It was a mid-winter morning in 2012 when I first entered the Pimlico sweatshop that was the PRCA’s old office to take on my new role. My new suit barely concealed the fact that I was insanely hungover.
Was the level of drinking at the previous night’s leaving party misjudged? I was about to find out just how misjudged it was.
Sitting down at my new desk, a finger directed my eyes towards a screen. “Now that you’re settled in, you’d better take a look at this." I squinted at the article, my head throbbing dangerously.
‘Taking Flack for the Hack’ read the headline on The Huffington Post. I had a bad feeling, but I read on:
“Having long been irritated by the trend of journalists being hired straight into senior PR jobs, news that the PRCA, the PR industry's trade body, had done exactly that managed to get right under my skin. Matt Cartmell, news editor at PRWeek, will take the role of director of communications for the PRCA.”
The first work in my new role as comms director was to respond to a blogpost that argued that I was utterly ill-suited to my new role in comms. Pretty meta, eh?
The writer, Steve Loynes, critiqued the minutiae of my CV, positing: “It isn't immediately obvious why a PR person with experience gained across a number of PR consultancies would join The Bexley Times."
The question of why I took a role at The Bexley Times after a reasonably successful PR agency career is one that I often ask myself, usually in the dead of night, and occasionally with the Samaritans’ phone number by my side. And I can never come to any sensible conclusions.
But to find such private uncertainties being voiced on one of the world’s leading news and opinion sites was an intensely disturbing experience.
Why am I picking at this seven-year-old scab? Because I went on to spend some of the most fulfilling, exciting, and challenging years of my life – seven years that I was eminently prepared for as a journalist. So there, Loynesy.
Working at the PRCA has been like taking part in a montage sequence in an eighties film - admittedly the slowest montage ever - in which the team grew from ambitious challengers to industry focal point. And from 12,000 to 30,000 members.
Under the inestimable leadership of Francis Ingham, we smashed the NLA in the European Court of Justice, changing copyright law in many countries; we challenged the industry to take ethics seriously or face serious consequences; we defended PR against countless critics, detractors, and rentagobs.
We punched way above our weight, and I’m proud of what we achieved.
I’m leaving the PRCA today to start my own content and comms agency, named Carta Communications. I’ll be working with PR industry suppliers to help with their communications; with PR agencies on their positioning; providing written content for organisations of all kinds.
Tomorrow morning, I’ll be looking out for fresh posts from Steve Loynes. If he brings up the Bexley Times again, we could have a problem.