In recent weeks, we’ve watched as a number of high profile Australian and international leaders have handed in their notice. Some have given lots of notice while others have chosen to move on quickly.

Last week, the Head of Facebook in Australia and New Zealand, Paul Borrud, made headlines when he announced his resignation after six years at the helm. Then over at Air New Zealand their CEO Rob Fyfe also outlined his plan to resign at the end of 2012. And at Transurban their CEO Chris Lynch became another Australian CEO to announce their departure.

And internationally the long-serving co-CEOs of Research in Motion (the company responsible for the ubiquitous BlackBerry) have handed over the reigns to Thorsten Heins.

Closer to home and in the political sector, Labor’s Rob Hulls called it a day this month after 15 years in politics.

So what makes a CEO or high profile leader step down?

It could simply be time to retire. Time to clear out the inbox and spend more time with the family. It could also be a response to a scandal such as the resignation of the BP CEO following the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Other reasons for a change at the top might include appointment of a new board, poor company performance or perhaps the call of a new opportunity.

Whatever the reason, if the communication surrounding the departure of a senior leader is handled incorrectly, it can have a disastrous impact on the company.

Investors get edgy and share prices plummet. Consumers lose confidence in the company and sales go down. The brand is damaged and competitors gain an edge. And most importantly employees become unhappy and decide to pack up their staplers as well.

So how should a CEO’s departure be handled?

First and foremost you need to ensure all stakeholders are informed in a timely and appropriate manner. Large organisations should build this communication into their succession planning so it should be a matter of pressing a button and beginning a process.

Large or small, you need to consider all of your stakeholders and their information needs. Think about the questions different stakeholders will have and make sure you have answers ready.

It’s also important that all key information is given to ensure that people feel comfortable in the change. Even though we all say “change is as good as a holiday”, it actually doesn’t compare to three weeks lying in the sun on a tropical island. So you need to relieve people’s anxiety by demonstrating how the person’s role will be filled and how their responsibilities will be managed.

It’s also important to celebrate the CEO’s time with the organisation, particularly if they’re retiring or moving into a more senior position. A CEO’s departure is also a great time to take stock of an organisation’s position and promote its achievements.

Above all, make sure your employees and board members have all the facts so they can rest assured that the organisation will continue to operate well after the CEO has punched his or her last timecard.

And if you’re the CEO, make sure you remember to hand back your passes and update your LinkedIn (but not before it’s all made public!).

Cheers from Jack & the c word crew

We know it’s not an exact science, but we thought we’d drag our crystal ball out of the mothballs and see what 2012 might have in store. Hang on to your hats …

Cracking client challenges with consistency, creativity and collaborations

The best thing about communication is that you never know what exciting adventures are on the horizon. After a busy 2011, the next 12 months are shaping up to be even busier – just make sure there’s plenty of coffee brewing!

First up, there are lots of strategies and plans to be finished and implemented. It’s a great time of the year to take stock of your communications and set a course for the months ahead. What went well in 2011? What can be improved?

Over the next few months, we’re also looking forward to helping a couple of our clients re-brand their organisations – who doesn’t love a makeover.

We’ll also be pulling the covers off our typewriters and inking our red pens for another busy year of copywriting for corporate magazines, brochures, annual reports and company profiles.

There are also events to be organised, stories to be pitched to the media, blog posts to be written, characters to be tweeted and Facebook walls to be written on. Gosh it’s exhausting just thinking about it, but come December 31, we’re confident we’ll look back on another great year!

Costume dramas on the box

We’ve just finished re-watching season 4 of Mad Men and can’t wait to return to the 1960s for season 5 later this year. Will Don have married his sultry secretary Megan? Will there be a little Joan running around the corridors at Cooper Sterling Draper Price? Will Peggy finally get the recognition she’s been waiting for? And will Betty find another child psychiatrist to solve her growing number of problems?

And what about the new seasons of Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs? How will the folks of Downton and Eaton Place cope through the wars? What other period dramas will be gracing our screens?

Competitive cereal in the breakfast TV market

It’s not long now (we hope) until Channel Ten unveils its new breakfast show. Hopefully they’ll be serving up a cooked breakfast every morning and inspire the other early risers at Sunrise and Today to do the same. We’re also looking forward to another year of great reporting from the team at ABC News Breakfast – hats off to Virginia, Michael and the rest of the team in front of and behind the cameras.

And of course, we’re looking forward to some early mornings (or late nights) watching NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America – or perhaps catching Oprah’s BFF Gayle King on the re-jigged CBS Early Show. Oh how we love you American breakfast television.

And if that’s not enough, what will happen on the box during the mid morning shift? Who will complete the circumference of The Circle following the departure of Chrissie Swan and Ding Dong Drysdale? How will Sonia cope filling KAK’s shoes?

Communicators from countless countries converge on Melbourne

The countdown has officially begun for the World PR Forum in November 2012, hosted by the Public Relations Institute of Australia.

Leaders in communication from around the world will be heading to Melbourne to discuss, debate and devour case studies about communications. If the last World PR Forum (held in Stockholm) is anything to go by, we’re in for a real treat.

That’s all for now folks, until our next blog.

Cheers and claps,

Jack and the c word crew

PS. And we couldn’t leave without a sneak peak at the new Absolutely Fabulous – bring it on!!

Cheers and happy new year!!

As we reach the end of our holidays and prepare to embark on our next exciting chapter at the c word, we thought we’d take a quick look back at some of the c-words of 2011.

council chair: pria victoria

In October 2011, Jack signed on for his second year as State President of the Public Relations Institute of Australia and a director of the national board.

For the past 12 months he’s been trying to get everyone in the office saying: “We serve at the pleasure of the President (of the PRIA)”. He thinks he’s had some success but really we’re just humouring him.

After the real President’s visit in November, he’s been trying to coin a new acronym: POTPRIA (President of the PRIA).

As State President, Jack attended a range of events from the sold out Women in PR luncheon (2012 date = Friday 11 May) to a fantastic seminar about PR for major events including the Food and Wine Festival, Women in Super Fun Run and Melbourne Fashion Festival.

He said it’s a pleasure working with the councillors, fellows and members of PRIA.

coverage central

In May 2011, we went behind the scenes at The Age and 3AW on an exclusive PRIA members-only tour. The event was organised by PRIA member and The Age Communications Manager Miranda Schuppan.

We started with an extensive tour of Media House (that swankey new building on the corner of Collins and Spencer Street). The tour took us into the busy newsroom where we bumped into a few familiar faces and watched the editor of theage.com.au post a breaking story on the homepage. We then got a peek at the cutting edge theage.com.au TV studio before heading up to listen to an interview from the main studio and chat with the 3AW news team.

After the tour, we sat down for an intimate lunch with three journalists from The Age. The journalists included Senior Writer Shane Green, Editor of theage.com.au Daniel Sankey and Editorial News Manager Laura Hamilton. They each shared tips and advice on working with the newspaper.

After a great tour, a lovely lunch and a fruitful conversation we walked away with some fantastic insights into the iconic Victorian newspaper and radio station as well as a copy of the Good Food Guide – not bad for an afternoon’s work!

cellophane

Our work took us away from tending to the crops on our blog cellophane this year but we did manage to post a couple of articles each month. Next year we promise to do better and keep the c words flowing.

We continued our series of conversations with leading communications professionals including Austereo’s Jamie Garantziotis, Hassell’s Slavica Habjanovic and Queensland PR Academic Amisha Mehta.

We also continued to rant and rave about communications with a recent post about the pavlova served up to the President and an earlier post about the quality of breakfast TV in Australia. Some of the posts also provided something resembling useful advice.

Watch this space as we launch an exciting program of blog posts in 2012.

collaborators

We continued to collaborate with a number of partners in communications in 2011 including Burning House and housemouse.

Burning House helped us produce some compelling video content for our clients including a fantastic series of mobile ready videos for the Victorian Equal Opportunities and Human Rights Commission. Our cinematic collaborators also helped PRIA develop a great new series of videos with leading Australian communicators. And they continued to find the time to individually burn everyone’s business cards – impressive!

The crew at housemouse continued to demonstrate their prowess in the design field by creating cutting edge logos, can’t-put-me-down magazines and eye-catching posters for our projects. Most recently we collaborated on a project for Victoria University’s re-launch of the School of International Business. They also produced another two sensational issues of their designer magazine, fluoro.

cocktails, canapés and conversations

The life of a communicator isn’t all cocktails and canapés but sometimes (say once or twice a month) we do get to sample some fine canapés, wash them down with champagne and indulge in colourful conversations.

This year we managed to get an invite to some fun events including gala dinners, cocktail parties and public lectures.

Highlights included a Fourth of July reception at the Immigration Museum, the launch of a new Community Partnership Trust at BMW Edge and a swanky gala dinner for the Melbourne Boston Sister City Association.

Melbourne really does know how to throw a fabulous party.

chin chin, cumulus, and a few other culinary attractions

We love our culinary treats at the c word. Particularly those served up in places starting with c. You would be amazed by the number of c-word restaurants in Melbourne – particularly minutes from our office. Here are some tips from our travels:

Making our way down the street from our office, we start at Cumulus. It’s a popular spot for coffees, lunchtime catch-ups and cheeky crackling pork sandwiches.

Another hundred metres down the lane and you’ll discover Chin Chin. Grab 10 friends and book the communal table with the “feed me” option. It’s hard to pick a favourite but the PORK is amazing – anyone notice a theme – and the king fish sashimi is delicious.

Then further afield there’s Café Vue. It’s another favourite close to clients and a great spot for coffee or lunch.

Here are a few more choice culinary locations on our cool list: The Graham (Port Melbourne, out-of-this-world red duck curry!); Ichi Ni (St Kilda, try the ebi mayo prawns); Hoboken (city, scrumptious red beans and rice) and Attica (Ripponlea, worth the wait for a booking).

classrooms and conferences

Jack spent the first semester at RMIT University teaching introduction to PR to more than 70 first year students. The teaching was a great opportunity to share some of the work that the c word is doing in communications and also get some insight from the next generation of communicators.

He also visited a number of universities talking to PR students as PRIA President and participated in the inaugural PR Student Forum at Victoria University.

Jack was also a speaker and panellists at the Internet Show in Melbourne where he joined a panel with the social media representatives from NRL and the Australian Greens.

costco, cookies & containers

We know we’re a little late to the party but this year we discovered a new favourite c-word: Costco.

While we have well and truly earned our Costco shopping badges we did discover some great items …

The official cookies in the office (until we ate them all) were Byron Bay Rocky Road Cookies in a bulk pack. We’ve since had to ban them from the office but we’re sure they’ll make a re-appearance in 2012.

We also re-discovered our love of containers with Oxo. What do containers have to do with communication? We’re still working on that but we had to share.

capturing communicators on camera

We helped cultivate collaboration between Burning House and PRIA earlier this year. Together, they produced a series of videos called “Broadcast PR” with interviews of leading Australian communications.

The first series of interviews included Miranda Schuppan from The Age, Lelde McCoy from Ogilvy, Trevor Young from Edelman and young communicator Jack Herbert.

The interviewees talked about how they got into the industry, what are the biggest challenges facing communicators at present and what does the future hold for communications.

A new series was recorded at the PRIA National Conference in October and all are available via the PRIA website.

co-location

Co-location is a great word, isn’t it? We’ve been a bit obsessed with it ever since we discovered it while preparing content for a client’s co-location.

In July 2011, we moved into a new space at Level 1, Milton House, 25 Flinders Lane with our clients, colleagues and chums at VESKI.

The charming building is called Milton House and was originally a hospital. It’s also home to the Committee for Melbourne, BioMelbourne Network and Melbourne Open House.

If you haven’t been to visit yet, drop in for a coffee and a chat.

Cheers and happy new year.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the first week of 2012.

Jack and the c word crew

I wish more people would come into work saying: “Sorry I’m late, I had to watch…”. While I’m not advocating rampant workplace tardiness, I’d love Australia’s breakfast television to be so good you just can’t switch it off!!!! (exclamation marks necessary!)

Why can’t Australia’s morning airwaves be more like their big brothers and sisters in the US? While the US shows aren’t perfect, they certainly know how to keep people engaged, informed and entertained. And I should know, I’ve watched plenty of episodes both while travelling in the US and back in Oz during the 4am shift.

Australia’s breakfast television shows have proved their ability to provide us with important news during national crises or natural disasters, but it’s time they pick up the pace and engage, entertain and enthral us on a daily basis.

Breakfast television or morning shows are infotainment television programs, broadcast live typically between 6:00 and 10:00 am. They’re hosted by small teams of male/female hosts (think Matt Lauer and Katie Couric, Karl and Lisa and Virginia Trioli and Michael Rowling), and watched by people getting ready for work and school.

NBC’s Today was the world’s first national breakfast show and set the tone for the television genre when it began broadcasting on 14 January 1952. Nearly 60 years later, it remains number one with many shows from around the world copying their successful format.

Last year, Morning Glory (a film by the folks who made magazines come to life with The Devil Wears Prada) took us behind the scenes of shows like Today with their 4am wake-up calls, breaking news and celebrity interviews. The fictional show, Daybreak (which coincidentally is the name of  UK breakfast show), was fighting for survival up against Today and Good Morning America (GMA).

But that’s not fiction. Everyone wants to be like GMA and Today – and everyone wants to be the host. The shows are the breeding grounds for some of the finest news people in America. For example, Diane Sawyer recently left her long stint at GMA to host ABC’s evening news (following in the footsteps of NBC Today’s Katie Couric).

There were further changes to the guard of morning television in the US this year. In June, Meredith Vieira left the anchor desk at Today after five years, and the tributes that flowed in demonstrated her ability to deliver a mix of hard and soft news on a daily basis. Following Vieira’s departure, long-time news anchor Ann Curry took the reins.

In Australia, we’ve seen Today and Sunrise battle out the breakfast show slot for the past decade with Mel and Kochie going head to head with Karl and Lisa. But they still seem to lack the gravitas of their American counterparts.

In 2008, we welcomed the ABC’s version of the breakfast show, ABC News Breakfast, which has since moved to ABC1 and seems to be going from strength to strength. The show draws on the quality journalism of ABC TV and radio with the highly respected hosts Virginia Trioli and Michael Rowland.

And now Channel 10 has announced plans for a new breakfast show. I wonder if they’ll be able to capitalise on the success of the 7pm Project and claw back their dominance in the news space. It will be good to have some more competition in the morning space – hopefully it will have more people coming into work saying: “Sorry I’m late”.

So what does the future hold for breakfast television? What would you like to see in your 6:00-10:00am slot each day?

Cheers,

the c word crew

PS. We got a chuckle from these French & Saunders parodies of morning shows.

Today marks the end of my first year (and the start of my second) as PRIA’s Victorian President.

Along the way, I have met some truly amazing people, heard some fascinating stories and learnt a lot of new things about being a communicator.

Firstly, my sincere thanks to my fellow councillors for their hard work and enthusiasm, particularly Paul Crisp and Jessica Markovsky who are finishing up on council this year after more than a decade of combined service to the organisation as President and national representative respectively.

Thank you also to the wonderful members I have met along the way. To those who have spoken at our events, thank you for sharing your experience. To everyone who has attended our workshops, breakfasts and lunches, thank you for joining us and adding to the profession. And to those who have sponsored or helped organise our events, my sincere gratitude for your time and commitment.

And what a year it has been. From a tour of The Age and 3AW’s headquarters at Media House to a sold out Women in PR forum at Crown, we’ve had some amazing people share their knowledge and experience. But it’s not all workshops and networking, we’ve also developed a very successful mentoring program and have lots of activities planned with our Fellows, Young Communicators and RCG members.

Some of our recent event highlights include:

- Leadership Breakfasts covering everything from the future of PR to how to build a successful communication business

- A sold-out Women in PR forum

- An engaging panel discussion with communicators from three of Melbourne’s major events

- An intimate, members-only tour of The Age and 3AW’s Media House.

Our next event is tomorrow (Wednesday) night with Jocelyn Hunter, Trevor Young, Marla Nelson and Jeremy Wrench sharing their tips on getting the most out of your PR agency. It’s a must attend for any PR professional – in house or consultant.

Then on Thursday 22 September, we’ll be celebrating communications in Victoria at the State Awards function at ACMI. Join us to network with fellow communicators and hear about some of the best PR campaigns in town.

We’ve also bought our friends at Burning House along for the ride. They produced a new video series called Broadcast PR, which features interviews with leaders in PR in Australia.

What’s next …

In October, head to Sydney for our National Conference with international speaker Brian Solis and the dame of Australian media Ita Buttrose.

And then in November 2012, join communicators from around the world at the World PR Forum in Melbourne.

And finally, if you’re a communicator and not a member of PRIA, join us today.

Cheers, Jack & the c word crew

Laura Crowden, the c word’s ‘Royal Correspondent’ brings us this report from London on the intense media scrutiny around the impending royal nuptials.

Union Jack’s are everywhere. Apparently the tulips at Buckingham Palace have bloomed a fortnight too soon. BBC correspondents, even the cameramen, will be in formal dress. The bride has just been given her own coat of arms. Posh and Beck have received their invite. Camilla described it as ‘wicked’.

The tourists have started flocking, and locals are torn between heading to the Continent and throwing a street party. Harry is preparing his best man’s speech, although has warned it won’t be too controversial as his ‘grandma will be there’. A public holiday has been granted adjacent to the May bank holiday – the so-called ‘Prince William and Kate Middleton’s four day bender!’

The reason for the hooplah is of course, the upcoming marriage of HRH Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton. Girl-next-door girlfriend Kate Middleton has been replaced by uber-glamourous fiancée Catherine. And the UK and international media has been there every step of the way since the engagement was announced back in November.

Media coverage has been escalating over recent weeks. Kate is likely to grace the front page of at least one daily broadsheet paper daily, with the tabloids devoting saturated coverage to the nuptials. In addition to the newspapers, every television station is devoting almost the entirety of 29 April to covering the Royal Wedding, and international journalists are converging on London.

The BBC will deploy at least 550 staff on the day, using about 100 cameras in Westminster Abbey and along the procession route to provide a live feed to dozens of countries and footage to many more. Thankfully, the BBC has confirmed that the Royal Wedding coverage will not be impacted by looming budget cuts, saying it will be given “due prominence… this will be a big-scale event”. About 140 broadcast trucks are expected to set up in Green Park near Buckingham Palace and 48 television studios have been purpose-built nearby for what is thought to be largest outside broadcast ever.

The media landscape has shifted considerably since 750 million people tuned into watch William’s parents Charles and Diana get married in 1981. Royal spokespeople have released social media coverage plans for the royal wedding on April 29, and they plan to flood Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and the Official Royal Wedding website with the nuptials and pomp and circumstance before and after.

The social media saturation is “in line with the couple’s wishes to make the wedding as accessible as possible for as many people as want to participate,” which Buckingham Palace confirmed through Clarence House, the public relations arm for the big day, on its website. Wills and Kate will be getting married live on YouTube, via the official Royal Channel, and staff at St James Palace and Clarence House will provide regular Twitter updates.

Coverage of the wedding ceremony itself will broadcast from 11:00am GMT. The unseasonably warm weather means Britons will be making the most of the extra bank holiday, with local councils giving almost uniform support for local street parties and public events. Combined with the UK’s tolerance for public alcohol consumption, it’s likely to be the social events of the year, even for those without an invitation to the palace.

‘Austerity Britain’ is in need of a party. The ongoing recession, high unemployment and rolling spending cuts (even Prime Minister David Cameron and his multi-millionaire aristocratic wife, in a blatant PR stunt, recently travelled on a budget airline) means Britons have had little excuse in recent years to party. It has been riots, not street parties, rocking London over the past year.

And amidst all the fuss, not a single strand of Kate’s perfectly blow-waved mane (courtesy of Richard Ward of Sloane Square) has been out of place. Her blue engagement dress by Issa sold out in hours and has been copied by the high street and even supermarket chain Tesco. Fake ‘Kate’ engagement rings (which is the very ring Prince Charles gave to Diana) are available for £8.99. Every girl, it seems, can be a princess.

Her gradual weight loss has been the subject of intense media scrutiny and derision, and every single aspect of her wedding outfit has been speculated and debated. Apparently she will wear her hair out. Apparently she wants flowers in her hair. She will not be arriving by carriage. Her dress is believed to be designed by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen.

Britain, and particularly London, is in the grip of Royal Wedding Fever. Despite plummeting support for the Royal Family in recent years, there is almost unanimous affection for down-to-earth William and his lovable, larrikin brother Harry. Even ‘Waity Katey’, as Kate was formerly tagged by the tabloids, is seen by the British public as fairly grounded and lovely young woman. She and William have been together for eight years, and the Royal Family has been sure to fully integrate her into royal life to avoid the mistakes made with Diana.

Only the most ardent monarchists seem to be complaining about the waste of taxpayers money. By declaring a public holiday (part of the ‘Fabulous Fortnight’ which also includes three other public holidays thanks to Easter and the May bank holiday), the Royals have well and truly got the British public onside. Everyone, it seems, is ready to party. And of course, we are all dying to see what Kate will wear.

Cheers,

Our royal correspondent, Laura Crowden and the c word crew

I’ll be the first to admit I love a good mini-series … add Asher Keddie playing Ita Buttrose, a focus on media in the 70s and I’m hooked.

The ABC will be hoping some of the magic from Cleo, which sold out its premiere print run of 105,000 within 48 hours, rubs off on Sunday night when their new two-part series, Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo premieres.

The mini-series will follow the development of the team behind Cleo, which started life as Cleopatra and gave us the Cleo Bachelor of the Year, the infamous male centerfold and the doyenne of Australian media, Ita Buttrose.

The two-part series starts in 1972 and tracks 30-year-old journalist and editor, Ita Buttrose and 35-year old Kerry Packer, heir to what was then Australia’s most ruthlessly powerful and influential publishing family. It follows them as they create a magazine that became one of the most dramatic sensations in Australian publishing history.

Buttrose, played by Asher Keddie, was born in Sydney in 1942 with journalism in her blood. She was the daughter of former Daily Mirror editor Charles Buttrose and set about becoming editor of the Australian Women’s Weekly, becoming the first female editor of a national newspaper and founding editor of Cleo along the way.

It is amazing to think that there is even a magazine to make a mini-series about. Research and marketing analysis showed the project would be a failure and the magazine was vehemently opposed by the domineering Sir Frank Packer (whom Ita called “God”). It just goes to show you sometimes you need to trust your gut!

Here’s what the ABC has to say about the magazine and the forces behind it:

With courage and a stubborn belief in each other the odd couple went for it, and the result was a magazine that not only surfed the emerging 70s zeitgeist, but led the way in articulating for women a new way of thinking about themselves and their place in cultural Australia. Women readers found in CLEO a manifesto for a new confidence and an argument against the entrenched patriarchy that had for too long defined the relationship between the sexes. Filled with intelligence, wit, and a ‘go for it’ attitude, the fledgling CLEO took off on its first issue, taking Kerry, Ita, and a hand-picked bunch of iconoclastic staffers along for the ride. CLEO was a women’s magazine with a libido and a curiosity about almost everything…

The two-parter will screen at 8.30pm, Sunday 17 April and 8.30pm, Monday, 18 April, on ABC1.

You might also enjoy Inside the Great Magazines which the ABC is re-showing at the moment.

In the meantime, here are 10 Australian Magazines that have left a lasting impression:

1. Cleo

2. Australian Women’s Weekly

3. TV Week

4. The Monthly

5. Woman’s Day

6. FHM

7. People

8. Dolly

9. Who

10. BRW

Cheers, Jack and the c word crew

PS. Our first dog was called Cleo after the magazine. She was the best dog – a blue heeler.

Can you believe it has been more than two years since Barack Obama moved into the White House? What’s more amazing is that it is time for him to begin campaigning again.

The 44th President of the United States announced his 2012 re-election bid this week with a new site, a healthy social media following and a message that it begins with us.

The social media savvy President has more than 19 million friends on Facebook and 7.3 million followers on Twitter – not a bad start to the 18 month campaign.

Like his 2008 campaign, video, social media and face-to-face grass roots campaigning will play a major part in this campaign. He kicked off the campaign with emails and SMS messages to his supporters asking for their support.

At this stage they’re keeping it simple and looking at what’s worked well over the past four years and what needs improving. And like their previous website, they’re making it easy for people to get involved – just head to the website and add your email and postcode.

While the team is re-building barackobama.com from the ground up they’ll be able to draw on the open and transparent communications established over at whitehouse.gov.

Check out the White House website when you have some time … I love the West Wing Week videos which are created each week by Arun Chaudhary the official White House videographer.

As an aside, I’m currently re-watching The West Wing with a friend and while we’re only up to season 4, I’ve snuck in a few episodes from seasons 6 and 7 and am loving the buzz of the campaign.

It will be interesting to see if the Obama-Biden campaign can repeat the success of the 2008 campaign in terms of fundraising and outreach – and deliver us another real life season of The West Wing.

Take a moment to look at the welcome video – no Obama just voters talking about why they’re getting involved … I particularly like the lady who explains why the president can’t be everywhere … because he’s got a job to do.

Let the campaign begin!

Enjoy the rest of your week,

Jack and the c word crew

ABC News 24 of course.

From hung parliaments to devastating floods there has been no shortage of news since ABC News 24 went to air eight months ago. While the journalists, producers, crews and editors have been busy providing live coverage of national and international events they’ve still managed to produce some quality new programs and refresh some old favourites.

The 7.30 Report is one old favourite which has been refreshed for the new news channel. This month ABC launched its new flagship current affairs program 7.30 with Leigh Sales and Chris Uhlmann anchoring from Sydney and Canberra respectively.

From the episodes I’ve watched so far, the show appears to continue the tradition of high quality reporting and in-depth interviews set by Kerry O’Brien and his team. Speaking of Kerry, while he may no longer be behind the desk at 7.30pm each night, he remains a critical part of the ABC news team presenting Four Corners in a new weekly role.

But back to 7.30. The show brings together a team of national and international correspondents who provide in-depth coverage and analysis of business and political issues. Sales covers the stories from Sydney and around Australia while Uhlmann is on hand to cover the news breaking in Canberra – no doubt he’ll be on call 24/7.

As well as being a consummate interviewer, Leigh is a published author, popular tweeter and regular contributor to the ABC’s opinion site. Prior to 7.30, Leigh anchored Lateline, interviewing major figures including Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair and Henry Kissinger. She has also been the ABC’s Washington Correspondent, as well as their National Security Correspondent.

Chris Uhlmann came to journalism a little later in life than Sales but has certainly gained wide recognition for his quality journalism. He started as a 29-year-old copy kid at The Canberra Times in 1989 and switched to television in 2008 where he has been Political Editor for ABC News, The 7.30 Report and ABC News 24.

Both anchors will no doubt bring new audiences and fresh perspectives on the stories to be covered by 7.30.

The show also features a Friday edition, which brings the state-based programs previously known as Stateline under the one banner while retaining local hosts. Hopefully this will give each of the state-based editions greater prominence and provide higher quality Friday night viewing.

As well as 7.30 and Four Corners, we’re also enjoying:

• One plus One – Jane Hutcheon presents a series of weekly interviews with newsmakers from around the world. It’s wonderful to have a program giving time to in-depth interviews.

• ABC News Breakfast – a great start to the day with Virginia Trioli and a team of national correspondents

• Q&A – who doesn’t love the opportunity to ask questions of Australian community, political and business leaders PLUS there’s a possibility of seeing your tweets on screen.

Cheers,

the c word

 

PS. What’s your favourite television news program?

Last week, our Managing Director, Jack Walden sat down with Jamie Garantziotis from @Engage_TV – a new PR video series from the US.

Check out the video below and let us know what you think about the future of PR.