Like its new model, coverage of the launch of Volvo's YCC (Your Concept Car) was small but almost perfectly formed. The Volvo PR team succeeded in ticking all the boxes on the successful launch checklist: innovative product, new research statistics, celebrity endorsement (if you include the CBI's Digby Jones) and glossy photos...

BT took the market by storm last week, confounding the critics with the purchase of global data networking organisation Infonet, followed by robust second quarter results . "BT rides broadband wave to £1bn mark"(Western Mail, 12/11). The acquisition initially generated a cautious response, but placed within context of BT's notable growth in new wave services, analysts welcomed the addition...

The momentous day arrived: "another important date in The Times's long and extraordinary history"(Times Editor, 1/11), November 1st, the day that saw the reputed broadsheet turn compact. Assurances followed that the paper's tradition and quality would remain unaffected, its new format ensuring "The Times will continue to flourish and to perform its unique role in British society"(Times Editor, 1/11)...

Last week's ruling wiping out a couple's £384,000 debt leaves the consumer credit sector with a PR problem growing as fast as the compound interest loans it pedals. The landmark ruling, which could challenge the sector's very raison d'etre, was met with a resounding silence from London North Securities and other lenders, leaving consumer groups and MPs to launch an uncontested attack on the home credit market, its dubious business methods and impenetrable small print...

According to CEO Meg Whitman, eBay has hit the "knee of the curve"and become a "mainstream shopping destination"(Evening Standard, 21/10). The strong third quarter results supported Ms Whitman's language of impetus, describing the company's "incredible acceleration"(Evening Standard, 21/10) and "excellent momentum"(register.co.uk, 21/10). "eBay surges on 'spectacular' UK market"(Times, 21/10)...

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) wielded a double-edged sword as it announced legal actions against 'major uploaders' of its music. Prolific online pirates had been warned that their activity was 'illegal and harmful' via the group's automated messaging system. "We have resisted legal action … [and] done everything we can to raise awareness", asserted BPI chairman Peter Jamieson (Guardian, 8/10)...

Working Title's latest release, Wimbledon, got no further than deuce in weekend reviews. The romantic comedy (rom-com) / sports film drew praise and criticism in almost equal measure, with the authenticity of the tennis and London setting attracting most comment. "Nothing … rings true, and the makers have no interest in examining the minds of professional sports people"commented The Observer (26/9), taking it all rather seriously...

Five major players of the British Beer and Pub Association ran the media gauntlet last week, announcing a voluntarily imposed smoking ban across their collective 22,000 premises. Punters were informed that their "Last gasp in the bar"(FT, 11/9) would take place before the end of 2005, while 80% of floor space in a third of UK bars, would be smoke-free by 2009...

The end of the British summer would never be quite complete without a "furious public row"over the state of the education system (Guardian, 20/8). The country's examination results provided, as always, a surfeit of axes to grind, and a plethora of numbers to support or deny any premise or allegation...

A 'leaked' e-mail about Cherie Blair's lucrative US speaking engagements gave the media the perfect excuse to Cherie-bash and pad the columns in a quiet week. Mrs Blair was primarily viewed as capitalising on her privileged position, a perception reinforced by freebie holidays, and that embarrassing Burberry incident...

The last eight days provided Lastminute.com with a roller-coaster ride of extraordinary proportion. The week started with the high of its innovative broadband-based restaurant booking system, "BT / Lastminute's BB Restaurant System"(ispreview.co.uk, 3/8). Then came the dip: "Lastminute axes 14% of workforce"(bbc.co.uk, 5/8). Then a small rise: "Lastminute not as bad as expected"(digitallook.com, 5/8). And then the fall-out: "Lastminute lost value at £106m"(Guardian, 7/8)...

Another week, another tabloid witch hunt. Into the media spotlight moved violent video games, hailed by the Daily Mail as the root of all evil. Its "Murder by Playstation"headline (29/7), recounting the brutal killing of Stefan Pakeerah by a Manhunt devotee, sparked a media storm that prompted the removal of the Rockstar video game from retailers' shelves...

There was consensus that Alistair Darling's White Paper ' The Future of Rail' was both overdue and a welcome addition to the railway debate. This despite the fact that the findings represented not only "Shake-up No 5 in just 7 years"for rail policy (Mirror, 16/7), but also a glaringly apparent u-turn for Labour's Strategic Rail Authority...

The Sun's attempt to apologise to Liverpool after its shameful reporting of the Hillsborough disaster 15 years ago could not have backfired more spectacularly. The front page mea culpa was seen by many in Liverpool as a cynical attempt to revive low sales on Merseyside, and turn Scousers against their new boy wonder, Wayne Rooney. In their wholesale rejection of The Sun's olive branch, local newspapers and football websites revealed the rekindled strength of Liverpudlian hatred towards the UK's supposed favourite newspaper...

"All in all, it was a bloody week for the food-retail sector", concluded The Sunday Times (4/7). Few would disagree that Sainsbury's endured a difficult few days in the media spotlight, along with rivals Marks & Spencer and Morrisons. However, out of the furore emerged a careful optimism. Sainsbury's story was marked by a clean break, which provided a positive mandate for change...

The sighs of relief from Canary Wharf were audible when the Barclay brothers' £665 million acquisition of the Telegraph Group was announced. The delighted Telegraph CEO Jeremy Deedes took the lead in hailing his new owners as a safe and successful pair of hands which embodied conservative principles, and who would manage by evolution, rather than revolution...

It was a less than promising start for Merrill Lynch. Its defence against Stephanie Villalba's compensation claim for alleged sexual discrimination, unequal pay and unfair dismissal was lacklustre in the face of the relentless media headlines: Merrill Lynch accused of 'institutional sexism'"(Guardian, 12/6), "Banker 'too scared to complain'"(Telegraph, 15/6) and "Another case of sexism in the City"(Times, 18/6)...

Health Secretary John Reid clearly lit a political touchpaper when he appeared to condone smoking by what used to be termed the 'working' class. His opposition to a blanket ban on smoking in public sparked a debate that encompassed the class system, civil rights, and the nanny state...

A coup d'état revealed itself last week as Spurs announced the capture of French national coach Jacques Santini, just days before the onslaught of Euro 2004. "Spurs chief has hit the Jacques-Pot"(dailyrecord.co.uk, 4/6)...

Coverage of Napster's launch in the UK showed signs of a rush job. The surprise element of its immediate launch ensured high-profile coverage in the national press, with headlines that rivals in the aggressive internet music market would kill for. "First blood to Napster in the battle for online music sales"was typical coverage in the Daily Telegraph (21/5), while The Times noted that "the unexpected early start gives Napster what could prove to be a crucial headstart in the £1 billion British music market"(21/5)...

Marks & Spencer saviour 'Lucky' Luc Vandevelde walked away from his charge last week amid criticism that he had played away from home too often to save the UK's high street icon from a disappointing relapse into dismal sales and sliding share value. Although the official M&S announcement asserted that Vandevelde's departure was due to prior "personal commitments" to Carrefour, the terse statement with no thank you note, nor best wishes for the future, belied a different story...

Sub-editors were quick to spot the headline opportunities in John Scarlett's appointment as the new 'C' at MI6. "'C' is for suspected crony in spying HQ'"was the Sunday Times' reaction to the controversial appointment (9/5) and reflected the broad thrust of coverage in tabloids and broadsheets alike...

Dixon Group CEO John Clare handled the sensitive issue concerning the closure of 106 high-street Dixon stores with slick efficiency. Targeted stores were prolonged loss-makers, affected personnel would be 'redeployed', a profit-improvement plan and continued investigation into new store formats were in place...

Another week, more bad headlines for the Abbey. An AGM halfway through a painful restructuring programme, shareholder disquiet over executive pay and corporate rebranding, and a profit warning to boot, was never going to generate glowing press coverage, but Abbey made it even worse...

British Airways' announcement that it was cancelling 1,000 flights was, thankfully, not a repeat performance of its PR nightmare in August, when thousands of disgruntled passengers were stranded at Heathrow, and it was dubbed "the world's least favourite airline"by the politer newspapers (Daily Telegraph, 25/8). Last week's news generated no more than a glimmer of interest in the nationals, with BA's rationale for the cancellations - the need to improve operational performance and maintain the robustness of its schedule - uppermost in reporting...

Financial Results

Reporting of events leading to and including Beverley Hughes' resignation actually did the UK media proud. Far from deteriorating into a xenophobic clamour against illegal immigrants (although some tabloids inevitably went there), overall the media coverage honed in on more heavy-weight targets: Beverley Hughes, David Blunkett and Tony Blair...

If the success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ, which opened in the UK last week, is to be measured in either box office turnover, or by provoking headlines and debate, then the film must have its place among the cinematic greats. US earnings in just one month have already reached $300million , "not bad for a subtitled indie film spoken entirely in dead languages, retelling a story that everyone already knows"(The Times 20/3)...

It was open season on the store card market, and General Electric Consumer Finance in particular, when the Office of Fair Trading announced its investigation last week. High profile and negative coverage captured headlines and front pages alike. "Massive blitz on rip-off store cards"(ThisisLondon.co.uk, 15/3)and "Store cards discredited"(Mirror, 19/3) heralded tales of extortionate interest rates, confused consumers, burgeoning debt and GECF's market dominance...

John Lewis, viewed as the "bellwether for the British retail industry"(tiscali.co.uk, 12/3), announced solid results last week, together with an £87 million bonus for its employee 'partners'. The 140-year old mutually-owned organisation lauded the performance of its Waitrose supermarket business as "outstanding", while offering praise for its department stores, which made a profit despite 2003's "difficult trading conditions"(Evening Standard, 11/3)...

The McDonalds PR team had its lines carefully rehearsed for the announcement that its supersized portions were being discontinued. Against a tricky background of UK legislative threats, US litigation cases, rising obesity, and a vociferous healthy-eating lobby, the global fast food concern succeeded in communicating the message that it was promoting salads, yoghurt and low-fat milk as well as Big Macs and fries, and that individuals, not fast food outlets, were responsible for their calorie intake...

Ann Winterton's 'joke' about sharks and Chinese cocklers did little to put clear blue water between the Tories' old racist image and its new policy of inclusiveness. Just one week after Michael Howard's Burnley speech, when he denounced the British National Party and emphasised his multi-racial roots, he was forced to take disciplinary action against the politically incorrect face of Conservatism...

Tesco's announcement of its bid for Adminstore, the London chain of Europa, Cullens and Harts convenience stores, was a predictably noisy affair. The £54 million bid to increase its share of the convenience store sector, seen as the next battleground of the giant food retailers, prompted squeals of protest from the Big Food Group and unleashed a stream of unflattering comment about the Tesco "juggernaut that smashes over anything in its way"(Telegraph, 25/1)...

Equal and opposing forces raged last week with the release of the Royal Bank of Scotland's annual results. While the City, analysts, shareholders and the Taxman's coffers applauded the RBS's record £7bn profit (equivalent to £227 per second), consumer groups, politicians and union representatives condemned the results as 'profiteering' at the expense of debt-ridden consumers and undervalued employees ." Cashing in on their customers?" (Scotsman, 20/2)...

Mega mergers are returning with style. The latest tale of two giants includes a menagerie of iconic beasties, a mouse named Mickey and a lion destined to be king. But all is not well in Disney's land. Times have been hard, the herd has been weakened by infighting., Pixar characters like Nemo the clownfish have gone away and the Comcast shark is moving in for the kill...

Sporting legends, best friends, feuding enemies, money, reputations and allegations of corruption and dirty tricks - publicly fought for the sake of … a horse. Hollywood blockbuster, or a week at Old Trafford?..

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary launched a characteristically noisy campaign against the " numbnuts" Brussels' ruling forcing it to repay money received from Belgium's publicly-owned Charleroi airport on the grounds that it constituted illegal state aid. His aggressive vow to "sue the arse off the Commission"(Sunday Times, 8/2) and launch tit-for-tat complaints against rival airlines led commentators to seriously question the wisdom of the ruling...

The lavish launch of London's 2012 Olympic bid at the Royal Albert Hall was heralded a huge success. Although the glitz of the event, the star-studded cast of sporting heroes, and the technical / logistical details which accompanied the presentation, were appreciatively relayed in the press, it was the open and deliberate political support which ensured the occasion's fundamental triumph . "Britain United"(Daily Mail, 17/1)...

Cunard ran a tight PR ship for last week's launch of the Queen Mary 2. In spite of the £550m price tag and the earlier deaths of 15 people at the St Nazaire builders' yard, the cruise liner's superlative statistics and luxurious fittings, laced with a heavy dose of royals, celebrities and British patriotism, ensured strongly positive coverage of the naming ceremony...

That adverse weather disrupted the New Year events in several major British cities was disappointing and unfortunate. That it led to the complete cancellation of Edinburgh's Hogmanay bash was lamented as " the night that never was" (Guardian, 2/1/04), a " washout" (Express, 3/1/04), a " fiasco" (Herald, 2/1/04) and a " damp squib" (Independent, 2/1/04)...