Even by the British media’s occasionally sensationalist standards, news events since the beginning of September have been nothing short of extraordinary. We’ve always got our ear to the ground, but the recent chaos prompted us to go beyond the headlines and find out what’s been happening behind the scenes, in what turned out to be a case of the good, the bad, and the Queen.
The passing of Britain’s longest reigning monarch, followed by a king in mourning and a funeral that gripped a nation, coupled with controversial new premiers here and in Italy, a certain “fiscal event” causing the pound to plummet, prompting a chancellor and Prime Minister to last just days in office, left newsrooms in a frenzy and brands bewildered.
That’s without even addressing the tragic shooting of Chris Kaba, Iran’s incredible hijab protest movement, the ever-changing situation in Ukraine and Russia, and one of world’s worst-ever sports stadium disasters in Indonesia.
It was also enough to largely forget Apple launched a new iPhone, Amazon took the wraps off the most expensive television show of all time, the London Design Festival marked its 20th year, fashion weeks were held in New York, London, Milan, and Paris, and Europe’s biggest tech show took place in Berlin.
The good
First the good, from a newspaper perspective anyway, because print sales soared. “God save the circulation!” exclaimed Private Eye, reporting readership was up by as much as 75 per cent on some titles. Online, the Queen’s death prompted the biggest traffic surge for UK news brands since the 2020 US election, with a leap of 53 per cent to reach almost 96 million page views.
In a reassuring nod to the lasting effect of quality journalism, The Guardian’s ‘London Bridge is down’ article from 2017, detailing protocol in the event of Her Majesty’s passing, was suddenly being viewed 8,000 times a minute. In another online development, we might be about to see fewer online ads as the demise of third-party cookies causes publishers to rethink their approach.
At the coop, we knew the news agenda – and the need to treat certain situations sensitively – meant media outreach would momentarily move away from the dailies as other stories dominated, but it was reassuring to hear from several contacts that they still wanted quality pitches and that generally, the show must go on.
The cost-of-living crisis remained a huge talking point throughout – The FT’s HTSI supplement doesn’t stand for ‘how to spend it’ anymore, meanwhile staff at the paper received a one-off £1,800 payment to help pay their bills.
On the PR front, we were busy talking to the press about everything from energy-saving kitchen appliances from Smeg to smart lightbulbs from Nanoleaf. Christmas gift guides also entered a critical phase, with journalists wanting to be inspired for autumn/winter.
The bad
On the flip side, press trips and events were postponed, newsroom annual leave was cancelled, complete editions scrapped and rewritten at the 11th hour, and the odd social media meltdown occurred.
The Mail Online’s content management system reportedly crashed because it was being overloaded with Royal content, while according to Private Eye the Daily Mail missed a major distribution deadline forcing them to sell Royal souvenir editions via mail order. Elsewhere, Hello had to contend with its latest issue exclaiming a healthy Queen was “back in business” having only just gone on sale.
At one stage, former Queens Park Rangers footballer, Trevor Sinclair, was the top trending story on Apple News after posting a controversial tweet about the Queen herself, while in the corporate world, everybody from Cash Converters UK to the Pleasuredome Spa in Waterloo conjured up announcements as a “mark of respect”.
Some made the crass decision to try and profit from the situation – Ilkley Brewery in West Yorkshire offering 70 per cent off beer to mark every year of Her Majesty’s reign, a limited edition two-for-one hampers offer “Embossed with the Royal Seal of Approval” from the Cornwall Hamper Store, and even one PR company pushing global Magic Mushroom Day while the nation was “coming out of the official period of mourning”.
Then there was the very bad; Sky News mistaking protests for Chris Kaba with a procession supposedly heading to Buckingham Palace to mourn Her Majesty.
The Queen
Then there was the funeral itself, and if you want something to sum up just how big an event this was, it’s worth taking a look at the TV ratings.
Remember earlier we mentioned the most expensive television series of all time? Well, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power pulled in a measly 25 million viewers – globally – on its first day. Contrast that with the Queen’s funeral being watched by 37.5 million people in the UK alone.
And if you’re wondering what everyone else was watching on that sombre Bank Holiday, Popbitch reported Channel 4’s streaming service, All4, had one of its busiest days ever – mostly caused by people binge-watching The Inbetweeners.
