About Behind the Spin

Behind the Spin is a magazine for public relations students and young PR  practitioners. We publish articles online throughout the year.

We welcome English language articles and news stories about public relations or of interest to PR students and young practitioners. Though based in UK universities and supported by the CIPR, we aim with your help to take a global perspective.

Behind the Spin content is freely available on the web under a Creative Commons licence. We do not charge for access or pay for contributions (in the open spirit of blogs and Web 2.0 collaboration). Members of the editorial team also volunteer their time. In blog style, each article has its unique web address (permalink) meaning articles will appear in Google searches for keywords like the author’s name and we welcome comments on articles.

Author index to past articles (external site)

Forward features

Contributions are welcome at any time on any topic relevant to our readership. Here’s an indication of topics we plan to cover in academic year 2011-2012 (subject to change):

Publication date	Theme One	Theme Two	Regulars
October 2011	Social media	Advice for new students	PR courses
January 2012	Fashion PR	Entertainment PR	PR careers
March 2012	Changing face of Public Affairs*	and Political communications*	PR books
May 2012	PR for sport	Graduate prospects

* Guest editors: Sarah Roberts-Bowman (sarahrobertsbowman@btopenworld.com) and Paul Simpson (paul@dutchhq.com).

Contacts

Editor:
Richard Bailey MCIPR
Email: editor@behindthespin.com
Blog: http://www.prstudies.com
Wiki: http://prbooks.pbworks.com
Twitter: @behindthespin

News editor:
Chloe Rushworth
Email: news@behindthespin.com
Blog: http://www.memoirsofalittlethingcalledlife.com/
Twitter: @Chloe_Rushworth

PR and social media editor:
David Clare
Email: davidjmclare@gmail.com
Blog: www.davidjmclare.co.uk
Twitter: @davidjmclare
Phone: 07736474534

Books editor:
Clare Siobhan Callery
Email: cs.callery@gmail.com
Blog: http://claresiobhanpr.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @claresiobhan

PR education editor:
Laura Crimmons
Email: l.crimmons@gmail.com
Blog: http://lauracrimmons.wordpress.com/
Twitter:  @lauracrimmons

PR coordinator:
Jennifer Kitch
Email: jenniferkitch@live.com
Twitter: @jennster91

Technical consultant:
Simon Wakeman MCIPR and Chartered Marketer
Website and blog: http://www.simonwakeman.com/

Editorial guidelines

Though run out of universities with CIPR-approved public relations degree courses, this is not an academic journal. It is a magazine for students and young practitioners that accepts occasional academic contributions as part of its mix.

Articles should be written in the English language (set your spell checker to UK English) and should be intelligible to international readers who may not speak English as their first language. (Many of our better contributors aren’t writing in their first language.)

Sources should be cited by hyperlinks, either embedded in the text or gathered at the end.

A typical article is around 1000 words in length, and based on a specific theme (see the forward features list above for some suggestions.) Your article does not have to be about your opinion on this topic (though we do welcome opinion pieces too) – it could reflect the thoughts of others, or be based on an interview with a specialist practitioner, or based on your research (or that of others if you cite the source).

Here’s an online magazine we like: Spiked is journalistic in style, intellectual in its approach, academic in its citing of sources, and written in plain English. Wow! If you’d rather write in the style of Hello magazine, you’re welcome to try that too.

Richard Bailey
editor@behindthespin.com