Four of our account professionals attended “Inside the Newsroom with Business Insider” organized by PRSA Silicon Valley earlier this month. It gave folks the opportunity to hear from two of Business Insider’s tech reporters, Jillian D’Onfro and Matt Weinberger as well as Technology Section Editor and San Francisco Bureau Chief Matt Rosoff. I’m pleased to …more
The reason PR fails at storytelling often has nothing to do with understanding the makings of a good story or writing expertise. Instead, the root cause can lie in the interviewing process for sourcing the content. If you don’t get this upfront step right — pull out the type of content that the outside world …more
I interviewed my Mom last year in honor of Mother’s Day. Doing my best imitation of Geraldo Rivera — we both attended the University of Arizona and we both wear glasses — I peppered her with questions thinking that she didn’t understand the PR business. Heck, after 30+ years in PR, there are times when …more
It’s amazing how survival has a way of tuning one’s senses. That was the situation for our U.S. operation back in the 2011/2012 timeframe. It calls to mind the famous line from Albert Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” It was time for …more
Since Craigslist eviscerated the classified ads business in newspapers, journalists have been writing the “poor me” story. At some point, it became fashionable for these “poor me” stories to blame the PR industry for journalism’s shrinking job pool. Before jumping into the latest “poor me” piece in The Washington Post, the Pew Research Center delivers …more
As a PR nerd, when I read a story in a publication that vacuums my attention, two questions immediately come to mind: Was PR the catalyst for the article? What storytelling techniques carry the narrative? Such is the process I went through with the NYT piece, “A Chinese Billionaire Spinning Research into Investment Gold.” As …more
Public relations at its best acts as the conscience of a company. Here’s what I mean. Companies often go through the painstaking exercise of crafting a mission or values statement. For example Starbucks adheres to the following values: Creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome. Acting with courage, challenging the status …more
I’m sorry to see Gigaom go under. The media property produced a quality product in the form of journalism with fresh takes. Anyone can provoke. Gigaom provoked with intelligence. It was fitting that Gigaom communicated the news with raw honesty: “Gigaom recently became unable to pay its creditors in full at this time. As a …more
Taking a page from the music industry, I introduced our “greatest storytelling hits” in 2013 pulling from posts published before 2011. Now I’m going back to the well, showcasing some of my favorite posts published between 2011 and 2013. I hope you’ll find that they still have relevance and some spunk. 1. An Open Letter to …more
