In conversation with Tim Cobb

As part of our series of Spotlight Suppers Journalist Miranda Birch interviewed former journalist, Cobb PR chief and Chamber member Tim Cobb. Here's what she discovered about the Brighton businessman.

 Childhood and school: Tim grew up ‘with newspapers all over the kitchen table’ and as long as he can remember, he only ever wanted to be in journalism. His grandfather worked as a printer at a local newspaper; his father was a journalist entrepreneur who set up the magazine ‘Ports and Terminals’ and his mum worked on the Eastbourne Herald. That is where his parents met and, as Tim puts it, ‘bizarrely the Eastbourne Herald is also where I met my wife.’

Family ties aside, why journalism? ‘The excitement. I remember my mum driving me to school and when an ambulance or fire engine siren went past, she would immediately divert from the school journey to follow it. And there we’d go, in her clapped out old Morris.’ And, being a late arrival didn’t appear to irritate his teachers. Firstly, they knew his mum worked at the Herald. Secondly, the teachers seemed relaxed, ‘possibly because I was a middling to average student, so they weren’t anxious about my being late in class.’
Tim’s first memory of being a wordsmith goes back to when he was 14 and a pupil at Eastbourne Grammar School. One day he and a group of friends wandered over to a neighbouring park and trampled all over the flower beds. The keeper in the park spotted them and frogmarched them off back to school. They were then meant to express their remorse by writing to the head gardener. Facing this task, Tim decided to trawl through the family’s Roget’s Thesaurus to find the longest possible words to put in his letter of apology. Words such as ‘munificent’ and ‘verisimilitude’ and ‘inculcate’. The recipient obviously didn’t appreciate Tim’s efforts and Tim found himself outside the Headteacher’s office being threatened with the cane.
In his LinkedIn profile, Tim Cobb is honest about school: ‘I found GCSEs challenging, A-levels very challenging and decided that studying was not for me. I wanted to earn some money and went straight into the world of journalism.’

First job: At the time Tim was embarking on his career there was a ‘two tier system’ for budding journalists.  Local newspapers were considered the elite and the first step on the path to working on a national newspaper.   Magazines by contrast, were deemed to be decidedly ‘second division’. Tim’s goal was to work for a national newspaper, so he applied for around 100 local newspaper jobs, including one in North Wales. When he was an offered an interview, Tim was happy to make the trip – only to discover that an ability to speak fluent Welsh was a prerequisite. ‘I learned to read application forms properly after that.’
 
Having failed to get a job with a local newspaper, Tim was taken on by the magazine ‘Commercial Motor’. By his own admission, he had no interest in the motor industry but he did it anyway. Writing articles about trucks and articulated lorries eventually gave him enough experience to move to the local newspapers. He took a 75% pay cut to do so but soon branched out. He spent the next few years working variously with The Argus, The Independent, The Times, The Sunday Times and a week on the Sunday Express as part of their investigative team.  At the end of it he was offered a permanent staff job.  This was very unusual.  But Tim decided not to accept it because he didn’t like the paper or its editorial policy.  The editor phoned Tim to say that nobody ever turned down a job with him and that Tim would never find work in the national press.  Thankfully this prophecy didn’t come true because the next month, Tim got a staff job at Press Association. And, says Tim, ‘Guess who was the first person to get a letter from me to update him on my career progress?’

Working at the Press Association represented another ambition  – to get to Fleet Street proper.   He achieved this goal just before the street itself was dismantled, with papers moving to other parts of the capital.
His first job for the Press Association was as overnight reporter, clocking on at 11pm and finishing at 7am. He’d commute from Eastbourne and, because money was tight, he’d park in Mile End and take his bike out of the car boot and cycle down Commercial Road, dodging heavy duty trucks along the way. Each journey door to door would take about two and half hours. He says that cycling the last stretch, along Commercial Road, was one of the ‘scarier things I’ve had to do in my life.’

Tim’s next move was to the Press Association’s news desk as Assistant News Editor. To get to his office for 7am he’d have to catch the 5.08am train. He did not relish this, particularly when he realised he was ‘getting up at the same time as the postman.’  After that came a promotion to news editor in 1993.  Then, in 1995 a new managing editor joined as Tim’s boss. He wanted Tim’s job to span the day shift and the night shift, a 12 hour day. While the money was good, the hours did not appeal.

The move to PR:    So in 1995 Tim decided to leave and he ‘slid over the fence’. Having been a journalist he felt that he could offer a lot to businesses who wanted more exposure in the press or, conversely, wanted to keep themselves out of the media.
As a journalist-turned-PR-person Tim felt he could second guess what journalists would want and, having been on the receiving end of hundreds of press releases, felt that ‘he couldn’t do any worse…’

When he first set up he worked on his own and continued to work solo for about five years. As he said at the BHCC breakfast, the prospect of employing his first member of staff really scared him. ‘What if I lost a client and had to sack them? It sounds dramatic but I felt that their life depended on me and it was on my conscience and I was scared’. It took five years to get out of this psyche and then he employed one person. That appointment generated more business, so he appointed someone else. And so it went on. Now Tim has eleven people in his Eastbourne office and four in Brighton.

The Future:  It’s thanks to this growth – and without being big headed! – that Tim feels his name is a bit of a brand. And being a brand brings its own responsibilities and worries. For instance, his son of 19 is holding a music night. The title is ‘Cobbfest’. This makes Tim a bit twitchy. Actually, it’s more than twitchiness: ‘It scares me to death! What if something goes wrong?’ But he acknowledges that he has got to snap out of it!
Tim will be 50 next year and he is thinking about succession planning - a bit. He admits to being very restless so as and when he does hand over, he needs to know he has something else lines up, otherwise ‘I will drive my family mad.’ If someone offered to buy out Cobb PR for a chunk of money, he would consider it.

Business clubs: He started these (Brighton and Hove, Crawley and Gatwick) as a marketing avenue for Cobb PR. They’re specifically for larger companies who feel existing networks don’t offer them quite enough. ‘If you are a large company, there are too many one man bands, with their business cards… So I set up a lunch club for businesses with a 2 million pound turn over and 10+ staff. I put strict limits on professional services. One accountancy firm etc – and then I offer them exclusivity. So it means that anyone attending a lunch will have on all sides, other decision makers, with a sensible budget. And the conversations don’t involve the sentence: ‘Here is my business card.’ Cobb PR is launching a new club in Eastbourne in July.

Tim is full of praise for the vibrancy of BHCC – young energetic business people including lots of female entrepreneurs. And it’s worth going along to meetings, ideally with no preconceptions, because you never know who you will meet.

Humour and business: I mention the fact that Maisie is head of Cobb PR’s security and how humour is important to make businesses human. (For the record, Maisie is a large dog who appears to lounge around on the Cobb PR sofa…Does she earn her keep? Possibly not.)
Tim says he visited a client manning an exhibition stand recently and asked them how they engaged with people walking past. They replied with phrases such as ‘30 per cent reduction on costs for your materials!’  He suggested another tack like, ‘What’s the weather doing outside?’ if only because most people will respond to a comment like that, rather than an out-and-out sales pitch. He says Cobb PR does formal pitches like everyone else – but humour helps. It lightens the mood and puts you in a better position to win new business.

Thank you to both Miranda Birch and Tim Cobb for contributing to this interview.

At our next Spotlight Supper on July 18th Miranda will be in conversation with Mike Herd of the Sussex Innovation Centre and booking is open now! 

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If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk