Personal Relations - A new way for PR - part 4

Let’s focus on one of the numerous notable exceptions of media bucking the trend of the recession. Bill Porter often cited the example of Ouest France, and it wasn’t just because it originates from the country where he resided. Ouest France (literally West France) is a regional newspaper, yet has a circulation higher than any of the national newspapers in country. Its readership has been unaffected by the decline of newspaper reading in France (blamed on the recession, the internet and other external factors), unlike most other dailies.

With 2.5 million daily readers (and a circulation of almost 800,000), it is the most read francophonic newspaper in the world. The striking thing about Ouest France is that is has a strict ethical editorial guidelines. The paper does not print pictures showing suffering on people’s faces, nor ones of people in handcuffs or other embarrassing situations. All material is checked against the standards of “say without prejudice”, and “showing without shocking”. It is not a fluffy, worthy newspaper, it is a responsible paper that respects human dignity and strips down stories to the essence of the news – it doesn’t dress things up to distress.

If more newspapers took the collaborative, dignified, solutions approach of their ethical counterparts, they would see a rise in their fortunes. It is true that spending on PR increased 4 per cent in 2008 and almost 3 per cent in 2009. But what kind of growth could PR experience if it embraced the ethics of Ouest France, the positivity and collaboration of Obama, and the sincerity and humanity of the living Buddha?

Values, virtues, human rights, compassion are no longer the confines of a woolly world of worthy people – they are the energy behind a tidal wave of hope. And they make good business sense. Whether we consider the MPs’ expenses scandal in the UK, and the questions of trust and public confidence that arose from it; the Twitter traction around the disputed Iran election; the public apologies of Tiger Woods, John Terry and others in the public eye for cheating on their partners; we see a pattern emerging where values and virtues are right at the heart of the public psyche. And it makes good business to be in the values business.

Concluded tomorrow...