The International Assn. of Business Communicators is rethinking
its many ties to Ragan Communications, which has conferences,
seminars, books, publications and an awards program that are
competitive with IABC.
PR Society of America, after years of co-sponsoring conferences
with Ragan and letting PR Week (U.S.) use its mailing
list, has put an end to all such co-sponsorships and will
no longer rent its list to PRW.
Red Riding Hood had the
sense to realize that the wolf was in disguise. |
Both trade groups are losing money and wonder why. IABC is
in particularly bad straits, having lost $2.1 million in the
past three years.
They obviously never read the tale of Red Riding Hood, who
had the sense to realize at the last moment that the hairy
figure in her grandmother's nightgown was not her grandmother
(who had been eaten).
Besides the $1 million loss on its abortive e-business "TalkingBusinessNow,"
IABC last year saw its conference, seminar and awards income
fall $369,412.
It is in stiff competition with Ragan, which puts on a dozen
two-day workshops and nearly 50 one-day seminars a year.
The two-day seminars are expensive, running from $795 to
$1,295. IABC puts on about two dozen conferences and seminars.
Both IABC and Ragan target the same audienceemployee
communicators.
Ragan published Ragan's
Public Relations Journal, a bimonthly, in 1999. The
title, Public Relations Journal, had been used for 50
years by PRSA until it discontinued publishing the monthly
in 1995. |
IABC and Ragan are each putting on two-day conferences in
May and the contrasts between the two meetings are eye-opening.
Both cost $795.
Ragan expects 400+ at its meeting in Chicago while IABC and
its co-sponsor, the Council of Communication Mgmt., expect
70 at a meeting in Los Angeles.
If you look at the Ragan conference, it sounds like an IABC
event.
Charles Pizzo,
2000-01 IABC chair, is moderator of the opening Monday panel
May 13 from 8:30 to 9:45 which has PR executives from five
blue chipsBoeing, Walgreens, Marriott, Baxter and Unisys.
He then talks from 10:45 to noon on "workplace safety
and security issues."
Shel Holtz, one
of the architects of TalkingBusinessNow (paid $83,330 as a
consultant to IABC in 2000) and who put on about 18 full-day
workshops for IABC in 2000, speaks from 1:30 to 3 p.m. about
the intranet. He also speaks for an hour on Tuesday on how
intranets can be used to hold videoconferences and send audio
files. He will give one of three half day post-meeting seminars
which are an extra $295.
PRSA will no longer co-sponsor
conferences put on by other entities such as Ragan's Media
Relations conference. It will continue to take sponsors
for its own conferences. |
Les Potter, 1991-92
chair of IABC, will talk on how attendees can help employees
to be recognized as the most significant asset of an organization.
Ned Lundquist,
current IABC national board member, will talk on how the U.S.
Navy's leadership techniques can be adapted by attendees.
He is a retired naval captain.
Robert Holland,
past national director of IABC, will tell attendees how to
find an "influential manager" who will help their
communications programs. Potter and Holland are also giving
special morning sessions on "How to network without feeling
silly, insincereor both." Besides the post-conference
seminars, there are three pre-conference one-day workshops
at $395 each.
Suzanne Salvo, former president of the Houston chapter and
currently an IABC district director, will give advice on how
to take photos of the CEO. She has her own photography business.
The IABC/CCM meeting
sounds dull by comparison. There are no special sessions
on how to network; no pre and post-meeting workshops, and
no awards lunch.
Only one issue of Fraser
Seitel's What's Working in PR and Corporate Communications
was published in 1995 by Ragan. Seitel at that time was
publisher of PRSA's quarterly Strategist and was
writing front-page articles for its monthly Tactics.
Seitel at the time, said he would have quit writing for
Tactics if "What's Working" were successful.
WW was a 16-page newsletter offered at $189. |
The only speaker familiar to IABCers is Wilma Mathews, a
national board member from 1999-2001. None of the Ragan "stars"
such as writers Dave Murray and Steve Crescenzo are on the
program. No wonder only 70 are expected.
However, we did some research on some of the speakers and
found that the opening address will be given by Robert Mallett,
senior VP, corporate affairs, Pfizer.
A lawyer, he was in the Clinton Administration as Deputy
Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Commerce from 1997-2001. He
should be an interesting speaker.
The IABC website, meanwhile,
lists three Ragan and three Melcrum (U.K.) publications for
sale. The website of Ragan does not list any IABC publications
while the Melcrum site does. IABC publishes 14 manuals, books,
reports and kits, which are listed in its IABC Store under
"Knowledge Centre Resources."
IABC is being further
weakened by the departure of Gloria Gordon, editor
of Communication World and an 18-year veteran of the
group. CW, once published monthly, is now published every
other month. Ragan offered to take over the writing and publishing
of CW, remitting profits to IABC, but the group turned this
down.
Gordon is leaving in September to start her own consulting,
writing and research firm. She is working a little over half
time until Aug. 1. Natasha Spring, director of the IABC Research
Foundation, will be executive editor of CW and Naomi Mandelstein,
senior editor.
CW has been outsourced to Douglas Murphy Communications,
Richmond, Va. It will manage editorial traffic, art, direction,
production, printing, mailing and ad sales.
PRSA, after a long and deep love affair with PR Week, has
decided that PRW is a competitor. Of course it iswith
PRSA's Tactics and Strategist publications and the Silver
Anvil awards.
PRW is put out by Haymarket, the biggest private publisher
in the U.K. with a couple of hundred million pounds in sales.
With $11.5 million in sales, Ragan is more than twice the
size of IABC. The company last year purchased two "Bits
& Pieces" inspirational publications. About 250,000
copies of the booklets are printed 14 times a year.
Trade associations should not be involved in any way with
the trade publications covering them. It's a conflict of interest
for both. The trade groups have lost lots of advertising and
conference/seminar dollars to these private companies and
can ill afford to lose more.
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