Issues management is a technique for dealing with ongoing problems of reputation whether amongst the public or press. The point is it is done privately, consistently, and in a friendly manner. Example: Drucker the other day wrote a very complimentary piece about the way City were run but he included a caveat as “a large proportion of their commercial income comes from AbuDhabi.” This is a common theme, illustrating the ignorance of the press as to how sponsorship works (start with your friends, business partners etc, and work outwards till you have,say, an official marine engine partner) and an erroneus assumption as to the size of those deals. A quiet word with Drucker and a bit of inside info for him would be automatic if you were managing that issue. Then you would extend that to others. (If you Google issues management you will find lots about it).
The choice, therefore, is not between doing nothing and a public scrap as so many posting on here seem to think. There is a third way!
I am not itk at City and I don’t know Vicky but I suspect she did quite a lot of this while being limited by our policy. I have criticised our policy before, but I would not blame Vicky for our shortcomings.
Hope that is useful. Cheers.