KETCHUM UK’S INCLUSION COUNCIL ‘SPOTLIGHT SERIES’ WITH STEVE WALTER
Ketchum UK’s Inclusion Council returns with another ‘spotlight series’, this month featuring Stephen Walter, Senior Account Director, who sheds light on his journey into PR and his role at Ketchum.
- Describe your role in 5 words or less.
Helping clients hit the headlines
- In a sentence, tell us about your career to date.
I was a journalist and national newspaper news editor but now I’m a specialist media consultant, who advises clients on how to get in the news, train them and their spokespeople to navigate any media situation, and help brands manage issues and crises.
- What motivated you to move from journalism to PR?
It was a couple of things really. I was fortunate to have my eyes opened to the world of PR while advising agencies on how to score good media coverage in my old life as a journalist. Also my wife, like me, is an ex-journalist turned PR consultant, and she never regretted her decision to switch careers. Having experienced a bit of the “light side”, I knew this was something I always wanted to get into, it was just a question of when and with the right agency. I’d reached a stage where I felt like I accomplished everything I wanted to do in journalism, having news edited at the Daily and Sunday Telegraph for four years, and I wanted a new challenge and lifestyle that had more of a work/life balance. Ketchum was an absolute no-brainer.
- What are some of the best parts of your role at Ketchum?
The variety of work, the people and – mainly – celebrating each other’s wins. There’s no hit quite like seeing a good headline that your team helped create. It’s a bit of an addiction really in me that has dragged over from my journalism career. No one celebrates an agency win as big as they do when you score a brilliant piece of big coverage around anything from a big campaign, creative idea, exec interview, new research or any kind of new business announcement.
- What do you know now that you wish you knew before starting your role in Ketchum?
I think I was quite fortunate because I had my eyes opened into what agency life was like before I made the switch. A lot of journalists get into PR for the wrong reasons, looking for what they perceive to be an easier and more structured life and then give up and go back to reporting because it’s what they know. Ultimately, you have to be prepared to change. Life is more structured, but work isn’t easier. There’s so much to learn, get better at, and so many strategic hoops to jump before anything gets signed off. I think I’m much more patient now than I was, having been used to coping with a daily cycle of news.
- What are your top tips for people thinking of a career change?
I guess I can only really speak to journalists looking to do what I did here. My advice is to do it while you’re still young and motivated to learn a new career from scratch because it’s a common misconception that all your skills are transferrable. I was certainly guilty – like many journalists – of openly talking in newsrooms about how easy a PR’s job must be, and how we liked to joke that they all hit the pub at 5 pm. Fortunately, I knew a lot of PRs through consultancy and my wife’s circle of friends who put me right. It’s only on Thursdays that we’re in the pub at 5pm… and you can still WhatsApp me “if urgent”.
- What are you most looking forward to in the future?
For me, it’s still always about the next big piece of work for a client that they want to score media coverage with. Particularly when it’s a proactive suggestion you put forward.
- What is your favourite work perk?
Without a doubt, it’s Ketchum’s insanely generous enhanced shared parental leave package. I became a father to twins, Emily and Jack, on Christmas Eve last year and I will be spending three months being their day-to-day lead parent when my wife returns to work in October. Ketchum shouldn’t be an outlier with this, but it is and its approach to flexible work, and ensuring inclusion and equality across the entire business, was a massive factor in my decision to choose them when the opportunity arose.
- What can the sector do to encourage diversity?
If we’re talking about this from diversifying the workforce, I see a lot of crossovers with journalism and PR in that both industries rely on contacts and relationships to fill roles. This is because, ultimately, both industries just want what they call “safe pairs of hands”. In other words – “can you vouch for this person”. It’s just so rare that anyone gets a job in both industries without knowing someone, who is – if we’re being honest – likely to be similar to ourselves. So one thing we could all do is change our thinking around that. We should all be doing more to take a chance on new recruits from any kind of background, to give them time to be trained, to get to know the job, rather than expect them to hit the ground running from day one. Beyond that, I’m afraid to say there are far more qualified people than me who have much better ideas about what we could and should be doing to encourage diversity – but what I’m trying to do more of is listen more, which I think is a good piece of advice for people in PR and beyond.
- When I’m not at my desk you’ll find me…
A year ago I’d have said on the golf course or in a pub garden. But now I’ll be changing nappies probably. My PB was 29 in one 24-hour sleep-deprived spell…
