(Note: you can listen to this post here) I recently wrote about how a new device has rekindled my love of radio. I’m not listening to music stations, rather CBC news/politics, as well as other sports and arts programming. The audio only medium does these things well. Radio’s beauty is…
The tragedy of the commons is one of the most useful concepts for understanding the PR industry. It works well for other sectors, too (think politics, law, or agri-biz) but I’ll focus on my own world for now. Last month’s Burson-Marsteller/Facebook debacle is but one in a long list of…
During the summer, I work on events a lot. Similar to war, event PR is super fluid. You need a plan at the outset, but once battle begins you must be flexible to win the day. Knowing who and what you’re dealing with are critical to success. In the interest of…
As I’ve recently discussed, there are a myriad of misperceptions about PR. Thankfully, some in our industry are fighting the good fight and trying to educate clients, businesses, etc. on what public relations REALLY is. One such person is my friend Shonali Burke. She’s a force of nature (I often wonder…
April 19th marks the first anniversary of Guru’s death. What a tremendous loss for Hip Hop. He embodied the best of the genre and culture. In Guru’s life and music there are a myriad of lessons for PR pros. Here’s a cursory list of four, culled from my favourite Guru/Gangstarr songs: It’s mostly tha voice: Guru’s self-described…
The world is currently racked by tragedy. It’s everywhere. In times like these, there’s a perfectly natural tendency for those in PR to think that softer story pitches, unrelated to ongoing tragedy, are a waste of time. You might hear someone say, “The media don’t wanna hear about Good News…
NOTE – this piece is cross posted from the FAIT ICI blog, where it was originally published. ————————————————————————————————————————- Chris Anderson, the man behind Wired and ‘The Long Tail’, really likes declaring things ‘dead’. Awhile back he said print media was dead. Then he said the internet was dead. Anderson’s very…
I enjoy my job. Over the years, one of the best parts has been meeting a myriad of talented, thoughtful, professional journalists. The great ones are passionate people with an eye for detail and the ability to learn new things quickly. That said, in a general sense, there’s a few…
Whatever you think about old media or the death of print, op ed texts under a client’s byline have value if done right. There’s little doubt that they’re a great way to position a person/firm as a thought leader. It had been awhile since I’d done this, but I just got done writing something for a…
Just got back from NYC. It was my first visit there in over a decade, which is far too long. In all realms, Gotham has this tendency to defy conventional logic and, in doing so, redefine it. Here’s an example I wanted to share: I ate at Freeman’s Restaurant on…