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Media Relations Manager, Corporate/Financial Services
London, £40k - 45k
This corporate banking group is looking for a media relations manager to join their City-based London team. Strong media relations skills are essential, as is the ability to forge stakeholder relationships, to deliver on corporate strategy and to protect and enhance a company's reputation. You will generate effective and relevant media coverage that delivers key messages and contribute to PR planning and the public affairs activities of the group. You should have excellent planning skills and be able to work well under pressure. A knowledge of the UK banking sector, particularly corporate business banking, also an advantage. Ref: TF105
more info

Senior Account Director, Consumer Food/Brands
London, salary on experience
This award-winning central London agency needs an Account Director to manage a significant and high profile consumer food/brand account. Previous experience of food brands is essential, as up to 60% of your time will be spent working on this one flagship account. You will be a team player who brings both practical skills and a strategic mind to the table. Ideally you will have previous experience of managing a team, a can-do attitude, creative flair and bags of initiative. Ref: TF110

Project Management, Corporate/Commercial Property
London, £35k - 40k
Having recently acquired a new portfolio of 170 properties, this young entrepreneurial company is seeking a process-driven all-rounder who can manage the day-to-day administration of the portfolio. This position is the glue which holds everything together, so you will need a flexible attitude and excellent time and process management skills, and be able to work under pressure. Good writing and typing skills are a prerequisite, while knowledge of marketing and website management would be useful. A good salary with assured career growth awaits, as do competitive benefits. Ref: TF124
more info

Senior Account Director, Consumer/Blue Chip Brands & Retail
London, £45k+
This leading global consultancy is seeking an accomplished Senior Account Director to work within its consumer practice. You should be able to demonstrate a passion for brands and have experience working in the household, retail and/or travel sectors. Some knowledge of, or experience in, personal finance also beneficial, though not essential. This excellent opportunity would suit a candidate looking for their next significant position within a truly global organisation. Ref: TF81

Junior Recruitment Consultant
London
Based in Shoreditch, this PR recruitment company are looking for an enthusiastic and organised individual to join their team. You will support our recruitment offering and provide additional administrative support to the company as a whole. There will be on the job training as well as many opportunities to grow. You must be IT literate, have plenty of initiative and a good eye for detail. This is a fabulous opportunity to make your first step onto the career ladder and would suit a recent graduate. Previous office experience is desirable. Ref: TFREC
more info

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Focus has fallen in particular on former Labour ministers Geoff Hoon, Stephen Byers and Patricia Hewitt, and to a lesser extent another Labour MP Margaret Moran, who were all secretly filmed expressing an interest in the non-existent lobbying work. In the interviews Hoon was seen saying he wanted to make "some real money", Moran boasted about her access to a "girls' gang" of ministers who could influence decision making in Westminster, and Byers described himself as "sort of like a cab for hire". The latter was a particularly unfortunate turn of phrase, because it links back to claims made by Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed during the height of the Tories 'sleaze scandals' of the mid-nineties that you could "hire an MP the way you hire a London taxi".

That said, Byers' interview has dominated the headlines less because of the "cab for hire" quote, and more because in it he claimed to have previously influenced government policy in return for a fee, claiming he lobbied current ministers Andrew Adonis and Peter Mandelson on behalf of National Express and Tesco respectively. He seems to have distanced himself from those remarks after the interview, even before he knew he had been talking to an undercover journalist. Meanwhile, since the scandal broke both the ministers and companies name checked by Byers have denied any knowledge of his claims.

As both the political and lobbying community awaited the airing of the Channel 4 programme yesterday, key players in the latter were keen to stress the documentary showed the shady side of the former, rather than presenting their own industry in a bad light. The boss of the public affairs division of communications firm Weber Shandwick, Jon McLeod, told PR Week: "Yet again it is the fumbling attempts of parliamentarians to be lobbyists that have cast a shadow over the professional practice of the industry".

As much previously reported, moves have long been afoot within the political community and the public affairs sector to regulate lobbying in someway, partly in a bid to end any dubious practices, but more to convince the increasingly cynical public that most of the PR industry's work in this domain is completely above board.

Although politicians on all sides have supported such regulation, the favoured route to date has been some kind of voluntary code of conduct set up by the lobbying industry, possibly with a register in which lobbyists declare which politicians they have lobbied on what companies' behalf. Some in the sector actively support such a voluntary code and register, though it does not have the universal backing of the entire industry.

But some believe that internal opposition will now be irrelevant as it looks increasingly likely politicians will force a statutory code on the lobbying community. As Labour went into damage limitation yesterday, with the Parliamentary Labour Party expelling the four shamed MPs despite their protestations they didn't actually break any rules, the party also indicated it would include setting up a statutory lobbying register in its manifesto at the upcoming General Election. David Cameron's previously reported commitments to make the lobbying world more transparent hadn't previously gone that far, but the latest scandal - although focused on Labour ministers - may force him to support a statutory register too.

Confirming he thought the lobbying sector would now face compulsory regulation, McLeod added in his interview with PR Week that statutory regulation of lobbying is now "both right and inevitable", though, also talking to the trade magazine, the MD of Hanover Communications cautioned "backing a statutory register for lobbyists is deliberately missing the point as it alone would do nothing to stop MPs taking outside interests".

As previously reported, the NLA argues that agencies who provide corporate clients with lists of relevant newspaper headlines and links to the actual articles than mention their company should have to pay a licence fee, in the same way they would if they provided photocopies of the actual articles. But the PR industry argues that because no copies are made when links are provided, the copyright laws that empower the NLA in the print media and photocopy domain don't apply with digital links.

Cuttings agency Meltwater and the PR Consultants Association are opposing the NLA's efforts to launch the links licence, and took the matter to the Copyright Tribunal, the court that considers disputes specifically relating to copyright issues and royalty payments. The NLA was forced to suspend its link licence operations when Meltwater began its action, and given the time scale of the Tribunal hearing those operations will now have to be on hold for over a year.

In related news, the NLA recently announced a new fee structure regards their traditional newspaper copying licences for smaller PR agencies, those with less than five staff and three or less clients. The new fees will simplify the licence system for said agencies and, the NLA argues, reduce their costs. Though the boss of one affected agency said that while he recognised both the NLA's claims were true, it still wasn't a cost effective licence for his company.

Mervyn Edgecombe, MD of London-based PR agency Mervyn Edgecombe Associates, told Communicte: "The old system was so complex and convoluted that anything that simplifies the process has to be welcome. [But while] £150 [per client] may not sound much, that's £450 for the three main accounts that would warrant this license, and there's not enough value to justify it. When we get the coverage, we just send the office junior out to buy an extra copy of the paper".

The website is called Cash-Gordon, and aims to embarrass the Labour government over the large donations the Labour Party receives from the union Unite, currently in the headlines for spearheading the unpopular British Airways strike. The website encourages visitors to read a speech by Tory frontbencher Michael Grove, to bug former Labour advisor and now Unite political director Charlie Wheelan via his social media accounts, and to check out what is being said about the campaign on the Twitter network.

Unfortunately the latter was enabled by a widget that showed any Twitter message containing the so called 'hash tag' #cashgordon. Labour supporters and general jokers on Twitter used this fact to tweet anti-Tory or just generally offensive remarks, alongside the required hash tag, knowing their contributions would then appear, albeit for a short time, on the home page of the anti-Labour website.

According to the Guardian, more advanced Twitter users then worked out how to embed images and programmes into their tweets that would add extra unwanted content to the political website, while others worked out how to use the Twitter widget to force a redirect, so that people going to the site would be taken to another, at one time the Labour Party website, at another the Rick Astley video that is so frequently used in online practical jokes these days.

Despite initially insisting a totally unregulated approach to #cashgordon tweets would be maintained, the website's owners later admitted misuse by the Twitterati had forced them to remove that element of the site. As of last night it was back, but with a moderator installed to decide which Tweets go live. So much so, one Tweeter remarked "Aw, #cashgordon tweets are no fun anymore now that the feed's moderated. I'm going to bed. Night all". That tweet made it through moderation though.

The lesson for digital PRs? Probably best not to put an unmoderated hash-tag-based Twitter feed on your home page. Especially if you are involved in anything vaguely political.

The service competes with those traditional PR agencies which offer their services to unsigned or self-releasing artists, normally for a few hundred pounds per campaign. The founders of the new service, called The Men From The Press, say their web-based promotional platform is more cost effective than traditional PR, because it ensures exposure to a small number of targeted journalists, whereas the traditional approach involves sending CDs or press releases to a long list of reviewers and editors, none of whom might actually listen to the music they are sent. With TMFTP bands pay a registration fee, and then an additional fee per journalist they wish to make contact with.

The journalists signed up to the scheme, who are seemingly all freelancers, do not commit to give anything they listen to any actual coverage in any of the media they work for, but will provide a direct critique, which might constitute useful feedback and, if positive, can be used in a band's other publicity. Though presumably the real attractionfor bands is that it commits signed-up journalists to listen to any music they are sent, meaning that - if they genuinely like an artist's music - an influential fan may be secured.

The page on the new service's website that lists the journalists who can be targeted has been through a number of incarnations. Initially customers of the service could choose which publications they wanted to target, and presumably any freelancers who write for those titles would have been contacted on a signed up artists' behalf. But that page was removed, reportedly after some of the featured publications complained it implied coverage in their titles could be bought, or that journalists participating somehow represented the viewpoint of the titles they may contribute to.

The crucial page is now structured by journalist, listing all the titles each reviewer writes for. The more titles, and the more influential the titles, the more it costs to put your music in front of a signed up hack. At one stage this page actually named participating writers, though currently the identities of participating reviewers are not actually revealed.

While there is nothing ethically wrong with it in principle, providing artists are clear they are buying feedback not coverage, and providing participating journalists are never unduly swayed to give coverage to paying bands, many music publicists and journalists are nervous about the implications of the new service.

It's founder, Dave Chisholm, admits that part of the aim of his service is to try and win his clients new fans in the music journalism community, but told The Guardian that he disagrees with the viewpoint that it is wrong to offer cash-strapped freelance journalists a financial incentive to ensure his bands are exposed to opinion formers. He argues that such financial incentives are no different to traditional PRs offering journalists free perks in a bid to ensure they listen to their clients' music.

But also speaking to The Guardian, one artist manager who previously worked in PR, Tim Vigon, said he still had concerns. He told the paper: "My instinct is that it's wrong on every level ... it feels like payola [paying for coverage], even though there's nothing illegitimate about it and all they're after is feedback".

Meanwhile the founder of one influential music site, some of whose reviewers were approached by Chisholm's team, was more blatant in his criticism. DrownedInSound's Sean Adams blogged yesterday: "I sit around listening to mostly not very good unsigned bands for free. I can kinda see where the 'concept' came from, in terms of greasing the wheels to bring certain CDs to the top of the pile and give bands some feedback. Not all ideas are worth running with though, especially when they're so poorly executed, and give the impression [bands will] get a leg up when it generally seems exploitative and EVIL. If you're in a band, don't do this, just do your research of who will like your stuff. People are easy to communicate with".

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Twenty-plus years at agencies and in-house roles in the US and London have taught me a few things about success in the PR business. For one, it is elusive. PR is a popular path for many early in their professional lives, but how many remain after five or ten years? Far too many are lured away well before they've had a chance to truly succeed.

For another, it's hard to measure. There are far more direct paths to material wealth, if that's what you're after, and fame favours those whom we serve, rather than any ambitions for personal celebrity. And it's fickle. We've all wondered how some people achieved whatever station they've attained (my own appointments to various posts have raised eyebrows, I'm sure), or why others seem unable to catch a break, despite seemingly having all the right stuff.

Even so, there seem to be some personal characteristics that, while not guaranteeing success in our business, can be associated with a long and satisfying professional experience in the communications business. Here's what I've learned to look for in potential colleagues, whether they're raw talent just joining the work force or seasoned professionals under consideration for board positions:

1. Curiosity. Einstein said that intellectual growth begins at birth and ceases only at death, but that's not true of everyone. For the truly curious, work becomes play, or at least a pursuit worth continuing, day after day. I'm not talking about the random, shallow curiosity of children, but a deeper, focused need to understand and master the answers to the questions before you each day.

2. Integrity. I read somewhere that having integrity is like being pregnant: either you are, or you are not. No middle ground. Perhaps, but the larger point is that integrity is not confined to the ‘large' matters of honesty about invoices and counsel, but also avoiding the ‘small' challenges, like gossip or making excuses.

3. Versatility. Even as the PR business continues to specialise along narrowing lines of expertise, versatility – the ability to move seamlessly from one kind of task to another, or one industry to another – is key. Yes, this needs to be balanced with specific competencies, but show me someone who can be a leader and a follower, a doer and a manager, all in a day, and I'll show you someone likely to be successful.

4. Courage. It takes fortitude to speak the truth when something at work is amiss, and this kind of ‘constructive opposition' can be a real marker for courage. Even greater? The capacity to make adjustments when something is amiss in your own working style, or to push yourself beyond your personal comfort zone.

5. Generosity. PR can be ruthlessly competitive, and keeping score can be exhausting, not to mention demoralising. The temptation is to hold your cards close, and to share only as much as you must. This might pay off in the short run, but for the long game, you're better off giving as much as you can, to as many people as you can, for as long as you can. Why? Because people will want to help you in return, and the most important thing I've learned about success is that you can't have it if others won't help you get it.

Read the original blog post here. This post also appeared on the PRmoment website