Staff Spotlight - Kate Gardiner, Operations Manager, PA Mediapoint

Giving users exclusive access to PA Media’s breaking news stories at the same time as the media, PA Mediapoint is our unrivalled news monitoring service for PR and communication professionals across the UK and Ireland. Whether you would like to stay abreast of top trending news stories, generate publicity or manage a PR crisis, it can be the critical difference when a story breaks.

In this month’s staff spotlight, we are pleased to introduce Operations Manager, Kate Gardiner.

What is your job role at Mediapoint and what does a typical working day entail for you?

I’m Operations Manager for PA Mediapoint and also the product owner for PA’s Press Release Distribution service. My days can be really varied and can involve working with the Product team on improvements to the Mediapoint suite of products or press release service, setting up and onboarding new partners, liaising with the commercial team on editorial content and product developments, developing content and case studies for marketing or imagining new product ideas to make Mediapoint even more valuable to our customers.

How would you describe PA Mediapoint in one sentence?

An invaluable tool for any non-media organisation to stay on top of the news agenda and gain maximum impact in their communications.

Tell us about your career journey, both at PA Mediapoint and what led you to working here?

I joined PA in 2011 as a Sport editorial trainee following 10 years working in SAP consultancy. I completed my two-year traineeship and became a sport reporter for PA’s main news wire and covered events including the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, Euro 2012 to name a few, along with countless football matches and press conferences. I then switched to become a sport sub-editor for several years before moving to PA Mediapoint after the Covid lockdown. It’s really helpful to understand both the editorial process and the aims of PA’s non-media customers in my current role.

Favourite thing about your job?

My favourite thing about my job is working with colleagues in the product development team to improve Mediapoint with new features to make it an even more vital tool.

What’s been the biggest changes in the PR industry that you have noticed?

There is so much noise online and so many emerging technologies that PRs have their work cut out more than ever to find cut through with their story or campaign and secure coverage. This does not, however, minimise the importance of a well-crafted and well-timed press release being the cornerstone of a campaign.

How do you see the industry changing within the next five years?

AI (artificial intelligence) is already making a huge impact and cannot be ignored. It will be interesting to see the tools that are developed in the next few years to help both newsrooms and PR agencies and how this will change the media landscape.

Tell us a bit about yourself outside of work? What hobbies do you enjoy?   

I love running and am a member of my local running club. I’m usually training for at least one race at any given time, as long as I’m not injured! I’ve also recently started tennis lessons and I’m learning Spanish too.

Keep posted for our next Staff Spotlight next month!

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