‘Flunkster’ obsession gets an F

May 27, 2009

Just when we thought we had safely escaped the teapot tempest over sponsored blog posts, another irritating mini-controversy surfaces.
The latest high crime is a PR rep for the Golden State Warriors who posted a comment on a fan site without disclosing his day job.
Is this really what it’s come down to? Reporters arguing whether someone [...]

Don’t listen to your co-workers

May 18, 2009

I don’t know Paul Boag, but he is my hero. Apparently others think so too, judging by almost all of the 358 comments posted in response to his widely read article in Smashing magazine earlier this year, “10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites.” So fair warning: I will be referring back to this piece repeatedly [...]

Why public officials need filters

May 8, 2009

President Obama took something of a calculated risk in appealing for calm in the first days after the (verboten) “swine” flu was reported. While it’s always wise for a leader to make a public appearance during a crisis–and usually even better when he or she succeeds in calming the masses–there is always the possibility that [...]

The lungfish of social networks

May 7, 2009

It would be understandable if few people under 30 ever heard of GeoCities, which Yahoo closed this spring as part of its widespread restructuring under tough-as-nails CEO Carol Bartz.
But in its day–albeit a decade or so ago–GeoCities was the Facebook of its time, or at least aspiring to be. Which is why Yahoo, however unwittingly, [...]

Field guide to common journalists

May 2, 2009

All too often earnest companies or their PR reps come away from campaigns empty-handed, not knowing what they did wrong in making their pitches to the media.
Sometimes, of course, their errant ways are easy to spot. But here’s something you won’t hear often from an old news hand: It’s not necessarily your fault.
There are myriad [...]

Job Posting: PR Ombudsman

July 24, 2008

Job description overview:
As the agency’s PR Ombudsman you will be responsible for monitoring all agency communications between agency staff and the media. You will also address any issues that arise from these relationships. The Ombudsman is completely independent of agency staff and management.
Responsibilities:

Quality assurance – Create an agency standard for all press releases and [...]

Mad Libs and press releases

April 24, 2008

Anyone who has worked in PR knows that writing a press release for a company or client can be a lot like playing Mad Libs. You create a story outline filled with blanks and hope you can get the senior executives to fill them in before the release deadline.
One of the more asinine practices is [...]

Storytelling and PR

April 14, 2008

I read a really excellent interview in the Bulldog Reporter with Will Csaklos, a story consultant and former senior creative executive at Pixar. Over his career he has worked on such films as “Finding Nemo,” “Cars,” and “Ratatouille.” In the interview, Csaklos was asked what PR professionals could learn from people who pitch stories to [...]

The irrelevancy of press releases

April 2, 2008

I’ve been working with a number of reporters/editors/bloggers to take a closer look at what has been landing in their inboxes. The following is a brief analysis of 340 pitches and press releases sent by various PR agencies and companies over the course of a week to one editor at a major technology publication. Emails [...]

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