The Flack

Few will argue with the girth of Conde Nast's much-hyped entry into the crowded business magazine space. That hyperbole (along with some internal tension) fed the lukewarm reception the magazine initially endured from the abundant pundits who follow the media biz.

But those in the know knew that S.I. was in it for the long haul, and the tide may now be turning in Portfolio's favor. Even Rafat admitted to liking the glossy biz monthly.

In the wake of his one-day confab that drew all the biz-side players in the business media to New York this week, it's clear that the business beat is hot again. Maria still reigns, but a new brood of money honeys has blossomed. And like S.I., don't expect Rupert to shy away from a prolonged fight.

Late word today has Wash Post-owned Slate waiting for a green light to start an online business offering. USA Today's David Liberman jumped on the biz media trend a few months ago wherein this blogger wondered why there were so few authoritative biz blogs. My new friend Michele Leder of footnoted.org begged to differ in a pointed ping following that quote. And this week, I stumbled across someone's list of the 100 best businesss blogs.

A good resource to follow this space: Chris Roush's Talking Biz News blog from SABEW. Now let's watch how Rupert sets wsj.com free, with the FT.com not far behind.

Labels: business media, CNBC, david lieberman, fox business news, FT, journalism, PaidContent, PR, Rafat Ali, Wall Street Journal

Since the dot-com days, the PR profession has suffered (and rightfully earned) its share of slings and arrows at the hands of the beleaguered (by inane PR pitches) tech journalist.

How many more rants can we endure from the editors and reporters for Ziff-Davis, IDG, CNET, Wired, The Industry Standard, Red Herring? The answer is: at least one more.

Yesterday The Long Tail evangelist stuck it to the long tail of the PR profession by formally banning those whose misguided queries to Wired magazine finally struck a raw nerve. (PC Mag's Jim Louderback's rant against the Micropersuader pales in comparison.)

Wired editor Chris Anderson posted on his Long Tail blog a faint "apology" to a group of "lazy" PR people for wiping them from his magazine's radar. Not only did he ban them, but he borrowed a tactic from those "In" and "Out" lists published by the self-anointed style arbiters. Mr. Anderson posted the e-mail address of all those on the outs for their PR misdeeds:

"The following is just the last month's list of people and companies who have been added to my Outlook blocked list. All of them have sent me something inappropriate at some point in the past 30 days."

Whew. Thank goodness I didn't make this rogues' gallery of PR outcasts since "there's no getting off it."

Chris, I still owe you for the MSNBC gaffe at the World Business Forum. I'll make it up to you if you promise to ignore any ill-conceived query I ever sent to you, the magazine or one of your blogs. I don't blame you, however, for outing those you did. Frankly, many are not surprising to me.

More on this here:

Gawker
Cartoon Barry
IP Democracy
PR Newser
Conversations Matter
POP PR Jots
Beet.TV (Andy Plesser)

Labels: bad pitch PR, blacklist, chris anderson, long tail, media relations, PR, public relations, Tech PR, Wired

A quick review of the smoldering media coverage emanating from California invariably leads to comparisons between the disasters in New Orleans and San Diego. Yet each city is as different as, well, fire and water. New Orleans is big on Dems; San Diego is big on Bush. New Orleans is a true urban city, while San Diego is... um...just picture La Jolla.

So even before the flames were extinguished, the two major political parties rushed to exploit the disparate disasters to their own ends. The more aggressive of the two appears to have prevailed in the court of public opinion. (Guess which one?) Over the weekend I heard Mr. Bush blaming Katrina on Lousiana Gov. Blanco, while extolling The Terminator's terminating prowess.

Below the radar in the debate were the Department of Homeland Security's digital efforts to bypass the harsh media filter to position its leadership. In the DHS's "Leadership Journal," Mr. Chertoff penned his optimized, tagged and RSS-enabled first-person impressions of the inferno. No way was he going to follow the same fickle fate as "Brownie."

If anyone googles the terms "California fires" and "leadership," he or she will stumble across Mr. Chertoff's (SEO-infused and job-saving) prose high up in the search engine's organic results rankings. I guess if you can't win-over the media, just become the media.

Labels: Dept. of Homeland Security, FEMA, fires, Gov. Blanco, katrina, leadership, Michael Chertoff, New Orleans, PR, public relations, San Diego, SEO

Some believe that the process of preparing newsmakers for interviews, i.e., media training, is evil. I'm not one of them. After all, why avail oneself for an interview without a POV and an action plan to bring it to life? And who said that those behind the camera should be the only ones to have their editorial agendas addressed?

The simluated interview tends to comprise the most telling aspect of the media training. It not only exposes the trainee to likely media questions, but said trainee can see first-hand how he or she looks and delivers...or not.

Over the years, I've re-enacted countless interview scenarios from sit-down one-on-ones, stand-ups, multi-person adversarial confrontations, benchmark print interviews, radio phoners, ambushes, print phoners, live, taped, taped live, e-mailed, and even simulated pressers to get the juices flowing.

It's that last item that has me thinking this rainy Friday evening in New York. The simulated news conference typically consists of PR staffers tossing prepared questions at the trainee behind a podium. It can be very effective, especially if you toss a few zingers in the mix.

This week, FEMA called a hasty news conference to update the media on the California fires. Few if any journalists arrived at the scheduled start time, so FEMA's emergency PR plan went into effect. The communications staff took seats in the audience and the presser began - with the FEMA staff posing the questions (no zingers, many softballs).

No, I promise I'm not making this up (even though many readers of this blog can empathize with the temptation to "paper the house" at a no-show presser). It's unsettling to say the least. But would any of us seriously consider faking it?

You know what's worse? Fox News, God bless its fair and balanced soul, carried the simulation live. Bush PR apologist Dana Perino had this to say (at an allegedly real presser):

QUESTION: And from what we understand, the questions were posed not by reporters but by staffers. And that distinction was not made known. Is that appropriate?

PERINO: It is not. It is not a practice that we would employ here at the White House or that we — we certainly don’t condone it. We didn’t know about it beforehand. … It’s not something I would have condoned. … FEMA is responsible.

Had the Washington Post's Al Kamen not exposed the ruse, would Ms. Perino even have bothered to apologize, I mean shift the blame?

Labels: FEMA, interviews, journalism, media training, news conference, PR, presser, public relations, White House

I really thought I would have to eat my own words. As life took a turn to the bizarre for one crazed and deposed pop star and mom, I went on the limb to predict that she may just end up proving them all wrong. From The Flack (9/17/07):

"Time, and a fickle public, have amazing healing powers. So, as I ponder the fate of one dazed and fallen pop star on the eve of her first album release in four years, I predict that Newton's law (e.g., "every action...") may just prevail. The media forces of nature will permit Ms. Spears to surprise all of today's naysayers to rise again. Right, Mariah?"

Earlier this week, her "friends" were urging a boycott of her new album on the grounds that if no one bought it, the "tough love" might just scare the wits into her. But guess what? The early reviews are in. Here's a snippet from The AP:

"'Blackout,' her first studio album in four years, is not only a very good album, it’s her best work ever — a triumph, with not a bad song to be found on the 12 tracks."

As PR people, we're often asked, "what makes a story most?" We typically answer with "the biggest," "most expensive," "first" or whatever superlative we can reasonably conjure up. But the biggest stories tend to be those that defy conventional wisdom, e.g., the child prodigy, the cancer-survivor who went on to notch seven consecutive Tour de France victories, the waif model whose career rose to new heights after her front page cocaine bust, the Asian-African-American pro golf superstar, and the list goes on and on.

What's weird is that at least Mariah appeared to get her personal act together for her triumphant return to the glaring spotlight. Ms. Spears, well, her life is still a train wreck. I'll be curious to see how these seemingly contradictory forces play out as album promotion time nears. I wouldn't bet on a two-parter with Matt Lauer, but "ET" or "Access," well...whatever it takes.

Labels: blackout, Britney Spears, entertainment, Hollywood, Mariah Carey, Music, Pop Princess, PR, public relations, wacko

At least Russell Shaw didn't indict the whole profession for the mistakes of a few.

At 1AM this morning, the VoIP, IP telephony and broadband journeyman journalist for the likes of ZDNet (not to be confused with sibling CNET) and others, aired his frustration with trade show PR "types" charged with capturing, for their clients, the already captive reporters who slog from one confab to another.

I was encouraged by Mr. Shaw's measured tone and actionable advice. He didn't resort to the usual PR bashing histrionics we've come to expect from tech and gaming journalists, many of whom seem so uncomfortable in their own skin. Shaw's a vet who recognizes the value proposition we offer when done right:

"Over these years, I have developed some pet peeves about trade show exhibitors and the p.r. people who represent them. If you are of either of these persuasions, consider this list of pet peeves a constructive, best practices document."

After running through some practical suggestions, e.g., "Make your trade show booth findable" or "Let your booth personnel know we are coming," Shaw eventually hits the #1 on the hit parade of PR pet peeves (#5 on his list):

"Know me and know us. At this show, too many p.r. types place priority on filling up client’s appt calendars without knowing who we are, what we cover- and then letting the client know. I mean, check out our blogs and articles before you pitch us. And please don’t confuse ZDNet with Ziff-Davis. I still get that alot. Hey Ziff-Davis are fine folks but that’s an entirely separate company with no overlap with us. We’re part of CNET, not Ziff Davis. That’s been true for the last seven years."

Russ, thanks for the advice (and constructive tone). Hopefully it won't go unheeded.

Labels: exhibitors, marketing, public relations, Russell Shaw, Tech PR, trade shows

For as long as I can remember, certain mainstream media outlets had the catalytic power to set the national news agenda. We all know the dead tree outlets of which I speak.

Invariably print begat broadcast, and certain print begat everyone else, except perhaps for that no longer reigning, yet still reasonably influential king of catalytic media...tic...tic...tic...tic...tic.

In the last 12-18 months the dynamics of how a story catches fire began to shift - big time. (No, not every story.) While those mighty mainstream influencers are still pretty mighty, these days the smart PR set turns to the blogosphere for its kindling wood. (For more on this, be sure to read Brian Solis's take on Scoble's take.)

Yesterday, The New York Times ran a front page story that...shock and awe...reported how the Clinton campaign gave its ideological antithesis Matt Drudge first dibs on a pro-Hillary piece of news. Jeff Jarvis and many others naturally took notice.

The Clinton PR ruse worked like a charm as the authoritative Drudge drove the national story of Mrs. Clinton's fundraising prowess at the expense of Mr. Obama. (There's just something about an exclusive to get those journo juices a-flowing.)

I'm working with a client whose A-list celebrity spokeswoman signed on to promote a worthwhile healthcare cause. We gave the story first to TMZ (after my buddy Richard Johnson turned it down), and it took off across the land from there. "Access Hollywood" and many others ran with it spurred by the authoritative TMZ's validation.

A while back, this blogger wrote about a new media pecking order in which the most influential bloggers have gained the upper-hand for setting the national news agenda -- in spite of fickle audiences spawning in a 24/7 news flow.

From Arrington to Huffington to Levin (and even Drudge, if you must): if you're not cultivating those A-list RSS-fueled journos that operate in your client's space, you soon may be guilty of PR malpractice.

Labels: arianna huffington, Harvey Levin, Hillary Clinton, Jeff Jarvis, Matt Drudge, Mike Arrington, PR

I am a huge Tim Russert fan. The "Meet the Press" host, and arguably the Beltway's most influential journalist, addressed the throngs attending the PRSA Conference in Philly this morning. He cogently and buoyantly walked the crowd through the windy political road that started with the Supreme Court crowning of George W. Bush as POTUS to the 9/11-induced melting of all partisan bickering to today's domestic and foreign...political, economic and reputational quagmire into which Mr. Bush has led our nation.

What surprised and reassured me most about Russert's presentation was the non-partisan, journalistic manner in which he laid out the sordid facts. Trust me, if O'Reilly or Olberman keynoted, the substance and tone would have taken a markedly different turn. Fortunately, this particular audience (hopefully) can recognize the difference between commentary and news. Russert's a news man through and through.

Talking about partisanship, the luncheon keynote featured this President's hand-picked PR ambassador, Karen Hughes, who's charged with enhancing the nation's reputation abroad. I twittered on her speech as it was happening, but suffice to say, it featured a considerable amount of rhetoric from this "honors graduate" of that bastion of (Texan) intellectualism - SMU.

While some of the initiatives she cited, e.g., student exchanges, Arab-Americans mingling abroad, a tour of a hip hop band...sounded promising, I just couldn't bring myself to erase from my mind the memories of her first PR stint at the White House when she was complicit in perpetrating the biggest fraud on the American people in our nation's history. PRSA, couldn't you have found someone more honorable? Even Ari Fleischer, well, perhaps not.

Labels: Bill O'Reilly, Karen Hughes, Keith Olberman, keynote address, lic relations, PR, PRSA Conference, pub, Tim Russert

One of the unexpected bi-products of blogging in the PR space is the network one develops with kindred spirits around the globe. For example, last January, my new friend Trevor Cook organized a blogger meet-up...in Sydney.

At every bloggable event since then, more of the same with different casts of characters all bound by a keyboard and an interest in citizen journalism. Last night a group of new media PR types gathered for a bite following Sunday PRSA session in Philly (See pic.)

The conversation ranged from the PR value of Twitter to the death knell of Technorati. For the former, Annie Heckenberger, social media director for Philly tourism (and a former Marina Maher exec), talked about Twitter as the ideal channel for keeping colleagues apprised, in real-time, of plans for upcoming shared collaborations. Someone else mentioned how it saved one company tens of thousands of dollars in text-message fees.

As for Technorati, the bane of my existence, Josh Hallett observed how a simple Technorati search of his client that yielded a hundred thousand+ results a few months ago, now yields only a thousand+. (Google Blog Search still produced 100K+.) Something fishy is going on there. The question is whether it's an aberration or not.

Update (10.31): Technorati weighs in: "Hit counts are often dubious metrics. Index rebuilds, spam purges and other search engine management functions will always cause fluctuations. As part of Technorati's cost and performance management efforts, we've been running the service with the data sets of historic data scaled back. We may bring that data back online in the future but the days of monotonically ascending hit counts are currently suspended." best regards, Ian Kallen Email Homepage 10.31.07 - 11:06 am

Labels: blogger meet-up, PRSA International Conference, public relations, Technorati, Twitter

You gotta love the Acela. Boarded at 12 Noon at New York's Penn Station, arrived in Philly at 1:20pm ($80 poorer). Alas, if only Amtrak could make it work going northbound.

Arrived at the downtown Marriott in the middle of PRSA keynote Mia Farrow''s speech. I was tempted to watch part of it, but there was this non-sequitur I couldn't escape. I mean Ms. Farrow endured a fair share of PR advice after learning that her husband was dating, and then married their adopted daughter. But that's not what was on her mind today.

She was here to talk about Darfur, and what better way to draw attention to that horrific, and still unfolding tragedy than to expose thousands of PR people to the images. Following her presentation, Ms. Farrow agreed to sign a few books. (See picture above.)

I then ran into the namesake of DS Simon who was prepping for his session on vlogging. I wished him well and wandered over to watch Eric Schwartzman moderate a lively panel on the social media press release featuring reps for three paid wire services and my former Ziff-Davis client who's reinvented himself as an SEO/SEM guru, Greg Jarboe. (See above picture.)

It was a most informative discussion on the ingredients needed for the news release to gain a digital foothold. (I twittered a bit abiut it earlier.) Obviously, clean and concise writing topped the list, but SEO, multi-media assets, a network of channels, keywords, and keyword density added to the mix.

Finally, it was our turn. Rob Key, Lee Odden and Nicco Mele (see above), who arrived from Boston just as the doors were closing, sat before an SRO audience gathered to hear "all PR pros needed to know about social media." Well, not all. I moderated. We covered online and virtual communities, blogger relations, bypassing the media filter, citizen journalism, media stratification, blogger press credentials, traditional PR competencies, politics, Google, the wisdom of the crowds, search engine reputation management, some good books, SEM/SEO...and Rosie O'Donnell.

The panelists did a fine job, and I'm sure the attendees walked away with a much-improved perspective on the brave new profession.

Now off to the blogger dinner...more to report tomorrow.

Labels: Philadelphia, PRSA, PRSA International Conference, public relations, social media

With the promise of torrential rain in New York this afternoon, I'm gearing up to head on the Acela to Philly this weekend for the Public Relations Society of America's (PRSA) annual confab.

Looks like Jack O'Dwyer's favorite industry trade group has drawn a big crowd of pros to the City of Brotherly Love. They're expected from all across the PR spectrum - agency, corporate, non-profit, consultants....

I've been tapped to preside over a panel on Sunday at 4:15pm with the (near-cliched) title, "Social Media: What Every PR Practitoner Needs to Know." Fortunately, three of the industry's smartest and most successful PR 2.0 (groan) practitoners will ward off any potential for impractical, irrelevant or impertinent advice.

CEOs Lee Odden of Top Rank Results, Nicco Mele of echoditto and Rob Key of Converseon each bring a different dimension to the party. I've asked Lee to address the importance to PR pros SEM/SEO and Google; Nicco to talk about his work on the Dean campaign and his current client Rosie, as well as blogger relations; and Rob to look at "monitoring the conversation" and what he describes as "cultural anthropology" in gaining share of voice in online and virtual communities

Separately, the indefatigable Kami Huyse tapped me and other PR blogging types to post and podcast from the event. We're all slated for a blogger meet-up dinner on Sunday evening (which the Greater Philadelphia Tourism folks are sponsoring...but not paying for.) I wonder what their sponsorship gets them. This post?

If you're planning to be in the land of hoagies, cheese steaks and soft pretzels (with mustard), please be sure to swing by to say hi.

Labels: Philadelphia, PR, PRSA, PRSA International, public relations, social media

From a freelance journalist seeking expert input, via ProfNet, for an upcoming column in the South China Morning Post. Under the headline "Blogging for Bucks," it read:

How do you make money from blogging? What's the maximum and average? Is the market too overcrowded? Who writes the world's best blog? What's the best technological platform? How much do pictures help? Does being catty help? Is it possible to say what you want without being sued?

Here's my take:

How do you make money from blogging?
You don't (unless you're Arianna or Mike).

What's the maximum and average?
Max: $100 per month. Average: (-$500) per month in time spent. But then of course you can resort to pay-per-post.

Is the market too overcrowded?
With purportedly more than 100 million blogs, you do the math.

Who writes the world's best blog?
"Best" what a concept.

What's the best technological platform?
It's a toss-up, but I know which is the worst.

How much do pictures help?
A lot, but don't forget that Creative Commons license.

Does being catty help?
Better left for Nick or Perez to answer.

Is it possible to say what you want without being sued?
So far, it appears so, and it may soon be even more so.

Labels: blogging, citizen journalism, Dave Wilson, PR, ProfNet, South China Morning Post, Technopedia, Technorati, World's Best Blogs

So what does Comedy Central's #2 political satirist (by far) have to lose, except perhaps the election? Clearly an acquired taste, Stephen Colbert announced plans to boost the ratings of his cable TV show and, hopefully lose the last vestiges of his career-enabler, by running for the Office of U.S. President (in South Carolina).

Pat Paulsen must be blushing from the grave. It seems Mr. Colbert has stolen the schtick from the perennial comedic candidate. Even so, nothing the bespectacled satirist with the slick-blackened hair and pinstripe suits does will ever top the political speech that marked his true "arrival" -- the White House Correspondents Dinner.

No matter. This is a stroke of borrowed brilliance that should boost his new book sales and ratings for The Colbert Report. I was, however, a little surprised how the venerable Associated Press took Comedy Central's PR bait. (Well, come to think of it, so did this blogger.)

Should the Colbert candidacy gain traction, it'll be interesting to see from which end of the political spectrum he will siphon votes. Will it be his smart, young left-of-center followers, or those on the other side of the aisle, also followers who can't quite deconstruct his facetious right-wing rants.

Labels: Colbert Report, Comedy Central, Pat Paulsen, politics, PR, Presidency, public relations, Stephen Colbert, Television

We Are Smarter Than Me is a book project with which I've been involved professionally for much of the last year. It's not just any book, but the first to look at how companies have successfuly deployed collaborative and social networking technologies and architectures across their enterprises, and we're not just talking consumer marketing.

More significantly, the book's purveyors - the Wharton School, MIT Sloan School of Management, Pearson Publishing, and Woburn, Ma-based Shared Insights, set out to practice what it expected their book to preach. They collectively invited many thousands of their "expert" constituents to join regulars to write the book as a wiki.

A crowd of some 4000 people ultimately signed on to share their wisdom, though not necessarily in the way the project's drivers envisioned. At one point, one of the chapter heads attempted to alter the wiki code to better suit his needs. In fact, a great deal of the book's content was derived through comments, posts, bulletin boards, and podcasts, especially coming out of last year's inaugural Community 2.0 Conference in Vegas, in addition to the wiki entries.

The independence of this crowd only underscored the futility of trying to dictate the manner in which a crowd behaves. After all, this was not an exercise in sheep herding, as everyone soon came to recognize. The community of contributors were engaged by the project, but on their terms.

What eventually emerged from the creation process was a fresh, if not eye-opening set of compelling cases that should silence managers who cling to the status quo. Wikinomics author Don Tapscott penned the Foreward to We Are Smarter than Me: How to Unleash the Power of Crowds in Your Business. Areas covered and cases cited include:

• Customer Service (Cisco, Amazon, Sun, and others)


• Market Research (Coca-Cola, Nike, Virgin Mobile, and others)


• Product Innovation (Procter & Gamble, Eli Lilly, Kraft Foods and others)


• ...and other vital company functions.

As for the We Are Smarter team, it is now planning for a second book focused on the power of collaboration in the "sales and marketing" function -- also under the We Are Smarter imprimateur.

In fact, Shared Insights' Barry Libert just sent me a link to a WSJ.com video about a partnership between Pfizer and SERMO, an online network of doctors who anonymously share their patient treatment experiences. If big pharma can overcome the expected regulatory hurdles of community-building with physicians, then there will be few excuses for others to ignore the wisdom of the crowds.

Labels: collaboration, collective intelligence, Community, enterprise, MIT Sloan, Pearson Education, PR, shared insights, social networks, We are smarter than me, Wharton

A cursory glance at what some top tech industry analysts are saying about Apple's new Leopard operating system indicates an evolutionary, not revolutionary boost to the Mac, the computer industry's biggest market share gainer.

Apple's venerable product line may no longer have the same brand cache as its "i" siblings, but make no mistake: Mac sales represent the biggest contributor to the company's bottom line. And it's only going to get bigger.

'I would put this under the category of, it's a nice upgrade, but it's not a game-changer,' said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster."

Gene, I disagree. I predict that sales of the Tiger-replacing, Leopard-infused iMac, Mac mini (?), MacBook, Mac Pro, and MacBook Pro will raise more than a few eyebrows when overall holiday computer sales are finally computed.

"If Apple is able to deliver on all of the stuff they are showing to date with Leopard, there is no doubt in my mind they will have another hit on their hands," said Michael Gartenberg, research director at Jupiter Research.

Already, Mac sales account for more revenue than the iPod, iTunes, or the iPhone, and that number will grow, due primarily to three factors: the recent Mac upgrade, Leopard as catalyst, and lingering consumer disaffection with Windows Vista. (Even so, some believe Apple already missed the window to capitalize on Windows' missteps).

"Some have said Apple is pushing the Mac out of the way" for other gadgets, said Rick Shim, an analyst with market research firm IDC. "I wouldn't say that's the case at all. The Mac is still central to their universe."

What intrigues me most about the arrival of Leopard is the different PR tack Apple appears to be taking in letting this Leopard out of its cage. The upgrade will not roar onto the scene with Apple's usual multi-million dollar, multi-media stage production starring Steve Jobs. In fact, Apple already has leaked a sneak of the product on its website.

Compared to Vista, which sought to out-hype the over-hyped launch of Windows 95 -- and succeeded -- (what does this tell us now?), Leopard may seek its buoyancy through a subtle intro and, let's not forget, Apple's millions of eternal evangelical enthusiasts everywhere.

Then, of course, I could be wrong. The PR/marketing command-and-control crowd in Cupertino could have something boffo up their collective sleeves (though I would advise against it). Let the momentum build from the ground up. In either case, the buzz already brews, which bodes well for AAPL in the crucial 4th quarter.

Labels: Apple Inc, Apple OS X, Apple PR, Leopard, marketing, Product launch, public relations, Vista, Windows

Kiefer Sutherland. Here's a guy who seems to have it all: looks, smarts and a taut, timely, well-written hit series on Fox. Even with all this, he's headed to jail for 48 days after pleading no contest to a DWI charge. I don't get it.

You didn't hear about it? Well, for reasons that escape me, Kiefer's tee-totalling travails didn't rise to the same shrill level as those of his fellow celebrity incarcerees, one of whom reportedly hopes to leverage their shared misfortune to regain some notoriety. Maybe Hollywood scribes are more fixated on famous females in the clink. Could it be a double standard?

Getting back to the title of this post, I absolutely despise the elder Mr. Sutherland's (pictured) new ABC series "Dirty Sexy Money." Not only does the title irritate, but the cast of characters in this stupid, unrealistic, exploitive, crass, piece of Hollywood muck should be embarrassed every time they open their mouths.

I guess what irks me most is the gall the producers had in locating this faux family farce in New York. Yes, I know. "Seinfeld" was filmed on the west coast, but it managed to retain a distinct New York sensibility (in spite of some street scenes looking remarkably unfamiliar). And "Sex and the City" did a fab job showcasing the city -- at least a certain aspect of it.

The scenes and characters in "Dirty Rotten Money" bear no resemblance to the New York I know or any New Yorker I've ever met. (And I grew up here.) This includes the post-mortem unpleasantness of Mrs. Duke and Mrs. Astor.

Consider the character played by one of the Baldwin brothers (don't ask me which one). He's an alcoholic businessman who aspires to be a U.S. Senator from New York and, by the way, is having an affair with a transvestite. At his campaign kick off party, incongruously held at Bulgari, one of the world's most expensive jewelry stores, his "sister" gets into a clothes-ripping cat fight on the Fifth Avenue sidewalk before scores of wild paparazzi and camera crews as if it were some Hollywood Awards ceremony. (Since when does a political campaign event even lure paparazzi?) Another of Mr. Baldwin's TV siblings is an impossibly handsome priest (in collar) who fathered a young boy of whom he's publicly disavowed parentage.

Nothing in this silly show is remotely plausible, nor above exploitation. At least JR and Ellie seemed like true Texans in the classic prime time sitcom series "Dallas." Even the brothers & sisters in ABC's other big family series are working from an intelligent and believable script.

As I watched "Dirty Sexy Money" (for the last time), all I can think of is how dare Disney miscast our city as some kind of Hollywood Babylon. I say cancel the show or minimally, banish this group of mindless misogynistic misanthropes from the island -- the island of Manhattan.

Labels: ABC, Dirty Sexy Money, Disney, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, New York City, Television

Feeling pretty guilty today. I missed my post yesterday. It was my first weekday miss in more than two years. No. I'm not following in the footsteps of Brian Connolly. I've just been sidetracked by activities that actually pay the bills (not that blogging doesn't have its benefits).

As for Brian Connolly, I have mixed feelings about his calling it quits. In fact I kind of feel partially responsible for his arrival, though I never condoned the venomous vitriol that the pseudonymous Amanda aimed at some of our industry's name players (and wannabes).

I never understood the roots or motivation of his clever, headline-making sniping. Was it the allure of blogebrity? Perhaps it was some deep-seated disdain for the agency business. Keep in mind he was an agency casualty from the dot-com downturn who never re-gained the glory. Maybe he's just one of the myriad PR contrarians, but with a decent command of the English language and the digital wherewithal to gain share of voice.

As for my role in the sordid arrival of the lascivious Amanda, I did get a call from Mr. Connolly several weeks before she first burst on the scene at the end of March 2006. He was referrred by a mutual acquaintence and came armed with many questions about my blog. I liked him. We talked about the then burgeoning blogosphere and the general state of the PR biz. I can't remember, but I may even have referred him to a digital PR job opening at one large, Atlanta-based beverage company.

Two weeks later, the infamous e-mail arrived from "Amanda," linking to her new blog called Strumpette. I found it well-written, but decidedly distasteful. Too much snark, too much baiting for my taste. Only one person I knew could give it its just due. I sent the mysterious email to my new blogging buddy Scott Baradell of Media Orchard, who in turn gave Amanda a big Texas welcome. Amanda had now arrived on the PR map -- for better and worse.

As soon as "she" appeared, so did the controversy of who "she" really was. Within a few days, I received a call from Mr. Connolly to shoot the breeze. While he didn't admit to being Amanda, he also implied that writing under a fictitious character is not such a bad thing. I adamantly disagreed, and said that that approach would not fly in the blogosphere. (Ultimately, he may have proved me wrong.) Nonetheless, I told him that if there's no real Amanda, he better find somone of the female perusasion to be her. It's simply too swarmy to have a middle-aged man posting as a licentious young woman.

The rest is history. Eventually, Amanda softened "her" hard-nosed rejection of all things social media, though, at her death, she/he was still a long way from embracing the changes in our business. This surprised me given Mr. Connolly's grounding in technology PR.

In the end, I suspect Strumpette's demise was more a function of ROI: too much time for too little return. No advertising revenue, and no benefit to the author's day job, whatever that is. Fun, confounding, and unnerving while it lasted. It also raised some important issues, but perhaps for the wrong reasons.

What others have to say:

David Meerman

Ron Jeffries

Mark Rose (Strumpette contributor)

Eric Eggertson

Sherrilynne Starkie

Frank Paynter

Labels: Amanda, blog, Brian Connolly, PR, public relations, Strumpette

We had a small dinner party over the weekend. Now mind you, my suburban friends are more fixated on kids and community than anything else. And when I say community, I don't mean the wisdom of the crowds or Facebook variety. I'm talking the neighbors we run into in town or on the sidelines of school sporting events. It's an existence as far away from Silicon Valley or Alley as you can imagine.

Anyway, the dinner topic turned to the rash of robberies in our relatively affluent town. Simply everyone knew of someone who'd been hit in the last six months. Yet, the local weekly paper's "police blotter" listed only a couple of car break-ins and one notorious act of graffiti to satisfy the salacious appetites of the paper's readers: every household in town.

Not a single robbery was reported. Nonetheless, anecdotally we agreed that a massive crime spree has beset our beloved town. We also concluded that the county police department, among the highest paid in the nation, is totally lame. Not a single collar has been made.

As I put on my new media hat, I realized that no mechanism or channel existed to capture this collective and community-crucial information so that it could manifest publicly. The police department certainly isn't about to publicize its abject futility.

I came to the disheartening realization that in spite of the revolution that envelopes me in my professional life, my homies have yet to and may never embrace the transforming technologies that serve to enlighten, inform and create connections. Furthermore, I bet that my hometown community more accurately reflects how life's lived in most towns across America.

Still, as I ponder how the Brian Leher Show tapped its community of listeners, and some 30,000 responded by providing local prices of supermarket staples, I can't help but dream of the possibilities.

Labels: Brian Lehrer, citizen journalism, Community, journalism

Well my favorite news portal just made the first acquisition of its 11-year history. MSNBC.com has acquired Newsvine, a site that aggregates both citizen and mainstream journalism into a news package driven by reader input a la Digg and Reddit.

Of course with its 29 million monthly visitors, MSNBC.com need only post this news -- along with a decent dose of ebullient quotes -- on its home page to gain attention. The space and effusiveness of the portal's story makes me wonder whether it endured the same journalistic scrutiny to which other such merger news is subjected. (Maybe this is the true model for an SMNR?)

Even so, the acquisition is not an insignificant development in online (i.e., the future of) journalism. Even MSNBC.com founding editor Merrill Brown who runs a competitive journalistic enterprise jumped on the booster bandwagon:

It's "...a visionary thing to do...It’s a really good thing for citizen content and the news category in general, because it demonstrates [that] the citizen content opportunity and the growth of community in a big way around news content is not a niche,” he said.

Agreed. The acquisition portends a new crowd-driven model of news delivery that blurs the boundaries between mainstream news sites and blogs. (Maybe we can soon merge the two distinct online news categories into one Excel tab for our media lists?) I now await the inevitable changes to my home page.

Labels: citizen journalism, media, MSNBC.com, newsvine, PR

Could it be? The powers-that-be at "The View" made Rosie O'Donnell's co-hosts on "The View" wear earpieces on the day Ms. O'Donnell got her come-uppance?

According to the Daily News's dynamic duo of Rush & Molloy, this is exactly what the corpulent comedian claimed at Comix last night. The revelations emerged in a stand-up routine organized by Ms. O'Donnell's bosom buddy Roseanne Barr who invited her on stage in NYC.

"Rosie started off by saying, 'When I was fired by Barbara Walters" - the first time she didn't stick to "The View's" spin that her departure from the show was by mutual agreement.

Rosie claimed onstage that Walters and other 'View' couchmates wear earpieces through which producers tell them what to say, which she refused to do."

Apparently, the program's producers were in a command-and-control mindset to ensure that nobody strayed from the script. Come to think of it, that segment didn't really appear too natural.

The tactic of clandestinely feeding the message to gain an advantage is nothing new. (I mean what was Wizard of Oz up to?) Maybe one day the truth of the 2004 Presidential debates will emerge?


Photo courtesy of James Edstrom via www.TimesSquareGossip.com.

Labels: PR, public relations, Roseanne, Rosie, The View, Wired

From The AP: "This country does not torture," White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters. "It is a policy of the United States that we do not torture and we do not."

Sure, Dana. And President Clinton "did not have sex with that woman."

Don't you hate it when press secretaries lie? And how can one even compare these similar-sounding, but extraordinarily different breeches of confidence? Sure both take poetic license to a dangerous place, but it's beyond me that one can even cite Mr. Clinton's transgression in the same sentence as those emanating from Mr. Bush.

A few year's back when this President's duplicitous former mouthpiece Ari Fleischer was poised to make a few bucks by publishing his memoirs, one of the established PR organizations invited him to speak at a luncheon in New York. He approached the podium to give his canned speech and the crowd of PR lemmings welcomed him with thunderous applause. "A celebrity among us," some must have been thinking. When he was finished, they crowded around him like he was Richard Dreyfuss in the final scene of Close Encounters.

I was very tempted to stand up and ask the bald-headed and bald-faced dweeb (who today is finally being seen as the fraud that he was and is) whether he would resign a client that intentionally asked him to lie on its behalf. I mean isn't that one of the absolute no-no's of the Council of PR Firms? I decided to hold my New York born and bred tongue.

Every time I see Dana Perino, as smart and attractive as she appears, I kick myself for not having the chutzpah to corner Mr. Fleischer on how he sold his soul to the devil, and what it has cost this nation. Dana, any public speaking engagements planned for New York?

Labels: Ari Fleischer, dana perino, PR, President Bush, press secretary, public relations, torture

I've always admired PETA. No, I'm not an animal activist or anything. I just felt that the group's audacity was very effective in creating headlines.

Who can forget all the blood those wayward animal lovers tossed at public figures (Harold Burson among them) or the perennial disdain they had for the fashion set.

It was almost as if this NGO would do anything to grab some ink and airtime. Well, today, it appears to have come to that.

In a pitting of strange bedfellows, we have one one side of the ring a group desperate for the drug of choice among the advocacy set -- media coverage -- and on the other, a fallen sports star desperate for any road out of his Kafkaesque nightmare.

Yes, folks, it's a win-win: PETA is courting pit-bull oddsmaker Michael Vick as a spokesperson in a possible PR campaign. (No, you can't make this stuff up.)

"The requirement from us would have to be extremely strong language," [PETA president] Newkirk said. "It would have to include Michael Vick saying, 'We've lost everything, and you would, too.'"

In either case, it's not as incongruous as it all sounds. PETA would be thrust back into the media limelight -- something it craves -- and Mr. Vick, well Mr. Vick has few options to once and for all demonstrate contrition to restore some respect. He's like a dog without a bone. It's a good match-up. Now what are the odds it'll actually come off?

Labels: advocacy animal rights, Michael Vick, NGO, PETA, PR, pr campaign, public relations

A former big box retailer client came to us with a brilliant idea. He wanted to do an environmental PR program tied to...St. Patrick's Day. Geesh! "Big agency," he asked, "how do you propose to bring my (lame-brained) idea to life?"

So like good little agency service providers, we convened a brainstorming to figure out just how we go about achieving our client mandate to equate the green of St. Patrick's with the green in the meadow. Hey, I got it. We'll clean up the Chicago River after the drunken fools pour green dye into it. Nah!

Why don't we hire some store workers in t-shirts to pick up the trash on New York's Fifth Avenue in the aftermath of the St. Patty's Day Parade? I don't think so.

In the end, the retailer's PR guy wound up creating an FSI in which all the store's "green" products were listed as sale items for St. Patrick's Day.

Back then, the motivation to be green lied less in its prospects to make a difference, and more in the PR/marketing potential. In his CNN/Money piece titled "The Greening of P.R; Read All About It," Joel Makover took notice of the sudden rush to green by the big full-service agencies.

"But it's more than that. The greening of P.R. reflects a new found reality: It's now safe, or at least safer, for companies to tell their good, green stories."

Some call their offering sustainability practices so as to not scare off too many prospective clients. (God forbid the agencies come off looking like Fenton Communications.)

Next week, at the World Business Forum, Yale professor and Green to Gold author Dan Esty will address in earnest the phenomenon that actually gives green PR its meaning -- not just some faux-marketing initiative designed to drive sales or enhance reputation.

Mr. Makover is correct. The agencies are making over this important practice, but it's not the first time. It's just more real this time, not to mention the prospect for mining gold from green.

Labels: agencies, environment, environmental pr, green PR, public relations, sustainability

On O'Dwyer's new blog, Kevin McCauley offers up his snide explanation for the New York Mets' inexplicable and impossible demise, e.g.,

"The complete collapse of the New York Mets baseball season had to be part of a masterful PR plan to keep the Amazin’s on the back pages of the tabloids during the stretch run?"

Meanwhile the city's second-class baseball franchise was so beleaguered it found it necessary to send its fans an e-mail apologizing for the spectacular meltdown. It read:

Dear Mets Fan:

All of us at the Mets are bitterly disappointed in failing to achieve our collective goal of building upon last year's success. We did not meet our organization's expectations -- or yours. Everyone at Shea feels the same range of emotions as you -- our loyal fans -- and we know we have let you down. We wanted to thank you for your record-breaking support of our team this year.

Equally important, Ownership will continue its commitment in providing the resources necessary to field a championship team. Omar will be meeting with Ownership shortly to present his plan on addressing our shortcomings so that we can achieve our goal of winning championships in 2008 and beyond.

You deserve better results.

Many thanks again for your record-breaking support.

Now I'm one to weigh in on the side of over-communicatng versus evanescence when faced with tumult. Still, I wonder whether Mets fans feel better as a result of this apology? One blogger had his own idea for what the email should have said:

"We sucked, Please don't kill yourselves

Now that's more like it!

Labels: apology, meltdown, New York Mets, PR, public relations