The Robey Warshaw of PR

After 15 years of scoops and scandals, says Oliver Shah, it is time to say goodbye.

The big beast of the Sunday Times business desk announced this yesterday, but he shan’t be disappearing from the scene.

He is launching Newcome Advisory which will “provide senior media advice to boards and investors, and connect interesting people”.

Well, he sure knows the media and lots of interesting people, so why not.

One question so obvious that he will have mulled it at length is this: Ollie Shah at The Sunday Times gets his phone call returned, always.

Oliver from Newcome, well, some people will think they just don’t need him.

Brunswick or Teneo already offer perfectly good service. Why pay another agency even more fees?

And some will remember the old Ollie, the one who really pissed him and his client off, and will return his phone call only on days when Jupiter is in line with Mercury.

Who might his clients be? Well, there’s money to be made advising the “colourful” types large agencies don’t want to go anywhere near.

That’s a valuable niche, but there may be a living-with-yourself-in-the-morning quandary.

Shah isn’t looking particularly in that area; he is thinking much bigger fry than that. He intends to compete at the very top level.

Shah’s skill set is large. (People who think journalists can only do journalism are irritating.)

At the same time, just because you can write the ins and outs of a big merger deal, doesn’t mean you’re any good at getting it over the line in the first place.

His point is that the big agencies are very good at what they do, but that lots of CEOs want someone independent they can trust and access at all times.

Someone who will give them creative and bespoke solutions to things, rather than the same old thing. This is the model Robey Warshaw bought to investment banking, but translated into PR.

Maybe he has other niches lined up. Certainly it seems to be the case that in PR these days you either have to be global and multifunctional or a specialist.

And just knowing a lot about how the UK media works is much less valuable than it used to be, since the traditional UK media is dying.

Shah is thinking big, past of all these little conundrums.

Maybe if he succeeds, a big agency will decide it needs Newcome as an adjunct to its usual offering. Or else the big agencies decide they need to up their game, that business as usual is no longer quite cutting it.

Not many hacks could carry all this off. But if you were going to pick one who might give it a good shot…

There is every reason to wish Shah the best of luck.