Public Relations

PR software company Vocus, Inc. (VOCS) reported a loss of $382,000, or 2 cents per share, for the third quarter of 2009.

Revenues were up to $21 million, a 5 percent increase over the same period last year, and the company predicts similar earnings for next quarter, but a loss of 3 to 4 cents per share.

On the positive side, Vocus added 240 net new subscribers to its service, ending the quarter with 4,001 subscribers total. Among its customers, new and existing, are Cornell University, The Dannon Company, European Science Foundation, Los Angeles Opera, and more.

Vocus, Inc. president and CEO Rick Rudman had just this to say in the earnings release: "I am pleased to report solid financial results for the third quarter, which includes strong quarterly revenue, cash flow and earnings per share. In the midst of a challenging economic environment, Vocus is thrilled to have passed the 4,000-customer milestone on exceptionally strong net new customer additions. The results for the quarter reflect the resiliency of our business model, diversity of our customer base and our innovative and broad PR product suite."

Thomas Moran returns to the Newark Star-Ledger after leaving 18 months ago for a PR job at New Jersey's largest utility company. It was stable employment, and he'd entered his third year of pay freezes at the Star-Ledger, but "I knew after a week it wouldn't work," he told the New York Times.

He's back in his old job as political columnist, and freely admits "there is no job security," but covering New Jersey politics is apparently too great to pass up.

Moran's editor has apparently been quite understanding and sympathetic:

We had talked a fair amount after he left, and it was clear that if the right shot came along, he would welcome the opportunity to get back in the newsroom. We are missing a lot after last year's departures, but one of the bigger things we were missing was a political columnist during a very overheated gubernatorial race. Among other things, Tom is a very good reporter, and by having somebody with their antennae up, it's clear we are going to get stuff we aren't getting now.

Lesson: The border between PR and journalism isn't as much of an impenetrable wall as folk would maybe like you to think, as long as you try to make the crossing intelligently.

All of us—not just flacks—have probably felt at one time or another that we were spending too much time working outside of work hours. But one blogger at Babble, Katie Allison Granju, says she's struggling more since taking a new job in April.

"My brother told me recently when we were visiting his family for the weekend that I have become downright rude of late with regard to continually checking the Blackberry when I'm supposed to be relaxing with the family."

But, on the other hand, she says, "I definitely think it's good for my kids to see that I am a wage earner, and that I am eager to do a good job at work that I really enjoy. So I don't think my work should ever be completely segregated from my family life."

The commenting moms took her to task for this: "Your husband and kids need YOU, not just the money you make. Find a way to earn less and spend less," said one. "I think we all overestimate how 'important' those incoming emails and texts are. Maybe it's time for a discussion with the boss about being available and what's expected/needed during your 'off' hours. There should be an alternative to your checking constantly, like phone calls if it's an 'emergency' instead of you feeling like you have to constantly check for new messages," said a second."

Just goes to show there's no such thing as work-life balance, just work-life choice. You can choose to be on call 24-7 and show your company that you're willing to go the extra mile, or you can draw firm limits and say "I will not work on Saturdays because I have a kid's baseball game to go to/a date with my S.O./a desire to sit around watching Battlestar Galactica." Neither of these are "wrong" but you can't have it all, either...

Consulting firm Stevens Gould Pincus released their 2009 Best Practices Benchmarking Report yesterday, finding that even spin isn't recession-proof. The average that PR companies charge their clients fell 26% last year, to $10,322, according to the survey, which polled 106 agencies in the US and Canada.

Profitability fell 20.8% to 15.6% of revenues. Wait, you mean to tell us that PR firms are still enjoying profit margins of over 15 percent? Are you kidding? That's incredible. Quitcherwhining.

(h/t PRNewser)

Let's get real. Journalists leaving for PR happens all the time. This is nothing new to the recession: we've always been underpaid compared to our sellout more marketing-oriented counterparts.

And if you're going to make the jump, you might as well do it right. Jilted Journalists, a new web site by an ex-journalist that helps newspapermen and women make sense of their new futures, has a feature up today about hacks turned flacks. Ignoring the absolutely terrible layout (sorry guys), the piece contains some useful information besides the usual "journalists are valued in other professions because they know how to write" stuff you hear all the time.

John Yocca was a reporter at three newspapers before he moved to Stern + Associates. "What we bring to Stern is a respect for journalists, Yocca said. "Communications majors who focus on PR never really understand both sides of the coin. We're bound to the client but we have to respect the journalists just as much. Without respect, we won't get clients into the media."

And having that experience on the other side of the coin is valuable when meeting with journalists: "It seems to disarm journalists," said Laura Moss, an account executive at Stern who calls the news business "a dead end." (ouch!)

The hardest part about transitioning to PR? Learning to manage clients. Yocca "said he got a crash course on balancing clients' needs with media needs and learned not to give more than the client wants to give." (Oops!)

So, are you a jilted journalist thinking of turning to public relations? Tell us in the comments.

Advertising, marketing, and PR agency Ogilvy & Mather has combined staff from five of its divisions into a new offering, OgilvyEarth. The new division expands the company's sustainability practice while combining "brightest minds from six continents: planners, consultants and creatives from Ogilvy & Mather, OgilvyOne, Ogilvy Public Relations, OgilvyAction and OgilvyEntertainment." (their words) Ogilvy & MatherCEO Miles Young called it "a strategic move to unite all our work under one roof in order to present a holistic approach, share lessons-learned and make it easier for clients to access our expertise."

The new entity already has one project—to create an awareness campaign for the December 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, where 192 nations will negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocols.

The board of directors of OgilvyEarth includes Bill Becker, Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project; Jeunesse Park, founder and CEO of Food and Trees for Africa; Ma Jun, an environmentalist and researcher.

(h/t PRNewser)

More than half (58%) of chief communications officers (CCOs) now report directly to the CEO of their companies, up from 48% only a year ago, according to a recent survey.

The results of the survey, conducted by executive search firm Spencer Stuart and PR Firm Weber Shandwick with KRC Research, may point to the growing role of communications specialists within an organization.

The survey also revealed another trend: 18 percent of communications departments surveyed in North America used social media or blogging as a communications tool, and social media/blogging was cited as the fastest growing communications resource for 2009. (Last year, the CCOs surveyed said the company Web site was the fastest growing tool.)

It could be that these two factoids are related: according to the CCOs surveyed, the importance of crisis management has increased 45 percent since 2007. And when social media bites your brand in the rear end (Dominos, Skittles, Motrin, and more) you'd better know how to fight back with a tool more modern than a press release.

In any case, it's promising to see that so many public relations workers are so close to the top of the org chart.

Simon Owens picks up on an odd new trend in his post yesterday on MediaShift: fan blogs and fan twitter feeds.

Essentially: people who just looove a magazine to death are now putting a lot of time and effort into promoting that mag's stuff online, for free.

Owens mentions @Vanityfairer, an anonymous 30-something writer who's been Twittering since last year about her favorite VF content. There was speculation at one point that she was secretly a shill for the magazine, but VF has denied that they even know who she is. It seems like she really is just an honest, earnest fan.

Similar ventures include @Newyorkerest and Emdashes, both of which link to (and in Emdashes case, analyze/critique) the top content from The New Yorker.

This brings up an interesting dilemma. The content that these fans are creating is of clear value: @Vanityfairer has almost 3,000 followers and @newyorkerest boasts more than a thousand. But what motive does a magazine now have to leap into the Twitterverse if fans are doing it for them, for free?

To be fair, @vanityfairmag (VF's official twitter feed) now has 8,000 followers. Perhaps, though, we'll see a faceoff in the Twitterverse between the officially-sanctioned twit and the fan.

Well here's an, er, creative cost-cutting measure: A Tuscon, Arizona-based PR firm has fired 88 percent of its staff and rehired them as contractors. LP&G principal Leslie Perls says revenue's plummeted and the company simply can't afford to keep their employees on—they're also moving out of their historic downtown building.

The company's trying to be generous with the little it has—it's letting employees take their desks and computers. But since they've got to move out of their office anyway, the other way you can look at it is&$151;free moving.

Cindy Jordan-Nowe, lead strategist at LP&G, graciously agreed to answer some of our questions, and she sees it a bit differently than other media outlets have reported it.

"I see my friends working at other agencies going through weekly layoffs. That is a slow death that eventually kills the work product. This was our way of doing it differently," she told us.

"We are all doing the same stuff just not coming into a high-rent situation to do it. I still meet with clients every week, etc. All of us were given ALL the necessary equipment to handle a home office (computer, desks, papers, electronics - thousands of dollars worth). The majority of us already have contracts in place and good workloads. We negotiated a great health plan ($60 a month) and most
importantly we are still working together...Personally, I have never felt more loved and valued by an employer through a hard situation. AND I'm thankful I will not be in the unemployment line."

Well, if it works, it works, and we're glad about the health plan, as our sister blog PRNewser had estimated that healthcare would have cost these folks a lot more.

Whether you're still in school or a seasoned PR professional, you can't ignore this list from Sarah Evans, director of communications at Elgin Community College in Illinois—but you'd know her as the founder of #journchat.

Her top four skills include stuff that should be obvious by now: making sure you've got an Internet presence and knowing how to use social media are on there. But what we found surprising (and refreshing!) is Evans' insistence that you learn HTML:
"I use basic HTML code EVERY DAY. From Facebook notes to blog posts to social media news releases—basic code is essential."

Are you still a little freaked out by all those < and > brackets? Now's the time to beef up your skills and show your boss how valuable you are—or put yourself in a better position to be hired.