Public Affairs 2.0

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It may be one too many glasses of champagne at this evening’s launch event at the Residence Palace, but we kind of like the new look European Voice paper and website. It’s at the very least a decent facelift for our favourite trade paper. The website has more than a hint of the Guardian Unlimited about it, but to be fair why reinvent the wheel. Especially if it’s a wheel that gets nominated for awards.

A slightly geeky web designer bloke (who we work with and love) pointed out that the “bevelled menu bar” is innovative in web design terms, which we take as a compliment as he did not design it. We were more interested that Tim and team are promising updates on the news as “we make it” (i.e. daily rather than every Thursday, assuming your EV is actually delivered on time) as well as policy sections featuring archived content. We also like the fact they’ve included a blog, something their parent publication has been pushing to good effect. It may get us actually reading the EV, rather than looking at who’s advertising in it!

As usual, the event was a great opportunity to meet competitors, talk shop and cringe at the back through Tim King’s somewhat laboured jokes. Thankfully there were some interesting people to talk to (other than ourselves), cute pics of a new born baby (that of the EV editor) and a decent band.

In any case, a good rebirth and a decent bash. Well done, EV team.

One question that occurs at the end of this post – why does the EPP insist on spending its money advertising to Brussels based lobbyists and communications people? After all, they must be the main audience for the EV’s website and paper. A subject for another post perhaps.