“It’s greed that makes you fat,” wrote Amanda Platell in the Daily Mail back in 2017. “Fatties lack the willpower to stop eating.” I realise that the sole purpose of Mail columnists is to raise the nation’s blood pressure, but this piece so incensed me, I was determined to challenge in somehow. The opportunity came …More
By Emily Head This year’s Press Officer Training Day was a mammoth undertaking with 120 attendees joining us to learn about creating hype-free coverage, working with social influencers, honing the perfect pitch, and more. We kicked off with a welcome from our Chair, Claire Hastings, before getting into the statistics session where Robert Cuffe, from the BBC, …More
By Alice Kay The 2019 Stempra AGM was recently held on Monday 25 March at The Castle, Farringdon. It was great to see so many people there – around 30 members attended this year – and it was lovely to catch up with everyone over a drink and plateful of delicious pub food. It was …More
Date and time: 7pm, Monday 25 March 2019 Venue: The Castle Farringdon, 34-35 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6DB Update from the Chair CH gave an overview of the last year and a brief summary of her time as Chair. She reported a substantial increase in members – from 274 (paid-up) to 500 from Feb 2018 to Feb …More
By Claire Hastings Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash This February Stempra examined work-life balance for people working in communications through a lunchtime panel discussion hosted by the Academy of Medical Sciences. Melanie Etherton, Communications Officer at the Academy, was on the panel and here shares key tips and advice for improving work-life balance in the science communication …More
By Jo Kelly No matter what stage of your career you’re at, we all need a bit of support every now and again, which is why we set up the informal Stempra Buddy scheme. What's the buddy scheme? Rolled out in October 2018, the scheme is designed to match people with Stempra colleagues from different …More
By Alice Kay Journal communications can sometimes seem like a bit of a different beast to other aspects of press work. At a recent event at the SMC, four experienced and brilliant journal press officers de-mystified their workplaces and walked Stempra members through the ins and outs of working with journals. We heard insights from …More
By Amy Drummond, AprilSix Proof The term ‘techlash’ – the backlash against the technology industry – was shortlisted recently for the Oxford Word of the Year, which is awarded to a word or expression “judged to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year.” The techlash has certainly surged in its intensity this year. …More
By Beck Lockwood Our Stempra tour of northern cities arrived in Leeds this month where we got to work tackling more of PR’s most pressing challenges along with around 40 colleagues from higher education, NHS and charity organisations. Petroc Sumner, Head of the School of Psychology at Cardiff University, joined us to share early results …More
By Alice Kay A recent Stempra event, organised by our excellent Events Coordinator Emily Head, focused on a topic of high interest to a lot of our members: freelancing. A lot of Stempra members are freelancers and many more dabble in freelancing, but making the transition from permanent position to freelancer can seem daunting. We …More