✅ Working class Brits now working for free
Corporate communications, public relations, media and management insight
Yesterday working-class professionals effectively stopped getting paid compared to their more privileged peers.
This is holding both brilliant people and the UK economy back. Research from Demos and Co-op found that improving social mobility in our workplaces could boost productivity by £19 billion per year.
The Social Mobility Foundation is calling on the Government to introduce mandatory class pay gap reporting for all large employers. This would break down barriers to opportunity and unlock the growth that our country desperately needs.
We have a long way to go to establish parity in corporate communications and public relations. I still find it astonishing that it’s exceptional for a job ads in public relations to include a salary.
Sarah Waddington CBE and I founded Socially Mobile to address this issue and level up the industry at a management level.
The fast-paced, ten-week online executive education course offers an immersive and collaborative learning experience designed to move public relations practitioners from a tactical to a strategic role. The programme has been certified by the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management.
Nine out of ten of the 100+ Socially Mobile graduates report that the programme has positively impacted their careers. This includes promotion (16%), new and better jobs (28%) and salary increases (20%).
You can help by funding a Socially Mobile place for a practitioner from an underserved community as part of our 25 for 2025 campaign. We’re looking for six more industry leaders to sponsor a place or enrol a team member on the programme for £750 per person.
Please hit reply if you’re able to support us.
Have a great week.
Management
📚 BOOK REVIEWS: Two new books call for a fundamental shift in public relations practice. Prof Dr Jim Macnamara's Organizational Listening II and Amanda Coleman's Strategic Reputation Management advocate authentic engagement over manipulation. Macnamara sets out an architecture for organisational listening, while Coleman repositions crisis communication around impacted stakeholders rather than institutional interests. Source: Stephen Waddington.
📊 PUBLIC AFFAIRS IMPACT: A new Wadds Inc. report for political intelligence firm DeHavilland tackles the challenge of measuring public affairs effectiveness. It outlines three practical models, including tactical scorecards and strategic frameworks for advocacy and campaign evaluation. Source: DeHavilland.
📈 UK WELLBEING SCORECARD: The Office for National Statistics has released its latest UK Measures of National Well-being Dashboard, providing a comprehensive overview of the quality of life across 59 measures grouped into 10 topic areas. The framework assesses short-term changes by comparing the latest estimates with one-year and five-year benchmarks for different indicators. Source: Office for National Statistics.
Diversity and representation
✊ DIVERSITY DRIVE: The Taylor Bennett Foundation has launched its 2025 Summer Stars Internship Programme, offering paid internships and mentorship opportunities for Black, Asian, and ethnic minority talent at agencies and in-house teams like Four Communications, Grayling and BT. Aspiring practitioners can learn more at the information session on 16 January 2025 or visit the TBF website to apply. Source: Taylor Bennett.
Artificial Intelligence
🤖 AI SHOW AND TELL: An innovative CIPR webinar on 26 November (6-8pm) will explore AI's impact on practice and the advisory opportunity it has created for practitioners. Andrew Bruce Smith and I will host a practical workshop built around working through a response to raise public awareness of food nutrition. Source: CIPR.
Social media
📱 PLATFORM MIGRATION: Social media platform Bluesky has reported a significant surge in user growth following the US election, gaining 700,000 new users in a week and reaching 14.5 million total members, up from 9 million in September. The exodus from X has been driven by owner Elon Musk's political stance and platform issues. Source: Sky.
👁️ METRICS UPDATE: Facebook is simplifying its content measurement system by introducing 'Views' as the primary distribution metric across all content types on Facebook and Instagram. The platform will also transition from Watch Time to Minutes Viewed for video metrics, with these changes being rolled out across Meta Business Suite and Professional Dashboard over the coming weeks. Source: Meta.
🎙 PODCASTS DELIVER: Podcasting is evolving beyond traditional audio formats, with creators becoming multifaceted content producers across video, social media and live events. The Acast Podcast Pulse 2024 report claims podcasts have uniquely high levels of audience trust and that niche podcasts deliver strong results. Source: Acast.
Media
🚪 MEDIA EXODUS: The Guardian has ceased posting from its official editorial accounts on X, citing the platform's increasingly toxic nature and promotion of far-right conspiracy theories and racism. While individual reporters may continue using X for newsgathering and readers can still share The Guardian articles on the platform, it says it will promote journalism through other channels. Source: The Guardian.
📰 ONION ACQUIRES INFOWARS: The satirical news publication The Onion has purchased Alex Jones's Infowars at a court-ordered auction. It plans to transform the site into a comedy platform. Victims' families see the acquisition as a significant step in preventing further harm and ensuring accountability. Source: BBC.
Thank you to Nyree Ambarchian, Grace Davies, Adam Driver, Catherine Frankpitt, Shavaun Glen, Mags Halliday, Ben Lowndes, Alan Morrison, Claire Quansah and everyone who shares and debates the stories in the newsletter via our Facebook and LinkedIn communities.