by Dan Ward

The transformation is complete. With its coverage of the Ft. Hood tragedy, my hometown paper has officially accepted that in a 24-hour news cycle, print newspapers no longer “break” the news.

The lead on the front page reads: “The suspected long gunman in the shooting rampage that killed 12 people and wounded 31 at Fort Hood in Texas was a mental-health doctor apparently terrified that he would soon face the same horrors of war that patients had described to him.”

The story assumes that the reader of the print edition is already aware of the tragedy, having learned about it either through the online edition or some other source. Instead of beginning with the What, Where and When, the story leads analysis of the Who and the Why.

Only on page three do you see the traditional news lead: “In an act of violence that sent shock waves through the American military establishment and raised questions about base security, an Army psychiatrist armed with two handguns opened fire Thursday afternoon on the grounds of Fort Hood, Texas, military officials said.”

I’m ambivalent about the change in direction. I can understand how in today’s world, a majority of readers might be expected to have already heard about major news such as this. At the same time, I miss picking up the paper and seeing the traditional, hard-news lead that I learned to write in my journalism classes so long ago.

by Dan Ward

It’s not enough to say that the Internet and social media are killing newspapers.  Newspapers are also killing themselves by neglecting the quality of their product.

When copy editors are shown the door in increasing numbers, how can any newspaper expect to publish a quality product … a product that not only contains accurate and useful information, but is also free of glaring errors and typos that affect the readers’ experience?

Not to bash the Orlando Sentinel, but since it’s my hometown paper it’s the most convenient example.  The Oct. 29 “Sports Daily” section contained a number of errors:

•  From an article on the Orlando Magic:  “Fans hated to see Lee traded after his promising rookie season, but Carter, an eight-time all-star authored a solid, if not spectacular, in his homecoming at Lee’s old shooting-guard position.”  Huh?
• A Mike Bianchi column stated that Rashard Lewis had been suspended for the “first10 games.”  Might be a space-bar mishap there.
• The next paragraph in that column ended without a period.
• The same column asks us to “just as” instead of “just ask” the team’s biggest fan.
• An AP story about the tragic murder of a UConn football player was so strong that the Sentinel chose to run two differently edited versions of it, on the same page, under different headlines.

Mistakes are always going to happen, and not every typo will be caught.  But when newspapers cut their editing staff to the point that quality suffers, their demise can no longer be blamed solely on the Internet.  The cost is evident in the latest Editor & Publisher report on circulation, which shows yet more double-digit declines.  Quality always matters, no matter the product.

by Roger Pynn

When Donald Trump’s organization turned to “network marketing” to me it was a sign that times were really tough. But now that I’m hearing ads on the airwaves to jump on board with The Donald before it is too late I have to laugh.

I come from an area that at one time was ground zero for pyramid schemes such as Glenn W. Turner’s Koscot International cosmetics and Dare to Be Great Seminars. Get rich quick artists have been praying on Floridians for years. They all seem to roll through here.

Network marketing, on the other hand, claims to be the honest answer for those who can’t wait for the bucks to roll in: the ones who would rather make money by selling other people the right to work for them.

The downside of all these schemes … the legal and the not-so-legal … has always been that the string eventually runs out. Those who get in early make money. And when the ball stops rolling as the string gets taught, the ambitious would-be-Trumpsters who bought in late in the game end up holding an empty bag. It almost never fails because eventually the driving forces in the middle get tired of seeing all the dough to the doughnut maker.

I’m not saying the one with the best known hair in maledom would scam anyone, but there’s a subtle message in his radio ads: “those who recognize the opportunity early will thrive.”

by Kim Taylor

I often stop for coffee at my neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts. And, while I like their coffee and the people are friendly, I wonder if this simple suggestion hasn’t had something to do with my repeat visits.

It’s an effortless sign located at eye level right near the exit, and somehow its suggestion stuck with me like a warm hug goodbye.

What subtle marketing tactics do you implement in your business to keep your customers coming back for more?

by Ashley Pinder

One year ago I saw fast-talking Peter Shankman speak in Orlando. He told a story about being jobless several years earlier in Manhattan and relying on creative methods to get his resume in front of employers. He had recently started distributing a free e-mail service to PR folks and doing all the work himself. That was then and this is now.

Shankman is responsible for the wildly popular Help A Reporter Out service, commonly known as HARO, which now boasts a subscriber base of more than 90,000 business and communications professionals. Created as a way to connect journalists with quotable sources and ideas for stories, HARO is a must-use service for those in PR. HARO e-mails have an unheard of average 90 percent open rate, which Shankman’s advertising team proudly proclaims as “e-mail crack.”

I remember that day hearing Shankman say he might begin to allow companies to sponsor his e-mails through paid advertising. Here in late 2009, not only does HARO accept paid sponsors for its three-times-a-day e-mails, it also allows companies to pay to place job postings and giveaways, all the while generating thousands of dollars of revenue five days a week with little overhead.

Peter Shankman struck me as unique, and as successful as HARO has become, something about the service he created is just as unique as him.

Maybe it’s the fact that Shankman’s team does the write-up of the sponsored company in “his voice;” or that HARO continually threatens to blacklist subscribers if they SPAM others or pitch journalists off-topic; or even that HARO’s plain text rate card (an important tool for ad-generating businesses) includes too many exclamation points and three “P.S.” thoughts after the closing; whatever it is, these attributes combine to make this successful business venture that much more surprising.

I sent an e-mail this morning to advertise and received a reply in less than two minutes … ads are booked through February 2010. I bet Shankman isn’t on the street corner in Manhattan any longer looking for work.

Do you think your company can benefit from HARO? C&P frequently identifies opportunities for our clients monitoring this service each day.

by Dionne Aiken

When Tropicana launched its new package design, it was met with consumer resistance and consequently, there was a 20 percent drop in sales. The Arnell Group, responsible for the redesign, attempted to create a fresher more modern look but inadvertently created a generic looking package that couldn’t stack up in grocery stores compared to its original predecessor.

PepsiCo did a remarkable 360 when they retracted the new Tropicana design and reverted back to the original packaging that we all grew to know and love.  The original packaging by Sterling Brands just worked.

PepsiCo also stirred up a flurry of online chatter when they unveiled Pepsi’s new logo/redesign.  Debates still continue on whether this was a $1 million step toward a brighter future or a $1 million mistake:

The 50^th anniversary edition of Communication Arts has an article about the personal ties and attachments we as consumers develop to our brands.  Researchers call this unaided awareness in that these brands automatically elicit an emotional response and thus we recognize these brands instinctively.  Even in a recession, as seen with such brands as Tropicana or even Walmart, brands have marketing power.

by Roger Pynn

Wonder what the future will look like? Thomas Friedman sees a dimly lit future if we don’t start teaching critical thinking in our public schools.

Employers of tomorrow – for that matter, today – can’t afford to staff their businesses with order takers. We need innovators … and innovators are people who can think over the horizon, spot a need and create solutions to problems that often haven’t yet been recognized.

If you’re like me, you’re looking for people who look at life like one big iPhone waiting for apps to be written. I like to think of them as “opps,” things that create opportunities.

by Dan Ward

Another day, another article discussing how social media makes traditional PR less relevant.   The latest comes from Chris Hogg at Digital Journal, who opines that “social media relations is more important than good PR.”

            Chris’ article, which continues to advance the stereotype of public relations as a “let’s pitch the news media” business, suffers from a serious disconnect. 

He correctly notes that “forward-thinking companies should have conversations with their audience and customers rather than talking at them,” but seems to believe that this is somehow separate from “good PR.” 

Connecting with the audiences that are important to your success is the essence of good public relations.           

Almost daily, I see similar posts and tweets declaring that social media makes public relations less important than ever, but as my colleague Roger Pynn wrote on this blog more than a year ago, the opposite is true.

Sure, social media allows companies to talk instantly and interactively with their customers and communities.  But does that mean they know what to say, when to say it and how to say it effectively in order to drive action?  Access to a medium of communication does not guarantee understanding of its use. 

And yes, traditional publicity has become less important as the media landscape changes.  But “good” PR pros have been advising clients for years to look beyond publicity to connect with their audiences.  We advocated such strategies long before Facebook and Twitter were invented, and will continue to advise clients to pursue a multi-pronged approach to communication.

Social media has changed everything, but Marshall McLuhan’s famous statement is still wrong.  The medium is NOT the message.  Message must always come first, no matter whether the medium is a hand-written letter or a 140-character tweet.  Crafting the right message and choosing the right medium to influence opinion and motivate action (and sometimes deciding when not to speak at all) … that’s “good PR.”

by Roger Pynn

A while back I wrote about invective and how the volume of online conversation is making life in the digisphere more and more unpleasant.

Just as interesting as the volume of passionate advocates and combative opponents alike is the tendency to anoint themselves as experts … whether they are talking about fried shrimp dinners, health care reform, their favorite martini bar or least liked public official.

And, because so many people are talking on almost every topic imaginable, both the proponents and their foes seem to be claiming the collective voice as being on “their side.”

Seth Godin suggests in “True Believers (and the truth)” that the Internet is what has amplified the volume of debate and that the loudest voices may not be the best point of reference when making the case for or against something, suggesting “they’re wrong far more than they are right.”

Coming as I do from a background in the dying art of journalism, I’m tempted to say “yes, Seth … I think you’re right. In fact, you’ve proven your point because you have failed to quote anything – statistical evidence from research, anecdotal evidence, etc. – that proves how right or wrong the voices really are.”

It strikes me – but I have nothing to back up my position – that the Internet isn’t to blame for the decibel level. Rather access has provided us all with an endless roll of free paper on which to write, ALL TO OFTEN IN SHOUTING CAPITAL LETTERS, whatever we believe to be true as if it were of biblical veracity.

Whatever happened to judgment? When did we stop questioning things before we started preaching them as gospel? Where did we lose our collective ability to study things before proclaiming ourselves experts?

by Dionne Aiken

As investigations are underway regarding last Thursday’s “Balloon Boy” fiasco, we start to wonder more and more: did they really do “this for the show?”

Colorado authorities as well as the media began drawing inferences from the Larry King Live interview on which 6-year-old “Balloon Boy,” Falcon Heene, made the assertion.

There seemed to be more cause for speculation as Janine Drive analyzed the “hot spots” of the father’s body language that raised red flags.

My associate Roger Pynn just blogged about being honest, candid and transparent.

As the story slowly unravels we start to wonder how honest, candid and transparent these parents really are.

Whether the Heene Family was seeking publicity or not – if they ever want another moment (15 minutes of fame) the ball(oon) is in their court to help us understand and to clarify the communication break down.