Crisis Communications Lessons From the Campaign Trail
From our colleague, Caitlin Rourk: The 2016 presidential election has been nothing short of a spectacle, turning traditional political conventions (no pun intended) squarely on their head. And just as this election has forced the political establishment to alter its strategies, business organizations must reevaluate how to approach the unpredictable and unforgiving crises they face […]
Why Your TV Screams at You in May
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] It’s that time of year when TV news promotions get louder, more breathless, more salacious and more frequent. It’s the reason every one of your local stations launches competing, exclusive, super-secret investigative reports. It’s a mad rite of spring for TV stations all across the country – it’s the Nielsen […]
Escaping the Digital Media ‘Crap Trap’
From Jim VandeHei, writing in TheInformation.com: Digital media companies are caught in the “crap trap,” mass-producing trashy clickbait so they can claim huge audiences and often higher valuations. Here is how they fell into this lethal trap: They got into the content game to produce news or info they might be proud of, believing they […]
Breaths Of Fresh Air: The Art Of The Terry Gross Interview
From an article written by John Myers for AudibleRange.com: In January, I joined Audible’s Original Content team after spending seven years as a producer at National Public Radio’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. There, part of my job involved homing in on the most interesting parts of an interview: distilling longer conversations into tight, broadcast-ready […]
You Can’t Spin Your Way Out of Bad Behavior
A colleague of ours, Don Etling, said it best: You can’t spin your way out of bad behavior. The Penn State situation exemplifies that. Joe Paterno & Co. knew that Jerry Sandusky was abusing children – and they looked the other way. They didn’t have a communications problem – they had a performance problem. Volkswagen is […]
Sponsors Cut Ties After Maria Sharapova Drops Drug-Test Bombshell
From Ragan’s PR Daily: When tennis star Maria Sharapova hastily called a press conference, many reporters expected the athlete would be announcing her retirement. Instead, Sharapova dropped a startling admission: She had failed a recent drug test for the Australian Open. Sharapova’s drug test results came back positive for meldonium, a drug used to treat […]
The Definitive Guide to Selecting The Right Spokesperson
[By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications] One of the most common decisions we encounter when clients face a crisis situation is helping them choose the individual who will serve as their spokesperson. Rarely does anyone volunteer for this assignment and most draftees accept it with grudging resignation. In truth, being a spokesperson is a high-risk job […]
Why Cleveland’s Reputation Can Survive Republican National Convention Protests
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] As of July, I’ll be able to say I’ve worked in the cities that played host to two of the last three Republican National Conventions. Given that I was in St. Paul, Minnesota, serving as editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press during the 2008 RNC, people have asked what […]
Why Peyton Manning Gave Budweiser $3 Million in Free Advertising
From Time Magazine: Anheuser-Busch InBev plunked down about $15 million for Super Bowl advertisements this year to promote its Budweiser and Bud Light brands. But one of the company’s most memorable plugs during Sunday’s game—from Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning—came for free. In a post-game interview with CBS’s Tracy Wolfson, Manning said he planned to […]
Online Comment Boards: Learn to Swim Before Jumping in the Water
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] The first of two parts on how best to deal with online comments. Today: How to be prepared. Next: How to get involved. John Kroll has some advice about news story online comments for folks in charge of their organizations’ reputations: Know the water before you jump […]