Jolie Hunt ([email protected]) recently took over as PR director for the North American region of The Financial Times. The salmon-colored
daily, which launched in the U.S. in 1997, has struggled against the ad recession stateside but circulation continues to grow, up to 142,000 from an initial circ of 35,000. Hunt,
previously business development manager for the FT, will steer the media brand's PR efforts; she's also involved in the newspaper's new ad campaign, which launched earlier this
month with the tagline: "Read to Lead." PR NEWS talked with Hunt about the challenges ahead.
Q: Financial-oriented publications continue to bear the brunt of a sluggish ad market. What, specifically, are your top PR priorities to get FT's message out?
A. I'm using publicity to drive our reporters as experts in commentary and analysis and also working with the commercial side on the recent ad campaign, for example. We've
[also] built a media relations link on our Web site so we're providing people with more access to the FT and making smart choices in appearances, whether it's a speaking
engagement or broadcast program. That doesn't mean saying 'Yes' to everyone but what's going to make sense for readers and potential readers of the brand.
Q. How has the role of PR directors working for media companies changed and what should PR directors be doing differently to stay ahead of the curve?
A. It's a different role for doing PR in a media company. I sit in the newsroom and see stories as they break, yet my job is also publicizing the intellectual capital that we
have here. It's really being plugged in but being very careful to tread the line between journalism and publicity. You don't want to make journalism commercial. We're very
sensitive to that.
Q. Is it harder to get press coverage in the U.S. for brands that are based overseas?
A. We're pretty specific about what we pitch so we don't go to market with every piece of information. We usually produce something around what we're going to discuss, so last
year we produced a "Best of..." package celebrating our fifth anniversary in the U.S. Being based overseas can work to our advantage or disadvantage. It works in our favor if
you're talking about getting a fresh angle on scandalous stories but works against us when people ignore us and assume there are just two or three national papers of record.