21 October 2009

The second lecture in the CIPR guest lecture series was led by Leeds City Council′s Head of Communications, Andy Carter, on Monday 19 October.

Andy began his career in 1990 as a broadcast journalist and continued to work in radio until 2007 at stations such as Virgin, as news editor, and at Isle of Wight Radio, as Managing Editor. In 2008, he joined Leeds City Council and in 2009 became the Head of Communications.

The presentation provided insight into a variety of communications issues that Leeds City Council deals with, ranging from bin strikes to running schools. The council delivers over 700 services to 760,000 people and handles 1.7 million queries from residents every year, showing the enormity of the communications issues.

The session was highly interactive, including a live text poll within the audience, proving Andy shows vast interest in the thoughts of others – perhaps a key secret towards his success.

The emphasis of the presentation was how the media landscape is constantly changing and that it is important to embrace this and to test new ideas and technology. Sharing his thoughts on what has changed within the media environment, Andy spoke of a shift away from print media towards digital being due to the economic downturn and the increase in internet usage.

His views were underpinned by an extensive range of research, showing the decline in the sales of local newspapers and greater interest in local radio.

Andy and his team concluded that they needed to make changes in their communication mediums in order to move with society – this includes the launch of an innovative virtual news room. The news room provides rich communications content using audio, visual and images and acts as a resource for journalists, who can make use of the material at any time. This effective resource has received strong positive feedback, acting as an easily accessible tool for the provision of information, whilst running at a fairly low cost.

Andy concluded by considering the future of the media landscape and expressing the importance of moving with the times, before initiating a question and answer session, providing students with the opportunity to voice their thoughts.

All in all, the evening was educational, entertaining and insightful and enjoyed by everyone present.

The next guest lecture will be delivered by Andy Green from Green Communications, who will be discussing ’Creativity in PR‘. The session will take place in Lecture Theatre A in the Rose Bowl on Monday 2 November and is open to all.