Category: General

We all know that there is very little free PR-related content on the Web (yes I know I’m cheap) as many of the best sources have moved to a subscription model – and good luck to them.

So it’s great to find a regular rich source of PR opinions (sic).

Mediamap the online media database firm, through their ExpertPR site consistently publish well-written PR opinions pieces every month. And this month is no exception.

First up, the folks at Birnbach communications provide some predictions for 2003 across a wide range of areas including the economy, security, healthcare and the media amongst others

The guys at RLM PR provide a wry view of the off-beat news during 2002. My favorite quote from their article is from a spokesperson at Nintendo:
�Computer games don’t affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.�

Meanwhile, Claudia Sawyer takes a look at what happened to the newspaper business in 2002 – not a pleasant sight!

Sue Duris at M4 communications gives some tips on building successful media relations plans

And finally, Mediamap include a very interesting range of views on 2002 and a host of predictions on what’s going to happen to PR in 2003 from some of your PR brethren.

In the spirit of not asking what your industry can do for you, etc. etc. why not get in touch with Mediamap and offer some of your own opinions – you know you want to!

Research from Grady College at the University of Georgia suggests that the common assumption that PR people are better paid than their media brethern may be misplaced.

Their study looks at what graduates are doing, how happy they are with their career choice and also graphs the salaries of 2001 graduates across PR, Television, daily newspapers, magazines etc.

Warning: If like me you remember back to how much you started on, this survey might upset you 🙂

A growing number of people are using RSS readers to read weblogs. In effect the reader brings the latest stories from any weblog you subscribe to into an e-mail type application where you can read them without having to browse from site to site!

PR Opinions has had a RSS feed for a couple of weeks and it has been working nicely. If you’d like to subscribe to the feed, point your newsreader at:
http://tmurphy.blogspot.com/rss/tmurphy.xml

Technology Marketing has a story today on HP’s final choice for their global PR roster.

Following IBM’s moves last year, HP have chosen three agencies to run their PR campaigns globally. The lucky three are Burson-Marsteller (Enterprise Systems Group and HP Services), Hill & Knowlton (Personal Systems Group), and Porter Novelli (Imaging and Printing Group).

Richard Bailey points to a new study from the Interactive Bureau London on the effectiveness of web sites of the top 100 public companies on the UK stock exchange.

The study found that while overall the web sites had improved over last year, twenty percent of the companies didn’t explain what they do on their front page and listen to this, nearly FIFTY percent do not identify a section on their web site for the media….. scary stuff…

PR Week has an interesting lead this week on what’s in store for 2003 – predictions from some industry luminaries.

Challenges for 2003 include better understanding clients’ pain, ethics and accountability, getting clients to pay for value, diversity, shrinking budgets, managing public scrutiny, working with alternative media, demonstrating PR’s deliverables, demonstrating value, ‘relevant’ media relations, strategic counsel and last but not least credibility and ethics.

There’s a lot more in the article itself. Have a read.

OK something completely unrelated. Marketers aren’t traditionally the most technically proficient of professions. However if someone warns you that you’ve published your confidential account login and password information on your website, it’s normally a good indication that something’s amiss.

According to a story in Wired, advertising agency Carmichael Lynch [BIG Flash alert] posted those details on their jobs page and although warned by a visitor to the site in June took no action until December. According to the firm there is no sign that anyone did try and use the password though if they had they would have had access to internal documents and client databases belonging to a number of clients including Porsche.

It’s a good reminder to us all that security is vitally important and while accidents happen it’s essential they’re addressed fast!

Rafat Ali has a very interesting article on why 2003 might end up being the year Weblogs get bought up.

He suggests that rather than even being bought, a small number of very very popular webloggers might be taken on as salaried employees of some of the larger publishing houses. He also suggests some possible link-ups in the piece.

If you aren’t already looking at weblogs that are relevant to your industry or market segment, now might be a good time!

Boing Boing one of the most popular link weblogs, recently published their visitor numbers [Excel spreadsheet] – and any publisher would be very proud of similar readership numbers.

According to the numbers, Boing Boing gets over 200,000 unique visitors a month…. not bad for a web page.

This morning I was reading Dave Winer’s Scripting News as I do most mornings, and he had a post on an opinion article written in the New York Times by James Ledbetter.

Ledbetter is the business editor of Time Europe but is better known as the editor of the Industry Standard, a now defunct magazine that covered (and promoted) the New Economy. Dave’s post recommends we read Ledbetter’s piece “to to be reminded how the business press excused themselves and still do now, for the abuse of trust of their readers during the dot-com boom.”

I thought that he was being a little harsh on Ledbetter, particularly since I really enjoyed the Standard. But when I read Ledbetter’s piece, I felt myself agreeing with Dave. Ledbetter’s not apologising for misleading people with poor editorial judgement, instead he’s pushing the blame around the table and the usual suspects get a good kicking namely; his competitors, bankers and of course PR people.

I think Ledbetter made a mistake writing this piece. If you have a few moments compare his op-ed with a piece written by Joyce Slaton on the media’s role in the dot.com bubble. Her piece is honest, interesting and insightful. Ledbetter should have just published a link to it. [Comments]

On the eve of another year, it’s always interesting to look back on the past twelve months and to try and build a picture of what’s happened and what’s coming next.

2002 on the whole was another tough year for the PR business. But while many agencies cut numbers and even closed their doors there was some good news. In particular some research pointed to better days ahead but these were soon countered with research that found things will only get worse – the truth as always is somewhere in between!

Blogs were obviously the hottest topic in the online PR world and there was plenty of good advice on how to tackle them. Meanwhile our colleagues in the media were looking at how blogs might change their world.

Of course there was plenty of off beat PR news during the year, consultants were pushing their luck on expenses, innovative services were launched, plain talking was championed and one of our number was even incarcerated (1,793 days of probation left seemingly).

2002 was also the year that PR was strongly promoted as a tier one marketing discipline, journalists did some soul searching on the dot.com crash, and last but not least, PR became a commodity that could be tenedered over ebay…

So a tough year, but not the worst, and fingers crossed the positive indicators for 2003 hold steady. Happy New Year and here’s to a great 2003.

Well postings will be a little sparse during the Holiday period. So let me take this moment to wish you all Merry Christmas (or your own alternative!).

To finish off for the moment, PR Week have a review of 2002, and their look back at the year makes depressing reading! Enron and Worldcom destroying corporate reputations, Agencies baring the brunt of a slowing economy with widespread lay-offs and closures. That pretty much sums it up…farewell 2002!

PRWeek have also published their PR lists for 2002 (Adobe Acrobat required) which is a fantastic look at the year. Highly recommended.

Till next time!