Spinning the Money Markets

In a two-part series on Australian corporate PR, an investment banker explained that investor relations campaigns are carefully planned. "At morning conference calls, there's always a lot of talk on which journalist is a softer touch and who will be more favourably disposed and who has particular relationships with the other side," an investment banker said. The spokesman for one large corporation explained that they used external PR consultants for "media management of senior commentators. These guys talk to commentators about 10 projects a night and it is not necessarily evident who they are working for ... The use of an independent third party allows you to manage that relationship better or get a discussion going to ease the tension. The consultants say it in their own language and it doesn't sound like spin from the company," he told Jennifer Hewett for the second article.