GOODLINX: The downturn is killing planning; The rude Q&A; Why PRs and journos hate each other; Google gets out of radio, Ads are not branded content

The downturn is killing comms planning says Nathan Bush, but even if it’s frustrating, you can make the most out of it for your career:  

“Watching the yearly plans “put on hold” while the economic world crumbled frustrated me endlessly. Instead of rolling out insightful and interesting campaigns I was organising short term campaigns with short term goals for short term results. It was merely survival. All my plans for world domination, early retirement and an award named in my honour were going to crumble as well! I kicked, I screamed and I got escorted by police. In the end though, I surrended. But now I am seeing the light, and the opportunity, that exists.”

The secret of fronting  the press: ask yourself the awkward questions beforehand, says PR practitioner Alex McNabb:

“A rude Q&A can make the difference between taking and managing the most probing query in your stride or standing around looking like a slightly surprised goldfish while you try and think up some off-the-cuff response to that bolt from the blue. It also avoids the awful situation where more than one spokesperson is in that situation and they both give completely different responses in their panic.”