01.27.06
Posted in General at 10:37 pm by Paloma Cruz
A friend of mine pointed this out to me, as a word to the wise. It seems that Dwight Silverman, the Houston Chronicle’s tech guru, gave a quote to KHOU that got misrepresented… or misquoted, or whatever.
I made the point of mentioning the above items during our interview, but KHOU chose not to use them. Granted, they’re not as simple or as quickly stated as what the reporter used, but in my opinion they’re far more effective and foster a more positive relationship than spying on your kids.
I’ll give Channel 11 the benefit of the doubt here, since this was a handoff interview. But it’s always, um, interesting when a journalist finds his words mishandled by someone else in the profession.
If a reporter is getting misquoted, one from such a big organization, by another from an almost equally big organization… well, how am I supposed to do my job if Dwight Silverman has to blog about it to get the straight story out?
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01.24.06
Posted in General at 11:15 pm by Paloma Cruz
For those of you who have been paying attention, the WB and UPN are merging to form CW, a new network. In Houston, UPN doesn’t have a news program, but the WB does. It airs at 9 p.m. and the reporters are… well, I digress. I wonder what the new network will mean to news coverage?
From the AP:
UPN, WB to combine to form new network
Two small, long-struggling television networks —
UPN and The WB — will shut down this fall and programming from both
will be used to launch a new network aimed mainly at young and
minority viewers.
The new network will be called The CW — “C” for CBS Corp. and
“W” for Warner Bros. — each of which will own half of the new
entity and contribute programs, assets and executives to the
venture.
Tribune Co., a Chicago-based media company, will relinquish its
22.5 percent stake in The WB in exchange for a 10-year affiliation
deal to carry the new network on 16 of its stations. The rest of
The WB was owned by Time Warner Inc., parent of Warner Bros.
[snip]
The CW will air 30 hours of programming, seven days a week,
following the model of The WB. Six nights of prime time shows will
air Monday through Friday 8-10pm and Sundays 7-10pm. There will
also be shows on weekday and Sunday afternoons, and five hours of
children’s programs on Saturday morning.
[snip]
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01.14.06
Posted in General at 11:38 pm by Paloma Cruz
That’s the topic of a workshop being held by the American Marketing Association (Houston Chapter) on February 8th.
Program information:
Bob Pritchard will discuss combating the perception of marketing’s decreased effectiveness and increasing commoditization. Specifically, Mr. Pritchard will explore:
- Why have marketers lost their influence in corporate America to financial people, despite marketers being responsible for driving companies growth, profit, and success?
- What marketing activities are effective given the rapid growth of global commoditization?
- Why is the majority of measuring performance not measured?
Bob Pritchard’s International clients include Citicorp, BMW, General Mills, and Anheuser Busch. Two super successful programs were the 16-country, five-continent, multimillion dollar lifestyle project for The Coca-Cola Company and the “Goosebumps” promotion for Frito Lay’s Smiths Division, credited with increasing sales by $115 million. Bob Pritchard was named International Marketer of the Year in 1998 by a global committee of Marketing Directors and Agency Heads.
The when & where:
When:
February 8, 2006
Where:
The Junior League of Houston
1811 Briar Oaks Lane
[snip]
Schedule:
11:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Registration and Networking
12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. Speaker and Lunch
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01.13.06
Posted in General at 12:44 am by Paloma Cruz
Two places I know, from previous experience, to look:
Have you checked them out lately? There are some very good leads listed there.
Of course, I admit sheepishly, every job I’ve ever landed in my professional career has been thanks to a referral. So I don’t know that I’ll put too much hope on job listings.
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01.12.06
Posted in General at 1:09 am by Paloma Cruz
I saw a few blogs post this months ago and never got around to it… mostly because I was a little bit afraid of the results.
Not bad for a virtual voice. Find out what your blog is worth.
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01.10.06
Posted in General at 11:05 pm by Paloma Cruz
A friend of mine recently had a run-in with her Executive Director because she would not say the words “no comment” in response to a media inquiry. This was more a battle of power than anything else, but it struck me as such a non-issue… to me.
If you don’t want to give info to a reporter, you either don’t give an interview or you give a non-answer. You don’t say “no comment.” The fact that her executive director was upset that my friend wouldn’t say the words tells me that she doesn’t understand how bad it would have looked if they’d done that.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I consider it a rule never to actually say the words “no comment.” I will say a variety of other things instead:
- “I don’t have that information.”
- “I’ll have to check into that.”
- “We’re still investigating what happened.”
- “I don’t know.”
I know that we all have our professional tricks — the things we do to help us succeed at our jobs. And there are those unwritten rules, the ones we all know (on which many of us agree) that are a standard, but which the non-experts, the non-flacks, may not know.
Examples:
- You never say “no comment.”
- “Off the record” doesn’t exist.
- Don’t lie — refuse to answer, provide a non-answer, deflect, misdirect, ramble… but don’t lie.
I know what was causing the real conflict between my friend and her (new) boss. She’s been at that organization for five years, been in media related work for more than 20 years. She was hired on because she has expertise. If her expertise is going to be ignored, then how is she supposed to protect her organization?
I do not envy her the upcoming months, as she tries to work out things with her boss.
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01.09.06
Posted in General at 12:17 am by Paloma Cruz
Can we get the facts straight in a 24-hour news cycle?
The recent communications that ensued after Hurricane Katrina, during Hurricane Rita and the more recent mining tragedy show that news casters can and will go on the record with mis-information.
Ike Pigott covers this topic in his post “The Blame Game.”
What I couldn’t do was monitor everything that was going out. And sure enough, when a reporter (more likely a disc jockey) went crazy with imaginary information, it took me a while to find out about it. And it will drive you crazy, doing hours of interviews explaining why you can’t accept in-kind donations, only to find out a radio station is telling people what items to bring to your shelters.
John Wagner add his voice to the topic:
I think we’ll see more situations like the one in West Virginia in the future, rather than fewer.
The ability to communicate quickly is so prevalent today — with cell phones, IMs, text messaging, video, etc. And the pressure is on the media to respond quickly and stay ahead of the competition.
It was much easier to control information back in the day. Now, anyone on the scene with a decent cell phone can spread rumors faster than any PR person can close them down.
I recently gave an interview where I corrected a newspaper reporter’s question — i.e., she was using the wrong terminology in the question asked. I went over this twice with her before I even anwered the question. When the story ran, not only did the reporter use the wrong terms, she didn’t use any of the info I gave her. Not one quote, bit, or attribution. And her assertions were wrong.
I think that some of the problem is that there’s an added time element to current news. But, in addition, I think we’ve stopped holding journalists to the accuracy standard. Twenty, ten, even five years ago, these mistakes would have cost someone his or her job. Now we just shrug it off.
And this makes my job much harder. If it’s my job to get out the truth… how am I supposed to do that if journalists can now ignore it?
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01.08.06
Posted in General at 8:26 pm by Paloma Cruz
“The new majority in PR: Women” lists women PR bloggers (I’m on the list). This is part of a conversation or thread of discussion about how women make up the majority in the PR profession, but the minority of PR bloggers.
Personally, I think that it’s quality, not quantity that counts. If you take a peek at the bloggers on the list, you will see quality at it’s best.
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01.05.06
Posted in General at 6:46 pm by Paloma Cruz
From John Wagner:
Better to reach 1 person who truly cares than 1 million who can’t tell a bowl championship from a girls soccer game.
Read the post to understand…
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Posted in General at 6:39 pm by Paloma Cruz
I found this at the Houston Business Journal:
PR professionals in Texas commanding higher salaries
[snip]
Public relations professionals in Texas earned between $7,000 and $10,000 more per year in 2005 than they did five years ago, according to a new compensation survey conducted by the Public Relations Foundation of Texas.
However, PR people are enjoying fewer benefits now than they used to, officials with the nonprofit organization say.
[snip]
The average pay in the Dallas market was the highest at almost $80,000, while the lowest was in San Antonio and South Texas at $58,000, according to Haynes.
“Geographically, the markets offering the highest pay levels are Dallas and Austin. Houston and Fort Worth markets follow but are about $10,000 per year lower, at $67,000 to $69,000,” says Haynes. “By industry, the highest paying jobs appear to be in manufacturing, high technology and energy, while nonprofit organizations, education and state and local government jobs are among the lowest compensated.”
PR professionals, however, are earning fewer perks than they did five years ago. Bonuses are smaller, company-paid insurance is harder to come by and few employers are offering company cars, Haynes says.
[snip]
I hope they’re right. 
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