Former NFU Cymru communications advisers Sarah Jones, a Member of the Guild, and Awel Morris have teamed up to help rural businesses promote themselves.
Calling their partnership News Peg, Sarah and Awel have more than 30 years’ experience in PR and marketing between them.
“Having delivered a high profile, first class, public relations service for many years to larger organisations, we are now offering smaller rural businesses bespoke help and advice to succeed in building their brand and promoting their business,” says Sarah.
During her career, Sarah has managed the PR and press teams for Carmarthenshire County Council, Age Concern in Wales and, for the past 12 years, NFU Cymru. She continues to edit the organisation’s magazine Farming Wales on a freelance basis.
“Awel and I spent many years suggesting to rural businesses that they need to promote themselves and the role they play in producing the nation’s food,” says Sarah. “But we appreciate that these farming related businesses don’t necessarily have the PR skills that we have, so decided to set up News Peg.
“We can help companies from ice-cream makers to rural surveyors with all aspects of their PR and marketing, from writing news releases and getting started on social media, to communications strategies and media training to help these smaller, rural businesses get into the headlines.”
Awel, a fluent Welsh speaker, comes from a farming family background in Montgomeryshire and now lives in Bala. She has worked for Wales YFC, most recently with the Rhug Organic Farm Shop and Estate, and previously at NFU Cymru, working alongside Sarah for seven years.
The name ‘News Peg’ was chosen because in news journalism this is what makes a story timely or newsworthy now. “You always want to have a news peg for your story and there isn’t an obvious one, a good PR practitioner will look for one,” says Sarah. “It will make the story stronger and gives readers, viewers, listener more reason to pay attention and understand how it connects to the ‘here and now’.”
News Peg is on Twitter and Facebook and Sarah can be contacted directly by email or via the Guild’s Farming Media Centre webpages.
