Exaggerated PR stories

Dear Nathan

The trade press is part of the lifeblood of this industry. I know that an awful lot of news is published on social media these days but fundamentally most of us still rely on the trade magazines to keep us up to date with what’s new.

Obviously much of what is published is generated from within the industry itself, either direct or via PR agencies and, with very small editorial teams, the magazines have to trust the accuracy of what they receive.

Sadly, I’ve seen a couple of examples recently of exaggerated PR stories that have stretched the definition of accurate somewhat and I just hope that it’s not the start of a worrying trend.

I know we all want to present our businesses in the best possible light, but surely there can be no excuse for issuing PR which is anything less than 100% true. In these days of ‘post truth’, when even the government is launching an inquiry into the impact of ‘fake news’, I think it’s more important than ever not to undermine the credibility of our trade press.

Yours, Ian Latimer, managing director, Emmegi (UK).