Archive for September, 2008
By Kyle Austin
On Tuesday evening, Racepoint and PRWeek co-hosted an event at San Jose State University on “CSR in a Digital World.” Our colleague Lindsey Scott was live at the event and shares this report.
By Lindsey Scott
The “CSR in a Digital World” event, which was attended by local media and entrepreneurs, SJSU students and PR professionals, kicked-off with a keynote from One Laptop per Child Founder Nicholas Negroponte.
The audience was given background on the history of OLPC and its mission to connect kids in very remote parts of the world and alleviate poverty through access to education.
Negroponte described the tremendous success his organization has enjoyed in countries like Uruguay, Peru and Mongolia, despite warnings he received early on against becoming a non-profit. Scale, he emphasized, is crucial, which explains his lofty goal of launching 1-2 million laptops in 2008 and 10-20 million in 2009, while achieving a price tag of $0 by the end of 2010. Negroponte stressed multiple times that the project is not about laptops or technology, but about “something much, much bigger.”
After Negroponte fielded questions from the audience, a panel of corporate marketing and communications professionals took the stage for a discussion of how the prevalence of online media has affected corporate social responsibility. The panel, which was moderated by PRWeek’s editor-in-chief, Keith O’Brien, featured the following individuals:
- Amra Tareen, co-founder and CEO, AllVoices
- Helen Clark, manager, corporate marketing, policy, gov’t and public affairs, Chevron
- Paul Bergevin, general manager, global communications group, Intel
Each individual was given the opportunity to discuss the CSR efforts of his or her company. Examples included the one million volunteer hours pledged by Intel employees in honor of the company’s 40th anniversary and Chevron’s recent launch of willyoujoinus.com, an online forum for consumer discussions about energy. Tareen described AllVoices’ mission to become “the people’s CNN” and to provide a place where people can discuss what’s happening in the world around them.
Despite obvious differences in the companies represented on the panel, a few common themes emerged. The proliferation of digital media and self-publishing is effectively changing the way large corporations do business. Not only are these companies being forced to adhere to a very high set of standards, but the PR professionals that represent them are being forced to evolve as well. Transparency has to be a guiding principle in all communication with the public. As Clark put it, “You can’t position a company… you have to live your ethics.”
Bergevin recalled a time earlier in his career when “PR people were control freaks,” and noted that the industry has changed drastically. He stated that those in the PR industry need to “cede control in order to gain credibility.” The panelists made it evident that relinquishing this control was a large part of CSR in the digital age and made the following points:
- Providing people with access to information about your company is essential.
- Communication needs to be two-way
- Conversations should entail a free exchange of ideas, both good and bad, and companies should not step in to regulate
The rapidly changing landscape has resulted in changes to job descriptions at Intel and the addition of new reputation and social media departments at Chevron. Despite this, Bergevin noted that most companies are really just “figuring it out as they go along.” In the meantime, they are seeing some of the immediate benefits of the digital environment, such as instant feedback from the public in the form of blogs posts and comments, and greater insight into customers and potential customers.
Disclosure: AllVoices and One Laptop per Child are clients of the Racepoint Group
September 18th, 2008
By Kyle Austin
By Kyle Austin
Rupert Murdoch’s Dow Jones digital unit (AKA: Kara Swisher, Walt Mossberg & All Things Digital) got their New York beachhead in prying away Peter Kafka from the Silicon Alley Insider and Henry Blodget yesterday afternoon. Blodget broke the news with a post yesterday evening which tongue-in-cheek’ly implied that Walt and Kara had stolen his former managing editor.
Kara, in a post a few hours later, confirmed his story by noting that Peter has always been her and Walt’s top choice for a new East Coast voice. Kafka will leverage his relationships in the advertising and media world, which he built during his ten years at Forbes, to pen a ”Yet to be Named” media column for the online publication.
The move by Kara and Walt is very similar to the move Michael Arrington made last September in naming Erick Schonfeld the Co-Editor of TechCrunch. Schonfeld was hired with the intention of him staying in New York and building out the blog’s national appeal by adding an East Coast voice. Look for Kafka to do much of the same for All Things Digital, which is a good thing for East Coast companies looking to get on their radar screen.
New York City has become a vibrant scene for technology start-ups; especially for those in the media, marketing and advertising industries. Although Wall Street may be imploding, it doesn’t mean that the financial backers for these companies are going anywhere. One can look no further then Fred Wilson and Union Square Ventures to know that this start-up scene will continue to thrive; which is a nice consolation prize for Henry in loosing Peter - and more good news for Kara and Walt.
September 18th, 2008
By Kyle Austin
James Ledbetter (left) along side of Jacob Weisberg, Chairman of the Slate Group (Courtesy of New York Times)
By Kyle Austin
As I teased in yesterday’s post on the relaunch of the new WSJ.com, I had the chance to catch-up with James Ledbetter, editor of the newly launched TheBigMoney.com on Monday. Here is my full interview with him.
RaceTalk: So James, you launched TheBigMoney.com today, which timed with the culmination of one of the wildest weekends on Wall Street in decades. What are your thoughts (in addition to what you wrote on Sunday) to the fall of Lehman, the buy of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America and the overall market situation?
James Ledbetter: It’s a hell of a week. We are witnessing the reshaping of the Wall Street landscape, and significant worldwide pessimism about financial institutions. The economy is the number one issue in the presidential race, yet neither candidate has articulated policy recommendations that would address this financial crisis. That may be a measure of the gap between Main Street and Wall Street, but it is nonetheless sobering to think that so little expertise and leadership exists, either in the White House, Treasury, the Street or the Congress.
RaceTalk: You had a good run at CNNMoney.com, what made you leave for this initiative? Did TIME Inc’s and CNNMoney’s efforts to overhaul its somewhat archaic online structure fail?
JL: I would not call CNNMoney archaic! I believe they are on track for something like 5 billion page views this year, and they have massively ramped up their video offerings this year. They are a world leader in this space. I came to Slate in March because The Big Money represents a rare opportunity to start a site anew, to reassess the relationship between the Web and financial journalism, and to break away from some parts of financial journalism – such as personal finance – that don’t interest me that much.
RaceTalk: At CNNMoney.com you and David Kirkpatrick were leading the video content charge. How big a part of TheBigMoney.com will video be? The YouTube Brandwatch feature is something new that we haven’t seen with other business sites before, how did you get the idea for this feature? Do you find that top executives are becoming more interested in how their brands are being perceived on places like YouTube and Twitter?
JL: We’re very enthusiastic about video; at the same time, we’re more interested in doing new and interesting things with video than reproducing what is essentially business TV snippets. YouTube Brandwatch came out of a conversation I had with the two principals of Custom Communication, Matt Yeomans and Bernhard Warner. They are exceptionally creative guys, and have done a lot of thinking about online brand presence. I have a lot of hopes for this being an engaging and fun feature of the site.
RaceTalk: You were using “WSJquips” as a Twitter feed for several weeks before the launch of the site. It seemed to be a good social marketing ploy as it got me to take notice of the new site launching. How will you use Twitter going forward? Will you encourage your audience to become part of the story creation process through Twitter?
JL: Right now, the WSJquips Twitter feed is a one-way communication tool for us. I think we need a few months of feedback on that before we figure out the next steps (and I won’t tell them to potential competitors until we launch them!).
RaceTalk: I also like the “We build your presentation feature,” as it seems to be another tool that will create additional engagement. I saw in the New York Times that Infiniti and American Express are underwriting the site through the year, however as you evolve into a somewhat traditional advertising model – will user engagement be a big part of the upside you are selling advertisers? It seems that other business sites like BusinessWeek.com are really selling user engagement to advertisers.
JL: To be perfectly honest, I’m not involved in the ad selling part of The Big Money, I don’t really know how they are pitching us, except that we have compelling content.
RaceTalk: Why the “Google” and “Food Industry” blogs to begin with? Will you add to these? Explain to me how the two blogs will help in giving a greater analysis of the overall business market.
JL: I’ve created and edited a lot of blogs over the years, and there aren’t many I’d consider a huge success. I think the criteria for a successful blog are: high volume; no shortage of interesting topics and angles on those topics; a good mix between topic and writer; and something that can engage a broad audience. I think Google and the food business are two very popular topics and that covering them aggressively will give the site some alluring. We’ll add blogs as they make sense.
September 17th, 2008
By Ben Haber
By Ben Haber
For months and months Peter Shankman has been threatening to ‘out’ someone on HARO for off-topic pitching.
Just last week he told everyone not to use a certain outlet since it was pay-for-play (and to his credit, I wouldn’t even call that an outlet).
Then last night my evening HARO rolled in, and Shankman had publicly ‘outed’ a PR agency, two employees at the agency, and the client that they were pitching. The deadly crime? Sending off-topic pitches to reporters:
Hey listen – I hate to bring this up again, but it would see that [omitted] Public Relations, specifically [omitted] and [omitted], continue to SPAM HARO reporters. Now, I know for a fact that I’ve kicked them off the list, but for whatever reason, these people don’t get it. Here’s the problem: They continue to spam on behalf of their client, [omitted] – I’ve talked to [omitted], and he’s told them to stop, yet [omitted] public relations continues to SPAM reporters. So, if you get an unsolicited email from them, know that they’re not welcome on HARO, ever. I’d never, ever work with them, nor would I ever recommend them. I personally have added @[omitted].com to my killfile, and you all might want to consider doing the same. It’s sad – some people just continue to do the wrong thing, despite being told repeatedly why it’s wrong.
Now this is Shankman’s service which he created from ground up and has turned into quite the following, but I’ve never seen the logic in outing people. Ever time I see him write that someone has X many hours to apologize to a reporter or they’ll be outed to 30,000 people I think of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine ends up getting her communist boyfriend blacklisted at his favorite Chinese food restaurant because she “named names.”
Granted, I don’t know the extent to which these people abused the system, but I’m still left with the same question I’ve had before: Do you think it’s better to have someone pitch a topic that they think a reporter might be interested in, rather then living in fear that the reporter might not see the same connection they do, and be outed publically to 3,000 people?
September 17th, 2008
By Kyle Austin
By Kyle Austin
I pinged James Ledbetter, formerly managing deputy editor of CNNMoney.com and current editor of TheBigMoney.com (Slate’s new business news site), last night to point out the luck he had in launching on one of the wildest days in Wall Street’s history. Sure, some may think its launch was lost in the madness, but the truth is, it wasn’t. Its launch was covered in the Times, the AP and Gawker to name a few. In addition, national attention to the financial market and specifically Wall Street brings hunger from financial regulars hungry for a new angle and outsiders eager to find some prospective.
In some of these earlier interviews, Ledbetter the need he sees for a business / financial destination for the “Facebook Set.” A demographic that they hope to tackle with interactive features including “YouTube Brand Watch” and “We Build Your Presentation.” Well today, one day after the launch of TheBigMoney.com, the WSJ.com relaunched in the the midst of the financial meltdown with features that appear to be aimed at the “Facebook Set” as well.
The sleek new look, which is the first redesign since 2002, has the site feeling more Fortune or Forbes-esque (i.e. more glossy). Perhaps those responsible for the new WSJ, had something say? However, the big additions are the new interactive features like the Newsreel widget, which can be brought to third-party sites like Facebook (I easily put on my profile in a few minutes), WordPress, Myspace, etc.
However, for PR folks and media watchers like myself, the “Journal Community” is the big new interactive feature. The community allows ”subscribers” to interact in topic-based networks, comment on articles and ask questions directly to the editorial team. This isn’t groundbreaking as Fast Company overhauled its entire online site into a social community earlier this year and BusinessWeek is using a similar strategy around specific topics and reader feedback. However for the major business daily in the country to do this – it is a big deal.
There are also additional editorial opportunities online with the relaunch. The WSJ.com will spotlight additional management trends, ideas and advice through its new Management section. The section will be multimedia friendly with podcasts and video segments. They’ve also created a “Journal Women” section that will look at the trends and issues specifically effecting top women executives in the workforce.
The goal here is really to make money, by spiking engagement numbers and leveraging those with advertisers. However, the new features need to be reader-friendly first to accomplish that. In my first trip around the new site, I think Rupert and the WSJ.com may be well on their way.
September 16th, 2008
By Kyle Austin
By Kyle Austin
Earlier today I was monitoring the Twittosphere when I saw this from Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky:
adamlashinsky: HP is having an analyst day Monday and the press isn’t invited. What is Mark Hurd hiding? (It will be webcast.)
Turns out they were “hiding” some pretty bad news - as in cutting 24, 600 jobs or 7.5% of their work force.
September 15th, 2008
By Ben Haber
By Ben Haber
A couple weeks ago Philip wrote about some of the questions you should expect during your first PR job interview. However, in addition to thinking about some answers to possible questions, you should also be sure you’re Facebook page is appropriate.
According to CareerBuilder.com, one of ever three hiring managers search social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to screen job candidates. I’m surprised this number isn’t higher, especially when it’s so easy to access this information.
The study also went in-depth about some of the top areas of concern, highlighting information about alcohol or drug use, inappropriate photos or information, Poor communication skills, inaccurate qualifications, and notes showing links to criminal behavior.
In total, 24 percent of hiring managers found content on social networks that helped convince them to hire a candidate, so this can clearly work both ways.
There are already plenty of internet stories about how Facebook pictures have come to dig someone in a deep hole with their employer (or worse yet, secure prison time) so as eWeek’s Clint Boulton told us before, be careful about what you put online, it could come back to haunt you!
September 15th, 2008
By Kyle Austin
![[charts]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-AM929B_LEHMA_NS_20080914220947.gif)
By Kyle Austin
All eyes are fixed on Wall Street this morning and the Wall Street Journal. In what may have been the wildest 48 hours in the last few decades, Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed to be sold to Bank of America for $29 a share, or $50 billion and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection.
The two moves sent global stocks plunging and raised questions as to why there was no federal bailout this time around.
Meanwhile, insurance giant A.I.G reached out to the federal reserve for $40 billion as people close to the situation maintained that it only has days left to survive.
So how did the events transpire? Adrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times has some insight (The WSJ isn’t the only one with good financial reporters):
“The weekend that humbled Lehman and Merrill Lynch and rewarded Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., began at 6 p.m. Friday in the first of a series of emergency meetings at the Federal Reserve building in Lower Manhattan.
The meeting was called by Fed officials, with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. in attendance, and it included top bankers. The Treasury and Federal Reserve had already stepped in on several occasions to rescue the financial system, forcing a shotgun marriage between Bear Stearns and JPMorgan Chase this year and backstopping $29 billion worth of troubled assets — and then agreeing to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The bankers were told that the government would not bail out Lehman and that it was up to Wall Street to solve its problems. Lehman’s stock tumbled sharply last week as concerns about its financial condition grew and other firms started to pull back from doing business with it, threatening its viability.”
In early morning trading the Dow has sunk more then 300 points.
September 15th, 2008
By Kyle Austin
Scott Kirsner features our musings on Steve Jobs and Apple in his “Blog Filter” column for today’s Boston Globe.
September 15th, 2008
By Ben Haber
Technorati failed to deliver an entertaining image of their ‘fail monster’ when their site when down last night [it's still down now]…
Twitter, of course, has a much more entertaining image every, single, time, it does down…
May we suggest something a little better for Technorati (monster image courtesy of the Gapingvoid.com)
September 12th, 2008
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