Mac's Musings

Strictly Sad Media Crisis
20/11/2008
Another minor media crisis for the BBC as John Sergeant steps lightly out of Strictly Come Dancing with some of the most deft footwork...
Crisis? We’re still banking on you, Mervyn
18/06/2008
Alistair Darling Chancellor of the Exchequer No 11 Downing St 18 June 2008 Dear Alistair Sorry Whoops! Bit of a slip up this month...
Protecting your Reputation
17/06/2008
It's been a bad week for reputations. First, we learned that Sir Alan Sugar's chosen apprentice had lied his way to pole position and...
Crisis News Management – The China Syndrome 18.5.08
27/05/2008
The part the media play in any crisis is illustrated once again by the parallel tragedies in China and Burma. Give the right message...
A Princely Public Image Failure 21.4.08
21/04/2008
Dear Wills The lads down at the Slug and Banker were just wondering if we could borrow your Chinook for a few hours. You...
Public Incompetence – Getting the PR Game Right
20/04/2008
Public relations can be an imprecise science, but it never ceases to amaze me how governments and heads of state - with legions of...
Public Relations Message – Banking on Clarity
07/02/2008
There's nothing like a good public relations message to make your company's position absolutely clear to the outside world. The Northern Rock crisis has...
Public Relations Message – Safety in Training
07/02/2008
I went to Cardiff on the train earlier this week. An otherwise unexciting journey suddenly got more interesting when Arriva Trains Wales announced that...
Networking in the Wilderness
27/01/2008
You can net or network anywhere. At parties, business meetings, on trains, in bus queues - even in distant mountain bothies. Bothies are a...
Crisis News Management - Hain-style
25/01/2008
I've said it before and I'll say it again: crisis news management is all about protecting your reputation. So why do politicians still get...
French Farce
25/01/2008
Trust the French! On the very day that one of our leading politicians stands down after mislaying £100,000 or so, the French have to...
Global Networking
22/01/2008
Netting or networking at your local business breakfast is one thing. But one leading solicitor has taken it stage further. While some law firm...
No More Porkies
21/01/2008
The lads in the tap room down at the Slug and Bank Manager have suddenly lost interest in Northern Rock. They were ready for...
And finally............
17/01/2008
Bong! ITV's News at 10 is back - just like it had always been there and nothing had changed. But one thing has changed...
Crisis Management Russian Style: Welcome Back, Cold War
17/01/2008
As I said yesterday, businesses facing a crisis need to manage it in a way that will protect their reputation. If only governments were...
Crisis News Management – A Fresh Approach
16/01/2008
Protecting reputation is the cornerstone of crisis news management. So Gordon Brown's approach to protecting the reputation of his Work and Pensions Secretary, Peter...
Northern Rock – Sound as a Pound
16/01/2008
Northern Rock. Yep, the lads down at the Slug and Bank Manager talked of little else last night. And they are all solidly behind...
What is an 'icon'?
11/01/2008
The term 'icon' has become woefully devalued. Yesterday's Daily Telegraph ran an inside page piece - with a busty picture - of Victoria Beckham's...
Political Correctness
06/01/2008
The personal presentation skills of our leading British politicians leave a lot to be desired. Compared with other A List politicians around the world...
'Should auld acquaintance be forgot.......'
02/01/2008
Netting, networking, making connections - call it what you will - is somehow part of the human condition. And Christmas and New Year seem...
Happy New Year!
01/01/2008
I have never been big on New Year festivities. A home-cooked meal, a good book, a small malt whisky and asleep by 10.30pm always...
Smiling like a Rat
31/12/2007
I see the Chinese Government is giving presentation skills training to a special corps of hostesses ready for the Beijing Olympics and the Year...
Whale of a time - damaging your public image.
21/12/2007
Accidentally damaging your public image is careless; deliberately and wilfully setting out to destroy it is nothing short of extraordinary. Yet Japan has done...
Red Card for Good Media Image
18/12/2007
Rape allegations and Premiership football players seem to go hand in hand. None has ever made it to court so we have no idea...
Business Networking - The Right Language
13/11/2007
Business Networking - or netting - is about much more than building the right contacts and knowing how to 'work the room'. In more...
Media Profile - Old Lags and Lemmings
13/11/2007
Performance rather than media profile is usually a better quality in our politicians. But sometimes you just can't divorce the two. So the appointment...
Media profile - on-line newspapers
10/11/2007
Getting a story in a newspaper takes the news much further than the paper itself these days. The story is likely to appear in...
Corporate Social Responsibility
06/11/2007
A couple of months ago I was asked by High Peak CVS, which promotes sustainability among community and voluntary groups, if I could help...
Media Profile – Snappy Response for the Little Terrier
06/11/2007
An article about you in the FT really does produce business immediately. Diminutive debt doyen Kerry Bland of Jack Russell Collections and Investigations -...
Little Terrier's Media Profile
05/11/2007
For business development and raising your media profile, a quarter page in the Financial Times must rank quite highly. In fact, most firms would...
ITV's tarnished media image
19/10/2007
A good media image is every bit as important to media giants like ITV as it is to smaller firms. So how come ITV...
China’s Tarnished Media Image
12/10/2007
China's media image took a battering last night on Channel 4 News. Just in case we had somehow got the idea that the regime...
Auntie's agonies
08/10/2007
If you've made a mistake, go for the 'quick bleed'. It's a time-honoured maxim when dealing with the media - but one which the...
Fashionable Cause
28/09/2007
Creating a good media profile should not be about being seen to do the right thing but actually doing it. So designer Katharine Hamnett's...
Rotten Regimes
27/09/2007
You know a regime is really rotten when it doesn't actually care two teak logs about its international image. Step forward Burma. The junta...
I'm banking on you, Mervyn
20/09/2007
Mervyn King Top Man The Bank of England 20 Sept 2007 Dear Mervyn Well, it's proving a busy old week for you down in...
The Big McCann Question
19/09/2007
The McCann's personal tragedy and nightmare provides little insight into forensic science. But it offers a fascinating view of the workings of the media....
The Darling bids for mayhem
17/09/2007
Who on earth is advising the Government on how to handle the banking crisis? Whoever it is, they should be shot. As long queues...