Were you fooled?

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PRs were busy this morning peddling the annual batch of April Fools’ Day stories..

Tesco is planning to revolutionise shopping with the introduction of trampoline-inspired bouncy aisles to help customers reach the top shelves more easily.

Lucy Mecklenburgh, former TOWIE star and contestant on BBC gymnastics programme Tumble has worked with the supermarket to help develop and quality test the bouncy aisles. She is also providing trampoline training to Tesco colleagues.

Meanwhile, One Green Bean has been briefed to promote ‘Costa and a Kip’, a new 15-minute snooze service being offered by Costa.

Specially imported, Japanese-inspired Ostrich Pillows will turn tables into relaxation zones. Customers will be able to place their coffee order and let staff know what time to wake them, before being gently nudged back into consciousness by a Costa Barista with their drink.

UK festival guide Skiddle is planning to offer festival revellers custom-designed wellies which will be created using 3D printers in less than 30 minutes. It says it will be able to produce up to 10,000 pairs of free wellies throughout this year’s festival season.

Fourth Day PR has recruited four carrier pigeons, called Philip, Gertrude, Tony and Felicity, to ensure media materials can still be delivered to journalists in the event of an internet blackout caused by a cyber attack.

The agency says research from PwC showed that the number of detected information security incidents has risen 66% year on year since 2009.

Elsewhere, Beefeater has rebranded to Leafeater to become the biggest vegan restaurant chain in the UK; Homebase launched rainbow paint; Marmite unveiled Marmite Clear; Virgin Trains is creating the world’s first on-board gym; and Groupon is offering cars driven by cats.
And finally, the Guardian announced that Jeremy Clarkson has joined a host of other celebrities backing the paper’s campaign for fossil fuel divestment.

Gorkana meets…Ars Technica UK

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Ahead of the launch of Ars Technica UK next month, Conde Nast UK’s first digital-only publication, Gorkana catches up with senior editor Sebastian Anthony on geeky readers, how PRs can help and why it isn’t just another tech site.

The site launched in the US 17 years ago. Why was the time right to launch in the UK now?

Despite the picture that’s painted and perpetuated by technology journalism – that tech emanates from Silicon Valley and San Francisco startups – there is a much bigger, less-myopic story just waiting to be told. Ars Technica UK will primarily tell the story about the confluence of science, technology, policy, and culture in Britain, but we’ll also be looking further afield to Europe and beyond, to places where technology is fast becoming a locally grown thing.

In short, right now is the perfect time to be looking at the development of high technology in other countries, starting with the UK and Europe.

You were named senior editor of the site in February. Tell us about your role.

I’ll be running the UK version of Ars Technica. I will be in charge of editorial, my team of staff writers, and commissioning freelancers. I’ll also be in charge of keeping everything greased between the US and UK teams.

How big will the team be when the site launches?

The current plan is to have me and three other writers, plus a budget for long-form freelance work.

What will the UK site cover?

We’ll cover UK and European science, tech, digital policy, and where those topics collide with culture and society. We are also looking at bolstering some core areas, such as hardware, and possibly AV gear.

How will it differ from the US site?

Other than focusing more on UK content, the two sites will be very similar. We will both have full access to the other site. So when the US wakes up, they’ll be able to republish UK stories on the US site. Likewise, the UK site will have full access to all the stories being produced by the US team.

Really, the UK site is just about providing a better site for readers who want a story mix that’s less US-centric. We are being very careful to make sure that the launch of the UK site is entirely additive.

Tell us about the typical Ars Technica reader and what they look for in a tech site.

Ars Technica readers are highly intelligent, and are usually themselves highly skilled scientists, technologists, engineers, etc. Our readership consists mostly of engineers, programmers, IT decision makers, students, and C-level execs who are looking for indepth, objective journalism about the most important topics of the day. Basically, our readers are geeky and nerdy types who have a thirst for knowledge, and we’re one of the few sites in the world that can satisfy them.

What won’t Ars Technica UK cover in terms of tech content?

Generally, we won’t be doing startups, though we will be looking at startups that leverage particularly innovative/interesting technology. We probably won’t be doing a lot of software, but if there’s an interesting software story, we’ll certainly cover it. We won’t be writing about apps, unless they’re incredibly innovative. We probably won’t cover Kickstarter/Indiegogo projects.

Other than that, I think everything is free game. Again, Ars Technica is kind of unique in that it’s interested in just about every aspect of technology and science, and as we move towards a world where almost everything is powered by a computer, there’s almost nothing that Ars Technica can’t write about.

What will PRs be able to help with most?

Bringing me stories about earnestly new/interesting/novel uses of science and technology, or their impact on digital policy, culture, and society at large. Do not bring me fluffy stuff or infographics. The barrier to writing an Ars Technica story is very high – we need good, solid, meaty details.

If you have a slide deck for a new technology or product, or the dial-in details for a webcast/conference call about a new technology – cool, that’s my kind of thing.

Basically, if PRs appreciate that Ars Technica is not just another tech site, then there’s every chance we’ll have a long, happy relationship. Think of Ars Technica as a way to help your client tell a story that might be too complex or nuanced for other UK tech sites. But, in exchange, we may need better access to the research centre, to the engineers, etc.

What’s the best way for PRs to get in contact?

Email is good! If I don’t respond to an email within a few days, a poke on Twitter (@mrseb) will usually illicit a response of some kind.

Do you have any top tips for PRs when pitching?

Give me all the juicy tech details up front. Tell me straight up why you think this development should be part of the greater technological story. If you can get me access to engineers or higher-ups at big/important/interesting companies, that’s good too.

And finally, what will be the big tech stories for the rest of 2015?

It will be very interesting to see if the Apple Watch is a commercial success or not – and if so, what happens after that. I still think we’re a year or two away from the technology being ready for wearables, virtual reality headsets, and other similar gadgets – but I could be wrong!

Other than that, I expect we’ll just see more of the same: faster internet connections, better LTE coverage, better smartphone cameras, etc. The internet of things, smart homes, connected cars, etc, these will start to become much more of a ‘thing’ in 2015, but I don’t think they’ll hit critical mass for another year or two.

Sebastian was speaking to Gorkana’s Nele Knueppel

Metro Bank recruits comms director

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Peter Murray joins the challenger bank as director of communications, heading up its growing comms team.

Peter, who reports into Metro Bank CEO Craig Donaldson, joins from global design consultancy Ove Arup and Partners where he was head of corporate affairs. He previously served as an adviser to ministers in the government of Tony Blair.

He was also named last year by the Financial Times as one of the Top 100 LGBT Business Leaders in the UK.

Metro Bank is the first new high street bank to launch in the United Kingdom in over 150 years, and is eyeing a float on the London Stock Exchange in 2016.
Peter can be reached at [email protected]

Brazen PRs launch #PRLife experiment

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Two Brazen employees have pledged to live, eat, sleep and breath the brands they PR during a week-long work/life social experiment.

Account executives Sophie Smith (pictured right) and Megan McGonigle (pictured left) will use only their clients’ products to survive during the week, starting today.

Brazen has more than 40 clients, including food and fashion brands, as well as local venues and attractions, which Sophie and Megan will be depending on for meals, clothing and entertainment.

They will also be sleeping in the office in a tent and sleeping bags from Brazen client The North Face.

The project will be streamed live via a series of office-based webcams. Sophie and Megan will also invite special celebrity guests to join them for a series of office-based events during the campaign.

Sophie said: “We love our job and our clients and ever since starting at Brazen, we’ve often joked that we could literally live on the brilliant products our clients produce – now we’ll be putting that to the test!

“We’ll also be raising money for Seashell Trust, a local North West and really worthwhile cause which Brazen supports in partnership with client PZ Cussons.”

Megan said: “In the bustling media industry everyone wants to succeed and be the best, but in the process sometimes we forget why we’re there in the first place – because we have a passion for our brands.”

Follow the experiment @citizenofbrazen on Twitter, and use #PRLife for live updates.

Brunswick promotes new directors

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The international corporate comms partnership has promoted directors across six global offices, including five in London.

The London-based promotions include Charlie Potter (pictured), Alastair Morton, Brian Buckley, Stuart Hudson and Tim May. Their backgrounds cover a range of sectors and disciplines.

Charlie previously worked as a producer for the BBC’s flagship program Newsnight; Alastair is based within Brunswick’s Blaise Projects division, which focuses on the role of business in society; Brian is a member of the financial institutions group, and joined the consultancy from Morgan Stanley; Stuart previously served as a special adviser at 10 Downing Street; Tim works within Brunswick’s creative communications agency, MerchantCantos.
“Our new partners have extraordinary expertise in areas that are of increasing importance to our clients,” said Group chief exec Susan Gilchrist. “These individuals have demonstrated a strong commitment to client service and teamwork, and I am pleased to welcome them to the partnership.”

Gorkana meets…HuffPost Young Voices

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Lucy Sherriff, editor of Huffington Post Young Voices, on launching a new platform for young people and why PRs should use the email subject line to catch her eye.

Describe Young Voices in five words…

Conversational, topical, engaging, political, millennial.

Who is your target audience?

Under 25s.

Do you think young people are left out of political, social, economic and cultural discussions?

Absolutely. That’s the whole reason we’ve launched Young Voices. There seems to be this bubble around current affairs and discussions about Britain and its future, which totally excludes our youths. We’re aiming to bridge the gap and to involve youths in these conversations, as it is their future these conversations will determine.

What sort of feedback have you had about the site to date?

I’ve had some incredible feedback already, all really positive about the section. Young people have got in touch to say how brilliant it is that we’re giving them a platform and that they’d love to get involved.

You have also launched a Young Voices WhatsApp news alert service – tell us more…

By using WhatsApp to deliver news alerts we can deliver the best of our day’s stories directly to people’s phones; they don’t even have to look for it. It’s a really personal service that also provides us with a select audience that we can bounce ideas off and get feedback from.

What sort of content do you expect to feature most?

We’re going to be covering so many different areas so it’s difficult to tie it down to just the one. We’ll be covering lifestyle topics including budgeting and travel, careers advice, start-up businesses, mental health issues, feminism, LGBT-issues and religion. There’s too many to list! For the next few months, however, we’re focusing on young voters.

As for the type of content, it’s really going to be a whole mix – blogs, interviews, new stories, features, advice pieces, light-hearted listicles and videos.

What opportunities are there for PRs to help with content?

Lots. We’re always on the lookout for young people to profile in our Young Talent section, and we always need young entrepreneurs for our Young Entrepreneur of the Week series. We’re also keen to publish as much advice and tips as we can when it comes to careers, employment and apprenticeships.

Do you have any tips for PRs pitching to you?

Make sure you sell your story. Just as journalists have to sell theirs to readers, PRs need to sell theirs to journalists. Really make use of that email title – that’s the first thing I read, and often I’ll make the decision on whether to even open the email based on that.

I get around 300 to 400 emails a day, so my method has to be quite cut-throat if I’m going to get through them all!

Is there anything PRs should avoid doing?

Don’t approach me if you haven’t done your research. There’s nothing more frustrating when they evidently don’t know what the journalist covers. I’ve been pitched all kinds of stories which aren’t in the slightest bit relevant.

And finally, what life advice would you give your 16-year-old self?

Blog, blog, blog. Even if no-one is reading it, it shows you’re committed to writing!

Lucy was speaking to Gorkana’s Jason Moore.

Gorkana meets…Business Insider UK

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James Cook, tech reporter at Business Insider UK, on the launch of the site in the UK, getting readers excited about business tech and the luxury of building good relationships with tech companies.

The UK arm was launched in November, primarily with the task of focusing on finance and tech. Have you stuck to those core remits?

Yes, finance, tech and politics are what Business Insider is known for. We’ve stuck to that for now. We also have a writer on tech who is a lifestyle writer by trade, and he’s brought that element into it. Our readers love experiences, and London tech has lots of events happening around it.

We also have Lara O’Reilly, our Global Advertising Editor, in London. We do a lot of advertising coverage and tech.

How big is the team, and how many of you focus on tech?

We’ve grown really quickly to twenty. I was hire number five, and I joined at the end of last year. We’ve moved to bigger offices in Shoreditch. We’ve got a few people coming over from the American offices to write for us, which is great. It gives a good idea of the culture and what Business Insider US does and how it works differently to us.

What I like about Business Insider UK is that it’s a start-up and a global company at the same time. The UK arm is quite small, but has the backing of the US and the expertise there. Having come from start-ups and having worked for small media companies, I feel at home there.

There are three or four of us focusing on tech at the moment, and we’re hiring another couple of people. Tech is a real draw for BI readers; even if they are not working in tech, it’s something they want to read.

We’ve heavily invested in it, as there’s a lot going on with European tech. If you read other papers, you probably wouldn’t guess that lots of the disruption in the financial industry is from fintech start-ups in Europe. The coverage there probably isn’t as in-depth as they would like. We try and fill that gap a little bit by meeting with start-ups and going to VC firms to look into things that people probably aren’t talking about.

Do you think traditional media has been quite slow to cotton onto the importance of tech in business?

A lot of newspapers ignore some exciting companies because they are young and don’t have enough money, and maybe don’t understand what they are doing. That’s a shame because there are some really great companies in London doing great things. There is a company, for example, doing open source risk analysis software for hedge funds; it has the highest start-up salary in London. They hire programmers from big banks, and its all open source – so there are programmers in one hedge fund improving the code used in the other, which goes totally against finance.

In other newspapers, there isn’t a lot of overlap between the business desk and the tech desk. It’s the in-between that is really interesting.

Tell us about the “10 things in tech you need to know today” morning update

We used to do that in the US, and I thought it was really useful to have. In Europe, you miss the East and West Coast news, so we wanted to move that to Europe so it’s ready for the early New York mornings. There are lots of bankers there involved in tech, and they are up at 4 or 5am. Tom Keene of Bloomberg is supposedly up at 3am. These are the people we want to reach. We try and get it out at 9am UK time, which works well as it’s when people are arriving at work.

Do you have traffic peaks across the day?

We know that people get in, in the morning, and read the site. You walk into a lot of offices and see people just scrolling through. We have a team in the US, and their job is to curate the homepage, to see what people are looking at and what they are clicking through. We do get people actively coming to the site and looking through, which is great for our writers, as they know everything on the site is getting a readership of some kind.

How much content do you share with the US arm?

Everything is shared between the two sites, but we have a separate homepage in the UK. BI had licensing deals with companies in Australia and Indonesia, but we found that 5-10% of our audience for Business Insider was from the UK and Europe. So we decided to launch the site over here.

There is a lot of integration between the two. If anything happens in the US part of the company, we’re on video call. We are always talking and coordinating what’s going on.

What makes a perfect tech story for you?

We like news that we can get up fast. We can come in there with an explanation or an analysis that you won’t find elsewhere. If a company has raised $100 million, why has it done that, why is it interesting?

We also like stories about start-ups that you probably haven’t read. Stories from inside companies. We look for the insider details you won’t get elsewhere.

It’s easy to forget that you can look into companies and find out things that they might not want you to know. I broke the Snapchat leak stories – I had been in touch with the iCloud hackers, and they tipped me off that Snapchat had been hacked before anyone else knew about it. It took off. Once a community knows that you write about them with a degree of coherency and understanding, they let you know what is happening.

Is that why you are very public about your contact details on twitter?

I get phone calls I wouldn’t have if I didn’t publish my details, which lead to tips and stories. As a journalist you want to hear from people. A lot of younger journalists feel they can hide away, but there are lots of people who have stories to tell. Having worked for places like the Kernel, we got used to a lot of abuse. That was my first journalism job, and it taught me a lot.

How do you walk the line between reporting dry business news and injecting it with personality?

I think it comes as part of working with an American company. From my experience, they tend to have a bit more fun with the news, and are more conversational than you might find in newspapers. We use a tool called Skitch to insert graphics, and people respond well to that. We don’t write about anything formulaic.

We write about interesting things, because if you are excited about the story, then your readers tend to be too.

It’s really important to have a background in a subject. Sources that can’t talk on record and can only give background provide a really interesting insight. It gives you the contacts in the company, knowledge of what’s going on and in ten years’ time it will give you the context to write a book. A lot of reporters are rushed for news and just have to get something out – what’s good about Business Insider is that you can sit back and gather a bit more information and contacts. It is a luxury to have those relationships with tech companies.

Have you found the London tech scene is quite transparent in terms of comms?

On one level it’s interesting because VC firms are really keen to talk to reporters. For a long time, they haven’t had any quality reporting. Newspapers and tech sites come in at a service level and skim it over; they are eager for someone with some insight to come in.

In some situations, you have to work on those relationships and take a few months to do some amazing coverage until you can speak to them. I’ve come to Business Insider with the background of running news sites and working in tech and knowing people in start-ups, and have the knowledge of how they’ve done. It’s been good to have that contact base to work with.

Tech journalism came under fire from BI Founder Henry Blodget for being too fawning; how do you avoid that?

I think the temptation is to write-up the press release. It is good to take a step-back, take a look at whether a company/product is new, whether it’s exciting – would you use it, would your parents use it? Once you’ve been around it for a while, you learn to use an analytical eye. If there is a problem with a tech company, you explain it out. Henry comes from a banking and analysis background, and his job was to look at a tech company and see what they are going to do and see how effective they are at it.

There’s been a lot of talk about equality in the US tech scene; is there a greater breadth of inclusivity within UK tech?

I don’t think there’s greater equality within UK tech. There’s not much of a movement here, which is a shame because you go to the West Coast and people are really passionate about it; lots of the American tech companies pitch themselves as part of that movement. UK companies don’t do that. I think the UK is a bit behind. We aren’t at the same kind of level of tech being so key to everything in Europe as it is in the US.

And finally, how did you go about setting up Led Zep News?

It started because I really like Led Zeppelin. My followers on twitter got really annoyed with me tweeting about them all the time, so on Christmas Day a couple of years ago, I started an account to put those tweets out. What’s really insane is how it’s grown, and the reach of it. I get emails to say how many people see those tweets, and it’s in the hundreds of thousands. All of the band members read it. The record label uses it as an official source and re-tweet it all the time. It goes out automatically across Facebook and Tumblr as well.

I learned to go into online forums and look for things to add to the feed, and that really got me into online journalism. It shows that you can look at a subject that is really exciting and unreported and go in and do something new with it.

Gorkana meets…Times Fashion

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Anna Murphy, fashion director at The Times, on creating evergreen content, bringing fashion to life in all its bonkers-ness and why there is no one better than a great PR.

You previously edited The Sunday Telegraph’s fashion supplement, Stella – a role you held for nearly 10 years. What has the transition to The Times been like?

It is still early days – I only joined The Times in late January – but it has been an entirely positive experience so far. I am thrilled to be here.

The Times has always been a great newspaper, and now it is so much more than that; I believe its iPad app is the best around.

The Times innovated by translating top-notch broadsheet journalism into a compact format – with only gains, not losses. Now it is poised to pull off a similar transformation in the digital arena. As a journalist who has always been interested in quality over quantity, it is a privilege to be a part of their vision.

How does your role as fashion director work?

My job has many different aspects to it, but above all else it is about words, and it is about relationships. The most important words are those I write for the page, be it print or digital, be it my weekly column, a report from the shows, a feature or interview. And the most important relationship is established via those words, between me and the Times reader.

I want Times fashion content to be useful and practical; to help you work out what you want to buy, and where best to buy it. I also want it to be inspiring and entertaining. Fashion, unlike many facets of the world today, is anything but grey (unless grey is in this season, of course). I am here to bring it to life, in all its brilliance and all its bonkers-ness, to celebrate it but also, when necessary, to take it to task.

The other key relationship for me is with the industry itself: the best stories and the best knowledge come from having the best contacts.

Tell us about your team.

It is a small but highly productive team. My deputy is Harriet Walker, who was at neverunderdressed.com and The Independent, and so understands better than anyone the interplay between print and digital. Fran Mullin is the newly promoted junior shopping editor. We are lucky enough also to have at our disposal fabulous writers from across The Times, including Hilary Rose, plus the Saturday Times Magazine’s great stylists Prue White and Jane Taylor-Hayhurst. I work closely with the editor of the magazine, Nicola Jeal, who is an old and dear friend, and a superlative journalist.

What is your vision for the paper’s fashion content?

To put our reader first, giving definitive, user-friendly fashion guidance. To inform, entertain and delight. To offer up insider knowledge, but also, where relevant, the scepticism of someone who loves fashion but hasn’t drunk the Kool-Aid (or, at least, has only had a couple of sips, rather than glugged the whole bottle). To create endurable evergreen content as well as exploring the more fly-by-night trends that fashion throws up.

What makes your fashion content stand out from the rest?

Our voice more than anything, I hope. We are intelligent, analytical, approachable, and we don’t take things too seriously. But we are passionate about fashion, and our love of clothes, be it a Gap white shirt or a Prada handbag, is palpable in everything we do.

Is there any crossover with the fashion team at The Sunday Times?

I am friends with a number of key members of the Sunday Times fashion team, and the prospect of working with them more closely was just one of the aspects that excited me about my new role.

How would you describe your relationship with PRs?

There is no one better than a great PR, no one worse than a bad. When I come across a PR who understands my reader and my editorial product, and can help me as much as I can help them, I am delighted. These are the PRs who tend not just to have insights on their particular brand or brands, but to think analytically about the fashion industry more generally, if not the world. There are a few people I know I can call who will get me thinking, and give me ideas. And, it goes without saying, they are the people I will always be happy to talk to when they call me.

What sort of content can PRs help with most?

Telling me things I don’t know about that I should know about, and that The Times reader should know about. It could be a story, a product, a person, or a trend – or all four in one. I am fascinated by the anthropology of fashion, and I love PRs who give me data-driven insights into who is buying what, where and why.

What are your top tips for PRs when pitching?

To know and read my pages, and so understand my journalistic sensibilities and my audience. To pitch a short paragraph or two by email, rather than cold call. Make it bespoke, not generic, if you want to get my attention.

To take no for an answer. If I say it won’t work for me, it’s because it won’t. PRs who try to persuade you they are right and you are wrong aren’t doing themselves any favours long-term. As a former magazine editor, if there is one thing I am good at it is making the correct decision for my reader.

What’s the most important thing a PR should have to hand when you respond to them?

To know what they are talking about, and how best to communicate to me succinctly what I need to know to make a decision.

What’s on the horizon for you and the team for the rest of the year?

We have quite a few things up our very stylish sleeves…none of which I can talk about now. At this point, the focus for me is on consolidating that connection with the readers, and bringing them definitive, and fun, reporting from the shows.

Finally, what will we all be wearing this summer?

I just wrote a piece about the “perma-trends” – the ways to dress to look modern, to look your best, that won’t suddenly, after a couple of months, seem outmoded. I increasingly believe it’s about finding the things that work for you and keep on working, not following whatever happens to be “on-trend” right now.

For me, this summer – and hopefully next summer, and the one after that, if I get it right – this will mean fresh-looking cotton shirts, three quarter length trousers (big on the catwalks of New York last month), a dash of sports-luxe (I am coveting Raey’s grey cashmere sweatshirt and track pants), a bit of transparency (a lace skirt from Finery), some Grenson and Prada brogues and Jimmy Choo flats, plus a few splashes of bright colour – I haven’t decided which ones yet! Well, you did ask!

Anna was talking to Gorkana’s Richard O’Donnell

Sunday Times 100 Best Companies named

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Four comms companies have been included in this year’s list of Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For.

The highest entry is Karma Communications Group, which includes PR firm Kaper amongst its roster. A new entry for the list, Karma came in at 22.

Founded in 2000, Karma has a staff of 251. With an 88% positive score, it came seventh on the list of mid-size organisations, and there is a strong sense of family between colleagues (81%). 60% earn £35,000+ and the average staff age is 30.

Headquarted in London, the office has a sweet shop, table tennis tables and a restaurant that doubles as a dance floor. One meeting room is kitted out as an alpine chalet and the firm invites everyone for a long weekend of skiing each year.

Edelman made it on to the list again this year, jumping 50 places from last year to take the 46th spot.

The American-owned PR firm has offices in 67 countries and around 5,000 staff, with 424 in the London-based UK operation.

Employees at Edelman who go above and beyond their normal duties can receive a week’s paid leave, and for long service employees get up to 20 extra days off, corresponding to the number of years they have been with the company. Everyone gets 30 days holiday a year, an extra half-day around each bank holiday and their birthdays off.

Staff can also give a day of paid working time each year to volunteer for a good cause, and can apply for funding of up £1,640 for organisations where they are a volunteer or member of the board.

Engine Group, which includes PR firms MHP and Mischief amongst its roster, took the 52nd spot this year, one place up from last year. Engine has been on the list for the last five years.

The agency, which launched in 2005, has a staff of 785 in London and Edinburgh and also has offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Brussels, New York and San Francisco.

Engine spent almost £500,000 on employee development last year, and an in-house training programme, Brighter Together, consisted of 14 workshops on topics including How to Pitch and Effective PR delivered by senior members of the team.

65% of the 785 staff in the UK are aged 34 and under. Team building events last year included an outing to Thorpe Park, where everyone dressed up as characters from Where’s Wally. Its summer fete included a giant Wheel for Fortune, a Punch and Judy show, and a ball pit.

Its “lego wall of fame” depicts special achievements and recipients also receive a gift voucher. Other rewards for exceptional performance include an extra day’s leave, and the “Engine Oscars”.

Weber Shandwick and also retained a spot on this year’s list.

Weber, which was named agency of the year at the European Excellence Awards in December, has 294 employees at its eight offices in the UK and Ireland.

New ideas are regularly encouraged across the agency, with a Vine competition launched last year by chief executive Colin Byrne to find the most imaginative loop. The winner received an all-expenses paid trip to the Cannes Lions festival.

Colin also has a dedicated surgery hour where any member of staff can speak to him one-to-one. Managers talk openly and honestly with team members (79%) and care about people as individuals (76%).

Training programmes and regular workshops are also provided to support development, and there is a weekly session to highlight examples of good work in the comms industry.

More than half of Weber staff earn £35,000 and above, they are happy with the pay and benefits they receive (62%), and feel they receive fair pay for the responsibilities they have (59%).

The full list can be viewed here. The 100 Best Small Companies list will feature in next week’s Sunday Times.

Gorkana meets…Daily Mirror Showbiz

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Mark Jefferies, Daily Mirror showbiz editor, on calling PRs to discuss negative client stories, why showbiz never sleeps and his own bushtucker trial experiences.

Firstly, tell us about your remit and what you will and won’t cover.

We cover stars of film, TV, music and radio generally speaking. We need to know what they are doing, why and where. Our readers love to know more about the famous faces they see and hear, whether it is an interview, gossip or news of something going wrong.

Who else is in the team?

The showbiz department is headed up by head of showbiz Tom Bryant and myself, but we are very much a team at the Mirror and print and online work closely together.

In terms of print we also have TV editor Nicola Methven and 3am editor Ashleigh Rainbird, who has two deputies Halina Watts and Hannah Hope. Online is currently being headed up by Lucy Buckland, acting celebrity editor online. The online team has done a great job in the past year by hugely increasing our web traffic.

What are the most important skills a showbiz reporter needs?

One of the most important things is to be really interested in TV, music, films and all areas of showbiz. There are reporters out there who aren’t interested in what they write about in all genres of journalism and I think that shows and means they give up on stories and pushing for news and access more easily.

The other thing we sometimes discuss in the office are ‘killer questions’ and what subjects you want to discuss when interviewing a celebrity. One of the key skills in this job is the ability to get new and interesting quotes out of people, sometimes when they are not that keen to talk or prefer to say the same old things.

What tone does Mirror showbiz use to cover content?

The tone of the showbiz stories really depends on where it appears in the paper or online and what the story is. Generally speaking 3am stories will be brilliant gossip or interviews with the newest and hottest celebrities of the moment. Page 3 stories may be lighter showbiz news and then elsewhere in the paper there will be a mixture of serious and light news and a showbiz double page interview.

How would you describe your relationship with PRs?

I would say generally I have a good relationship with a large number of showbiz PRs, though obviously this is sometimes tested when you have to occasionally call them to discuss negative stories about their clients.

Having worked in the same area for many years, I like to think I have a reputation for being honest and upfront and I try to give PRs advance warning if a story we are running is going to ruin their evening or day. They appreciate that however last minute the warning is!

How can they most help with content?

PRs need to balance the needs of clients with needs of journalists. If the content, story or quotes are good, their requests can normally be accommodated in print or online. The worst thing is poor press releases or quotes which are just blatant attempts at advertorial.

How important is exclusivity?

All journalists will tell you they want exclusive interviews and stories, and when I can get them they are regularly on the front page of the Mirror. Exclusive stories are still the ones that get me excited and I still get a buzz from beating my rivals to land a big interview or when I am working on a great tip.

That said, the way the industry has changed now, nothing is exclusive for long. You can have a great story but within 10 minutes it will have been copied and be online somewhere else. But that is the nature of the business in 2015.

When should PRs be feeding in ideas?

If PRs have a really good story they think is worthy of a page lead for the next day’s paper, it is essential it comes across first thing in the morning before conference at 11.30am. Clearly if the story is good enough, it doesn’t matter when you call me, I will get it in the paper. And if it is the middle of the night and was a live story I would break it online. These days showbiz never sleeps.

What are your top tips for PRs when pitching?

Unless you have a big exclusive story for me, I am afraid I probably don’t have ages and ages to talk so I think it is best to be brief when pitching on the phone; you can always follow up with a more detailed email. If you are sending something all round to lots of people, something like a survey, then an email is enough. Journalists hate to be badgered by something that is not going to be used very big. And try to make the release or quotes as user friendly as possible.

You were in Australia in November covering I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! and even had a go at some of the bushtucker trials yourself…

Yes it was a great experience and I was surprised how uncomfortable I felt just spending an afternoon in camp. It was great to spend so much time concentrating on one subject and the ITV show – and hosts Ant and Dec – seem to go from strength to strength. I’m hoping to get another chance to do another more difficult trial this year if I can get back out there in November.

And finally, who are the rising stars we’ll be reading about in 2015?

It could be Eddie Redmayne’s year, there is a lot of buzz around him and Jack O’Connell. In music, BBC’s ‘Sound of’ has a good reputation for naming future stars so I will keep my eye on Years & Years and James Bay.

Mark was talking to Gorkana’s Richard O’Donnell