On Saturday I secured an in-depth interview for Jane Pye from headhunting and executive recruitment practice Ashley Hoyle.

But the perennial PR question that comes up is: “What is the value of such coverage?”

The Guardian boasts:

• A circulation of near 350,000
• A readership of 1.2m
• A very high percentage of ABC1s – not sure what I come under, if indeed I do register as an ABC.  I could be a “q” or “r” if such demarcations exist.

Advertising rates hover around the £50 per square cm, but can go as high as £90.

I would assume that to advertise on a full page is about £20,000 – £25,000, perhaps.

Then as a PR I could argue that editorial is much more valuable than advertising, so times by….

But then again what really counts is how it raises and improves the profile of Ashley Hoyle – very hard to determine.

And then there is the bottom line question: “Did the client get any inquiries or did it make there job easier when approaching a candidate?”

Then, I pitch, show my work and get asked, after a “very impressive” response:  “What was the benefit to the client?”

Thanks to Leo Benedictus for a great article though – intelligent and witty.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a directors’ conference organised by executive recruitment and assessment practice Ashley Hoyle.

Entitled “No Hiding Place on the Board” it featured speakers from the London Stock Exchange, Heny Boot (the property compamy), Mazars and Pannone.

Of particular interest was James Lister of Pannone talking about redundancy.  Even though employers can bemoan the weighting of employment law as being against them it is in many ways strongly for them.

If a company is restructuring it can effectively make its staff redundant with good cause for instance and not suffer any undue penalty.

James touched on the cynical way some lawyers make senior staff redundant but bring in junior staff at the same time: the job has been made redundant and the law recognises that a legal professional with two years’ experience is not doing the same job as a partner, even if it looks like it is a cost cutting exercise.

I had an enjoyable talk to Craig Slater of Altitude and Corgi Groups about social media and he made a resolution to ask his staff if they twitter.  Pannone was quick to pick up my twittering about James’ talk from the confernce and is now following me. (I wonder if they will pick this up with 24 hours, please leave a comment if you do?)

Once again thanks to Ashley Hoyle for being invited and being such good hosts.