This is the second instalment in a series of short reviews covering the UK’s PR industry trade press. First there was PR Week….
The newest PR mag hitting UK coffee tables is PR Business. It has been out about a month and despite its cover price of £2.50 is currently being sent free to CIPR members (and others, I suspect).
My first reaction is that so far I like PRB. Frankly it has a slightly downmarket feel to it (do I mean that? I don’t know). It feels more like a good ol‘ trade mag… the layout‘s a bit ropey (classic sign!), it has the tried and tested features of other trade mags (or at least feels like it does) and it has yet to find its feet stylistically.
But to its credit, I like its content. I like the way it covers stories from companies that aren‘t the usual glut of London-based firms and I like the way it has tackled off-beat or unusual industry issues such as PR industry pensions and scientific research unlocking the future of marketing. Admittedly I haven’t found all of these interesting or relevant, but 10/10 to PRB for taking a different approach to industry news.
The reason for this may be because PRB comes out weekly and is directly up against PR Week. PRB’s scoop factor probably won’t come close to PR Week, as the Haymarket mag has the market cornered in accessing news and tittle-tattle from the great and the good at the Weber Shandwicks of this world. But PRB is still young and who is to say that with time it may build a strong network of alternative contacts or perhaps even ignore the establishment gossip altogether if it’s what its readers want.
From a New PR perspective, PRB is a young enough publication to talk about RSS and blogs as if it was up on the issues from day one. As well as having a great tech column written by blogger Antony Mayfield (which is available in real time with links at his Open blog) good tech/new PR stories and features can be found sitting among more traditional stories on PRB’s pages. For instance in the last issue but one, the front page lead is about SEO and ‘headline optimisation’ for search engine news pages. Then inside on page three there’s a story about sector specialists Hotwire PR launching a tech PR campaign.
However, PRB is let down by its website which, er, so far doesn’t really exist. Ok, so it is a new publication and it’s getting its web content straight but it’s not good PR to have a holding site that’s already out-of-date…..
I think PRB is a good trade mag offering readers an alternative take on the world of UK PR. It has good tech/new PR coverage and offers full page features on certain PR sectors although it’s not as topical as PR Week on some of the lesser or more sector specific issues. Oh yes, and its website isn’t working… but despite that, PRB is a very nice little mag and certainly making an effort to set out its own news agenda away from the back-slapping of the big London agencies. Let’s see what happens to PR Week when PRB finds its feet!
UPDATE: Stephen “PR Blogger” Davies suggested that I give all the mags reviewed a rating using a cleverly devised system. I think this is a great idea and only serves to enhance Stephen’s staus as a ’bloggeur extraordinaire’.
I will publish a full list of ratings once all the reviews have been published.
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