Reputation Gurus

There is some interesting news this morning that deserves some comment.

First, the Wall Street Journal has a new editor — Marcus Brauchli was named managing editor, as Paul Steiger retires because he’s at the company’s mandatory retirement age. As the FT pointed out, he becomes managing editor at a time of historic transition for newspapers. Brauchli was in charge of the recent redesign of the paper, and so I’m sure he’ll have lots of other ideas of how to transform the industry.

Secondly, Conde Nast is launching a new glossy business magazine today called Portfolio, which is edited by Joanne Lipman. I have not yet seen a copy of this magazine (it may not hit UK newstands any time soon), but it sounds like an interesting read that could be a useful publication for helping to build and/or reinforce a company’s reputation. The news coverage that I’ve seen about the publication likens it to Vanity Fair … It will be interesting to see how this publication takes off.

Lastly, and this is also from the FT this morning, the UK foreign secretary Margaret Beckett launched a drive to ensure that British business focuses on corporate social responsibility, particularly when operating outside of the UK. They are encouraging British business to do this because, if they don’t, the “UK’s national reputation can be seriously damaged.” I’m interested to know what others think about this.

Here’s my take … I believe that all companies should have a strong CSR component, particularly when operating outside of their HQ country, and so I’m surprised that the UK government feels the need to mandate this approach. Perhaps US businesses should take note of this issue, as I’m sure they’d rather develop their own CSR programs without government intervention.