Month: June 2003

• Marcie Sayiner of InContext* has an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail on the intersection of PR and marketing.
  
• The UK Observer has an article on how bloggers can play a role in the news process. 
  
• MediaPost looks at the online dynamic between targeting the individual versus targeting a segmented group. It’s primarily about online advertising but has some interesting thoughts that are relevant to PR.  
  
• From the archives… NUblog (R.I.P.) examines how PR and weblogs intersect. It’s a year old but worth the read.

*Unfortunately we had to add InContext to the Flash Hall of Fame

Last month I met Paddy Harverson, who was formerly the sport corresepondent with the Financial Times and is now the PR director at the UK soccer club Manchester United.  Talking with Paddy and hearing him give a lecture on his day-to-day role I was struck by how much he absolutely loves his job.  After all he’s a big fan of Manchester United!

Earlier today I came across a profile of another PR person who clearly adores their job. Lisa Ayala Hettler is the PR director at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Texas. She’s profiled in the Valley Morning Star.

“I�ve always loved the zoo. It�s a really unique and exciting job,” she said. “There is no other place like it in the Valley.”

What’s your ideal PR role? What aren’t you doing it? 

If you are running your own small agency, or contemplating going out on your own, it’s always useful to be able to bounce ideas off like-minded individuals and share war stories.

If that’s you, then there’s a brand new e-mail list just for you.  SmallShop2 is a mailing list of PR pros who share information and advice for anyone running or working in a small agency or one-person band.

It runs off Yahoo Groups.

In an interesting ruling, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan noted “that the attorney-client privilege usually extends to consultants” and in this case to a Public Relations consultant in front of a grand jury.

Steve Jones from PAN Communications was in touch on behalf of MediaMap to let us all know that MediaMap is adding weblogs to their media database. [Here’s the announcement].

MediaMap should be applauded for this move as blogs become an increasingly important outlet for PR practitioners.

Michael O’Connor Clarke questions whether it’s sufficient that the directory will only include ‘accredited’ journalists. Michael definetely has a point (maybe there’s a new business idea there for someone), though I think MediaMap’s move is in the right direction.

The New York Times’ Sherri Day has an interesting story on how firms are facing up to the growing threat posed by Internet rumors.  The piece includes interviews with Starbucks and KFC and has some solid advice:

“Communication experts said that companies should handle Internet rumors by responding quickly to the accusations with information on their Web sites, select the wording of responses carefully and seek an objective party to verify that the rumors are not true.”

BMJ (which was previously the British Medical Journal) takes a very critical look at the
relationship  between Public Relations  firms and the pharmaceutical industry. (The top five healthcare PR
firms took in $300m last year)

“If the invisible ties between pharmaceutical companies
and their public relations companies are what
underpins the power of the “third party technique,”
what can be done to allow doctors and citizens
to make informed decisions? How can the
imbalance between the growing marketing and
public relations budgets of the  pharmaceutical
industry and disparate doctors, consumers,
citizens, and  journalists be made more equal? ^“

The Editorial this month looks at the interdependence of the doctors and the drug companies.

The BBC covers the piece here.

Healthcare PR is not something I am terribly familiar with, if anyone reading has any thoughts, please share them with us.

Thanks to Richard Bailey for the link.

Dave Winer continues to wage his personal campaign on how blogs will replace journalism as we know it.

Any regular readers of PR Opinions will know my views on this supposition.

It’s rubbish.

Blogs are important for Public Relations and there is no question that they provide a useful resource for consumers, but they will not replace journalism. That’s Internet hype resurfacing once again.

Karlin Lillington addresses the issue head on. I agree.

• Subway have just illustrated the perfect art of tactical Public Relations. Mike Smith was stopped by police while unwrapping and eating a subway sandwich.  Subway are paying his $135 fine, giving him some free sandwiches and making him the center of their new ad campaign.
  
• Just found this article by PR firm e21 Corp. on measuring PR effectiveness. Personally I don’t agree with that “Ad Value Equivalency” measure, mainly because the whole point of PR is that advertising can’t reach editorial, but the article does outline some other methods also. 
  
• Arthur C. Clarke gives his views on e-mail to the BBC. “I cannot imagine life before e-mail. Our ancestors live in a tiny limited world, knowing nothing about what was going on beyond the horizon.”
  
• If you are exclusively using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer you are missing many of the new usability gains being offered by other browsers.  Microsoft has gone asleep.  The news that Microsoft will no longer be releasing standalone versions of Internet Explorer, but instead new releases will occur with new versions of Windows, means it’s likely to fall further and further behind.  For any Windows users who are tracking lots of different websites I highly recommend Mozilla.  Mac users have Mozilla, Safari and a host of others.
  
• If you haven’t already seen Corporate Babble then we recommend a visit.  It casts a caustic eye over some of the more obtuse corporate communications.

PR Week has a story on how PR and blogs intersect. Myself and fellow PR blogger Phil Gomes are quoted in the story.

“When weblogs dawned a few years ago, PR experts were largely concerned with monitoring any negative comments they might carry. But now the attention has shifted to using them as positive marketing tools.”