On Thursday 24 May, Media Trust will be holding one of their successful and worthwhile speedmatching events, kindly hosted by Edelman.

Speedmatching with Media Trust is a great way to share your PR and communication skills and expertise with charities that need your help. It’s part of Media Trust’s Media Matching service – where they match media and comms professsionals as volunteers with charities and community groups looking for help with their communications activity.

At the event you will have the opportunity to meet charities* at 5 minute intervals to offer on the spot advice and ideas; and discuss potentially volunteering in the future. A match is only made if both sides are keen to work together in the future.

If you have at least two years experience, would like to be ‘matched’ and are available on 24 May to join Media Trust and Gorkana for drinks and nibbles then please email events@gorkana.com or call 020 7074 2491.

Visit www.mediatrust.org/speedmatching for more information about speedmatching, email mediamatching@mediatrust.org or call 020 7871 5654.

*Please note the charities that will be attending this event help individuals affected by homelessness, poverty and health issues.

Would you be interested in joining us at our briefing with the lifestyle and entertainment sites at Yahoo! UK, one of the UK’s leading online media companies?

Yahoo! UK reaches 26.3 million people in the UK – that’s 61% of all UK internet users. Over 14.7 million people a month come to Yahoo! UK editorial sites including omg!, Yahoo! Lifestyle, Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo!News, to name a few. Yahoo! UK launched omg! in July last year and within 7 months it became the second biggest showbiz website in the UK. Editor Julia White will talk us through the site, and the story behind its enormous success.

We will also be hearing from Senior Editor, Lifestyle, Claire Sparks and Senior Editor, Entertainment, Paul Johnson.

Julia, Claire and Paul will give us an overview of their different roles at Yahoo! UK and provide some useful tips about how to get your stories on omg!, Yahoo! Lifestyle, Yahoo! Movies and Yahoo! TV.

Please note that this briefing is currently oversubscribed, however, should you wish to be added to the waiting list please email events@gorkana.com. Should you not receive a place, a link to footage of the event will be posted here a few days after the event.

Sarah Baxter, editor of The Sunday Times Magazine joined us for a briefing on Wednesday 16 May, kindly hosted by the Museum of London.

The Sunday Times Magazine launched 50 years ago as the UK’s first colour magazine at a significant point in British cultural history. It has charted half a century of cultural and social change and continues to innovate with its world-class writing and photojournalism. Sarah has been editor since 2009 and oversees a magazine packed with regular features including Relative Values, Life in the Day, Witter and Spectrum, its unique centre-page photography spread.

Sarah told us how she likes to work with PRs, why there is no typical reader and what has made the magazine timeless…

We held a briefing with Steve Hawkes, Business Editor at The Sun on Friday 11 May, kindly hosted by The Institution of Engineering and Techhnology (IET).

Steve joined The Sun in 2008 as Business Editor having previously worked at The Times, Daily Mirror, Evening Standard and Press Association.
Steve edits Sun City and also writes business stories for the rest of the paper.

We heard from Steve about how he likes to work with PRs and the kinds of stories he’s looking to write for the paper.

>>Watch The Sun webcast, filmed by Visual Media

On Tuesday 01 May we held a briefing in Edinburgh with John Boothman, Head of News and Current Affairs and Douglas Fraser, Business and Economy Editor, BBC Scotland

We were delighted welcome John and Douglas who provided PRs with their tops tips for working with Scotland’s leading broadcaster.

>>Watch the BBC Scotland webcast, filmed by Visual Media

On Friday 27 April we held a briefing with The Mail on Sunday Live magazine

We were joined by deputy editor Andrew Davies and technology writer Phil Harman.

Live is packed with information and recommendations for the male consumer on all he needs to know about the latest technology, cars, style, leisure activities, food, drink and entertainment. The magazine includes celebrity interviews with some of the biggest names in the world from Prime Ministers to Bill Gates and Angelina Jolie to Frank Lampard.

We heard from Andrew and Phil about how they like to work with PRs and what content will make it into the mag.

>>Watch The Mail on Sunday Live magazine webcast, filmed by Visual Media

On Tuesday 24 April we held a healthcare briefing with Martin Barrow, Health Editor at The Times.

Martin has had a varied career during his 22 years with The Times but in November 2011 became its Health Editor. Since starting in the role he has written on a wide range of health issues including cuts to social care, NHS regulation, private healthcare, PIP implants, elderly care, organ donation, dementia, HIV, the ‘flu jab and the MMR scandal.

Martin has an overriding interest in the poor delivery of care to the most vulnerable, particularly those with learning disabilities or mental health issues.

At the event, Martin talked about the kinds of health stories he covers, his extensive career at The Times and the best ways for PRs to work with him.

>>Watch The Times healthcare webcast, filmed by Visual Media

On Tuesday 17 April we held a briefing with The Times, kindly hosted by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.

We were delighted to be joined by Business and City Editor, Ian King, one of the UK’s leading business journalists. Previously City Editor at The Sun, Ian joined The Times in 2008 and became Business and City Editor in January 2011. His daily commentary provides a valuable guide to the credit crisis, for both business readers and non-business specialists alike, while an unparalleled team of specialist correspondents offers expert analysis on key sectors.

Ian discussed the latest key economic and business issues, explained how the award-winning Times business pages are put together and talked us through the kind of content he is looking for.

>>Watch The Times business webcast, filmed by Visual Media

Kindly hosted by

On Friday 13 April we held a briefing with the Evening Standard, kindly hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

We welcomed James Ashton, Head of Business at the Evening Standard, Independent, Independent on Sunday and i. James joined the Evening Standard as City Editor last October and was appointed Head of Business across the group in November.

The Evening Standard now has 1.6m readers – more than most other national newspapers – and remains an agenda-setting source of business news and commentary.

James discussed the success of the Evening Standard going free, how he and his team have integrated business coverage across four newspapers and the best times for PRs to get in touch with the stories he would like to receive.

>>Watch the Evening Standard webcast, filmed by Visual Media

Kindly hosted by

On Wednesday 4 April Gorkana were joined by representatives fromLOCOG, Cadbury, Telegraph Media Group, WeberShandwick SportandBrandwatch who shared their plans around the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics from a number of unique perspectives.

It was great to hear from a group of the leading media professionals shaping and analysing the Games’ communications and to understand how to maximise PR opportunities around a major event.

We were joined by the following panellists:
Andrew Ager, Deputy Head,Weber Shandwick Sport
Joanna Manning-Cooper, Head of PR/Media LOCOG
David Oliver, Corporate Affairs Director UK&I, Kraft Foods
Jacquelin Magnay, Olympics Editor, Telegraph Media Group
Naomi Trickey, EMEA Sales Director,Brandwatch.

>>Watch the London 2012: The Comms Countdown webcast, filmed by Visual Media

On Friday 30 March we held a briefing with Easy Living.

Easy Living has recently undergone its first major redesign in seven years and relaunched in February under new Editor Deborah Joseph.

The new edition features a broader range of solutions for every aspect of modern living in seven sections – Women, Myself, Fashion, Beauty, Health, Food, Homes & Travel.

Editor Deborah Joseph discussed the new-look magazine as well as how she and her team work with PRs. Deborah was joined by Editor of easyliving.co.uk Natasha McNamara, Beauty Director Alice Du Parcq and Executive Fashion Editor Francesca Zedda.

>>Watch the Easy Living webcast, filmed by Visual Media