Under-fire BAA Chief Exective Colin Matthews has given up his bonus following the holiday travel chaos suffered by thousands of passengers at snow-hit Heathrow.

Mr Matthews was today again apologising to travellers, was again explaining what had caused the problems, and was again reinforcing what urgent action will now be taken to stop this from happening again. This is crisis PR textbook stuff.

Despite Heathrow Airport being totally, utterly and shambolically unprepared for the recent bad winter weather, the BAA boss has not hidden himself away and has bravely faced the assembled media throng – something many high-profile CEOs would not do, cowardly preferring to shuffle out their no.2 or the poor PR!

Whilst sacrificing his 2010 bonus will understandably not satisfy those angry and frustrated passengers who had to bed down for days in what the press deemed Heathrow refugee camps, it is a public admission of his failure, as BAA’s boss, and a personal gesture of goodwill.

PRs will celebrate their love-hate relationship with journalists two weeks today – at ‘The CRAPPs.’

The Communicative Relations Awards from PR Professionals gives PR pros the chance to vote for the friendliest – and least friendly – names in journalism.

As a former journalist and now a PR professional, PR Superstar Founder Jill Kent thinks the awards are a hoot, and on a more serious note, will help to strengthen that special – if somewhat strained – bond that has always existed between hacks and flacks!

Heathrow Airport is upping its PR – and could get its own TV show in 2011, reports PR Week.

British Airports Authority (BAA), which owns and operates Heathrow Airport plus 5 others, is in talks with TV companies to make a documentary series about how the airport has improved, as well as reveal its inner workings.

BAA says the programme would “start to rebuild popular support for the airport.”

Support for Heathrow is much-needed after a variety of public debacles, including the shambolic launch of Terminal 5 and much-maligned plans for a third runway, which were eventually scrapped.

As a close neighbour of Heathrow, PR Superstar Founder Jill Kent, who lives just 5 miles away, suggests that rather than spend time and money on a glossy, image-boosting exercise, BAA bosses ensure their airport is properly run, with local communities in mind – starting with tackling aircraft noise, particularly early morning and late-night flights which cause misery to millions.

Aleksandr, the furry, fictitious founder of price comparison website comparethemarket.com, has released his long-awaited autobiography, ’A Simples Life.’

The public relations stunt was covered extensively by the UK media, including quality titles, with many press predicting it will top the Christmas 2010 book charts.

The stunt follows a limited edition Aleksandr talking toy, complete with trademark smoking jacket and paisley silk cravat, that hit the shops in time for last Christmas.

Aleksandr Orlov is a fine example of PR, advertising and branding at its best – fun and effective - and one that has helped comparethemarket.com to grow by 70 per cent.

The Independent today launched the UK’s first new national daily newspaper in almost 25 years.

Simply titled i, the paper is designed for “rapid consumption for people with busy, modern lives,” said Simon Kelner, Editor of The Independent and i.

The 56-page brightly-coloured newspaper, dubbed ‘The Indy light,’ draws its content from The Independent, but articles are shorter with a more populist approach, and should appeal to younger people.

The last daily nationals to launch were Eddy Shah’s Today and The Independent itself, back in 1986.

Media commentators are already speculating on whether i, which has been likened to the super-successful Metro newspaper in look and feel, will eventually overtake The Independent – and others – in popularity.

Whatever happens, let’s hope that i helps to breathe much-needed new life into the UK media industry and the national daily newspaper market in particular after the terrific battering it has taken in the last few years.

Press Gazette carries the full story.

Savvy newspapers and magazines, even the smaller, more local titles, understand that in order to keep their readers – and win new ones - they must move with the times and bring their media offerings bang up-to-date.

The days of being ‘just’ a print journalist are long gone – now, reporters and writers must think of stories and features in terms of video, podcast, visuals, blog, and online, as well as print, all of which makes for a rich and unrivalled story-telling experience.

He is the third England international player in just 2 weeks to be granted such an order.

Rather than looking to High Court injunctions to protect reputations – as well as big-money contracts and sponsorships - PR Superstar suggests that high-profile figures and so-called “role models” clean up their personal lives, so there is no danger of embarrassing revelations coming back to bite them where it hurts.

Read the latest on this story in Press Gazette.

The websites of The Times and The Sunday Times have fared well since a paywell was introduced last month, reports media trade magazine Press Gazette.

The two sites retained 1.6 million users in July, however, this was a fall from 2.8 million users who accessed thetimes.co.uk and thesundaytimes.co.uk in May, before paid access was introduced.

Other media are watching News International’s great paywall experiment like hawks, and may or may not follow suit depending upon how things go! So far, it looks like the gamble is paying off for media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Girlguiding UK has launched a high-profile public relations campaign aimed at highlighting airbrushed photos and their damaging impact on young people.

The PR campaign is urging Government to introduce compulsory labelling on ‘touched-up’ images in magazines, following Girlguiding UK research which found that 50% of 16-21-year-old girls would consider having surgery to change the way they look. A petition has also been launched.

What a relevant and timely public relations campaign that should hopefully secure long overdue change - it should also help to shape a generation of self-confident girls and young women, as well as catapult Girlguiding UK into the 21st Century and drive an army of eager new recruits their way! Find out more on the Girlguiding UK website.

The age-old tension between PRs and journalists is well documented, says the magazine.

PR Week set up the experiment to find out what would happen when a ‘hack’ and a ‘flack’ swapped roles for a week.

What would a PRO think of a journalist’s deadlines, being on the receiving end of pitches and deciding on stories in the news meeting?

And how would a journalist cope with managing clients, pitching to other hacks, and having to make those dreaded follow-up calls?

PR Superstar aka senior journalist and PR professional Jill Kent is highly experienced in both journalism and public relations with a 20-year media career, and can relate to the similarities and differences between the two - perhaps the job swap, as demonstrated in PR Week, should become more commonplace to help bring about greater understanding and better relations between the two professions, that do need each other let’s face it.