A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A PR/PUBLIC AFFAIRS EXECUTIVE

Ever thought about working in public relations/public affairs? Wondered what you’d been doing day to day in an agency? For a start you need to live and breathe politics and news…

A PR’s day starts early

 /><strong>6.30am</strong> – Wake up and check your emails before you’ve lifted your head off the pillow, to see if any of your clients have been mentioned in the papers.</p>
<p><strong>6.35am</strong> – Switch on Radio 4’s ‘<a href=Today Programme’.

8am – Arrive at the office, wolf down a bowl of cereal while digesting the day’s news.

8.30am – Email articles/news of potential interest to your clients across to them, so it’s in their inbox by the time they get to their desk.

Communications consultants devour the tabloids and broadsheets daily

 /><strong>9am </strong>– Spot an interesting education article in one of the broadsheets. Write a piece to submit to the letters page of the next day’s edition, putting forward the view of Client A, a school.</p>
<p><strong>10am </strong>– Receive a press enquiry about Client B. The journalist wants to write a negative piece about them and has a deadline of 12pm. You create a statement putting forward the view of your client, and send it to the client for approval.</p>
<p><strong>10.30am</strong> – A weird and wonderful brief comes in – a potential new client wanting to start a campaign to prevent penguins being kept in captivity in the UK. You spend an hour trying to find out which MPs like penguins (Diane Abbot MP proposed an Early Day Motion showing concern over the plight of penguins living in Antarctica) or have talked about penguins in parliament (Jeremy Corbyn has mentioned penguins the most times out of any current sitting MP). You then move on to see which politicians are on animal welfare committees or relevant All Party Parliamentary Groups (perhaps the All Party Group for the Polar Regions?)</p>
<p><strong>11.50am</strong> – Client B would like some additional information included in the statement you proposed. You go back to the drawing board with nine minutes to go.</p>
<p><strong>12.00pm</strong> – Agree the new statement with your client, and meet the journalist’s deadline.</p>
<p><strong>1.30pm</strong> – Realise you haven’t eaten. Run across the road to grab Pret or sushi.</p>
<p><strong>Attending political events is key to being in the know</strong></p>
<p><img decoding=Why is political and media monitoring important?

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