PR staff and agencies working for the four companies due to merge into
the new telecoms and cable colossus, Cable and Wireless Communications,
are awaiting news of how the deal will affect them.
More than 100 press and PR staff work for the four firms, telecoms
company Mercury and cable companies Nynex CableComms, Bell Cablemedia
and Videotron.
Nynex CableComms has 82 press and PR staff. The department is headed by
executive director, corporate communications, Allen Saunders. Mercury
has 19 press and PR staff, under marketing director Simon Esberger, Bell
Cablemedia has six, headed by director of corporate communications
Denise Lewis. Videotron has three PR staff under marketing operations
director Nick Caunter.
The four companies also use a range of agencies. Mercury works with DPA
PR, The Practice, Biss Lancaster and APCO; Nynex CableComms uses Square
Mile; Bell Cablemedia has Jackie Cooper PR and Lowe Bell Financial, and
Videotron uses Nelson Bostock Communications. Financial PR for Cable and
Wireless is handled by Brunswick.
A C&W spokesman said there would be an ‘elimination of duplication in
centralised services’ but stressed that it was too early to say what
would happen to PR staff.
