Media companies are in a unique position to influence public opinion, for good or ill. The powerful searchlight of public exposure has often uncovered scandals, prevented abuses and inspired action to put right the wrongs in society. Just recently, accusations that newspapers in particular exploit public pruriency to increase sales have damaged corporate reputations and obscured the good they can do. In trying to present a balanced picture, companies with media interests face another difficulty – few will give publicity to the good works of their own rivals.
Rupert Murdoch’s reputation as a tough, even aggressive, businessman has coloured the image of News International, the main European subsidiary of his global media company, The News Corporation. In fact, of its peers, it is among the most generous community contributor by amount and percentage of profit.
The business
The largest newspaper company in the UK, its titles include The Times and The Sun on weekdays, The Sunday Times and The News of the World on Sundays and the four Times supplements. News International also has a 40% holding in the British Sky Broadcasting Group, producers of the satellite television service, BSkyB, and a 50% holding in Springboard, provider of the LineOne Internet service with BT. (These companies’ community affairs programmes are their direct responsibility, not handled by News International management and so not covered in this profile.) HarperCollins, the Murdoch owned publishing house, is not part of News International.
Newspaper publishing in Britain has a chequered commercial history, but today News International’s titles are highly successful. Average daily sales of The Sun are 3.75 million and The Times more than 800,000 (October 1997 figures), with a combined readership of nearly 12 million people (April to September 1997). Sunday sales and readership are even higher. News International’s printing and publishing activities, aside from broadcasting, yield the company annual profits in excess of ?100 million. Some 3,600 people of a total 4,500 workforce are engaged in printing and publishing, with the main centre of operations in Wapping in London’s East End, and printing also undertaken in Knowsley and Glasgow, and a small operation in Peterborough.
The programme
The framework for community affairs in News International is the belief that the company can only succeed in the long term in the context of a healthy economy and society. Corporate responsibilities are therefore seen as extending beyond legal and contractual obligations alone. Being an active corporate citizen in the local communities where it operates, and in the wider community, is company policy. After undertaking a review a few years ago, activity now takes place under four headings:
local communities where there is a company presence;
education, including literacy and training;
media-related charities; and
the environment.
Recently the Charities Aid Foundation conducted an audit’ of activity to build up a better picture of activity, especially in the business rather than at corporate centre. CAF assessed total direct contributions as ?1.5 million in cash and kind for the 1995/96 year.
Highlights of the programme include:
a donation of ?250,000 to summer literacy projects, expanding a government-funded pilot scheme of 28 projects to 50 and so achieving a critical mass’ with mainstream funding for a national scheme now promised by government;
on-going support to The Prince’s Youth Business Trust (around ?50,000 a year);
a contribution to Birkbeck College of ?40,000 a year; and
a host of local contributions, smaller in amount but equally vital to their communities, such as through the Kids Clubs Network and local education business partnerships;
a ?3 million donation to Oxford University in 1991 creating the Rupert Murdoch Chair of Language and Communications and funding three Times Lecturers in English Language; a further ?500,000 established a research fund and the Murdoch scholarships for eight selected students to have three weeks’ journalism experience on The Times or The Sunday Times.
Unlike some, News International has not gone down the road of focusing all donations on a few big organisations. Around 60 applications come in each month and on average 10 are supported, at least in part. The feeling is that even a small amount can make a huge difference to a local group. The company is also keen to stay involved, hearing about progress with funded activity – sometimes to the surprise of the group itself.
News International set up a special community foundation operating in the Wapping area, the St Katharine and Shadwell Trust, which has become a vehicle for most of its local donations and as a way to attract other partners and funders to the area. This was granted an initial ?3.5 million and now receives continuing support including free office accommodation. Senior executives serve as trustees, including executive chairman, Leslie Hinton, and corporate affairs director, Jane Reed. This is part of a wider concern for people in the local area, with some 600 work experience placements offered a year as another example.
The CAF audit also identified nearly ?2.6 million in facilitated giving’, mainly donations from readers in response to fundraising campaigns publicised in the paper directly or through free advertising. Although clearly not a contribution by the company itself, it is a valid output’ of community benefit made possible by the company. Almost certainly an underestimate as central figures are not recorded, many individuals will also be inspired to give directly to causes highlighted, not via the newspaper fund. One example is the Dunblane Appeal which raised around ?1 million. Another is The Sunday Times’ appeal for Crisis, run for the last nine years, which raises over ?90,000 from readers in direct donations; Crisis estimates it also raises at least another ?200,000 indirectly.
Employee involvement
Staff are actively encouraged to get involved, although the newspaper business is a 24 hour operation and tight deadlines precludes many from having time away from work. Nonetheless a mentoring scheme is being developed, with volunteer reading in local East End schools. Occasional short term secondments and management committee volunteering are facilitated. Employee fundraising is also encouraged with pound-for-pound matching up to ?1,000 for any individual who raises money for a charity of their choice. In addition the company matches funds for one or two company-wide charities, chosen each year by the staff themselves. Last year, for example, ?20,000 raised by the staff for ASBAH became ?40,000 with company support.
Each of the four main sites has its own employee consultative group, with their own charity budgets totalling more than ?100,000 to allocate at their discretion having regard to the corporate policy areas. The main Charities Committee at the corporate centre, which allocates around ?100,000 a year to local and national causes, has six ordinary staff members as members, rather than just senior managers or directors alone.
Management responsibility for community affairs rests with the corporate affairs director, Jane Reed, assisted by two part-time staff members, one of whom, Peter Rimmer, is on secondment from the London Docklands Development Corporation.
Wider impact
The CAF audit acted as a stock-take for the programme after a period of growth and refocusing. Part of the focus for future development is internal, with better evaluation and greater staff involvement. News International has joined the London Benchmarking Group follow-up project, Getting the Measure, to develop evaluation techniques and spread their use widely among other companies.
The really challenging question for News International is external – how to use the power of the product, the papers themselves, to achieve more in and for the community. The editors fiercely guard their editorial rights without interference by management, but already they encourage charitable donations in response to appeals, often related to disasters and tragedies. Of course this is partly commercially aligned, the need to react and respond to readers’ concerns. They also provide powerful publicity about good causes and charities as news stories, although not without criticism at times.
The company has not yet entered the field of cause related marketing. There is a natural and obvious link between newspapers and literacy. Linking fundraising with promotion is a powerful tool and many companies are carefully, if warily, examining the options, concerned not to be accused of commercial exploitation. News International’s record of charitable donations to literacy and education projects, especially among most disadvantaged, should provide an effective foil to any such criticism.
The effectiveness of cause-related marketing is still relatively unresearched and an initiative by News International would allow a laboratory style’ test of its effectiveness, as daily newspaper sales are closely tracked and the results almost instantly known. The potential is tremendous – not just to help a good cause, but to achieve a dramatic shift in understanding by the public – and the marketing profession – of how to make a community contributions through purchases.
News International
Executive chairman: Leslie Hinton
Turnover: ?1,007 million
Pre-tax profit: ?415 million
Employees: 4,560
Year end: June 30, 1996
Community contribution: ?1.5 million with ?2.6 million in facilitated giving donated by readers.
Percentage of profit: 0.4%
Per head of staff: ?330
Policy focus: local communities, education, media-related charities, the environment
Flagship projects:
1. Literacy: summer literacy projects 1997 and the National Literacy Trust.
2. Youth enterprise: Prince’s Youth Business Trust.
3. Higher education: Birkbeck College and Oxford University Chair of Language and Communication.
Employee involvement: staff committees decide local donations and chose a company charity, eligible for matched funding.
Management: managed by director of corporate affairs at centre and by managers in local operations. BSkyB responsible for own programme separately.
Contact: Peter Rimmer, corporate affairs manager
Address: 1 Virginia Street, London E1 9XY
Phone: 0171 782 5000
United News & Media
Chairman: Lord Stevens of Ludgate
Chief executive: Lord Hollick
Turnover: ?1,991 million
Pre-tax profit: ?234 million
Employees: 18,318 (11,358 in UK)
Year end: December 31, 1996
Community contribution: ?387,000
Percentage of profit: 0.17%
Per head of staff: ?21
Policy focus: young people and trade charities nationally, plus various local charities
Flagship projects:
1. Prince’s Youth Business Trust, particularly producing and distributing local directories of PYBT businesses.
2. Matching gifts from staff fundraising.
Employee involvement: matched staff fundraising; local support for volunteering.
Management: centrally by corporate communications; locally through public affairs staff.
Contact: Richard Saunders, corporate communications
Address: Ludgate House, 245 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 9UY
Phone: 0171 921 5000
Web site: www.unm.com
Pearson
Chairman: Michael Blakeham
Managing director: Frank Barlow
Turnover: ?2,186 million
Pre-tax profit: ?357 million
Employees: 17,383 (8,287 in UK)
Year end: December 31, 1996
Community contribution: ?808,000 charitable donations (of which ?568,000 in the UK)
Percentage of profit: 0.23%
Per head of staff: ?46 (?69 in the UK)
Policy focus: arts sponsorship, education and young people
Flagship projects:
1. Bodleian Library
2. Education charities including National Literacy Trust and British Dyslexia Association
3. National Gallery sponsorship Seurat and the Bathers’
Employee involvement: FT staff mentor pupils in local schools; various matched funding schemes; some local volunteering.
Management: corporate communications at centre and in public affairs within local operating companies.
Contact: Clare Chalmers, communications manager
Address: 3 Burlington Gardens, London W1X 1LE
Phone: 0171 411 2000
Web site: www.pearson.com
Daily Mail and General Trust
Chairman: Viscount Rothermere
Chief executive: Charles Sinclair
Turnover: ?1,007 million
Pre-tax profit: ?85.5 million
Employees: 10,383
Year end: 29 September 1996
Community contribution: ?403,000 charitable donations
Percentage of profit: 0.5%
Per head of staff: ?39
Policy focus: education, environment/heritage/medical research, arts sponsorship and printing industry charities
Flagship projects:
No details made available
Employee involvement:
No details made available
Management:
within corporate affairs
Contact: Vyvyan Harmsworth, corporate affairs director
Address: Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT
Phone: 0171 938 6000
Corporate Citizenship Briefing, issue no: 37 – December, 1997
COMMENTS