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Paul Williamson from Deloitte »Newspapers have always played a central role in making and breaking our political leaders.
When I was growing up in the 1970s and 80s, there was never any doubt about which papers supported which party, and numerous red-top proclamations, such as “It Was The Sun Wot Won It� and “The Sun Backs Blair,� mark more recent key moments in British political history.
Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson fully understood the power of the media and made utilising it to its fullest extent one of the key elements of the ‘New Labour Project.’
Three successful election campaigns and a decade in Government were the results of this strategy, and there was a great deal of expectation that David Cameron would take up this media baton as he attempted to lead the Conservatives back to power.
To his credit, he hasn’t been shy in putting himself about, and he has charged straight back into the fray on his return from his summer holidays, but a couple of things appear to be getting in his way, with the first of which, perhaps surprisingly, being the new Prime Minister.
It was a widely-held view that the media would have many reasons to dislike like the dour, formidable Gordon Brown and would turn instead towards the more immediately accessible Mr Cameron, but having dealt with some very big issues since moving into Number Ten, Mr Brown has received a far warmer and more sustained welcome from the media than perhaps even he had hoped for.
“The Brown Bounce� will inevitably fall away as time passes, but a rather larger problem for Mr Cameron remains - how he is going to get his message over without the help of a cohort of sympathetic newspapers?
Traditional Tory supporters like the Mail, Sun and Times seem either lukewarm towards him or actively support Labour, whilst even the dyed-in-the-wool Telegraph doesn’t seem to want to commit to him until its suspicions about where he is taking its readers’ beloved party are allayed.
As a former PR man, Mr Cameron undoubtedly knows that, however good your message, if you don’t have the means of getting it across effectively to your audiences, it isn’t going to be heard.
The battle to win newspaper proprietors’ and editors’ hearts and minds will be hard-fought by all, but if he harbours realistic hopes of winning the next election, it’s a battle that David Cameron can not afford to lose.
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