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Entries from January 2008

PRSA and public relations

January 10, 2008 · 3 Comments

I wrote last week about the Public Relations Society of America. Bill Sledzik in his ToughSledding blog started the discussion about a news release concerning Jeff Julin, the newly named chair of that organization. Others like Jack O’Dwyer and Les Potter then joined in a conversation about PRSA in general.

On Monday I sent an e-mail to Joseph DeRupo, PRSA’s associate director of public relations and the media contact for the announcement. I asked some general questions that would be pretty typical of any evaluation process.

I didn’t really expect to get a reply. And as of today, I haven’t been disappointed. After all, if PRSA refuses, as it often does, to talk to Jack O’Dwyer, who has a national audience, the organization isn’t going to reply to me.

Or should Mr. DeRupo or someone from PRSA reply?

Let’s see. I’ve been a member of PRSA for about 20 years. I’m an Accredited member. I teach public relations at Kent State University. And I wanted to share the information provided by PRSA to readers of this blog and to students in the classroom.

OK. PRSA isn’t going to respond to me because I’m writing a blog. I seriously doubt that most organizations these days take the time to respond to bloggers, unless it’s a high-visibility forum with a large following. Clearly that isn’t the case here. Over time organizations will have to rethink that strategy. But it isn’t going to happen today.

But then there is the bigger issue: developing and maintaining relationships. I don’t warrant any special treatment from PRSA because I’ve been a member for 20 years. Every member should be treated the same – with respect, care and with some understanding that relationships really do matter.

When I was at BFGoodrich – a much larger organization than PRSA – someone would have responded to any shareholder, employee, customer or member of the community who asked a question or raised a concern. And that wasn’t just the responsibility of the public relations staff. Organizations, particularly large corporations, apply some fancy titles to that: customer relations, shareholder/investor relations, employee relations, community relations, etc.

But looking at it from the standpoint of public relations – how about doing it just because it is the right thing to do?

I was going to keep mentioning in this blog how many days it has been without a reply from PRSA. But as I was running this morning I concluded that doing that would be a colossal waste of everyone’s time. Organizations either get it – or they don’t.

Categories: PR · Public Relations · media relations

Public relations, TV, politics and PRSA

January 8, 2008 · 4 Comments

It’s warm in Northeast Ohio this morning, around 6o degrees. Still, I ran my five miles at 5 a.m. on the treadmill. One reason: I wanted to watch the local news. I’ll admit it. I fell asleep at halftime of the Ohio State game. Apparently I didn’t miss much.

But when I run on the treadmill I tend to have more random thoughts than I do when running outside and can focus generally on one subject. This morning I was thinking about Roger Clemens, Ohio State football, politics and PRSA. All, I hope, have a connection to public relations.

First, local television news. My first job connected to journalism and public relations (beyond delivering The Pittsburgh Press door-to-door during high school) was at a television station in Pittsburgh, then called WIIC-TV (now WPXI-TV).  I worked there part time from 1965 to 1967, mostly hanging around the newsroom, running errands, helping the TV directors time programs and commercial breaks and doing some advertising and promotion work.

At that time, most stations were still broadcasting in black and white – no color, no cable, no satellite feeds, etc. But the format and content of local TV news programs is pretty much the same today as it was 40 years ago: an opening section of news and chatter by news anchors, weather, sports and promotions for other programming, with commercials interwoven throughout. The technology has changed but not the format or content. I wonder if we will look back in a few years and say the same thing about Web 2.0? Just a thought.

Then there is Roger Clemens. He presented his case to the nation about his alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs on 60 Minutes Sunday night and again yesterday in interviews with reporters. I thought Clemens did a credible job; others disagree, like George Vecsey writing yesterday in The New York Times, “ Unconvincing Portrait of an Angry Victim.” And today in the Times Katie Thomas wrote an interesting story “ Nonverbal Actions Add to Clemens’s Story.” I talked about this in one of my postings last week.  But from a public relations perspective, Clemens took the offensive, made his case and did what he could to protect his reputation. I’m sure there is more to come on this story, including a Congressional hearing. But if Clemens is telling the truth – he did the right thing. But if there is a skeleton hiding in his locker, well, good luck. Interesting that in public relations it comes down to truth – then tactics and execution.

Then there is the Ohio State game. Final score: LSU 38 – OSU 24. Ugh.  But for any of you Buckeye fans reading this who are also part of the Kent State Nation, don’t be too discouraged. The Golden Flashes haven’t won any football titles since 1972 and before Don James moved on to the University of Washington. I know. I was at Dix Stadium that day. So at least the Buckeyes gave it a shot. But actually, for an OSU fan, the game last night was enough to make even Hillary Clinton cry. Oops. Meant to get to that in the next paragraph.

Actually, if you watched any of the news programs yesterday or this morning you almost couldn’t miss the story about how Hillary became teary eyed when talking to supporters in New Hampshire about why see wanted to be president. Good for her. Many are already criticizing her for displaying some emotion. I know the view now will be that she is not tough enough to be commander-in-chief, etc. Ironically, one of the charges against Hillary Clinton is that she is too distant, doesn’t relate well to voters, isn’t personal enough. Well, maybe she does really care – as I believe the other candidates do as well. But does this one moment on TV now define her as it did Senator Ed Muskie in 1972, also in New Hampshire? We’ll see.

David Broder wrote about Muskie in the Washington Monthly in an article printed in 1987. The message is relevant today.  Muskie in effect broke down and cried during a news conference where he was reacting to stories printed about him and his wife in the Manchester Union Leader. Muskie, at that time the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, was essentially through. This later turned out to be one of Tricky Dick’s dirty campaign tricks. And coming in the same year as KSU’s last football title. Hmm.

And I mention all this about Hillary Clinton and the other candidates, Republican and Democrat, without personally supporting anyone at this point. As I mentioned in a previous posting, I think it is silly to get attached to a candidate when the reality is that voters in Ohio will likely have no voice in the nomination process. If you believe the pundits on TV, the Democratic nomination may be over tonight, if Barack Obama finishes way ahead of Clinton and John Edwards. Ohio holds its primary March 4. By that time most of the Republican candidates will be gone as well. Wake me in October, as the Cleveland Indians prepare for the World Series.

But I am interested in the campaign from a public relations and social media point of view. I wonder how much influence Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other sites have had on the campaign, particularly the strong showing by Obama with young people. I hope younger voters stay involved, and if the social networking sites make that happen, good. It is time for a change.

And one final random thought for today. I wrote previously about PRSA and a news release it distributed Jan. 4 about Jeffrey Julin. Bill Sledzik started the discussion on his ToughSledding blog and has received a number of comments. Yesterday I sent an e-mail to Joseph DeRupo, PRSA’s associate director of public relations and the media contact for the Julin announcement. I asked him to give me some information about the announcement: how and where it was distributed, number of stories that resulted from the announcement, that kind of stuff. Not an unreasonable request coming from a 20-year member of PRSA and someone who would like to use this as a teaching lesson on this blog and in class. So far no response from Mr. DeRupo. And in fairness to him, he might be out of the office, he may be getting the information I requested, he might have been preoccupied yesterday looking at ESPN in advance of the Ohio State game. So we’ll see.

But could this be day two in the PRSA “no-response” crisis?

Categories: Kent State University · PR · Public Relations · media relations · social media

PRSA, news releases and the news media

January 6, 2008 · 3 Comments

Bill Sledzik has another excellent essay on his ToughSledding blog. He’s looking at the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and critiquing a news release that organization distributed Jan. 4 about Jeffrey Julin becoming PRSA’s chair and CEO. Terrible news release – but excellent points and comments by Bill and others such as Jack O’Dwyer and Les Potter.

When I first read Bill’s essay yesterday, my first reaction was that most of these “appointment” news releases are doomed to failure. They are long on words and jargon – but short on news value. The announcement about Julin goes on for nine long paragraphs. And if a newspaper or other media outlet had any interest in printing this what would be the result? I’ll bet not more than this:

“The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) has announced that Jeffrey Julin has become PRSA chair and chief executive officer effective Jan. 1.”

That’s typical.  Most of us know that. But we keep churning out the Julin-type announcements nonetheless. Why? Well, if nothing else, they take up space on the organization’s Web site. I used to believe that had some value. Not sure anymore.  But the bigger reason is that our management or clients will settle for nothing less. Stop the presses. Rob Jewell has been named third assistant sales representative at Widget Inc. So off we go.

And then I may be wrong about this. I read a lot of newspapers every day, including the Akron Beacon Journal and The New York Times. I haven’t seen the Julin announcement in either as yet. But I’ll admit that the Times appears to be preoccupied with politics and other matters. And maybe I missed the story in both papers.

Just to be sure, I’m going to send an e-mail to Joseph DeRupo next week. He is PRSA’s associate director of public relations and was the media contact on the news release. I’ll ask him how many newspapers and other media outlets received the Julin announcement? How many printed a story? And how much information was contained in each story? Now that the pro football season is over, what else do I have to do?

And then there is the question of the news media. Reporters say they dislike being bombarded with these kinds of announcements: too much detail, no news, and many times no connection to local readers. Yada. Yada. Yada.

But wait. Before I was able to post these comments to ToughSledding, I picked up Saturday’s business section in the Akron Beacon Journal.  And one of the very few stories was about the appointment of Christine Sabo as the newspaper’s marketing and community relations director. (Story only available online free for a few days.) First, good for her. I’m sure Christine is excited about what appears to be a great opportunity. And I may know her from the Akron PRSA Chapter or elsewhere. So this is in no way a criticism of her. Here’s a snippet:

“The new marketing and community relations director for the Akron Beacon Journal grew up reading the newspaper and has 22 years’ experience in the  industry in other parts of the country that she can bring to her new position.”

(And then there is Julin. His announcement says in part: “Julin brings to PRSA 30 years of public relations experience, with special expertise in stakeholder engagement and issues management.” Sure hope that sentence makes it into print somewhere beyond the PRSA Web site.)

I find it interesting that the Akron Beacon Journal would print this very comprehensive story – which certainly rivals in detail and length (and in many ways nonsense) the Julin release.  Clearly, the Beacon Journal can print whatever it wants. But this isn’t about a new editor or publisher, which would be news. Oh, well. I guess that’s why Al Gore invented the Internet so all of us could have blogs to opine on these kind of things.

So the point of all this is that I am always amused at the double standard that many journalists apply: one set of rules for themselves; another set for everyone else. This, by the way, is one reason why teaching a class in communication ethics is so much fun.

The next time Goodyear, for example, has an announcement about a marketing and communications director see how the Beacon Journal reports it. And then have some sympathy for the PR person who has to explain to his or her boss why the announcement barely rated one sentence in print.

But regardless, PRSA should be able to do much better. There are lessons here for all of us in the PR business. And reporters and editors sometimes have very different standards that influence news decisions — regardless of what we hear during those ever-popular “meet-the-media” meetings and luncheons organized by PRSA and other organizations. Just something I was thinking about while running in the drizzle this morning.

Categories: Akron Beacon Journal · PR · Public Relations · ethics · media relations

Public relations, politics and baseball

January 3, 2008 · 5 Comments

Well, we’re just a few hours from the Iowa caucuses. That’s where a few people who may or may not vote in the general election get to select the nominees to run for president in November. Those of us in Ohio – and elsewhere – get to sit on our thumbs. Maybe Michael Bloomberg will join the race in the spring as an independent. That would at least give the pundits on TV something to shout at each other about.

So since we can’t do anything about politics, let’s talk about something really important: baseball and Roger Clemens. As I wrote about previously, Roger Clemens is going to be interviewed by Mike Wallace this Sunday on CBS’s 60 Minutes. Clemens was named in the Mitchell report as one of many baseball stars who allegedly used performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens denies this and is embarking on a media relations effort to protect his reputation.

OK, since Clemens has decided to participate in this interview with Mike Wallace, what advice as a public relations pro would you give him in preparing for the broadcast?

Here’s what I’d tell him:

  • Be honest. Tell the truth. Don’t use qualifiers. If there is something out there you don’t want Wallace to ask you about or you can’t talk completely about, don’t do the interview.
  • Maintain eye contact with Wallace. Smile. Try to relax. Be comfortable.
  • Know what points you want to make – and make them. Don’t let Wallace control the interview.

On the other side, Jon Friedman in a column Jan. 2 on MarketWatch, says the Clemens’ 60 Minutes interview makes him cringe.

Friedman says: “Call me skeptical or even cynical. I just can’t help but wonder how tough Sunday’s ballyhooed “60 Minutes” interview with accused steroids abuser Roger Clemens will be.

“My problem is that Mike Wallace is asking the questions. I suspect that his friendship with Clemens will prevent him from making the baseball star sweat. And there is plenty to probe.” (Sorry, can’t find the link to the complete story online.)

Well, there’s an issue for an ethics class. But let’s stick with media relations and preparing for interviews.

What questions should Wallace ask? At a minimum, how about these:

  • Did you ever use steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs?
  • Do you know of any teammates or major league ballplayers who did?
  • If you didn’t use performance-enhancing drugs, then someone must have lied about you to Mitchell and his group. Who would that person be – and why? The New York Times has an interesting article on this aspect of the story.

My suggestion is that Clemens practice answering these questions — and I’m sure a host of others — before Sunday. Television is an unforgiving medium for people who try to dodge questions or are unprepared. And as I said previously, I really hope that Clemens is telling the truth. And if so, I give him credit for doing this interview. But the nature of television is why many CEOs decline opportunities for TV interviews; they may be OK with print, but TV, that’s a different matter altogether.

And then finally I would tell Clemens that in spite of his best efforts the interview might still not turn out in his favor. That happened this morning on Today. David Gregory grilled Mitt Romney. Let’s just say that I bet Romney expected an easier, softer interview. You can see the clip on MSNBC; go to the video link for the Today show.

Ohio holds its presidential primaries March 4. By that time, I expect the only issue will be how badly the various counties throughout the state can mess up the voting.

The Cleveland Indians head to spring training in mid-February.

Play ball!

Categories: PR · Public Relations · ethics · media relations

Public relations, running and the new year

January 1, 2008 · 5 Comments

Well, it’s New Year’s Day. And I’ve already completed my first run of 2008 – five miles in a 30 mph wind. Hope that running into the wind is not a sign of things to come for those of us in public relations and public relations education this year. But stick with me for a minute or so. I have another point I want to make about public relations as we start the new year.

I know it may seem strange that I run at 5:30 a.m. on a holiday. But I’ve been doing it now for 20 years or more. And fortunately, my wife, Mary, is understanding and forgiving of this minor (major?) flaw in my behavior.

We’ve been married for almost 34 years. I’ve been running mostly in the very early mornings for 25 years. I guess she figures it’s too late for me for any meaningful therapy. finishline.jpg

She has also been a good sport about all of this. Since I get up most days, weekends included, at 4 a.m., we rarely go anywhere that keeps me up past 10 p.m. And the worst thing that can happen is that you invite people to dinner, knowing they may want to linger until, uh, 10:30 or later. Mary on the other hand has some really well-adjusted friends who like to go to events, parties, plays like normal people. Thankfully I finally learned how to work the remote control for our TV. And our dog appears to enjoy my company.

I’m not anti-social, far from it. Consider almost any New Year’s Day from years past. My friends who I met through running – Walter, Jerry, Matt, Joe, Ziggy, Carol and a host of others – would meet very early at Walter’s place in Barberton. We’d run four or five miles – even in the days before global warming. Then we would toast the new year with orange juice and Champagne. None of us were ever awake at midnight for this ritual.

We don’t do that any more. Many have moved from the area. Some prefer to run now – or more likely bike — when the sun is actually shining. Some have reached the age – as I guess we all will – when running just isn’t all that much fun any more, or it’s too hard physically to get out there most days. Men’s senior tennis anyone? As you get older, the road gets both longer and shorter. (I included that last line primarily for the poets who read this blog. I’m trying in my writing to be more lyrical.)

So, guys, thanks for so many great runs, conversations and memories. I thought about all of you a lot as I was out there this morning. And I’m going to talk in this blog throughout the year about some of our runs – and share with others some of my memories about the friendships I’ve been fortunate enough to make on the run.

And maybe there is a public relations lesson here as well. PR is about relationships – in the long run. As a group of runners, we really didn’t have a lot in common, particularly in the early days. We were of different ages and backgrounds. We had vastly different jobs, views on politics and social issues, sports and just about anything else you could name. But we talked as we ran – and we had great conversations. We didn’t always agree. But over the years we developed solid relationships based on trust, honesty, fairness and empathy – and civility.

Too bad as public relations pros we can’t replicate that with employees, customers, shareholders, students, reporters, etc. I’ll bet if we could, our employers and clients would benefit and public relations as a profession would be held in much higher regard.

I agree that social media, Web 2.0 and all the new technologies are great tactical advances. But I’m not sure that the new technology will help us create the relationships that we need with people inside and outside our organizations. It may, in fact, do just the opposite. Does anyone actually pick up the phone and talk to a reporter these days? Do CEOs and college presidents still meet and talk face-to-face with employees, faculty and students? I hope so. But it’s hard to tell. I don’t see many in the blogosphere talking about those kind of things these days. Maybe over time I’ll be able here in some very small way to help spark an ongoing conversation about the role of what I’ll call traditional face-to-face tactics in public relations versus the new tactics related to social media and Web 2.0. We’ll see.

Oh, and Mary. You know I don’t make resolutions. I have enough trouble remembering what you have asked me to get at the store. But I’m determined to be more flexible with my schedule this year.

Would 10:15 p.m. as a curfew be OK?

Also, Mary seems to be warming up to this new activity of mine, blogging. Just yesterday I was in my office at home searching for some obscure Web site. She yelled enthusiastically: “C’mon. We have to go. What the hell are you doing up there.”

So it goes.

Photo of me completing the Columbus Marathon in October 1985. 

Categories: PR · Public Relations · Web 2.0 · social media

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