Communications
Often the Communications Department finds itself driving communications that affect the profile and reputation of parishes, the diocese, key personnel, mission and growth.
The work of the department is read and seen by millions of people every year and often achieves national coverage. The department has to work to the highest standards and offer a high quality service to parishes, bishops and Church House departments.
Communications is managed on a day to day basis by the Director of Communications with accountability through regular meetings with the Bishop of Manchester and the Diocesan Chief Executive.
Key areas of work - Communications Department
Parish Communications Service
1. Training
a. Newsletter and Magazines
b. Promoting events/publicity
c. Giving a media interviews
d. Parish websites
2. Media advice
Bishop
1. House of Lords
2. Website
3. Media
4. Run the Race
a. Website/releases/display
Publications (to parishes and across Diocese)
1. Diocesan Website
2. Crux
3. Briefing
4. Directory
5. Annual Report
6. Mailing
7. e-news (General, Youth, Children)
8. Newsletters (Education, Readers, etc)
9. Cathedral News (Cathedral)
10. Posters/publicity leaflets/letterheads
Media
There are over 96 media outlets covering the Diocese. Many larger publications and broadcasters feed into smaller publications or very specific groups and communities. The key aspects to the media function are:
a) Producing regular news releases
b) Providing a 24 hr reactive press service
c) Providing a cuttings service
d) Supporting mission initiatives
e) Developing a specialist list of spokespeople available for comment
f) Provide training for parishes on raising their own profile and communicating good news
Regular releases
The media coverage achieved by the Diocesan Communications Department is valued at £2.6 million a year. In order to achieve a maximum return on investment the press function targets a primary group of media. This gives us a reach of 1.5 million readers and 2 million listeners/viewers. The value of a half page story in our Greater Manchester primary print targets is over £36,000, a three minutes TV feature is worth £90,000. In addition to press releases, launches and events, the media also ‘discover’ stories through CRUX and this channel of promotion, in relation to the media, should continue to be used strategically and form a part of the editorial planning cycle.
Primary media
• Manchester Evening News
• Manchester Metro
• Salford Advertiser
• Bolton News
• Rossendale Free Press
• Bury Times
• Rochdale Advertiser
• Oldham Evening Chronicle
• Church Times
• Church of England Newspaper
• BBC Radio Manchester
• Granada
• BBC Northwest
• BBC R4 Sunday
Secondary media Other outlets and nationals receive information as appropriate.
Church House
Admin
1. Database
2. IT strategy (TBC)
3. Corporate Identity/stationery
Finance
1. Increasing Giving
2. Communicating parish share
3. Website
Discipleship and Ministry Training
1. Clergy conference
2. Publicity
3. Supporting Evangelism Task Group
4. Website
5. Increasing Giving
Diocesan Advisory Committee
1. Resources
2. Website
Church and Society
1. Serving the community
2. Resources
3. Website
Cathedral
1. Campaigns
2. Music
3. Events
4. Education
5. Press releases
6. Design
Schools
1. Publications
2. News releases
Additional Campaigns
1. Growth through the Occasional Offices
a. Wedding shows
b. Increasing funeral numbers
2. Halloween Choice
3. Body Worlds (Ends 2008)
4. Back to Church Sunday
Developing communications
1. Clergy
In order to target clergy more effectively a monthly Church House Briefing sheet was introduced in the Mailing in 2006, replacing the old cover sheet. The Briefing has become an essential tool for clergy to pick up information. It has reduced the need for some leaflets making the Mailing more accessible and reducing costs. The publication has also set the standard for other newsletters produced by the Diocese. The Department also completed work on the Clergy Handbook which brings together resources in an online format. The new website will further this work of targeted communications to clergy and parishes.
2. Church House A corporate identity standard has been introduced at Church House with training given to help Diocesan Departments become more consistent in the quality and presentation of their material. Clear Diocesan identity guidelines have been produced and a process to check the quality of publicity items established.
3. Cathedral
The role of the Cathedral as the Mother Church of the Diocese and its civic spiritual role are crucial. The Cathedral has identified communications as a priority for the next five years, but cost was an issue. The Cathedral currently employs the Diocesan Communications Department, using the Diocesan Director of Communications, as its Communications Director. The service level agreement limits the time given. Over the past two years this arrangement has resulted in significant synergy between Diocese and Cathedral over a number of major issues.
4. Education The DBE has significant communications needs. Education is a high profile and positive story for the Church. We could be making more of this good news. It is hoped to develop a communications plan with the DBE as soon as possible. One major campaign a year should be identified in line with the corporate objectives of the Board.
5. The Diocesan Mailing
The Diocesan Mailing is the primary regular form of communications to clergy. It impacts on clergy morale, perceptions about the work of Church House and the level of response to diocesan/mission initiatives. The Diocesan Mailing is sent once a month to the following groups*:
Parishes 320
Others 280
*Parishes receive full content.Others receive a reduced version of the full content.
It is estimated that the Diocesan Mailing costs over £6,000 a year to produce and send. The Diocesan Communications Department has a target to improve the quality of the Diocesan Mailing while reducing costs by 30% in 2008 and a further 20% in 2009/10.
6. Email-Newsletter
The weekly Email-Newsletter represents an opportunity for the Diocese to communicate key messages to stakeholders quickly. Unlike the Website, which depends on visitors seeking the information, the Email-Newsletter arrives at the desk of readers once they have signed up to receive it. This unique feature means it is an ideal vehicle for prayer requests, links to the website, reminders, sign-up to events and mission, or replies to hostile media reports. It also offers a cheap way for key opinion formers to cascade information to congregation members, as they can forward it themselves.
Sign-up figures are now at 400 (up from just below 150). This is still a very low figure given that there are 36,000 members on the electoral roll, 513 clergy, and 230 readers-a total of 36,713. Over 70% of this number are on email, which gives us a potential readership of 25,770. Developing this form of communication could help deliver significant savings in postage costs.
It is hoped to increase the number of people receiving the Email-Newsletter.Targets:
The primary group (800 readers to be delivered no later than December 2008)
Diocesan senior staff (100%)
All DBF/E employees (100%)
22 Deans (100%)
300 Clergy (60%)
220 Lay Synod Members (40%)
140 Readers (60%)
The secondary group (further 2,000 readers to be developed in 2009)
Remaining clergy/readers/synod members
Crux Readers/Electoral Roll members/Website visitors
7. Website
The website is a growing resource for the Diocese. This new website was launched in 2008. It is updated daily and provides a positive view of the Diocese and central service provision. Over 20,000 people view the website every month. The site will become a very important cost-effective way of communication in the coming years.
8. CRUX
Despite the rise of electronic communications, CRUX is still the most widely read publication produced by the Diocese. CRUX is an important tool for developing a sense of mission and giving parishes a sense of belonging to a larger body. 18,400 copies a month are sold and it has a readership of over 26,000. A more detailed editorial planning scheme has been developed so that articles reflect mission goals.
9. Media There are over 96 media outlets covering the Diocese. Many larger publications and broadcasters feed into smaller publications or very specific groups and communities.
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Primary media
• Manchester Evening News
• Manchester Metro
• Salford Advertiser
• Bolton News
• Rossendale Free Press
• Bury Times
• Rochdale Advertiser
• Oldham Evening Chronicle
• Church Times
• Church of England Newspaper
• BBC Radio Manchester
• Granada
• BBC Northwest
• BBC R4 Sunday
Secondary media
Other outlets and nationals receive information as appropriate.
10. Training
The Diocesan Communications Department hopes to develop a programme of training events that will develop confident media experts who can perform well. Support also needs to be provided for those in the parishes that are involved with producing magazines, and websites.
11. Diocesan Directory
A review of the structure and production of the Diocesan Directory took place during 2008 with the publication of the 2009 Directory marking a landmark for the Diocese at the end of that year. Access to an electronic version is being explored as part of the developing electronic publication strategy (Portsmouth Diocese has done this).
12. Database
Some of the functionality of the website and the production of the Directory require the Diocese to be running a reliable database. The Department steered the production of the new Diocesan Database which was delivered in 2008.
13. Parish Communications service
This service offers 24 hr media support. It is hoped to offer parishes access to local training which would include; giving interviews, how to attract people to events, publications-magazines and newsletters, developing a parish website, presentation techniques. The service would also give advice on specific projects that parishes were planning to run. In addition to this the department would support Giving initiatives, parish share initiatives, mission and evangelism. The new website would continue to have parish and clergy sections and these would be developed further.
