Leveson enquiry and reputation of UK tabloid media

Does the media "get" the impact of the Leveson enquiry?  I think it is starting to, but it is finding the whole process extraordinarily difficult and alien to it.  Many of the commentators on Newsnight and the Today programme, often  former editors now Professors of Media, seem to me "behind the curve" and very protective of their former colleagues and not aware of the major reputational damage being inflicted.

Associated Newspapers was very ill-advised to put out such an intemperate comment/news piece about Hugh Grant's evidence to the enquiry within just hours of his appearance.   Note that they are no longer allowing comments on this piece and also the announcement does not appear to be on the Associated Newspapers web site!  Leveson was not amused.   These were the comments of a major power broker - editor Paul Dacre and Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday team - under pressure and not at all happy - were they shown to Associated Newspapers?  

News International and now Associated Newspapers both with formidable insight into their readers and customers.   But the evidence of the last year is that both seem to have no understanding of their responsibility to their  wider stakeholders.  Perhaps this is because of their long held power and deference of many stakeholders to them.  Does PR play any influential role at Associated Newspapers - I wonder - I suspect similar to News International which did not understand the role of PR until Edelman came on board in the UK in recent months.

Having just given a lecture on crisis PR in the consumer context, there is a very apt quote from Timothy Coombs and Sherry Holladay in PR Strategy and Application (Ch.12), "crises typically violate how constituents expect an organisation to behave."  Yes, we might have known about some of the tactics of the tabloids which have come out in the Leveson enquiry, but the extent and range of evidence does feel to me like a "violation".  I wonder if we may in a few years look back and realise that Leveson was the start of an important reformation of the tabloid press.

Kaizo talk at Greenwich

A big thanks to Dave Robertson and Bryony Chinnery from Kaizo who gave an interesting talk last night to the Masters PR students on recent work.  This included talking about Cargill's Truvia, a natural sweetener which has just gained EU regulatory approval and which had a major pre-launch event in London in the summer and Unilever VIP, a Facebook community which they have helped develop for the global brand.