How does a Public Relations company contribute to progress within the shipping industry?
Having worked in maritime media and communications for 30 years, I have been part of a dramatic evolution in how, why and where shipping communicates. Today, the industry to which I have dedicated by career has never been in greater need of having its voice heard in a global dialogue.
As public relations professionals, we remain curators of our clients’ news – the, launches, innova- tions, acquisitions and other developments which they seek to share. However, our role must also reflect an altered media landscape and society’s changed expectations for our industry.
For decades, shipping professionals have complained that their efforts to keep the global economy working have been overlooked, or that their industry only enters the public conscious- ness when a ship hits the rocks. As shown by the humanitarian crisis for seafarers brought by Covid-19, the supply chain issues behind empty supermarket shelves and the regulatory path set for shipping decarbonisation, those days are most definitely over.
These are more than reputational issues for our industry: today, investors in shipping are often ac- countable to publicly-listed institutions with their own goals on CSR, ESG and sustainable finance. As with other industries, the rise in digital and social media channels has also brought significant change for shipping, with communication today focusing more on direct engagement with audi- ences – often in real time - and less on the distribution of pre-prepared content.
We who have experienced and helped our industry adapt to these changes have also seen the maritime sector, perhaps belatedly, face up to challenges on diversity and inclusion, and struggle to highlight its originality and opportunities to attract the next generation of talent.
Now, more than ever, shipping must engage in a dynamic dialogue with multiple stakeholders, and do so with the transparency needed so that its ambitions, progress and constraints are truly understood.
* Managing Director, JLA Media Ltd
The answer was provided for NAFS magazine issue 143 in its special report “WOMEN in SHEPPING”