And I had thought this was an industry in decline. We learn from Drew B that PR Week now has a UK rival, PR Business. The website’s unimpressively incomplete with one day left to go in March, but you can already read the copy on technology and PR direct from the contributor, Antony Mayfield.
It appears that PR Business will be sent to CIPR members. I look forward to reading it.
PR Studies 
I received PR Business today (along with PR Week). It has a rather more explicit focus on the technology PR sector – which as one contributor explains, is no longer a niche business. In passing, neither publication has much interest in the education sector, since they’re advertising led. But they may find some energy and debate here, and hundreds of eager young people keen to join the PR industry who could become loyal readers. (Otherwise, I fear both may lose out to online sources). Just a thought…
PR Buisness is a good read. It’s refreshing to see some competition in this space. The tone is good and they’re showing a bit more cut and swath than PR Week. They need to do something about the look and feel though. The design is poor.
I agree: it’s a welcome newcomer with its emphasis on new technology and with columns such as that supplied by (your colleague?) Antony Mayfield. But PR Week is aware of its weakness in this area and shows signs of responding. Problem is, it’s not so much a battle for the hearts of readers as for the wallets of advertisers. Not a business I’d want to be in. Most promising newcomer in my opinion? CorpComms magazine. A less hectic, rather handsome publication that could find a niche in between the blogs (daily), the weeklies (PR Week, PR Business) and the CIPR member magazine (Profile) and the specialist academic journals. Let’s welcome the choice and diversity while we have it.
Richard; CorpComms does indeed have a good opportunity to offer insight and in-depth analysis that the weeklies find difficult to resource. It also faces the harsh reality of a tough ad market, though. In fact the look and feel which you rightly point out is classy, means more £££s in publishing costs – putting additional pressure on ad sales. I hope we’ll see PR Business secure sustainable ad revenues so that it can invest more into its design. As you say we need to celebrate the relative abundance of choice we have at the moment.
Disclaimer: Antony is indeed a colleague, but lest your readers think I’m here to promote him because you linked to his blog last week – I’ve been subscribing to your blog for several months now ;o)I enjoy the inherent objectivity that’s not as prevalent in the raft of blogs you can read from agency guys.
Thanks for the positive postings about CorpComms magazine.
I think that we’re doing something right – I’ve just discovered that we’ve been shortlisted for the Best Launch award at the forthcoming PPA (Periodical Publishers Association) independent publishers awards.
We’ve tried to listen to what the communications community want: we’re always keen to hear any thoughts, suggestions or story ideas.
Andrew Thomas
Publisher
CorpComms magazine