Money Observer celebrates its 40th anniversary this October. In an exclusive Q&A, MO’s editor Faith Glasgow told me about the title’s birthday makeover, “sticky” readers (and how much they invest), plus the challenge of balancing content across multiple platforms. Andrew Michael (AM): Slightly premature congratulations on MO’s 40th birthday! The latest issue [September 2019] refers to a makeover.…
How do high-profile financial services companies keep on top of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram et al? In part two of this exclusive Q&A, Alison Traboulsi, Direct Line Group’s Head of Social Media, recalls a campaign where everything clicked and offers advice for working with influencers. Andrew Michael (AM): Is there a weekly pattern to your work,…
How do high-profile financial services companies keep on top of ‘social’ in all its many guises? In this two-part Q&A Alison Traboulsi, Head of Social Media at Direct Line Group, spoke exclusively to me about the challenges, issues and opportunities of working in this sphere. Andrew Michael (AM): You manage the social media team at Direct Line…
If I’m ever asked to give a talk to financial journalists who are new to writing about investing, stock markets, et al, I usually refer to a couple of books which helped me get started back in the dim and distant past. The first one is Michael Brett’s ‘How to Read the Financial Pages’ and…
The Neil Woodford calamity gauge moved from ‘really bad’ to ‘catastrophic’ yesterday. This was a result of wealth manager St James’s Place’s decision to terminate its £3.5bn relationship with the fund manager. At a stroke this wiped out 40 per cent of the entire assets under Woodford’s management. Thanks to recent events, his reputation as…
The UK is rubbish nowadays at producing successful Eurovision Song Contest entries, but leaves the rest of the continent standing when it comes to churning out newspaper consumer champions. Seriously. Try finding a financial agony aunt or uncle in Le Figaro, or Il Sore 24 Ore, or Die Welt. Any luck? If yes, you’re a…
If you’re a gardener, five years isn’t much of a time-frame in the grand scheme of things. Barely long enough to cultivate a shrub, or establish an asparagus bed. In the world of commercial sponsorship, however, five years can whizz by in a flash. I was just thinking of this as I cast my eye…
When’s the last time you heard of a bank launching a charity single? I daresay one of the major high street providers has done so. But I’m jiggered if I can think of a name off-hand. Actually, I’m not sure any of them ever have. Feel free to get in touch if you know differently.…
Do you remember Eastenders’ Peter “Awight tweacle” Beale? Barrow boy Pete was such a regular down the Queen Vic that his very own beer mug used to hang from a peg in the infamous E20 boozer. I also own a beer mug like Pete’s. On it is the dull, if accurate, inscription: “York Races May…
I’ve just had a squint at Cision’s recent ‘Global State of the Media’ report for 2019. The research from the ‘global #EarnedMedia management software company’ included responses from 1,999 journalists in 10 countries. About 40 per cent of contributors work in print, a third in a combination of broadcast and online roles, with the balance…
Money Observer celebrates its 40th anniversary this October. In an exclusive Q&A, MO’s editor Faith Glasgow told me about the title’s birthday makeover, “sticky” readers (and how much they invest), plus the challenge of balancing content across multiple platforms. Andrew Michael (AM): Slightly premature congratulations on MO’s 40th birthday! The latest issue [September 2019] refers to a makeover.…
Andrew is at the top of his profession and I highly recommend his range of talents to anyone. He works with absolute integrity at all levels and is part of an elite band of top level operators in the financial services industry. He quite simply ‘gets it’ relentlessly hunting for, and inevitably delivering, that compelling difference to take communications to another level.