PR strategy memo advising Osborne on reputation management and tabloid avoidance

Osborne CONFIDENTIAL ISSUES OF REPUTATION For the purposes of this discussion, here are the principal objectives: e« Minimise any mentions in the tabloid press in the UK and US ¢ Steadily to restore your profile in select media, political and philanthropic circles e Establish you as a pioneering supporter of science and technology with a focus on the less fashionable but most important disciplines ¢ Consider some kind of annual event which brings together your business and philanthropic interests Tabloid press attention It is imperative that this be tackled as a matter of urgency, particularly in the UK which generates so much of the follow up coverage in the US, but also comes to the fore in the most cursory Google search of your name. Since it is an unambiguous objective of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday to take down Prince Andrew, it is disastrous for you to be seen in any way to facilitate his lifestyle, or to help with his well documented issues. Their sole interest in you and Ghislaine is as a means to attack Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. You need to studiously avoid any involvement whatsoever with the couple, which will lessen the interest and we can establish a constructive relationship on your behalf with them. In the fullness of time, it will be possible to run a positive piece about your philanthropy. As for the US tabloids, much of what they have published took the lead from the UK papers and is to do with the Prince Andrew/ Sarah Ferguson/ Bill Clinton axis. Without that distraction, it will be easier to maintain a lower profile. Restoring your profile The strategy has to be one that is medium term, say 18 months, which starts off slowly and intensifies over time, and should not appear to be calculated. We can discuss in more detail but it should include the following components: « “Clean up” Google: Another urgent priority is to retain one of the expert firms in search engine optimization (SEO) to “clean up” the results on all major search engines where your name is part of a search query. Today, when anyone types in your name, a majority of the first few pages of the results are references to the charges, to paedophilia, to Prince Andrew, to unflattering stories — many of which link back to the Mail websites. We have hired an excellent team of Israeli experts for other clients, and there are many firms that claim to be able to optimize results this way but fail to deliver. | cannot overstate the importance of this, because it is the initial source of information on you for many people. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030426