This is a copy of my weekly blog which I write for work and is published on the council's intranet.  The views I express in this log are my own, professional, views as the Head of Communications but do not necessarily reflect those of the authority itself.

I’m writing this from another train today – but this one is taking me to work, rather than a conference.

I found last week’s trip to Stockport really interesting.  It was all about leadership.  We heard from council leaders, communication professionals, academics and those who actually recruit communications people.

The particular highlights for me were:

1.  The emphasis in future should be ‘conversation, conversation, conversation’ rather than the ‘communicate, communicate, communicate’ that some industry experts suggest is how we should be focussed.

2.  That passion is probably equally – if not more – important than your qualifications if you want a job in communications.  We were told that you need to ooze excitement if you are to make an impression.  The recruiters also said that for a gig in local government you really need to appreciate politicians too!

There was also a prediction from a leading communications expert called Joe Simpson that 2010 was likely to be a ‘tough year for communications’ with reduced budgets and more scrutiny.  That’s not new news though really and besides, I think as communications professionals we have a duty to prove that we can do more for less and be expected to demonstrate our ‘worth’.

I’m pleased to say that my presentation went down well and the feedback I was given afterwards was very encouraging.  In particular, the former leader of Edinburgh City Council said some very nice things.

The opportunity to chat to colleagues from other councils was also great.  Being able to compare notes, learn from each other’s experiences and discussing ideas is always very welcome.

It also showed to me that we’re pretty forward thinking in Leeds.

We’re already discussing in detail about how we should be formally linking up with other public sector communications teams in future and we’ve even talked about how a joint communications unit for us, the police and the NHS might work.  With tightening budgets it seems the sensible thing to explore.

Other councils however aren’t yet considering those options.  It’d be great to think that perhaps we could get the first one off the ground.

OK.  Other things to mention.

Firstly, a prediction that the Leeds City Council communications team will have consistently high ‘marks’ in future and be held up as an example of brilliance.

I say this because of word which has reached me from the Audit Commission.

As you will likely know, it is the organisation which keeps an eye on our performance and judges how well we’re doing as a council.

It has been thinking about ways of better measuring how effective council communication teams are and has come up with the staggeringly brilliant idea of deciding this based on the number of press releases a council issues.

Yes, press releases.

So, from now on, I will be cracking the whip over my press operatives and won’t let them home until they’ve written and issued at least 10 press releases each a day, even if it works their dainty little fingers to the bone.

I myself will chip in and knock out a few as well.

I reckon that will mean we’ll get 375 releases out a week or 19,500 a year!

We’re going to be the best communications team in the universe!  Maybe I should put in for an award now.

Of course, this is just ridiculous and it worries me that an organisation like the Audit Commission thinks that you can properly assess communications performance based on the number of press releases issued.  If ever there was a way of ‘rigging it’ then this would be it.

The good news is (or bad, depending on your outlook) is that the commission has backtracked and has said that it is now considering ‘other ways of benchmarking’.

Finally, there’s more evidence to suggest that newspapers have lost their former positions of dominance.  A poll of 1000 opinion leaders has found that radio now has more influence than any other media over corporate reputation.

TV was second, print third and online fourth.  The poll – by the public affairs consultancy TLG - suggests the Today programme is the most influential.

I’ve long argued that newspapers are becoming more of an irrelevance each day and this poll goes some way to proving that. 

That’s all for this week - I’m off to turn down an interview request from the Yorkshire Post and offer the leader to John Humphreys instead …

The story below has been sent to me this morning by a former BBC colleague.  It is running on the Press Association wires.

I wonder how long it will be before Johnston extends the 'trial' to the Yorkshire Post?

It would seem to be the most likely candidate for this kind of new business model.

One of the country's largest newspaper firms started limiting access to online content for several of its titles today in a groundbreaking trial.

Johnston Press is charging readers of three its publications GBP5 for three months of complete web access, while another three titles will be directing readers back to the actual newspaper after a summary of each story.

The company - which owns more than 300 regional papers across the UK including The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post - is battling falling advertising revenues and wants to assess the impact of charging for content.

It is the first regional publisher in the UK to trial asking readers to pay for its online news.

The papers that will start charging are the Northumberland Gazette and Whitby Gazette in England, and the Southern Reporter in Scotland.

The Carrick Gazette, Worksop Guardian and Ripley and Heanor News will be directing readers back to the newspaper after a summary of each story.

Johnston Press' The Scotsman operates a similar system for readers wishing to view "premium content" on its website.

With the publishing industry struggling amid the economic downturn, media organisations are exploring ways of earning more from their content.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation - publisher of titles including The Sun and The Times - has indicated it will start some form of online charging next year.

And The Financial Times charges a subscription for full access to its web content.

Northumberland Gazette editor Paul Larkin said: "It is exciting for us as journalists to be at the forefront of this venture. All eyes in the media world are on us!"

Johnston Press' latest half year results showed total advertising revenues were down by 32.7% compared to the previous year.

'It's exciting for us as journalists to be at the forefront of this venture ...'

Surely the journalists are just going to be doing the same as normal?  You could argue that the owners of the paper are likely to be excited, especially if it makes them money - but not the reporters!

I'm not convinced myself, given that there are plenty of free sources of news out their on the internet - but one thing is for sure; the Johnston Press trial won't be the last.

This is a copy of my weekly blog which I write for work and is published on the council's intranet.  The views I express in this log are my own, professional, views as the Head of Communications but do not necessarily reflect those of the authority itself.

I’m submitting my Log from the train this week, so it’s going to be shorter than usual.

I’m off to Stockport because I am speaking at a national communications conference about leadership.

The subject is ‘leading a communications team in the heat of publicity’.

I’ve been asked to be there because the conference organiser said that he ‘had heard that we might have a bit of an issue on at the moment’.

I suspect he was talking about the bin strike.

Well, the irony is that what was the ‘heat of publicity’ last week (and the previous 10 to be honest) has suddenly cooled down to a bit of a simmer, given yesterday’s news that the strike is coming to an end.

I’ll have to mention this in my speech – I wouldn’t want the delegates to be under false pretences.

I’ve recorded a video with Andrew Mason, the chief officer for environmental services and Councillor Richard Brett.  In it they reflect on their experience of the bin strike and talk about how important communications has been.  They’re also pretty frank about what they expect from their comms leader!

Gulp!

Anyway, I know at least one colleague is also going to be there today, but I’ve told her she’s not allowed to sit in the front row and throw rotten fruit!

On a different note - I was lucky enough to be invited to the council’s recognition awards night at the Town Hall on Friday.  It was a fantastic evening.  Everyone scrubbed up really well and it even had an air of ‘showbiz’ about it, too.

The best bit was listening to the stories behind the people winning awards and what had been written about them on the nomination forms.

There were loads of tales of people going over and above the call of duty, showing huge dedication to the job and working hard to make a difference to the people and communities they worked in.

There was enough material to fill up the virtual newsroom for a year.

It proves – yet again – that there is an amazing amount going on in this authority and many of us probably don’t realise it.  All you need to do is scratch the surface and that’s where the hidden gems are sparkling.

I’d like to send my congratulations to everyone who picked up an award on Friday and to all the nominees as well.

Your achievements are well deserved.

This is a copy of my weekly blog which I write for work and is published on the council's intranet.  The views I express in this log are my own, professional, views as the Head of Communications but do not necessarily reflect those of the authority itself.

I was at a meeting in Merrion House (one of the council's buildings in Leeds) last week when proceedings were interrupted by the fire alarm.
 
It was interesting to observe how people in the room reacted to it.
 
The first question was ‘is this for real’?  Well, the alarm is sounding, so surely it would be safe to assume that there is a need to evacuate the building?

Then someone looked out of the window and noticed the weather was awful, which resulted in a collective groan about having to stand outside in November.

Finally, there was a last minute scrabble to collect hats, scarves and gloves (from the room we were in) before we headed for the door.
 
As per usual it turned out to be a false alarm and no doubt some burnt toast was the blame [I’m guessing that, but based on my 16 years of being a broadcast journalist, most of the occasions when I reported on large buildings (hospitals mainly) being evacuated because of a fire alert, burnt toast turned out to be the root cause of the problem 95% of the time].
It made me think about how we behave when the fire alarm goes off.
 
The likelihood is that most times it will either be a false alarm or a practice; but clearly the only solution is to get the building clear of people as soon as possible until someone can offer an absolute reassurance that it’s safe to go back in.
 
I find it interesting that some of us are prepared to stay where they are until it is somehow confirmed that there really is a fire.  At what point exactly would they decide to leave?  When there are flames licking at their feet?  Perhaps once the heat has got unbearable or part of the ceiling has collapsed?

Alarms are there for a reason and they are designed to give us early warning about a problem and so we should act on them as soon as they go off.
 
My sister-in-law Ruth should know.  The red warning light on the dashboard of her clapped out old Citroen came on recently to tell her the oil was below the minimum level and needed to be topped up.  By her own admission she’s a bit clueless about cars, so she didn’t take any notice but wondered why a week or two later the car grinds to a halt and conks out.
 
‘Didn’t you realise that meant it needed more oil?’ I enquired.

‘Nope’.
 
‘But weren’t you concerned that a red warning light had come on?’
 
‘I noticed it, but didn’t know what to do …’ she said.
 
Oh dear.
 
She won’t forget next time.  Not after the bill from the mechanic to fix the damage caused by a lack of oil in the engine.
 
But she could now accuse me of being a hypocrite.
 
Six weeks ago I was at home doing nothing more strenuous than watching TV when I was rooted to my chair by the worst chest pains I have ever experienced.  Then there were the tingling sensations in my arms and the struggle to breathe.

It was so bad, that I nearly dialled 999.  Instead, I called my sister in Hampshire.  She’s a matron and was concerned about my symptoms.  She wanted me to go to A and E.
 
I was reluctant.  Anyway, within 90 minutes, the pain had gone, my heart was still ticking and all seemed to be well with the world.
 
I thought no more of it.
 
But then it happened again.  Last Thursday.  I had been to a memorial service for someone killed in a car accident and on the way home the pain returned.  Not so bad this time, but still there.  By the time I arrived, it had gone.
 
Then on Friday the pain was back.  As I walked to Civic between meetings I thought I was going to keel over.  But this time, I couldn’t ignore things.  After a while sat on the floor of the office, my team’s first aider insisted I seek medical attention and he came with me to find it.

The result is that I’ve now got to have some tests to see what the problem is.
 
Anyway, dear reader – in true ‘Lassie’ style there is a moral to this story and I refer you to my earlier comments – ‘alarms are there for a reason …’.
 
Please assure me that you won’t ‘do a Ruth or an Andy’ and ignore a ‘red light’ of any description and for goodness sake get out of the building as soon as you can when the fire bell next sounds.
 
You have been warned.

This is a copy of my weekly blog which I write for work and is published on the council's intranet.  The views I express in this log are my own, professional, views as the Head of Communications but do not necessarily reflect those of the authority itself.

Lots of people tell me that it’s best to ‘plan for the worst and hope for the best’ and although I’m sure that’s not an approved or official way of doing things at Leeds City Council, they were sentiments I had last Friday night.

I assured myself – before going to bed – that we (both as a council and in partnership with West Yorkshire Police) had done just that for the EDL and UAF protests that were due to take place the next day.

Now, before I go further I need to make it clear that I feel I only had a very small role to play in preparing ourselves for an event which had the potential to cause lots of problems for and within the city.

Colleagues in West Yorkshire Police and our very own emergency planning team did the bulk of the work and I have a lot of respect for them.  Their attention to detail was amazing – crossing every ‘T’ and dotting every ‘I’ before the big day.  In fact, I was so impressed by their planning skills I’m going to get them involved in my next house move or family wedding.

Anyway, we (that's me, my boss James Rogers and Paul Buchanan from emergency planning) had a unique vantage point last Saturday – we were stationed at ‘gold command’ at police headquarters in Wakefield, where the officer in overall charge of the operation to keep the peace was controlling what was going on.

It was an interesting setting – a room packed full of telephones, computer screens, a board on the wall covered with pieces of card cut to shape to resemble a police van, loads of maps and a massive TV showing pictures being received from the various CCTV cameras around Leeds and a feed being beamed down from the West Yorkshire Police helicopter.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Gilmore was in charge.  He was in a big chair in the middle, surrounded by his senior officers.

[Think Doctor Evil’s hidden bunker (but clearly without any evilness) … oh, and he wasn’t stroking a white cat either.]

There were briefings every 30 minutes covering things like what resources were in place, where the demonstrators were (in terms of how and when they would arrive and where) and intelligence about any particular nasty characters.

ACC Gilmore also wanted an hourly update on what the media were saying and, most interestingly for me, what information was available from social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. ‘It all adds to the mix’, the ACC told me later in the day.

We had already planned to use Twitter as a vehicle for getting our messages out there, so updates posted to the virtual newsroom generated a tweet and we also re-tweeted messages that West Yorkshire Police were sending.  But, it was all one-way; we weren’t planning to seek feedback from our followers.

But I thought that perhaps it might be a good idea to.

One colleague checked the EDL and UAF on-line forums, one of West Yorkshire Police’s press officers monitored Facebook and I set up a real-time search on Twitter so that every time the word ‘Leeds’ was mentioned, I got an alert.

It was very, very useful.

Putting aside all the talk about whether Leeds would trounce Yeovil that afternoon (and they did) and the resulting celebratory tweeting, there was some useful information coming through.

One guy on a train from London to Leeds tweeted about how it was full of demonstrators heading to Leeds causing a bad atmosphere - all was well though as officers had boarded the train.

Then there were the people commenting on what was going on in the city centre; many of them were asking ‘what’s happening?’  Others were asking whether it was safe to come into the city to do their shopping.

On this occasion I used the press office Twitter profile to respond offering an assurance that it was ‘business as usual’ despite the fact there were hundreds of police officers outside the train station.

For the first time, I was using Twitter to have a ‘conversation’ with people and in an official capacity.  It seems they appreciated it too, given the good feedback.  There wasn’t a reluctance to respond to an ‘official’ organisation and they were happy to pass on information.

Now I can see why lots of other companies and businesses have embraced social media and are using it to talk to their customers.  We’ve already got phones, faxes and email – Twitter is just another tool in the communications arsenal.

However, there’s a problem.  It’s resource intensive for a good start.  We’d need several people just to manage our social media channels full-time.  And would the powers that be sanction a team of people – locked in a room somewhere – chatting to residents all day long via the internet?  Probably not, well not just yet anyway.

And then there’s the expectation.  As a Twitter user, if I send a message or talk about a particular company and they respond, I expect something to happen; particularly if it’s a complaint.  If we were doing the same and tweets about broken pavements and unemptied bins were arriving, does the mechanism exist for us to be able to act?  Perhaps, but I’m sure it would need fine tuning.

So, I think that maybe we need to wait – let’s get ourselves geared up properly first.  If we run before we can walk there’s a danger we could damage our reputation and we all know who has to pick up those pieces ….

The subject line was 'Guess who??'

'Oh lordy' I thought. Another one of those dodgy emails offering me the chance to enhance my body parts or to inform me that I'd won the lottery in some far off African country I have never even heard of.

But, then I realised it had come through to my work address and very little spam reaches me via that email.

So, instead of deleting I thought I'd better take a look.

And I'm glad I did. It was from one of my former college lecturers from when I lived and studied in Hampshire. She was very congratulatory about my career success and has invited me down to lecture to her current students.

On reflection I owe quite a lot to this lecturer. I'm sure she's the one that told me to jack-in my A levels first time around, accept a job at my local radio station and begin my career as a broadcast journalist.

Now, I'm a great believer in fate and I'm sure that all those years ago, as a 17 year old, if I had decided to actually continue my studies, then there's no reason to suggest I wouldn't be where I am today.

Nevertheless, she told me to 'go for it' when I had the chance and for that I'm grateful.

So, cheers Sandra!

This is a copy of my weekly blog which I write for work and is published on the council's intranet.  The views I express in this log are my own, professional, views as the Head of Communications but do not necessarily reflect those of the authority itself.

I’d like to start by saying ‘thanks’ this week.  Thanks to those of you who gave up your time and came along to my lecture at Leeds Met last Monday.

There were several colleagues in the audience and it was nice to glance up occasionally to see a few familiar faces.  Having some ‘friends’ there was a great boost, so thank-you for coming along.

The lecture went down very well, and predictably I have been overwhelmed by requests from students who now want work experience with our team.

Part of the lecture was all about dispelling any myths they might have about how boring PR is in the public sector.  OK, we don’t drink champagne, go to lots of showbiz product launch parties and we certainly don’t ‘air kiss’ colleagues while saying ‘mwah’ but this sector is dynamic, exciting and diverse.

My colleague Jon photographed the audience as they arrived – they had to write down a word they thought best described life in public sector PR and have their picture taken while holding up their word.

I then compared them with ones ‘I had prepared earlier’ in true Blue Peter style featuring the whole communications team.  I had asked my team to be honest and not be influenced by me and they came up with some great words – ones I probably wouldn’t have chosen myself.

The end result was interesting and I have to say – from my point of view – a bit of a surprise.  It’s because the students hadn’t chosen lots of dull words – they seemed to recognise that a career in public sector PR wasn’t at all dull.

That’s great as far as I am concerned.

One thing I regret not talking about though is how life in public sector PR means you need to plan for every eventuality.  For instance, how things keep changing and why being able to think on your feet and move quickly from ‘Plan A’ through to ‘Plan Z’ when you’re trying to react to something is a crucial skill.

Take the bin strike as a good example.

Predicting how the talks and then the subsequent mass ballot would go was difficult, so we tried to cover as many bases as possible and have some words available which dealt with every possibility we could think of.

How typical then that fairly regularly we’d think we were ready when – wham! – a completely different outcome would emerge.  ‘No, the talks haven’t broken down, but we’ve not reached agreement either … we’re just going to carry on our discussions.’

I don’t think my colleague Laura and I have spent so much time like an expectant mother or father waiting for a call from the council negotiators and once it had arrived hurriedly changing what we had prepared.

But I guess that’s part of the appeal, and thinking on your feet or having the ability to react quickly and change the plan is a good skill to have.

It certainly proved useful for me at my sister’s wedding on Saturday.

While my sister and I  (I was giving her away because our dad is no longer alive) were on our way to the church in the wedding car, we received a phone call to say the musician was lost and hadn’t arrived.

My sister was adamant that the singer must be there, so I immediately invoked Plan B.  Plan B was getting the driver to slow down a bit, so we would be delayed.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and we arrived at the church well before the missing musician.  OK, so Plan C was to keep my sister in the car for an additional 10 minutes.

Still no sign.  Plan D now.  Add an extra five minutes onto the original 10.

Now we’re 20 minutes late starting.  The groom would be getting worried.

Onto Plan E then.  This was getting the usher to alert the priest and the organ player that we were going to change the order of service and skip the bits where the musician should be playing.  We’d get him in at the very end and he could do his bits while the register was being signed.

Cue the opening organ music and off we went (at one hell of a pace down the aisle despite my sister saying she wanted to go slowly) and the rest of the service passed off without incident.

The musician did arrive with 10 minutes to spare and he was amazing.  Thank goodness for Plans A to E.