Content will drive communications in future - Walmsley

Tim Walmsley, Regional Managing Director of Impact Porter Novelli has called on communications stakeholders to make their editorial content media friendly so as to achieve effective message dissemination, disclosing that editorial content will be the major driver of communications in the future.

In a presentation at an interactive session with marketing communications correspondents on May 28, 2014 in Lagos titled, Think like a media company, Walmsley informed that editors are put under more pressure by the increasing number of editorial materials they receive on a daily basis.

According to him, “Communications agencies are springing up daily and are making demands on the same editors as the old agencies thus putting these editors under more intense pressure today than ever before. In the bid to meet up with the demands of their office,

these editors will more likely publish those contents that are more user-ready than others whose content are poor.”

He said that the agencies that will succeed in these circumstances are those who think like media companies. “Thinking like a media company will make agencies understand what the editors want and give it to them in the manner they want it and at the time they want it; they are the ones who will ensure that their editorial contents are sound and media-friendly,” Walmsley continued.

Walmsley, who doubles as the Coordinator of the Porter Novelli Network in Middle East and Africa (MEA) Region which includes Nigeria, observed that the future holds a lot of promises for communications practitioners in the Nigeria.

“There is no greater time to be in the Public Relations practice than now that Nigeria’s economic indices are at it brightest. This and the new and emerging technologies and media platforms encourage the sharing of information thus make the experiences of the PR practitioner richer and more satisfying”, he said.

He dispelled the notion that digital media will put to an end of the traditional media but called on PR practitioners to adapt to the emerging trends by acquiring relevant skills needed to play on these new platforms. “PR practitioners need to, not only acquire the necessary skills but should also help scale up the skills in the industry, especially as they pertain to the new media,” Walmsley concluded.

Walmsley was in Nigeria on a two-day working visit to assess the operations of C&F Porter Novelli as part of his oversight functions as the regional coordinator of the PN offices in the MEA region. He was accompanied by the Chairman of C&F Porter Novelli, Nn’emeka Maduegbuna.