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Author Archives: Dan Wood
What would Max do?
When faced with a media onslaught, is it enough to simply ask ‘What would Max Clifford do?’ as suggested by one health service commentator? Or is it more appropriate to have senior-level professional communications support in place before the proverbial hits the fan? Hmmm, I wonder.
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Trafigura: Has twitter come of age?
As oil giant Trafigura drops the gagging order covering its alleged environmental crimes in Africa the Twitterati claim ‘it was Twitter wot won it’. So has Twitter finally come of age? Or does recent research suggest it’s still not as important as its champions might think. Read more ...
What’s in a name?
If that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet, then ‘2gether foundation trust’ is a stinker of a name. NHS foundation trusts may want to assert their independence and demonstrate their aspirations with a new name and identity, but would do well to recognise that value that they already have as part of the NHS brand.
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Facing up to cuts in health comms
With No10 revealing that the Department of Health’s comms budget is to be cut to pay for more personal care for the elderly, the department and the NHS are going to have to get more inventive to deliver effective health promotion campaigns. Read more ...
Pots and kettles
When journalists say their main gripes about press officers are poor research and laziness, pots and kettles spring to mind. Anyhow, here's a handy little refresher on some of the dos and don'ts of media handling. Read more ...
The wisdom of crowds
Politicians are queuing up at the party conferences to pledge which bits of the public sector they’ll axe in the race to cut government spending. But the cuts that are likely to win the most votes aren’t necessarily going to be the ones that will bring the greatest savings. Read more ...
A retort to the annual report
Annual reporting provides crucial accountability and transparency for publically funded organisations and businesses alike. But with most annual reports little more than exercises in vanity publishing, are they worth the (nicely laid-out and designed) paper they are printed on?
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Reports of the grid’s demise greatly exaggerated
There have been recent reports that Labour will be scrapping the news management ‘grid’ in the forthcoming election. This seems unlikely with both main parties battling harder than ever to set the day’s news agenda. So how can the grid approach, so successful in 1997, be updated to reflect a more 24 hour and online media landscape?
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Don’t believe the headlines
Although people say they don’t believe all they read about the NHS in the papers, much of what they think is driven directly by what the media says. But, while we shouldn’t forget the power of the papers, does what staff say have the potential to make the deepest impact? Read more ...
Measuring quality not quantity