Phone hacking, the old-fashioned way

Leaving that specific case behind, as I can’t afford to fight any possible legal battles, it has made me think about the kind of things that my former colleagues, and myself, would get up to in order to get that all-important exclusive.

Stories about phone hacking have been around since Alexander Graham Bell wondered why details of his private life were the talk of Victorian London, possibly.

Some of the older members of the noble profession will tell you about being able to bung a few quid to the old-fashioned telephone operators to be able to listen in on the line to certain conversations.

I have heard of newsrooms where a police radio scanner was used to listen out for incidents, with the result that every now and again a journalist or photographer would turn up moments before the police or ambulance, which is potentially awkward.

You might also occasionally ‘forget to mention’ you work for the press if you turn up at a crime scene and start idly chatting with the copper on the line in the hope he might let something slip, which you would of course then have to verify with the corporate communications officer.

To be honest I was never very good at subterfuge and was once sent to a pub in a rough part of Bristol to attempt to infiltrate a gang of racists who were allegedly using the pub as a recruiting ground for their vile neo-Nazi ideals.

Somehow my well-fed frame and slightly plumby middle class accent didn’t help to back up the cover story that I was a hard-bitten racist from the streets. For that same reason I was never sent out to infiltrate drug gangs or the criminal underworld in some of the more dangerous public houses in the city, for fear I would get to the bar and ask for a glass of Chablis, slightly chilled and an amuse bouche, preferably something with oysters.

I think the closest I ever got to the dark arts was sitting on the loo and overhearing a conversation between two city councillors which made a mildly interesting ‘news in brief’ story for page 28 one slow news day at the Evening Post.

But it always makes me laugh when people talk about journalists working in PR as moving ‘to the dark side’, as I have never seen anybody in PR paying a policeman or criminal for information, walking round the office drunk at midday, tapping into a celebrity’s voicemail or sticking cameras up pop star’s skirts as they get out of taxis. Perhaps they should?

Not long after I arrived in Bristol I found myself bleary eyed one Sunday morning watching the Bristol Half Marathon on TV, live. It was 2001 I believe, and the race had some kind of world status for that year which meant it attracted enough attention from national BBC to put it on the box.

I was also looking out for one of my new colleagues who had volunteered to run in the event and chronicle her training travails for a regular feature in the paper.

Being still fairly new to the city I was really impressed that this was going and I felt like I had arrived in a really exciting city.

Down the years the Bristol Half has grown massively and I have run it a number of times, to a greater or lesser degree of success. But even if I’m not running it I love the atmosphere and great sense of occasion that it creates.

There are some great stories this year as ever, particulary my friend Emily Koch who suffered terrible injuries in 2008 after being hit by a car.

She has fought her way back to fitness and completed her first half marathon in two hours five minutes today, which is a great time and an inspiring achievement.

You can read all about it on her blog.

It makes me feel slightly ashamed that I have not bothered to put in the hours of training this year, despite having a place in the event. I just haven’t found the drive to get off my backside this summer, but hope to remedy that very soon as I’d love to do one more Bristol Half and get a personal best.

In the meantime I hope Emily and everybody else enjoys their achievements today.

The first is to have reached more than six months with Acrobat PR, which for a new venture is worth marking, especially as it looks like we’ll reach 12 months quite comfortably at this rate as well.

I’ve been able to keep busy between looking for new business and meeting the needs of  Weston Hospicecare who have had a lot going on this year, including their 20th anniversary campaign. As well as the launch of the anniversary appeal and generating publicity in the press, radio and television, I was also able to supply them with copy for a four-page special insert that the Weston Mercury ran as part of a media partnership. It was a busy couple of weeks getting that lot together but good fun too.

The second major achievement is scoring my first front page coverage, thanks to the Cheddar Valley Gazette.

Cheddar Valley Gazette

Front page stories were my bread and butter as a journalist, but from the position of a PR trying to promote Weston Hospicecare, it’s even more satisfying to see the story on the front page.

The reason it was on the front page is because from a news angle it was a great story of triumph in the face of real adverstity. Jean Millard, from Cheddar, is a wonderful woman who has been living with a terminal lung disease for the past five years, but she was only given three years to live when they diagnosed it.

Her zeal and determination not to give in, with the support of Weston Hospicecare, is a heart-warming story from the sort of people I’m now privileged to work with.

In terms of media coverage it’s still true that nothing beats a good story as  journalists on papers like the Gazette are still (thankfully) judging each story on its own merits. I think that’s even more important to me now as a PR, because not only do I have to get the attention of whoever I call up, but really give them something genuinely worth running in the paper, otherwise why would they bother?

Thankfully that’s never been a problem with Weston Hospicecare, or Leukaemia Research who I worked with towards the end of the summer to help promote their first ever Forget Me Not walk. They too are a great group of people with many stories to tell which really puts a face on the business of raising money for charity.

It’s been eight months in total since I left the Evening Post to launch Acrobat PR and as well as working closely with clients such as Weston Hospicecare and Leukaemia Research, I have also been working on short-term projects and campaigns for some of the big PR agencies in Bristol and Bath.

Of course there is always a lot of uncertainty but I feel my experience in newspapers and the media generally from the past ten years has proved invaluable and has really helped to make a successful start to Acrobat PR.

It’s certainly been a busy few months which has seen me moving offices (home) during the hottest weekend of the year, running the Bristol 10K and filming a bevy of beach babes staging a flash mob in Weston.

I had been worried that leaving journalism might mean leaving behind a varied life where you didn’t know what you would be doing from one day to the next, but working for yourself is just as varied and unpredictable. I’m not sure I ever had to fight my way through a pile of washing to get to my desk before, or be able to roll out of bed and be at my desk in less time than it takes a kettle to boil.

I am glad to report that Acrobat PR has had a good start to life. After just three months I have managed to secure a good amount of coverage for few different clients including Weston Hospicecare, Trunki and restaurant chain Aqua.

I have spent most of my time working with Weston Hospicecare which is a very busy charity with a lot going on. They do such fantastic work down there in Uphill, but obviously have to dedicate much of their time to fundraising. And they have some great ideas for different ways to do that.

Most recently the charity organised a flash mob-style event to launch the Midnight Beach Walk Appeal. About 50 women performed a conga along the beach at Weston which looked beautiful in the evening sunlight:

Weston Mercury coverage of the Weston Hospicecare Midnight Beach Walk launch

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbcNvcI1AEA

As well as helping to get the guys at Weston Hospicecare the coverage they need, I have also been doing a bit of work with Rob Law, the creator of Trunki.

He is a bona fide Bristol talent to be proud of and defied the ‘experts’ on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den who told him three-years-ago that his suitcase on wheels was ‘worthless’.

He has just celebrated three years in business and the company is now worth more than £1million:

Bristol Evening Post coverage of Trunki celebrating three years

As I said life has been quite varied these past few months as I have been speaking to nurses who look after terminally ill patients about their work one minute, and the next I have been filming 400 leather-clad bikers riding into Weston.

In April the third annual Fred’s Hospice Run took place which saw hundreds of bikers heading out on the highway, sort of, on a short trip around North Somerset to raise money for Weston Hospicecare. The sun shone that day too:

Bristol Evening Post coverage of Fred's Hospice Run

YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxB9-k48PFI

One of the aims of Acrobat PR is to help promote Bristol businesses and good causes/charities as I am so passionate about the city I live in and the surrounding areas. So when I was asked by Richard Smithson, owner of Aqua to have a look at his new place on Whiteladies Road I realised there was a good economic news story to be told. He opened the new site in February, right in the middle of an economic storm, and the biggest snow storm for a generation, but it has been a real hit and gets busier all the time:

Western Daily Press coverage of Bristol restaurant success Aqua.

Working with Weston Hospicecare has given me an insight into a whole new world and I have heard many memorable stories of courage and compassion. But one in particular stuck with me, I guess because I could relate to it myself in the sense that I could imagine doing it myself.

Matthew and Jane Bradbury, originally from North Somerset, live and work in California and decided to run the LA Marathon this year, which took place a few weeks ago. Having never done anything like it before they trained hard and did the distance with a pretty decent time considering Matthew was carrying an injury. Matthew decided he wanted to raise £3,000 for Weston Hospicecare which had looked after his mother when she fell ill in 2007.

As I harbour my own marathon running ambitions I was pleased to see them succeed and to be able to promote their story:

Bristol Evening Post coverage of Matthew and Jane's story.

So here’s to the next few months and hoping that they can be even more productive, and sunny.

Simon Peevers

But what are you supposed to do? Faced with the prospect of watching endless episodes of Cash In The Attic, or getting into this great city to make a living out of the skills I’ve been honing over the past ten years, the choice was clear.

Now, I know that the path from journalism into PR may be well worn and not the most original, but it is a move I have been considering for some time and the chance to be my own boss has always been very appealing.

So the opportunity arose and I’m glad I have taken it. Since I left the Bristol Evening Post at the end of March, I don’t feel I have stopped work at all. But that suits me as I like to keep busy and certainly trying to build a new business from scratch in this climate keeps you busy.

So far so good. I have been working with the wonderful people at Weston Hospicecare and helping them to get coverage for several events over the past six weeks. We had a great day for Fred’s Hospice Run which saw 400 bikers cruising into Weston to raise money for the charity, and had some fun putting a video together for YouTube.

And I was also enlisted to spread the word about the third birthday party for Trunki, the suitcase on wheels for kids, invented by Bristol-based designer Rob Law. That made it as far as the California Chronicle online. Not sure any Hollywood A-listers saw it though.

I’m really passionate about Bristol and the South West so it is great to work with people who are doing such amazing things for the region, whether it’s providing fantastic healthcare, or leading the way in terms of design and industry.

And I’m also very pleased to get my website up and running, so many thanks to Sam who built it, and Ami who designed the logo and branding.  

Through this blog I aim to bring you news of how Acrobat PR is performing and the ups and downs of going it alone, more ups than downs I hope.

Admin.