By Linda Forrest
I read a controversial piece yesterday on Mediabistro. Apparently, President Obama has been quoted as saying that he’s open to looking at bailing out the newspaper industry. My personal opinion is that a bailout isn’t what the newspaper industry needs, for reasons I’ll get into shortly. But first, I’d like to talk about the news industry’s PR problem.
A direct quote from the president said the following, “I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding.”
What this says to me is that the news industry has a PR problem, is poorly understood by even the highest office in the land (one whose media-savvy campaign largely propelled him into the Oval Office) and is struggling to find its identity as news formats shift from dead trees to zeros and ones.
There is a common misconception that online news is strictly commentary, often characterized by the opinion-based content to which President Obama refers. Reliable and intelligent news is well researched, fact checked and placed in context, regardless of whether it’s online or off. Until this fundamental understanding is well communicated and well understood, and until the industry adheres to its own best practices, the news business will remain the subject of much consternation.
As to why I don’t believe the news industry should get a bailout? I had a ringside seat for the spectacular downfall of the music industry. Having studied the music industry at two post-secondary institutions (yes, Virginia, there really is rock and roll school), I learned about its outmoded revenue model and watched as the record labels clamored to find alternative revenue streams. In short, the industry failed to adapt to the consumer’s wants and needs and so those consumers simply circumvented the record companies.
In much the same way, consumers of news no longer want or expect to wait until tomorrow to see the news in print; rather, they want the news when they want it. The journalistic integrity of marquee outlets remains strong, whether people are consuming their news in print or online. Some of our clients’ most important media targets are strictly online; this does not diminish their impact nor their influence on the purchasing decisions of those holding the purse strings.
Rather than bail out an industry so that it can maintain an antiquated way of doing things, let these outlets find new and current methods for getting their product out to the consumer. Let’s hope the news industry learns something from the shoddy example set by the music industry that clearly missed the boat.
By Linda Forrest
I dipped back into my former life for a night last week when I went to Toronto to see U2 at the Rogers Centre. It was incredible.
We were lucky enough to have general admission tickets that enabled us to get as close as we wanted to to the stage, which was close. In order to do so, though, we waited in line outside of the venue for most of the day. Thank heaven for the PDA or it would have been considerably more challenging to fill the time. Liveblogging the lineup would have been far too boring for anyone not there (it was pretty boring in the lineup itself) but it was great to be able to check emails, Tweet when the mood struck, and catch up on online news.
When my phone worked, that is.
Having a Rogers iPhone on the Rogers network outside (and later inside) the Rogers Centre, one would think that reception would be stellar, that the data network would be lightning fast. One would be wrong.
The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if the fact that Blackberry was sponsoring the U2 tour impacted the service. Anecdotally, those attending the show who were using Blackberries didn’t seem to have the same frustrating lack of network access that we on the Rogers network did. Good to know that Elvis Costello could check his emails on his Blackberry with impunity while the rest of us with a Rogers account had to be contented with just basking in the glow of the many Rogers’ logos that surrounded us, rather than a functional network.
More than once in surveying round-ups and reviews of the show, I came across sentiments similar to “Did your Rogers iPhone on the Rogers network work at the Rogers Centre tonight? Mine didn’t.” The company, which struggles with its reputation as a reliable service provider, something we’ve addressed at other times on this blog, missed a golden opportunity to knock it out of the park, a park that was filled with 58,000 U2 fans, two nights in a row, that in today’s era of social media and pervasive user-created content would be sharing their experience at the show, something that extends beyond just the performance of the band itself.
Image: Open Clip Art Library.
By Linda Forrest
Anecdotally, it seems that September is always a busy time for a PR firm. Executives are coming back from the cottage, relaxed, and ready to work. This can mean that they’re ready to either start or restart a PR campaign with gusto, outline objectives for the year ahead, and commit some budget to meeting those objectives.
We’ve talked in the past about the folly of suspending marketing activities over the summer, advice that still holds true. Regardless, the reality is that we’ve got a number of launches slated for this Fall. Some clients are new, some are renewing their commitment to PR. Either way, there are a few items to keep in mind as you launch your PR campaign in the autumn:
Some longer lead publications will already be planning 2010. This is a great time to get on the radar of editors who are working to shape next year’s editorial calendars. If we can influence their decisions at this stage, we have the potential to make pitching our clients easier later on. In addition to helping shape editorial calendars, we’ll be collecting calendars as they’re released and checking where we will be able to pitch our clients into stories.
Just as they maintain a longer view into what editorial they will be crafting for next year, monthly lead times for some trade publications and commercial magazines are well in advance of publication dates, so the work that you do in September may not see print until the end of the year. Most clients have a range of media that cover the spectrum from instant coverage in blogs and online news portals, to daily and weekly papers and newsletters, to those with three-plus months of lead time, so if your PR firm has a dynamic media list, your coverage will span a reasonable period of time.
Although the field may be crowded in September, with your partners and competitors also likely ramping up their PR activities, this can work to your advantage. If a journalist is receiving pitches from similar companies, they may choose to do a round-up in a particular space or a comparison of competitive offerings. If partners are reaching out to the media, you can coordinate efforts to beef up your offering to key outlets. Of course, if you can bring customers to the table as well, you’ll be in great shape.
I had better get back to work on content development for these upcoming launches. Best practices are best practices, regardless of the time of year, but the tips above hold particular value as the leaves change and the wheels on school buses resume their revolutions round and round.
By Linda Forrest
The recent debacle surrounding pop singer Chris Brown’s domestic assault of girlfriend and fellow pop singer Rihanna, has been just terrible to behold. I don’t want to write about the finer details of the incident, rather the failed attempt of the guilty party to redeem himself by conducting a high-profile PR campaign showing his remorse at his behaviour and just how and why it completely backfired.
There are lessons for companies to learn from this and other recent PR misfires as there are some universal truths about how not to manage your reputation in the media.
1. Timing is everything
The Rihanna assault took place in February, but we didn’t see or hear anything from the then-accused until much later. The longer you wait to address negative issues, the more likely it is that you’re alienating your audience.
Another prime recent example is Sigg bottles. When the BPA scare hit, people flocked to aluminum or stainless steel water bottles, eager to avoid the frightening side effects linked to the chemical found in plastic drinking bottles. It’s since been discovered that the epoxy liner used in Sigg’s bottles manufactured prior to August 2008, contained the same chemical. The company found out about it in 2006, yet an announcement was only made in late August. The letter from the CEO was poorly conceived in this era of social media and the user community went simply bananas. Twitter, Facebook and the like were busy with angry Sigg customers demanding satisfaction. The company swiftly replied that they had “missed the mark” with their first attempt at disclosure and now are offering customers an opportunity to swap old bottles for new, the company having developed a BPA-free liner that’s been in all bottles since August 2008. Many people, myself included (full disclosure: both my husband and I own Sigg water bottles), feel that the company should have been more proactive in disclosing the information, a lesson learned the hard way amid a media firestorm that could have been avoided.
2. Choose the right channel for your campaign
Chris Brown and Rihanna are pop singers in their early twenties. The vast majority of their fans and supporters are young fans of urban music. Those outside of that market were unlikely to follow this pair and it’s doubtful would even know who they were, were it not for the media attention paid to the case. So, in one regard, it was utterly bewildering that Brown selected Larry King Live, that softball question lobbing septuagenarian, as the media outlet where he would address the case, apologize publicly and beg forgiveness of the masses. The outlet makes perfect sense in that King is well known for barely scratching the surface of the tough issues, never asking the hard questions; in other words, a perfect platform for someone looking to appear to be repentant but not particularly interested in being grilled. The platform, however, also skews way older (average LKL viewers are 65) than the people which Brown truly needs to win back, those likely to purchase his albums.
If, heaven forbid, you need to seek forgiveness from your customer base, or if you’re dealing with a potential crisis that could impact your reputation, make sure you’re using the right channels to speak to your market.
3. Watch what you say
This is the crucial point, and certainly where the Chris Brown redemption campaign fell down spectacularly. As happens with interviews, hours and hours of footage are edited down to soundbites, short segments that may remove context. As a result, it’s very important to stick to key messages and then, in a word, shut up. Brown was captured on film (the episode was taped as opposed to live; CNN must have feared that the vitriolic public would break their phone system, Twitter page and web site with their angry feedback) saying that he “didn’t remember” the incident. This slip of the tongue, as he later characterized it, in his post-redemption campaign, caused the entire effort to backfire, as the ire increased rather than receded, when the public heard this preposterous statement.
4. Actions speak louder than words
In both of the examples I’ve used to illustrate my points in this post, the wrong doers have only one recourse if they hope to redeem themselves – act responsibly and learn from past mistakes. There are no promises that they’ll win back their customers, but redemption only has a chance of taking place should these public figures change their ways for real, and not just offer excuses and apologies. Behave in a way deserving of your customers’ patronage, and the rest may fall into place.
By Linda Forrest
The Bad Pitch Blog is an entertaining, albeit harrowing, waltz through our industry, showcasing the epic fails of the worst of our colleagues. A recent post highlighted the unfortunate correspondence between a journalist looking to become a PR practitioner and a prospective employer. It’s not pretty.
MediaBistro summarized the piece late last week, offering its own two cents on the matter.
