRs are very good at.

That said, I don’t want to be that idiot who misses an essential story, and PRs should know that every time I turn away from my phone I come back to find at least 13 new emails.

It’s fantastic for us when a press release is targeted to the right department rather than the general news email, and exclusivity can make all the difference at times.

Assets that are immediately usable are also appreciated. Occasionally we’ll get a clip or trailer that will be far too long and we don’t have time to edit or even watch it.

What would you like to see more of?

Getting access to the talent at the heart of a story we’re trying to form, whether by telephone or face-to-face interview. Crucially, this is about the amount of time that we are given. I think there is still a disproportionate amount of interview time assigned to print. We can get stuff done and up in five minutes, while magazines could take a month.

That said, we still get a lot out of the shorter spots. We sent two reporters down to the Star Wars premiere in November who got two cracking bits of footage. One of the Stormtroopers arriving; followed by a mini interview with BB-8, who did an impression of Chewbacca. They got 3 million and 11.4 million views respectively. If that’s what we get with two camera phones imagine what we could get with full access!

Julian was talking to Gorkana’s Josh Gray.

Regester Larkin hires Bupa’s Hamilton

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Crisis and reputation management firm Regester Larkin has appointed Bupa’s former corporate comms manager Emily Hamilton as a senior consultant.

Hamilton’s appointment enhances Regester Larkin’s media relations, Emily Hamilton MAINsocial media, live crisis response and issues management support to its clients.

Prior to joining Bupa in 2013, Hamilton was head of press at Westbourne Communications, advising clients on their media strategies, managing responses to reputational issues, and running the media operations for high profile campaigns.

She has also worked in Parliament as a former aide to then Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling and then Chloe Smith MP during Smith’s tenure as chief whip.

Andrew Griffin, Regester Larkin chief exec, said: “Emily makes a great addition to our growing team. Our clients facing complex media and regulatory scrutiny will benefit from her wealth of experience of advising a range of organisations on high profile issues and crises.”

Number of promotions at JPES Partners

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Specialist investment marketing and comms consultancy JPES Partners has boosted Alex Henderson and Matt Rogers to the role of associate directors and made a number of other promotions.

Henderson oversees the company’s marketing initiatives, leading client communication activities and the firm’s event planning. Rogers runs JPES Partners’ media relations services, working with clients on issues relating to profile development, reputation management and crisis comms.

Georgina Sanderson and Krupa Parmar are now client directors with responsibility for JPES Partners’ asset management, investment consultant and fund services clients’ marketing and PR activities respectively.

Sanderson joined JPES from Goldman Sachs, where she worked on the equity syndicate desk.  Parmar has worked with a number of asset management and banking firms in Europe and previously ran the US offering for European financial services comms agency CitySavvy.

Kate Smoker also moves from client exec to client manager. She joined JPES from the legal and compliance department of a hedge fund.

Julian Samways, JPES Partners MD, said: “I am delighted to announce these promotions, following what has been a highly successful year for JPES Partners. We now look forward to an exciting year ahead with an experienced team working on an expanding range of opportunities for our clients.”

Liquid promotes UK Game Fair 2016

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Liquid has been appointed to handle the launch of the UK Game Fair 2016, a three-day event to celebrate rural life and countryside pursuits.

Blaze Publishing, organiser of the UK Game Fair, has briefed the agency to raise the profile of the event, which takes place at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire, from 22 to 24 July.

Event planners plan to attract influential figures and exhibitors who specialise in fishing, shooting, hunting, working dogs and rural land management.

Wes Stanton, organiser of the UK Game Fair and owner of Blaze Publishing, said: “We enlisted the support of Liquid to help promote our new event and drive ticket sales. Given Liquid’s track-record in promoting large consumer events, we have confidence that they have the ability to support our new show launch.”

Clearwater Advisers forms video partnership

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Advisory firm Clearwater Advisers has partnered with Guy Ruddle, founder of First Touch TV and former editor of Telegraph TV, to provide its clients with additional video support.

Ruddle spent 15 years at the BBC as a reporter, producer and presenter of business programmes. As editor of Telegraph TV, he saw the channel grow from half a million plays a month to more than 8 million, across a six year period.

He joins Clearwater‘s list of associates as the firm looks to take advantage of video becoming “increasingly common in the corporate world”. The tie-up will see the companies providing all their clients with strategic coaching and video production.

James McBrien, Clearwater MD, said: “As we are all watching more video, our more savvy clients are recognising the value of this most powerful medium and the importance of distributing high quality content. Working with Guy gives our clients the ability to get maximum leverage from their greatest performances and significantly cut editing costs.”

Gorkana meets…Justine Marcella, Vorsten and The Crown

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You covered many topics as a journalist before becoming a royalty reporter. How and why did you decide to specialise in royalty?

When I was a reporter for the Dutch TV channel SBS6 back in 1998, I noticed that the Prince had begun to develop into his role as the future king. He had become an expert in the field of water management and started travelling around the world. I realised that this could be an interesting time to start following him. The current Queen, Máxima, was not yet in the picture, and the press hardly seemed interested at all in the Prince. I often travelled together with another journalist in the footsteps of the Prince, and could therefore observe what he was doing at that time closely.

Besides that, my interest is also geographically derived, as I grew up next to Palace Soestdijk. My aunts were part of the same Girl Scouts as the princesses of their generation.

Vorsten is a popular Dutch-language magazine with a main focus on the Dutch Royal Family. In September 2015, you launched the international English-language magazine The Crown, covering dynasties and monarchies worldwide. Could you explain why you made this decision? 

Although our royal family plays a big part in the magazine, Vorsten has been covering the lives of international royals for over 43 years. But I must say, we do have a really interesting and beautiful royal family! It struck me that there were many gossip magazines abroad, but a classy magazine, where royals can often collaborate with us by, for example, giving exclusive interviews, didn’t exist. It is for this reason that Vorsten has many subscribers abroad. With The Crown, we want royals to contribute their stories, add background stories with news, and we don’t shy away from topics such as history and fashion. Contrary to other magazines, we don’t gossip but only report facts. There are no snapshots but photographs with allure. The Crown is sold worldwide, how special is that? 

Both magazines cover dynasties and monarchies worldwide. What are the biggest differences between the magazines and are there any editorial crossovers? Do both magazines have a similar target audience?

The biggest difference is the language: Vorsten is the classiest magazine about royals in the Netherlands. The Crown pulls readers in! The cover has a special layer of gloss, enhancing the diamonds in the jewels worn by our ‘cover model’, causing them to really shine. Vorsten has a frequency of 14 issues a year, while The Crown is published quarterly. Because of this, we can offer a lot more in-depth feature articles in The Crown, while Vorsten mainly covers the latest royalty news. The content is the same, but some feature articles, for example the piece about our Queen Máxima, could not be published in Vorsten. The Dutch readers are just too familiar with her Argentinian background, the reason why her father was not allowed to join her on her wedding day, and the way she combines motherhood with her role as Queen. The whole world knows that she is absolutely stunning, but not that she is a beauty with brains. We love to tell the world about that in The Crown!

How do you select the material for The Crown? 

Out of everything we receive regarding monarchs, we select the information which shows a different perspective of the background story. Due to our global perspective, we are able to see more. We look inside the living rooms of the royals and notice that differences are almost (always) cultural. We also collate information of similar topics, such as our recent piece on children who started ruling from a young age – from Mary, Queen of Scots, to Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China.

 You are the editor-in-chief of two magazines, a royalty commentator and you travel all over the world to report on royal families, even joining them on state visits. How do you combine these jobs?

(Laughs) And at home I’ve got my own ‘prince’ and ‘princess’ of 12 and 13 years old, who need help with their homework. I’ve got the best job that I could have ever wished for! Of course at times I get tired, but I get a lot of energy from publishing two magazines alongside my enthusiastic and professional team! All the travels that I have done are dear to me as well. I wouldn’t be able to sit in an office full time. I need to get out there and see with my own eyes how the prince from back then, turned into a worthy king. I don’t have a certain way of working; we just get on with it! Besides these publications, we also work on a yearbook, and have published our first royal colouring book. I’ve got other plans in store as well. Our team is small, consisting of five members, which makes communication easy. We can quickly switch tasks. Oh, and in between, we manage two websites, Twitter and Facebook accounts.

What are your favourite and least favourite parts of the job?

The least fun are all the calculations, quotations and everything that involves figures. Important, but it doesn’t satisfy me. I know editors-in-chief who are overjoyed when they encounter a pile of figures in their mailbox, but that is not the case with me. I love to make plans, realise ideas, interact with people, travel, and, above all, to select the most interesting and best content for our readers. For them, I would roll out the red carpet daily!

 You work closely with royal families and report on all aspects of their lives, positive and negative. How do you approach these different situations?

Those can be difficult situations. The Dutch Royal Family lost their family member, Prince Friso (the King’s brother), when he fell into a coma after a skiing accident. Evidently, the family was in deep mourning. For us, the obituary notice meant that work needed to be done. I wanted to create a memorial on paper. The Prince lived in London at the time, and many people didn’t know him too well. I wanted to show who he was, what moved him, and his relationship with his wife, Princess Mabel, and his mother, Princess Beatrix. I wrote everything myself, as I felt that the tone of the piece was of the utmost importance. I found it difficult to explain this to the former editor. My alarm went off at 6am and I closed my laptop after 11pm. A few days later, the special issue with the Prince on the cover was available in stores. The photo was well chosen, as the royal family had chosen the same photo for the funeral. I received a beautiful letter from his widow and mother.

How can PRs help you and your colleagues with content and what is the best way for them to approach you and the publications?

PRs of Royals? (Laughs) They know how to find us, and we know how to find them too! Besides that, we are able to constantly check our email. Our contact details can be found online, and my email address is not a secret: [email protected]. Furthermore, my Twitter-account is @justinemarcella and my Facebook page is justineVorsten. In short, it is easy to contact us. However, we can’t respond to all the emails we receive. There are too many and some are not always relevant for our publications. We can’t write an article about a new toy, unless it is… I don’t know… a remake of Prince Charles’ Austin Martin? But… seriously?

Do you use social media for your work and do you have to follow a certain policy regarding social media posts about royalties?

Yes, I am a bit of a social-media addict. There is not a moment where I am not checking if there is anything newsworthy. In addition, the royals are a lot more active on social-media and often post really nice photos. I want to keep an eye on that, especially as it interests our online readers. The risk of social-media is that a lot of garbage gets posted. So as a source of information, it is not really reliable unless the royals post something there themselves. We particularly want to inform, so no negative messages.

And finally, what is your most memorable story?

That is difficult to answer because there are so many. I have laughed a lot about Prince Charles, taken nice trips to beautiful destinations, chatted about pregnancy with a princess who was pregnant at the same time as me, attended fairytale weddings and sat in church when our king was inaugurated. And I have to choose from that? Let’s say that I’ll probably experience my most memorable story again tomorrow.

Justine was interviewed by Gorkana’s Anna Masuku.

VIDEO: WSJ Europe on exclusivity and its City app

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Watch an exclusive video from Gorkana‘s media briefing with the Wall Street Journal Europe which more than 250 people attended yesterday (February 9) at the News Building in London Bridge.

You can hear Thorold Barker, The Wall Street Journal, EMEA editor, talk about the importance of exclusivity to the business and when the big decisions are made by its journalists in Europe across the day.

In addition, Phillipa Leighton-Jones, editor of WSJ City, the app which the Dow Jones’ title recently launched, explains why the new product was produced, how its “busy City audience” has reacted and how it has affected the way journalists work.

Look out for our full write-up of the event (coming soon) and upcoming briefings at www.gorkana.com/events.

UK Blog Awards 2016 announces shortlist

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The shortlist for The UK Blog Awards 2016 has been revealed, with Guardian Soulmates, The Royal Mint, Thomson Holidays, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Cancer Research UK among the company finalists.

The UK Blog Awards are designed to provide an opportunity for individuals and companies to be recognised for their social media achievements through blogging.

There are two categories: company entries and individual entries.

Company entries are split into 18 categories; Arts and Culture; Automotive; Dating; Digital and Technology; Education; Events; Food and Drink; Green and Eco; Health and Social Care; Lifestyle; Photography; PR, Media, Marketing and Comms; Beauty and Fashion; Travel; Vlogger and Podcast; Wedding; Most Innovative; and Headline.

Other Company entries for the 2016 awards include matchmaking agency Mutual Attraction, Berry Bros. & Rudd, The Whisky Exchange, Coronation Street Blog, and Ticketmaster.

The winners will be announced on Friday 29 April at the Park Plaza, Westminster, London.