Press Release Writing Tips From the New York Times
It’s not everyday that our friends at the New York Times offer press release writing tips, but they did so today in a story headlined, “Need Press? Repeat: ‘Green,’ ‘Sex,’ ‘Cancer,’ ‘Secret,’ ‘Fat’” The Times took as a starting point a press release about the alleged toxicity of shower curtains to explain how PR agents [...]
A Case of Extraordinary Customer Service
This is a little weekend item about Maui Jim, the sunglass maker. I’ve had Maui Jims for several years now, but I continue to be blown away by their commitment to customer service and how it makes me feel about their brand. They’re not cheap (mine cost about $200 and they can run much more [...]
Job-Hungry Journalists Turning to PR
There has always been a steady stream of media people making the career transition into PR. But with the serious financial and business model problems plaguing most major media, journalists who once looked down their noses at what they call “the dark side” are starting to think that things might not be so bad over [...]
In Firing Their Manager, Mets Prove That Timing is Everything
Everyone in New York, and every baseball fan, knew the Mets were going to announce the firing of under-performing manager Willie Randolph. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when. It turned out that when was at 12:15 am early Tuesday morning on the West Coast, which was 3:15 am back where it mattered, New [...]
Why Bother Being Two-Faced?
Grocery store giant Safeway found itself between a rock and a hard place yesterday, and it didn’t do a very good job wiggling its way out. Here in San Francisco, there was an event to talk about corporate efforts to reduce smoking. Safeway participated and announced that it would ban smoking in and around its [...]
More McClellan Fall Out: I Told You So
Leave it to a lawyer-turned-journalist to be the one to take the bait and use the Scott McClellan tell-all as an opportunity to rip the PR industry. I told you this would be one of the consequences of McClellan’s sell out. It happened on CBS Sunday Morning [I resisted posting this all week but felt [...]
This Just In: Sex Still Sells
In case you were wondering whether the world has gone completely safe and prudish, we bring you this blog post from EW.com: To Publicist: No Need to Call and Ask If I Am Feeling Sexy The client: R&B singer Scott Gertner The PR pitch: a package labeled “Sexy Music Inside” and the message: “When was [...]