Griffith U wants to restructure its Office of Marketing Communications. This does not appear not be about cost-cutting, the university says “there are no plans to reduce the overall number of continuing positions.” Rather it is about functional change, because focusing “on traditional media” is no longer reliable in reaching target audiences.

Good-o but what makes the plan courageous is the idea of ending an agency arrangement.  The change prop paper states that now, “communication officers are ‘tethered’ to their assigned academic group and over time, this relationship has morphed into a client-service approach in which the priority for communication officers is to service staff in the academic group which steers the focus away from research outcomes and reputation.

“The client-service model does not adequately prioritise strategic communications or newsworthy storytelling … Contemporary communication teams need to detect, delve, produce and curate engaging multimedia content.” the change plan states.

Good-o, again. But what happens when the dean of alchemy does not get the media statement they want when they want it? Or a recruitment campaign does not address a struggling faculty’s fears.