Publicity Officer: job description

[TomChivers]

I found out the other day the ECF Publicity Officer role is currently vacant. This got me thinking. What, precisely, should be the basic things someone in this post should do? Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling.

1. Organise and issue daily press releases from all top-tier events held in England.
2. Produce a weekly digest of all mentions of chess in the mainstream media (outside of the standard specialist channels).
3. Respond to mainstream negative representations of chess with positive "right to reply"-style articles (ideally published in the same place as the negative stuff).
4. Issue press releases about top-tier English players successes abroad.
5. Ditto 4 but for junior players, perhaps targeting local press where the players live.
6. Get MasterGame repeated at 6pm every day on BBC1.

It may be that if we can generate a reasonable doable list like this, people might be less intimidated about volunteering for the role?

[Peter D Williams]

I found out the other day the ECF Publicity Officer role is currently vacant. This got me thinking. What, precisely, should be the basic things someone in this post should do? Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling.

1. Organise and issue daily press releases from all top-tier events held in England.
2. Produce a weekly digest of all mentions of chess in the mainstream media (outside of the standard specialist channels).
3. Respond to mainstream negative representations of chess with positive "right to reply"-style articles (ideally published in the same place as the negative stuff).
4. Issue press releases about top-tier English players successes abroad.
5. Ditto 4 but for junior players, perhaps targeting local press where the players live.
6. Get MasterGame repeated at 6pm every day on BBC1.

It may be that if we can generate a reasonable doable list like this, people might be less intimidated about volunteering for the role?

The press often get given articles about chess but refuse to print them wonder why?

[Andrew Zigmond]

I believe that previously publicity officers received no budget for their activities; the same is true of the Marketing Director who the publicity officer is answerable to. The list may be `doable` but it would require a lot of hard work and a professional approach - particularly if we want to engage the mainstream media. So unless we can find a person of private means with the right background who's willing to meet his own expenses - we're stuck.

From the point of view of publicising its own activities and chess in general the ECF needs two things in my opinion;

1, As discussed in a previous thread we need a strong in house magazine, even if its largely an electronic one. I've said before that if the ECF could make this work chess equipment suppliers and other such companies might be willing to pay for advertising space. That said, last month a straightforward email from the marketing director offering savings on candidates tickets and promising future offers was met with a load of bile about unsolicited mail this might be opening a can of worms.

2, The ECF needs something to take `on the road` such as a simul tour by a titled player which would give the ECF a chance to engage with the chess playing public rather than quibbling with cranks such as myself on this forum. Again, this would need somebody with the time and energy to devote to this.

[Ian Kingston]

6. Get MasterGame repeated at 6pm every day on BBC1.

The head of BBC News might have a problem with that.

[Roger de Coverly]

2, The ECF needs something to take `on the road` such as a simul tour by a titled player which would give the ECF a chance to engage with the chess playing public rather than quibbling with cranks such as myself on this forum. Again, this would need somebody with the time and energy to devote to this.

Something like that happened in recent memory with the CJ de Mooi/ Nigel Short tours. Although as some bloggers pointed out, that was ambiguous as to whether it was a private venture unconnected with the ECF or something more official.

[Andrew Zigmond]

2, The ECF needs something to take `on the road` such as a simul tour by a titled player which would give the ECF a chance to engage with the chess playing public rather than quibbling with cranks such as myself on this forum. Again, this would need somebody with the time and energy to devote to this.

Something like that happened in recent memory with the CJ de Mooi/ Nigel Short tours. Although as some bloggers pointed out, that was ambiguous as to whether it was a private venture unconnected with the ECF or something more official.

That's exactly why I didn't refer to that directly, although it was what I was thinking of.

[John Upham]

Given the fact that there is now an active DoMM I would suggest that the ECF is much more in need of a Press Officer rather than a Publicity Officer.

For what it is not worth I believe that a Director of Communications should be added to the Board. The DoC would include Press Officer as part of his or her remit.

Any Officer without a budget is pointless unless they are willing to fund their activities personally.

[Jonathan Bryant]

2, The ECF needs something to take `on the road` such as a simul tour by a titled player which would give the ECF a chance to engage with the chess playing public rather than quibbling with cranks such as myself on this forum. Again, this would need somebody with the time and energy to devote to this.

Something like that happened in recent memory with the CJ de Mooi/ Nigel Short tours. Although as some bloggers pointed out, that was ambiguous as to whether it was a private venture unconnected with the ECF or something more official.

There was no real ambiguity. It was clearly stated that it was a private venture.

I suppose you could argue that it was ambiguous for the several months that it remained announced on this forum without it explicitly being stated that it was a personal initiative.

[IM Jack Rudd]

2, The ECF needs something to take `on the road` such as a simul tour by a titled player which would give the ECF a chance to engage with the chess playing public rather than quibbling with cranks such as myself on this forum. Again, this would need somebody with the time and energy to devote to this.

I could probably do that. I enjoy giving simuls.

[David Robertson]

I enjoy giving simuls

Great! You could do two an hour

[Roger de Coverly]

There was no real ambiguity. It was clearly stated that it was a private venture.

It was also promoted on the ECF website and as pointed out by the Streatham blog in a slightly different context, used an ECF domain email address as the contact point.

[Andrew Camp]

Reminded of a beautiful exchange on here last Summer:

Poster: What has the publicity officer done to promote the British Championships?

Pub. Officer: I have done nothing.

[Sean Hewitt ECF DoMM]

Reminded of a beautiful exchange on here last Summer:

Poster: What has the publicity officer done to promote the British Championships?

Pub. Officer: I have done nothing.

However, now ask what has the acting DoMM done to promote the British Championships?

Stuck this on every page of the ECF website, that's what!

[benedgell]

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=4538

Is a previous discussion on this subject. I think there is a huge scope for making a positive difference to English chess in the Publicity Office role, and its a real shame that no-one has taken on the role since I stood down.

I should mention regarding Andrew's post above, that I did apologise at the time on the forum, and in person at the ECF meeting shortly afterwards, at which I stood down as PO.

[benedgell]

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=322

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1086

Are a couple more links to discussions on Chess Publicity.