The FSA’s reminder last summer of the rules governing how
regulated firms should liaise with journalists was received with
a collective raspberry from the financial journalist community,
but Financial News’ Editor-in-Chief William Wright believes
this is just the latest step in a process that commenced over
ten years ago that has “stepped up hugely” the level of
control and access to senior people within the City. His
particular concern about the latest developments is that if
there are no back channels of no direct conversations with the
principals in the market it will diminish the level of
understanding behind issues and the context in which they take
place. It is no surprise that William and his two colleagues at
this morning’s breakfast with Financial News were unanimous in
saying the best PRs were those who had a deep understanding of
their market specialism and could provide senior access –
“if you can’t provide access, there’s no point
being a gatekeeper”. Indeed they even outed those PRs who featured prominently in
a straw poll in Financial News’ newsroom yesterday afternoon of PRs who
demonstrated these traits. Step forward Lazard’s Richard Creswell, Greentarget’s
Melissa Rowling as well as the two principals of Rostron Parry, Simon Rostron and
John Parry, and take a bow.
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