The Los Angeles Times has announced that it has fired photographer Brian Walski for using Adobe Photoshop to merge two different photographs into one better shot which was subsequently run on the front page of the newspaper.
The Times states that it “forbids altering the content of news photographs”, you can see the original photos and the finished shot here.
Ad Age reports that a French advertising campaign advocating the protection of press freedom may be syndicated around the globe.
The campaign, which has sparked controversy, features well known French journalists posing as murder victims, with the slogan:
“Start fighting for press freedom before you lose it.”
The campaign was created by Saatchi & Saatchi Paris.
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.
The Holmes Report points out that Chris Komisarjevsky, CEO at Burson-Marsteller (and “one of the nicest guys in the PR business”) has been named at #8 in the New York Press�s list of the 50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers. It seems Chris was included because of the clients BM has represented – that’s a little harsh.
Ad Age has a detailed story on how the war is adversely hitting the PR business and the article includes quotes from various practitioners including Andy Cunningham who says: “she’s seeing more companies moving to work with smaller boutiques closer to home.”
Just as well she’s now working with a small boutique after leaving the large agency last week eh?
There’s also an interesting posting from Robin Miller at NewsForge about how the “Open Source” software movement requires centralized PR to promote the work it’s members are doing.
The piece argues that while the beauty of open source development is that it includes people regardless of their location, the marketing of the movement requires a concerted effort.
Research 
just out from the Online Publishers Association indicates that during 2002, for every ten people online in the US, one had paid for content online, translating into revenue of $1.3 billion, growth of over 100% since 2001.
Greeting cards, dating services and sports were the fastest growing categories.
Overall, Personals/Dating Services accounted for the largest slice of revenue ($302 million), followed by Business Content/Investment advice ($292 million) and Entertainment/Lifestyles ($227 million).
Yahoo.com was the number one revenue generator followed by match.com.
The reality is that more and more people inside your firm will over time start up a weblog. It might be a personal diary, a political manifesto or a news site, but have you thought through how that blog affects your business?
Last year, Ray Ozzie published his thoughts on what corporate blogging guidelines might look like. I think they are very good, respecting the nature of weblogs whilst still outlining any potential conflicts.
Recently, Robert Scoble published his guide for people thinking of starting a corporate or product-related blog. Thanks to Jorgen for the link!
Murphy's Law 
