Mike Knowles head shot

Let’s not name names, but a multinational fruit company made a major appointment to its executive board of directors in October and so, naturally, we were very happy to cover the story. After all, adding our own layer of publicity to any pertinent piece of news is precisely what we are here for; we want to ensure our readers know who is busy getting the angle of their new office chair just right and who is outside in the car park, hauling away a box of personal effects and ringing round the recruitment agents.

With the company’s press release in hand, all we required was a high-resolution image of the new appointee. But where to find it? No link in the email to download it; nothing to be found in the press area of the website; not even a PR contact to call. An understandable oversight and one that would no doubt be remedied easily with a quick call to the press office.

“When do you need the image?” By tomorrow if possible, we reply. “Hmm, unlikely. My colleague has one somewhere, but they’re on holiday.” Hang on – we didn’t cry out incredulously – this is `fresh produce multinational`, right? It was, but with apparently nobody in the marketing and communications office for what ended up being two weeks, our only alternative was to tap the new director’s previous employer for a photo. “That wouldn’t be appropriate,” came the response.

In this age of constant news coverage and digital media technology, it shouldn’t be this difficult to give you publicity. Whether or not the news made it into our latest issue is for you to work out...