Media Relations

Funny, Strange Headlines and Barack, McCain Roast Each Other

All tension aside (I'm not so sure), McCain and Obama roasted each other last night at a New York charity dinner. McCain speech here, Obama's here from YouTube.

And, with all due credit to The Columbia Journalism Review, more strange headlines collected from newspapers around the nation-scroll down (apologies if they offend): 

    

    

     

The "Ex Day" Bouquet, Dangerous Ideas In Public Relations, And Good Advice For Your Clients

Ah Yes, Another Reason To Spend Your Money.  This from SPJ's Daily Press Notes:

"Concerned about drooping flower sales? Invent a holiday. Just one week ahead of disclosing its quarterly earnings, 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. on Tuesday announced a partnership with CBS Corp. to create “Ex Day,” a holiday to '“let love bloom again' and bring new life to old relationships by sending a special 'Ex Day' bouquet.

Read all about it here.

The Most Dangerous Ideas In Public Relations

On YouTube, PR practitioners discuss the future of PR.  This is in tandem with a special event hosted by The Council of Public Relations Firms to be held on October 23 at the Yale Club of New York.  Featured speakers include, panelists include:

Featured panelists:

• Jack Bergen, SVP, Corporate Affairs and Marketing, Siemens Corporation
• Harris Diamond, CEO, Weber Shandwick
• John Onoda, Sr. Consultant, Fleishman Hillard; formerly head of comms, GM
• Jim Sluzewski, VP, Corporate Communications & External Affairs, Macy's, Inc.                   

Lunch/Interview: Jeff Hayzlett, Chief Business Development Officer, Eastman Kodak Company interviewed by The Wall Street Journal's Suzanne Vranica

More info here.

What Are You Advising Your Clients To Do During Financial & Election Stress?

An excellent White Paper, thanks to  © 2008 Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, Inc. – All Rights Reserved Waggener Edstrom, Innovation Communications and Innovation Context.

Excerpt below and full text here:

"What we are recommending to our clients:

• Most importantly, stay focused on the long term. This crisis will pass; there will be fallout, but the global economy will continue on. This is an opportune time to broaden interaction with stakeholders; to think globally; and to begin employing innovative communications tools such as social networking and online strategies, to support corporate business goals and strengthen those critical stakeholder ties.

• This is not a good time to cut back on employee communications. In fact, constant and open dialogue between company leaders and employees is essential during times of uncertainty. Clearly all of this external communications needs to map as well to internal communications —both formal and informal.

• Senior management will want to understand this media dynamic and why story lines are being altered —but broader employee communication will be of value in maintaining morale and helping the company as a whole understand how its story is being told in a media climate that is lunging from headline to headline. Now is the time for CEOs to be more visible than ever before, not less.

• Utilize every communications channel. Organizations need to move beyond (but not exclude) traditional media communications. This includes a heavy focus on direct stakeholder interaction (global citizenship, investor relations, employee communications, to name a few key elements). The use of online and social communications tools, from blogging to tweets, opens up new avenues for organizations to build communications bridges beyond mainstream press.

• Be authentic. Not just today, but every day. Transparency and global citizenship are increasing in importance every day, and are key differentiators in the marketplace. Given the current degree of media scrutiny and public skepticism over the motives behind corporate behavior and performance, an organization’s activities — and to whom and how they are communicated — must be ethical, authentic and credible. Indeed, we believe that authenticity will become the single biggest defining factor for successful corporations and those who lead them into the future.

• The depth of the media coverage around this credit crisis, for all the reasons mentioned, marks a significant milestone for PR professionals and their clients. This perfect storm of media tension, politics and global economic wobbling has made the role of PR even more critical in managing external and internal communications. The premium will be on clear-eyed counsel and focusing on transparent communications programs that speak to the day-to-day realities of this particular crisis, but which really enhance and sustain corporate reputation and brand value in the long term."

Kodak Wants Best "Election Moments" Photos

A great marketing ploy!  Kodak just emailed me, asking me to participate in a contest:

"We're on the hunt for spectacular 2008 presidential election photos. These include your best snapshots of election parties, politicians, voters, fundraisers and anything else that captures this exciting time.

If your photo is selected, it will be featured along with your story in next month's KODAK Moment—the day before the election."

You can send your campaign Kodak moment entry to:

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/kodakmoment/submission.jhtml

What a way to ride the coattails of the most significant campaigns in US history.

Bloggers Get Credentials at Democratic Convention

Disclosure:  I am an Independent voter and carry news about the campaigns as an online teaching tool, not to promote any candidate.

According to Associated Press, a total of 55 bloggers were granted credentials to cover this week's Democratic Convention.  Great!  And one of them is from Utah. Follow Rod Miller's blog, he posts some great photos of what it's really like to "rough it" during a convention.  Sleeping on hotel room floors....

Meanwhile, if you'd like to see how the candidates are "working the Web," remain independent (as I have) and sign up on both the Obama and McCain sites.  Yes, you'll get a lot of email...but it will be a great education in how online can be applied so practically to reach the masses.

You can watch the sites fight with each other.  As each sends out an attack, the other launches one back.  Perhaps war will oneday be fought online, rather than with guns.

For instance - I did receive my early notification of Obama's VP announcement.  Later that day I received a letter (which looked and read as if it were meant for me) from Joe Biden.

"Jeri --

I'd like to thank you for the warm welcome I've received as the newest member of this campaign.

What you and Barack have accomplished over the past 19 months is incredible, and it's an honor to be part of it. I'm looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting involved.

I recorded a short video message about how I hope to help in the weeks ahead."

No emails from McCain yet, but the moment I found out about Biden, I went to the McCain site, and this video was the McCain rebuttal.  Click on the video, "Barack Obama selects Joe Biden, watch the ads."

Shield Laws For Bloggers and Veep Candidate Announced by TM

As the blogging community matures and gains power, legal concerns are sure to follow.  This from PRSA's daily  Issues and Trends via Editor and Publisher

Also, I paid a visit to the Web sites of John McCain and Barack Obama.  At the Obama site, I signed up to receive email updates.  Now this is clever....last week my email from the Obama team said if I wanted to be the first to know who Obama's running mate is, it will be announced via email and text.  They asked which I preferred...I answered "email."   More to come  :)

Saying "I'm Sorry" Too Much Like "Crying Wolf"

Every day in the news, someone apologizes for something they said that truly offended a group of people or an individual.  I think "I'm sorry" beats being defensive.  The public has a heart and knows how to forgive.

What concerns me is that some people in powerful positions say radical things all the time and when called on the carpet, are now simply saying "I'm sorry,"  and expecting it to go away.

What about thinking before you speak?  What about pulling back on the anger, and the inside joke humor and seriously considering the words you use?  Has being hurtful or mean-spirited become so profitable (and secretly fun to those of us in the conversation) that we are choosing to lose our civility?

Luckily, some are catching on to this.  Whether you love him or hate him, according to Radar Online, Rush Limbaugh and staff had a scary PR moment yesterday concerning Barack Obama.  Here's how they handled it.  Did they do well?

A Blogger Wins the George Polk Award for Political Reporting

If you still aren't convinced that bloggers can be real journalists... for the first time ever, a blogger has been honored with the George Polk Award for Political Reporting.

Joshua M. Marshall is editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo (his blog) and he reported on the politics behind  a number of US attorneys losing their jobs.

Will Bunch of AlterNet weighs in on this breakthrough in very articulate fashion:

"It would have seemed incredible a couple of years ago, but a George Polk Award was given to a blogger this year.

Not just any blogger, of course. Josh Marshall (top, with his son Sam) of Talking Points Memo may have started back in 2000 as a kind of blogging stereotype, posting late at night from his small D.C. apartment and from the corner Starbucks and -- in just two years -- shining a light on the remarks that cost Sen. Trent Lott his GOP Senate leadership post, but he's turned his operation into much, much more.

Since 2002 Marshall has moved to New York and -- thanks to increasing ad revenue -- made Talking Points Memo into a new kind of journalistic enterprise for the 21st Century, hiring a staff of a half dozen talented young journalists and rewriting the rules with a mix of commentary and original muckraking while highlighting the work of other to focus like a laser on the big political questions.

Here's how and why Marshall and Talking Points Memo won a Polk Award:

'His site, www.talkingpointsmemo.com, led the news media coverage of the politically motivated dismissals of United States attorneys across the country. Noting a similarity between firings in Arkansas and California, Marshall (with staff reporter-bloggers Paul Kiel and Justin Rood) connected the dots and found a pattern of federal prosecutors being forced from office for failing to do the Bush Administration's bidding.' "

Which Religion Will Win?

A cover story sure to get plenty of attention and plenty of positive and negative public and PR response!  SPJ's Pressnotes tipped me off to Media Bistro's sneak preview of The Atlantic's March theme: "Which Religion Will Win?"

And since I live in a state (Utah) where religion is always in the daily news, this is quite interesting.

Black Eyes for PR?

Today, I feel like I have two black eyes.  With a presidential election in the news every minute, I couldn't help reading today's  Washington Post commentary that felt like a punch in the head.

Once again, PR is listed as "spin."  I hate that word.  And the traditional media is also getting some interesting and unconventional treatment.  The following by columnist Howard Kurtz:

"The no-spin zone is part of the Obama campaign's identity, with the candidate stealing a phrase from John McCain in telling crowds he wants "a politics that's not based on PR and spin but is based on straight talk."

Another example of how much Obama is discarding traditional media, and doesn't use typical PR types to spin his campaign:

"All traveling campaigns have a bubble-like quality, but Obama seems unusually insulated. One moment of absurdity came Tuesday, when reporters on the press bus were asked to dial into a conference call in which Obama announced a congressman's endorsement -- even though the candidate was nearby and just as easily could have delivered the news in person to the bus captives. Obama answered a few questions, but reporters are generally placed on mute after they speak so there can be no follow-up."

OK then. Will my profession and will traditional media die, mistrusted by all?.  Hardly.  But if you want to live in the new world, transform what you do for a living.  It will take a few years, but you too can join a new level of less control and more mass democracy in delivering messages.

FYI, thanks to SPJ's daily newsletter, Press Notes, for tossing this column my way.

Reporters Admit Blogs Affect Reporting and Editorial

More than 75 percent of reporters now use blogs.  Citizen journalism has arrived, according to the latest survey from The Center For Media Research.  Graphs/charts are available from the research.

"While 61.8% of the respondents said that blogs were having a significant impact on the 'tone' of news reporting, 51.1% said they influenced 'editorial direction.' "

Now is the time.  If you haven't taken blogging seriously...take a look at this survey and educate yourself as fast as possible.

This information via today's SPJ Press Notes (Society of Professional Journalism).