My Media - Geraldine Hennessey, Managing Director, Resident PR
28 April 09
Newspapers
With my job I have to read most of the Irish newspapers, specifically the Irish Times and the Irish Independent. I don’t buy the tabloids everyday but I buy them from time to time. My husband buys The Guardian everyday and I always steal the G2 magazine out of it. It has some really interesting and entertaining features. I really like Hadley Freeman who writes fashion and lifestyle articles for The Guardian. Her articles are down to earth and funny, not something you come across too often in fashion writing.
The area of PR that I specialise in is property and interiors so I have to read all of those sections of the papers. The Irish Times property supplement is excellent.
The Irish Times Magazine used to do an interiors page but unfortunately they seem to have dropped it. The Sunday Times does a good interiors section and I particularly like the Style Magazine in the Sunday Times.
At the weekend I buy the Sunday Independent, the Sunday Business Post, Sunday Tribune and The Sunday Times. I particularly enjoy the Gaurdian and the Observer. The Guardian and Observer supplements are fantastic, they have excellent food, interiors and fashion articles each week as well as great interviews and really interesting features.
Magazine.
I am a total magazine junky, I buy everything. Image is great and The Gloss has been a very welcome edition to the Irish market in the last couple of years, it is very well designed. For personal interest I buy a lot of fashion magazines, including Vogue and In Style. The best Irish interior magazines are Image Interiors and House & Home, I subscribe to them monthly. I also get an excellent UK interiors magazine called Living Etc.
Books:
I don’t get around to reading books until I go on holidays! In general I buy novels and biographies. The last book I read was 'Eating for England' by Nigel Slater. It is a great description of British food. It reminded me of many things I hadn't eaten since the 80s - probably best forgotten! I like his conversational style of writing, it's entertaining and very easy to read.
Television
My favourite programme of all time, very predictably, is Sex And The City. I still love watching the re-runs. I also enjoy Mad Men, it’s a drama series set in an advertising firm in New York in the 1960’s.
On Irish television I keep up-to-date with programmes that I might have clients on, such as, the Afternoon Show. From a work perspective I like to see what areas they are covering. I love Grand Designs with Kevin McCloud on Channel 4 and recently there was an Irish version on RTE 1 called Designs for Life, which was very good. Also for the pure entertainment factor I watch Brides of Franc on Sundays. It is always great for a laugh.
I generally look at Six One or the 9 o’clock news on RTE most days, Iwatch TV3 News also. I don’t like Sky news, it is always on in the background wherever you go. It just repeats the same things over and over and is very sensationalist.
Radio
I listen to Morning Ireland, recently described as Mourning Ireland, which was a bit apt cause there was so much bad news. There were a couple of times recently I just had to switch it off because it was too depressing. I like Ryan Tubridy on RTE Radio 1 at 9.00 am. I also like to listen to Dave Fanning in the evening. I also flick between The Last Word on Today FM and The Right Hook on Newstalk 106-108 FM. On a Sunday I always tune into the Businesss on Radio 1, John Murray does a really good job.
Advertisements
I am quite cynical about advertising, I see it through the ‘sell’ as such, they are trying to sell me something. I like ones that are entertaining and cleverly designed – I love the Coors Light snow scene and the music is really good but I really shouldn’t say that as people might know it’s my husband composing the music for it. He’s in a band called Saso!
New Media
One Irish site I like is www.homebug.net, it's a really good interiors blog from Zita Spring. For getaways I love www.i-escape.com which has excellent reviews and images of boutique hotels around the world, it’s really useful.
I generally use the web for information and research rather than entertainment. And I think an awful lot of women are like that, it is more of a male thing to search the internet for entertainment. I also like to listen to podcasts a personal favourite being Gift Grub with Mario Rosenstock on 2day FM.
