Tue, 27 Aug 2002 07:03:54 GMT

When the PR becomes the story…you get two months inside
The ‘Celeb’ NY PR Lizzie Grubman, who famously mowed down sixteen people outside a niteclub in the Hamptons and then drove off before being found by police two hours later, has been given a two month jail sentence and two hundred and eighty hours community service. Of course the repercussions don’t stop there as there are also a multitude of multi-million dollar lawsuits pending against her.

The Internet (as always) has all the details, here’s the indictment and there’s even a Lizzie Grubman parody site. Of course the New York media haven’t missed any opportunities to enjoy her discomfort.

Fri, 23 Aug 2002 09:09:37 GMT

Dan Gillmor, Phil Gomes and the blog as the corporate communications medium

Interesting piece in Dan Gillmor’s blog on PR and blogging. In the piece, which highlight’s Phil Gomes and his recent article on blogging, Mr. Gillmor recommends that companies look at encouraging CEO’s to undertake blogs – as he points out that corporate web sites rarely provide the information he and his colleagues are looking for in putting together a story.

So he suggests blogs as a means of letting people know what’s new at the company and on the website. Good advice.

So what are the chances of your CEO writing a blog? Minute? So how about you as the corporate communicator managing the blog? Or for you as the consultant offering it as a service? Think through that one.

On Mr. Gillmor’s comment on Web site press rooms, the best advice I have heard on the design goals for an online press room is that is should: “Provide everything a journalist needs to write a feature on your company without contacting you.”

How many of us can claim that? [Comments?]

Fri, 23 Aug 2002 08:56:53 GMT

Mmmm…I see from your CV…
The PR profession draws from every walk to life. The varied nature of the different industries we represent creates opportunities for very different people to succeed in this profession and that diversity is a real strength.

Yesterday, the British Guardian carried a story about a PR practitioner who has been accused (only accused) of insider trading. My first reaction was that given our profession’s access to sensitive information prior to public disclosure we have a remarkably good record at behaving ethically. It’s rare to hear of a PR person being accused of insider trading, in fact I can’t recall an instance.

But the story has even more color than I first thought, the PR professional in question, Tim Blackstone, has a coloful personal and professional past. He is the brother of the British arts minister, Lady Blackstone and he started as a PR consultant following a career in financial journalism and prior to that was a soft porn actor.

Don’t you love the diversity of this business?

Further coverage at the BBC.

Mon, 19 Aug 2002 15:56:37 GMT

Flash Hall of Shame #15…Chameleon PR
Isn’t that typical, no Flash assaults for weeks and then two in the space of a couple of hours. Just like our friends at Gnash, Chameleon have decided Flash navigation and intros are preferable to presenting the facts in good, ole, fast loading HTML.

Mon, 19 Aug 2002 14:56:22 GMT

PR not getting more credible with the media
According to a new survey from Bennett & Company forty three percent of journalists do not believe PR is becoming more credible. Twenty eight percent think PR is becoming more credible. The findings are part of Bennett & Company’s latest annual media survey.

Other interesting findings: forty four percent of respondents rely on PR firms for 11-30 per cent of their story information and forty seven percent of media chose e-mail as their preferred communication mechanism.

More information on the survey is available here.

Fri, 16 Aug 2002 08:20:26 GMT

The media (still) don’t get the Internet

Deborah Branscum’s blog is back on-line following her move to Sweden and she points to Scott Rosenberg’s excellent piece in Salon on how the large media conglomerates are still struggling to understand the Internet and the changes it has introduced. There are some parallel lessons for the PR business. Rosenberg in the course of the piece reviews David Weinberger’s latest book which details the Internet’s change in human behaviour and John Motavalli’s look at how the Internet affected Time Warner and others.

There’s a great illustrative quote from AOL’s David Colburn to Time Warner’s CFO Richard Bressler, in response to Bressler’s question on what advertising pop-up’s were (in December 2000! post merger!) from Motavalli’s book: “Rich, why don’t you invest $21.95 in an AOL subscription and consider it due diligence.”