|
|
Federal officials got the basic facts of the Philadelphia train wreck out within 24 hours—the train was going double the speed limit and that section of track lacked available safety measures. The public mostly got the news of the crash and press conferences via their hand-held devices and TV.
Newspapers, all of them now morning editions, only had a few facts of the accident the next day since it happened at 9:30 p.m.
Officials were at first reticent to make any statements until the “black boxes” could be located. But Robert Sumwalt of the National Tranportation Safety Board then conducted a press conference in the late afternoon that fielded most questions. Such conferences were once a staple of companies and their PR departments but they are a rarity now.
By coincidence, the New York Times yesterday had a story on page one, a few inches from early reports on the train crash, that said Verizon is buying AOL. It quoted AOL CEO Tim Armstrong as saying the future of media and ads is in cellphones.
NYT, which is grappling with the new media lay-of-the-land, has a lot to learn from its own story. It must face the hard facts of the changing media landscape the way Amtrak is facing the fact that one of its trains was going 106 MPH in a 50 MPH zone.
Hand Held Devices Proliferate
If ads are going to gravitate to hand held devices, of which there are many types with more on the way, where does that leave daily newspapers? If they are to survive with fewer ads, they must reduce their page count and use of expensive color and graphics.
NYT, which lost $14.3 million in the first quarter, is a comparatively small company with revenues of $1.58 billion in 2014. Net applicable to preferred and common shares was $65,612. Debt was $427 million.
NYT, by dropping the bridge and chess columns, invited a close look at its policies. Bridge and chess fans should bombard chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. with letters written not from the point of view of bridge and chess, which will survive without the columns, but of NYT which is jeopardizing its own future by going down such an anti-intellectual road. Sulzberger will listen if enough people write him. Address is 620 Eighth Ave., NY 10018-1405.
An indication of how politics influences news coverage at NYT is the appointment of 2012 Brown graduate Sydney Ember to do the ad column although it now appears only sporadically and not every day.
She is the classic cub reporter when a very experienced reporter is needed on advertising/PR and communications. It is subject to severe political pressures by NYT bosses. The previous columnist, Stuart Elliott, was enticed out of his job after 23 years by two years of severance pay and other goodies.
Feds Not Perfect in Communications
While the federal government is performing well in getting the facts out about the train crash, it is open to criticism in other areas.
Jeffrey Sterling, ex-Central Intelligence Agency, has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison on charges that he leaked classified information about Iran’s nuclear program to an NYT reporter. Sterling has maintained his innocence.
The Obama Administration, as noted by NYT, has charged more public servants with leaks to journalists than all previous administrations combined. The paper also notes that former CIA chief David Petraeus, accused of giving his biographer classified information, got off with probation an a fine.
Libraries Revolt vs. Data Collection
Librarians are having a spat with the National Security Agency. The Patriot Act lets the government obtain library records via a secret court order and without probable cause if a terrorist plot is suspected.
Under examination are the searches that members of the public do on library computers.
The Nation of May 25 examines the battle in a cover story titled “Librarians vs. the NSA” that has the subhead, “ Your local library is in the front lines against surveillance.”
Members of PR Society of America should check this story and protest to h.q. about the Society’s claim of “ownership” of any searches made of its database. Members can have their privileges revoked on “suspicion” of improper use. An example of improper use is a member downloading the audit of the Society and giving it to this website. At least one member has lost website access on “suspicion” of misuse and without a hearing.
Members should demand an immediate halt to surveillance of how they access the Society’s database. Lawyers have told us the “terms of use” are not a contract because there was no participation in this document by members themselves. Up until 2006, when publication of its 1,000-page directory was halted, anyone had access to the full member database of the Society. Extensive contact information on hundreds of thousands of editors is readily purchasable or even in free areas of media websites. There's no justification for PR contact info being forbidden territory when for many years it was not.
While on the subject of the Society, the press conference given by federal officials in the Philadelphia train crash should serve as an example to the Society whose officers have not faced the press in such a conference since 1993.
Chair Kathy Barbour, now with Acosta, a company that helps clients obtain the best shelf positions at supermarkets, sometimes by purchasing the space, should face the press in New York and explain why the Society’s 2014 revenues are below what they were in 2006 despite a $30 dues hike in 2012.
There’s plenty of press in New York to face including Gabrielle Bluestone of Gawker who covers media, and reporters from BuzzFeed, PR Week/U.S., PR News, Advertising Age, PR Newser and NYT ad columnist Ember.
Mystery News Medium Patch Mentioned
The NYT story on Verizon buying AOL mentions Patch, a local web news service that is described as “one of the most prominent mis-steps” of AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. Wikipedia says that as of May 2014 owner Hale Global had 906 Patch outlets in 23 states.
“Hundreds of millions” were poured into the “struggling company which some say co-founder Armstrong took too long to wind down,” says the story.
Patch operates a news service for Westhampton Beach/Hampton Bays and other areas of the Hamptons. It ran two lengthy items on the eruv Jewish boundary dispute several years ago but has been silent on the issue since then.
Attempts to place O’Dwyer stories on Patch are blocked by the editors including regional editor Ryan Bonner. Attempts to set up meetings or phone calls with Patch staffers bring no results.
There’s a fine line between newsjacking and taking advantage, aka ambulance chasing. Our job as PR professionals is to tread it carefully.
PR firms need to be mindful of ways their work product may be protected by the attorney-client privilege whenever working with a client’s internal legal team or its external legal counsel.
Manuel Rocha, former US ambassador and intenational business advisor to LLYC, plans to plead guilty to charges that he was a secret agent for Cuba.
CEO mentoring is an often-overlooked aspect of why CEOs are able to make good decisions, and sometimes make bad ones—all of which intersects with the role and duties of a board. 
How organizations can anticipate, prepare and respond to crises in an increasingly complex world where a convergent landscape of global challenges, threats and risks seem to arrive at an unrelenting pace.
Have a comment? Send it to 
No comments have been submitted for this story yet.