I spent a very interesting and enjoyable afternoon today with three fellow Fellows of CiB - a small but very effective association known as the British Association of Communicators in Business and soon to become the Institute of Internal Communications.

I was awarded Fellowship of CiB in 2007. So today it was my turn to give something back and help assess applications for this year's crop of Fellows. I hope they will all feel as pleased and honoured as I was to get this recognition.

But the reason for blogging tonight is because of a very brief conversation which took place over lunch.

We were reminiscing about early careers, and discussing how so many of CiB's members and Fellows came into the internal and business communications world via a stint in local newspapers. This is very much the heritage of CiB's membership - although it is changing a lot now, the association traditionally represented the interests of 'industrial editors', the people who write and edit organisations' own newspapers, company magazines, staff newsletters and the like, and most of these people have obviously had previous lives in journalism.

The question hung in the air: "So would we recommend such a career path to a young person today?"

Everyone went a bit quiet, while we muttered things about how many changes we had seen in local media and how worried we were for its future.

And tonight I read that MPs have started getting worried about this too.

Enders Analysis, a media consultancy, has warned that up to half of Britain's 1,300 regional titles could close within five years. Threats come in all shapes and sizes (quite a lot them web-related of course), but the big issue that caught my attention is the threat from council-run freesheets.

You'll know the sort of thing I mean - that glossy news magazine/tabloid that drops through your door and tells you what's going on and how wonderful life is in your neighbourhood.

I had not realised that these freesheets were causing so much damage to the local press, but the cross-party culture, media and sports committee of MPs has warned that such publications:

"pose as, and compete with, local commercial newspapers and are misleading to the public..."

You can download a copy of its 'Future for Local and Regional Media' report here (PDF).

The committee chairman is also quoted in the FT as saying:

"While it is important that local authorities communicate with their citizens, it is unacceptable that councils can set up publications in direct competition to local newspapers and that act as a vehicle for political propaganda".

Apparently the issue may get investigated by the OFT. It's something I shall watch more carefully in the coming months.

In the meantime, I didn't raise with my CiB colleagues today the obvious irony of the situation. How so many ex-newspaper reporters, now CiB members forging their careers as editors of pubic and private sector freesheets in the name of effective internal communications or PR, are potentially contributing to the destruction of the nursery slopes, the very best training ground they ever had... 

So I'm not sure we could even suggest such a career path to young communicators anymore. My guess is the industrial editing future belongs to those people who can bring journalism skills from a very different, largely digitally-led, background. They will be the CiB Fellows of the future.

Just back from the first day of Ecobuild 2010, and a fantastic day meeting old friends, colleagues, journalists and many clients past and present.

The show, billed as "the biggest event in the world for sustainable design, construction and the built environment", is definitely one of the highlights of our year, and a fruitful source of ideas for this blog.

There is much I could explore in terms of the exhibition this year (many more products, lots more greenwash), or the marketing strategies on display (including some interesting examples of how not to promote your organisation at an event like this), but for now let me just tell you about a short debate I sat in on this afternoon in the Arena, on the issue of the media's role in promoting sustainability.

The panel was Eve Pollard (former tabloid editor), Alastair McGowan (impressionist, TV star and environmental campaigner) and Peter Bazalgette (of Endemol/Big Brother fame). They were chaired by the ever-sceptical Andrew Neil who revelled in his role as devil's advocate.

The debate confirmed my suspicion that the last people on earth you should ask about communicating sustainability are a bunch of media celebs:

• Andrew Neil focused heavily on Climategate and other examples of eco mis-selling as justification for unlimited cynicism,
• Alastair McGowan sadly failed to counter any of this, instead complaining that the media don't get behind sustainability as much as they should because of "fear of facing our mortality",
• Eve Pollard launched her big idea that Ecobuild exhibitors should all be marketing their products to women via glossy consumer mags because "women are inherently sustainable",
• and Peter Bazalgette insisted that the media's role was to question and interrogate any use of the word 'sustainable' and we should not expect the media to 'promote' anything.

My view? Well, yes I did take the opportunity to rant back at the panel, I admit. 

They all had some interesting points, especially about the damage that is done by greenwash.

But my view was that we should all be a lot more positive. While they were sitting around debating whether green was good and whether the media should or could get involved, the rest of us were getting on with it.

Hardly a day goes by without me seeing a new 'green living', 'green building' or 'green business' column in a paper, feature in a magazine or programme on TV or radio. Most parts of the media are very interested in examples of environmental sustainability, especially when it touches our day-to-day lives.

Journalists are often just as excited as we are by the sorts of innovations we saw at Ecobuild. They are not tuning out to ponder their mortality. They are not dismissing genuine news stories out of world-weary cynicism. They are open to ideas and examples of sustainability in practice - and I for one was very proud of the efforts and achievements of the many people I saw at Ecobuild who were marketing and promoting their work to the media with real flair and enthusiasm.

A recent phone call to my office prompted me to do some digging for Footings.

The style of the call might be familiar to you if you work for a trade association or membership organisation of any sort, and particularly if you're part of the construction industry. We get these calls about once a month:

"Hi, how are you?! [Gushing enthusiasm from stranger on phone].

"I've been talking to your colleague Jim and he really wanted me to give you a call. We publish a very high quality journal that goes to all the key decision makers in the construction industry and my editor really wants to run a big feature on your Association. What issues are of most concern to you at the moment? Zero carbon agenda? Building Regulations? Health and safety must be a big one.... [Blah, blah]

"Well, we can offer you a full page/two pages/six pages of free editorial.... No cost to your Association, but great coverage in a glossy quarterly that's read by 40,000 senior decision makers - all the top specifiers, housebuilders, RSLs, housing associations, local authorities, major contractors, special sub-contractors, architects, QSs, surveyors, structural, mechanical and civil engineers, government agencies, public utilities, materials manufacturers...." [Blah, blah]

If you're anything like me, major alarm bells are ringing by now.

• I've never heard of this publication before (it has one of those generic titles like UK Construction World, Building National, Property Now etc).
• I've never heard of the publisher either.
• It's claiming a circulation well in excess of what we'd expect, covering pretty much the WHOLE industry and all its diverse disciplines.
• It's not got an ABC certificate of course.
• Oh, and guess what, they want to promote the fact that you're "collaborating" with them on this "exciting feature" to all the Association's members in order to invite them to advertise. They may even want a list of your members in exchange for this "great opportunity".

Welcome to the trade mag version of vanity publishing, and its close cousin 'support advertising' features.

Fed up with these calls and curious about what was going on with this particular rogue publication (which has recently changed its title again), last week I had a really helpful chat with a bone fide publisher who knew the set-up. He explained that these tactics tend to cluster around three types of features:

1. Project features about a particular building project, where the developer writes some blurb about the project and all the companies, contractors and suppliers involved on the project are invited to place advertising saying how pleased they are to be associated with Building X and its developer.
2. Event features about a major exhibition like Interbuild, Ecobuild or a conference, where the event organiser writes the blurb and all the exhibitors are approached to advertise in support.
3. Trade association/membership organisation features, where the Association writes some blurb and all the members are encouraged to advertise in support.

You get the picture.

As a publishing model, it can occasionally work well for all parties, he told me. Sometimes.

BUT there are major dangers:

• If the sales team can't sell enough advertising around the feature, it won't get published at all, so you've wasted your time.
• There is usually very little information about who receives these publications, and readership numbers are not the same as actual copies distributed (assume a standard multiplier of x 4).
• The quality of the content can be shockingly bad.
• The ad sales techniques can get very pushy, which is also bad news if the Association then receives complaints from its members. They may feel obligated or bullied into advertising in a magazine where they would or should not spend their money.
• And there are (allegedly) cases where a publisher has simply taken the advertising revenue, published enough copies of the magazine to give one to each of the advertisers, and pocketed the rest of the cash. Illegal, immoral and pretty much invisible fraud.

I'm afraid our sector has its fair share of these sorts of publishers. If you call me, I'll give you the names of our prime suspects.

So here's the bottom line: No up-to-date ABC certificate, no editorial and certainly no list of our clients' members. Sorry.