thupr and its new beginnings

The future's so bright we've gotta wear shades!

Most of you by now will have heard about the new Waves intern, Halima, who’s making a great splash here and has taken on the thupr events.

Although things are looking bright for the next thupr,a mobile apps event, it’s what happens from there on in that matters. Thupr has, frankly, been run on a wing and a prayer: it’s been pretty much a textbook case of how not to run a community. It’s not been a predictable format, it’s not on a predictable date cycle, and the event subject matter has been narrow enough to ensure a very different bunch of people each time.

I’ve been guilty of trying to please those who shouted loudest and not listening to my gut feel. And in many ways, I’d had enough and was ready to throw in the towel.

Until Stephen Haggard, who has taken on supplier outreach, asked me a question: if we didn’t do thupr, would someone else want to do it?

And when we chewed it through, and my somewhat jaded eyes were opened: the answer is yes! There’s not another event in London that puts together the tools suppliers and the people who use them in anything except a sales type environment. There’s not another forum that allows discussion around those tools, be it the ethics, the practicalities, the chance to experiment.

My enthusiasm is renewed. Halima is taking some of the strain of organising and making herself some great contacts in the process. (She’s even had the offer of work – other would be PR grads take note).  Stephen is intelligent and considered, and great to work with – a balance to my need for constant change – and between the three of us we’ve gone back to the roots of thupr, but with input that makes it easier to do and sustainable.

So here’s our formula for a thupr revival:

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thupr is changing

Well, our new intern Halima is having a massive positive effect and is just the shot in the arm that the group (thupr) needed.

She and I met with Stephen Haggard yesterday, with a really positive result: with Stephen’s ideas around making supplier outreach more sustainable, and Halima’s positive energy nd enthusiasm (even on two hours of sleep!) I am now really excited about the changes we have in store.

It’s great working with two such smart people, and funny how three such very different people can end up agreeing on so much.

Over time, I’ve been pulled away from our original remit, which was to link tool (and service) suppliers with the comms/PR  professionals who use them, and discuss the best ways of using – and not using – them, sharing and learning from each other. There’s not another group that does this, and the first events were, if a little rough and ready, great fun.

Halima’s going to blog a little more about her impressions and ideas, and will be reaching out directly to everyone in the thupr group once some of our plans are hatched, but suffice to say I think you’ll like it.

Lots!

An introduction to Halima – by Halima!

Halima Amin, Waves PR's new intern

Whilst my coffee making skills are close to magnificent, I am thrilled to be working as a pro active and contributing intern for Waves PR, alongside Claire (Thompson).

My name is Halima Amin, a third year University student and aspiring writer who has been collecting experience in both the PR and journalism (mostly review and interview) fields .

I’ve completed an internship at WhatsOn Magazine based in Birmingham and am currently a contributing writer to both Music-News.com and Alternative Magazine Online. Whilst my future will most definitely involve all kinds of writing, I aim to also further myself in the PR field. The appeal of working on both sides of the fence, as a writer and in press relations, lies in the dynamism of the PR industry.

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Newspaper licensing scheme: clarity

The NLA is owned by the 8 national newspaper publishing houses and generates B2B revenues for 1,300 national and regional publishers through licensing use of their content by press cuttings agencies (PCAs) and their client companies – mostly PR companies/PR functions. They took a case to The Court of Appeal which judged that there’s a need to have two licences for monitoring News ‘clippings’ – both online and off – one for paid for by  online monitoring service providers and one for their customers (who get notifications of the fact that articles are there, and can buy/receive copies).

Managing Director David Pugh said in a statement: “The Court of Appeal has today unequivocally confirmed the ruling of the High Court that online newspapers are copyright protected. It has given a clear declaration that most (if not all) businesses subscribing to a media monitoring service that contains content from online newspapers require a licence. We welcome this ruling and the clarity it provides for publishers, media monitoring agencies and their clients. This positive interpretation of UK copyright law provides legal clarity and certainty for all players in the market. Publishers can be sure of fair royalties for the use of their content, suppliers of paid-for online monitoring services will benefit from a level playing field and clients of such services know that their licence provides a simple way to guarantee compliance with the law.”

Personally, it doesn’t affect me on the face of it – I check regularly online and know where my clients’ coverage is due to appear and go track down (and pay for) copies, but Simon Clark of Berwin Leighton Paisner (which represents the NLA and the publishers) commented that as  copyright can subsist in a newspaper headline alone, most of the extracts from the articles sent by cuttings agency Meltwater electronically to their clients will infringe copyright unless their clients have a licence from the NLA or the publishers. Who knows how Meltwater will cope? They did a good job of standing up to be counted. [Added: my information came from the NLA - other reports contradict this view]

Maybe the NLA can claim it’s a good thoing – I have ambivalent feelings as people quoted in papers surely have a right to see what’s been said?  But there’s a wider issue at stake.  If this is the case, is Google going to be forced to make all of its customers (ie all of us) buy  licenses to receive Google alerts next? This pebble in the pond could have wide reaching implications.

(The next stage in copyright clarity – for better or for worse – is the Copyright Tribunal review of the commercial aspects of newspaper website licensing. )