In the competitive and ever-moving PR world, keeping up-to-date with the latest news and reacting quickly can be the difference between securing coverage for your clients or getting nowhere. With that being said, it can be difficult to know which stories are a way in, or which are best to avoid altogether. To help, we’ve rounded up the biggest news stories from this week to determine which areas could provide potential leads in the future.
So, let’s get right into this week’s round up!
Education…
This week, education news was primarily focused on the continuation of the teacher’s strikes across much of the country. Sadly, teaching unions have been unable to reach a successful negotiation in regards to increasing salaries in line with the current economic strain, which has resulted in further strike action and will likely continue to do so.
Whilst the strike action is unfortunately necessary for teachers that are currently struggling to cover their expenses on their current wage, the knock-on effect is that, sadly, many children are missing out on vital lesson time as their schools have been forced to close.
Technology…
The big story in technology this week has been the discussion surrounding Spring cleaning and whether or not we should be factoring our electronic goods into the cleaning routine. Across both the UK and the US, there has been an increased interest in the types of bacteria that might be calling our devices home, and quite frankly, some of the revelations have been quite unsettling.
With our mobile phones regularly bearing the brunt of our day-to-day activities and coming with us pretty much everywhere, it’s safe to say that they, too, have their own bacterial story to tell.
We have just launched a campaign for one of our clients all about the exact types of microscopic creepy-crawlies living on our screens, using lab analysis from swabs collected directly from phone screens. This campaign has already been given some fantastic coverage in the Express this week.
Business…
Of course, it’s no surprise to anyone that the big news story affecting businesses this week was the Chancellor’s spring budget announcement on Wednesday. Business owners from across the country tuned in to hear the Chancellor’s announcement and find out what sorts of support they can expect to see going forward. Unfortunately, many were likely left feeling disappointed.
With the news that the government is unveiling several schemes to entice people with long-term illnesses and disabilities – alongside over-50s – back to the workplace, we used the news to gain some great coverage for our B2B Digital PR client. We offered commentary from a business financial expert on what the budget means for small businesses in the UK and how much of what they were hoping for came into reality.
Health…
This week, the news was very interested in healthcare waiting times amidst junior doctor strikes. As doctors continue to push for a 35% pay increase, multiple publications have been discussing the lengthy wait times for medical procedures, and even simple doctors appointments.
These waiting times can be devastating to patients that are left wanting answers to questions they might have or, even worse, left in pain whilst they wait in hopes that an earlier appointment becomes available. We have just launched a campaign focusing on NHS waiting times for our health client, and we can’t wait to share with you the results next week.
Transport…
In the news this week was another set of rail strikes, taking place on both Thursday and Saturday across the majority of rail services in the North West.
The rail strikes have become something of a current occurrence at this point, but can be a great opportunity to get any alternative-transport related pieces out with snappy pitches making reference to ongoing strike action.
To conclude…
And with that, our weekly round up of the top news stories from this week is complete. We hope you’ve found this insight into the types of stories that could appeal to your clients interesting, and that we’ve perhaps been able to inspire you to look at new angles that you might not have thought about before.
Check back again next week to see our break-down of the stories taking the news by storm, where we’ll once again detail how we’ve used the top stories to Shout our clients’ names and get them the coverage they deserve.
