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Thirteen honors students from the School of Journalism are spending their summer in London, working in British media and studying British culture.

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Learning from co-workers

May 13, 2008
Katie Wickham

Courtesy photo

Katie Wickham works at her desk at Wriglesworth public relations agency in London. Already, she’s written her first press release and learned about London PR and work life from her coworkers.

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London is a “smashing” and “brilliant” city. I have learned that from my short time living here and from collegial co-workers at Wriglesworth Consultancy, a public relations firm.

Wriglesworth is a small-to-midsized agency that has clients mainly in the financial, recruitment and property sectors. I am a part of the corporate finance team at Wriglesworth.

Although it’s early in my internship, I have learned about our team’s clients and I have begun and completed a variety of projects. I have my own desk, computer, e-mail account and phone, all of which helped me feel a part of the team and Wriglesworth right away.

Each morning, I complete the cuttings, which are media hits that our clients have accumulated in the local and national media. Reading these helps me stay current with both the news and our clients. I also research and capture computer screen shots documenting Web-based news about our clients.

Although this might sound boring, this is an extremely important task. Our clients expect results, sometimes on very short notice. Having these cuttings and other media forms shows the effectiveness of our work on behalf of the client. One of these client demands occurred Tuesday at work, so being able to pull up not only these cuttings but graphs and other documents used for “measurement’ helped address this issue in a timely manner.

I also have been working on contacting journalists to meet with leading managers and directors (our clients) to talk over coffee. Constantly organizing and maintaining relationships not only with clients but journalists is crucial for a public relations practitioner to be successful.

My favorite assignment thus far has been editing and revising a press release (my first) about one of our clients, Locallife. Locallife.co.uk is the highest ranked local search directory in the UK. This release was about its expansion to the U.S. Locallife has a starter site in Scottsdale, Ariz., which was a minor part of the piece.

I had to write this for a British audience and make it newsworthy for them to care and read about. The theme of the release was about the differences between the two countries even though we share the same language. I had lists and charts about the top differences between the U.K. and U.S. with top searches and things lost in translation. A funny one (most of them are) is one they put on searches added to the U.S. market but not in the U.K.

• “Search # 5. Jockeys (now had to lead to ‘underwear’ and not the gee-gees)”

Working in London is an eye-opening experience. I have learned a lot from all of my coworkers. Being in close contact with people from another country and listening and learning from them has helped me learn not only about PR but more about life and the world, something I didn’t consider too much before leaving for London.

I even have begun to transition to the food and drink tastes over here. I love tea with milk at work. I attribute it to helping me cope with the jet lag during my first week here across the pond.