Month: April 2003

Hurrah, great news at Salon where they have announced additional funding from existing investors. Salon now has 60,000 premium subscribers with a renewal rate at a very respectable 70%

I came across this press release on the web today.  It’s from TransMedia Group [FLASH warning] and it tells how the “first casualty of the war on Iraq was not a coalition soldier, sailor or pilot. It was one of TransMedia Group’s clients.”

It goes on to explain how they had to cancel a press conference because the war started.

Eh?  Thoughts?  The company is our newest addition to the hall of shame.

I have just been catching up on some PR-related articles you might be interested in.  Jane Genova examines how Public Relations is changing in the latest edition of MediaMap’s ExpertPR.  In the same issue, Cynthia Nelson looks at what to do when a media interview goes wrong.

The New York Times has an article on how PR practitioners are adapting with the war:
Reed Bolton Byrum, president and chief executive at the Public Relations Society of America is quoted in the article: “There’s a lot more to public relations than media relations. This is the full spectrum from investor relations to employee communications to strategic planning and platforming of an organization.”

I haven’t posted a lot of stuff on the war and I don’t intend to actively do so, however it would be remiss of me to ignore it completely.

So here are a range of links to various PR-flavored stories on the war.  They are not promoting any specific viewpoint but are simply a sample of what’s out there.

Washington Post: “Military PR Force Wages a Battle to Stay on Message”
Boston Globe: “Bush’s PR War”
International Herald Tribune: “Penetrating the fog of the TV war”
Boston Globe: “The War Back Home” – PR people burying bad news
Charlotte Observer: “Soldiers plan for post-war PR task”
The Age (Aus.): “US officials go on PR offensive”
Forbes: “Pentagon, in PR assault, uses graphic video images”
ABC (Aus.): “Coalition shifting focus of war’s PR campaign”
Guardian: “Campbell fears tough PR battle with Arab world”
Sky News (UK): “Blair on Arab PR Offensive”
ABS-CBN News (Aus.):  “US losing PR war in Iraq” 
News.com (Aus.): “Coalition ‘losing PR battle'”
Daily Record (UK): “Battles are PR war after peace protests”
Daily Times (Pak.) “Bush’s PR War”
Daily Telegraph (UK): “Allies launch new PR offensive”

Following in Puma’s footsteps, Nokia has issued a statement regarding the “Nokia” cat ad. 

Though in an interesting twist, the spoof ad was created by Nokia’s advertising agency and was released (virally) without client approval.

So far, Nokia have (wisely) taken a less aggressive approach to the ad.