PR professionals of the future to hone their skills with Response Source

• Monday, 18 September 2006

Students and industry to benefit from collaboration to develop media relations techniques

The company behind the Response Source Journalist Enquiries System is to work with the University of Gloucestershire public relations degree course to help students plan media relations campaigns and develop techniques for using the highly successful service.

PR students at the university will have access to requests from journalists through Response Source so they can consider the most effective ways of pitching to the media.

Daryl Willcox Publishing, which produces Response Source among other innovative online services for journalists and PR professionals, may also collaborate with the University of Gloucestershire PR course on research projects.

Founder and chairman Daryl Willcox said: “Response Source has been an enormous success, so much so that to get the best out of the service PR professionals must consider carefully the best techniques for using it. Our collaboration with the University of Gloucestershire will not only help arm future PR professionals with necessary media relations skills but it will also help the PR industry as a whole as we intend to share insights into best practice.”

University of Gloucestershire public relations degree course leader and senior lecturer Averill Gordon said: “We will be encouraging our PR students to understand how to use new ‘instant’ PR tools. Through Response Source students will have access to constant and live journalist enquiries and will learn how to develop key strategic messages early on.”

The Response Source Journalist Enquiries System delivers over 12,000 requests from information from journalists a year. Over 5,000 PR professionals are signed up to receive the enquiries. The service was launched in the technology sector in 1998 and across all other sectors in 2001.

For more information contact:

Daryl Willcox
Daryl Willcox Publishing
Tel: 0845 370 7777
Email: daryl@dwpub.com

Averill Gordon MA MCIPR
Course Leader and Senior Lecturer, Public Relations
University of Gloucestershire
Telephone: 01242 715065
Email: agordon@glos.ac.uk

About Daryl Willcox Publishing
Online services for journalists and media relations specialists
www.dwpub.com

Daryl Willcox Publishing (DWPub) focuses entirely on online information services for journalists and PR professionals. DWPub brands enjoy widespread recognition with both the press and the PR community. It is a UK-owned independent company and has grown every year since launch in 1997. The company was founded and is run by an experienced journalist.

This press release was distributed via Response Source, a service from Daryl Willcox Publishing, on behalf of Daryl Willcox Publishing. For more information visit http://www.dwpub.com/pressreleasewires