USA Today - PRNewser

Two 49ers Deny Making the ‘It Gets Better’ PSA in Which They Appear

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 17:04:16 +0000

The San Francisco 49ers, who happen to be playing in a certain football game this Sunday, earned a bit of bad press earlier in the week after cornerback Chris Culliver decided to let the world know that he “[doesn't] do the gay guys, man” and that any pro football players who happen to be gay should probably stay in the closet because the whole deal just totally weirds him out, girl. Trust!

Culliver then issued what may be the least effective damage control statement ever, saying that “The derogatory comments I made yesterday were a reflection of thoughts in my head, but they are not how I feel.”

You’d think the clip below–recorded as part of Dan Savage‘s “It Gets Better” anti-bullying PSA campaign for gay and lesbian youth–might help nip that problem in the bud, right?

No such luck: yesterday two of the very players who appear in the video denied ever making it.

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Gabby Giffords Starts ‘Responsible Solutions’ Gun Control Initiative

Patrick Coffee — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:19:49 +0000

We’ve recently posted on the PR components of our nation’s latest debate over gun control. Topics include the NRA‘s media strategies and a new campaign from Michael Bloomberg‘s advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which made waves with a viral video featuring A-list celebrities voicing support for the group’s “DemandAPlan” initiative.

Today brings news of another related campaign, this one created by the American politician who has the most direct experience with real-world gun violence. Exactly two years ago, former Arizona representative Gabriel “Gabby” Giffords was shot in the head by a mentally unstable individual who also killed six bystanders and wounded 12 others.

Giffords’s group, called Americans for Responsible Solutions, officially launched this morning with a web page and a USA Today op-ed. ARS hasn’t outlined many specific proposals, but its stated goal is to “launch a national dialogue and raise funds to counter influence of the gun lobby” in order to encourage Congress to pass relevant laws.

Like all things related to gun control, this initiative won’t advance without controversy: a Connecticut politician already took to her Facebook page to decry a recent visit by Giffords and her former astronaut husband, Mark Kelly, to family members of Sandy Hook shooting victims.

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Is PRWeb Just Spamming the Whole Internet Now?

Patrick Coffee — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:02:43 +0000

Yesterday we ran a cautionary tale about how some shady stock trader fooled almost everyone on the Internet (and made a bunch of easy money) by penning a PRWeb release about a non-existent Google acquisition and manipulating stock prices for a couple of hours. In asking the Big Questions, we wondered whether readers place too much faith in digital press releases and how much we should blame PRWeb itself for the mixup.

Last night, the SearchEngineLand blog followed up, exploring the issue with relish in a post titled “How PRWeb Helps Distribute Crap Into Google & News Sites”. Fun!

We’re not out to besmirch the Vocus/PRWeb brand: We’ve used it, and we’re fairly sure the vast majority of our readers have too. But blogger Danny Sullivan wonders whether PRWeb truly has the power to review all press releases and ensure their “integrity”, and we share his skeptical curiosity.

Of course, distribution is the service’s key selling point—for a one-time fee, reps can ensure that their releases will appear on a wide range of sites both mainstream and obscure/legally dubious. We’ll say this, though: The fact that official “press releases” hyping “Lowest Price Viagra” from “LICENSED and LEGAL European online pharmacy” moved through PRWeb’s filter intact and ended up on the websites of otherwise respectable “distributor” publications like The Houston Chronicle may tell you something about the intensity of the organization’s fact-checking process.

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Spin the Agencies of Record

James F. Thompson — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:05:55 +0000

After a review, McGarryBowen‘s London office acquired the global advertising account for Toblerone, the renowned candy brand. WPP’s Ogilvy managed the account previously, and—even thought it will no longer handle the Toblerone account—it will continue to work for a new company, Mondelez, established by the division of Kraft Foods into two separate entities.

Jill Kelley, the Florida woman catapulted into fame upon being identified as the person who triggered an FBI investigation that exposed CIA Director General David Petraeus‘ extramarital affair, has hired the crisis firm Smith & Co., based in Washington, DC. Though Smith & Co. refused to comment, both USA Today and Fox News reported that Ms. Kelley and her husband, Scott, hired Smith & Co.’s founder, PR maven Judy Smith, and attorney Abbe Lowell.

WISE PR, based in New York City, has added several new clients to its roster: Control Group, an NYC-based innovation strategy firm; Spruce Media, the leading provider of enterprise-class marketing solutions for Facebook Ads; Yieldex, the leading provider of inventory and revenue management solutions for digital publishers; Dynamix, a provider of dynamic creative engagement, optimization and personalization technology, and Spindle Labs Inc., a developer of new search technology to help people discover social content.

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Britain Finds Novel Ways to Bond with Global Audience

Nancy Lazarus — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 13:05:59 +0000

London’s 2012 Olympic Games may have inspired love at first sight among the viewing public and attendees, but from a marketing communications standpoint it’s been a long, drawn-out courtship.

“We’ve been preparing for the Olympics since 2005. To inspire visitation, our strategy has been to socialize the travel experience and centralize content to support marketing and PR,” says Karen Clarkson, VP North America for VisitBritain. She spoke at the Association for Travel Marketing Executives’ Marketing Issues Forum on Thursday in New York, discussing her company’s Olympics efforts and plans for the next James Bond movie, Skyfall.

Britain has enjoyed extended time in the public spotlight this year, from the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebration in June to the Olympic Games in July, the Paralympics in August and London’s Fashion Week in September. As Clarkson noted, “It’s been an opportunity to influence information about London and beyond, and not limited to sports related content. For the Olympics, we established digital content partnerships with NBC, Yahoo, The Travel Channel, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Travel & Leisure magazine.” She said that these partnerships helped the company generated $600 million worth of earned media impressions.

While partnership marketing plays a key role in VisitBritain’s operations, “social is at the heart of everything we do,” Clarkson explained. She described a unique pre-Olympics project in which Britain worked with the U.S. Olympic Committee to “engage athletes and have them experience Britain firsthand before the Games.” They selected and sent seven American Olympics athletes to Britain in the fall of 2011 “to showcase the destination from a U.S. perspective and to appeal to a younger demographic.” The athletes generated visual content as they interacted with their fan bases on Facebook and Twitter.

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Will Media Convergence End the ‘PR or Advertising’ Debate?

Patrick Coffee — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:32:06 +0000

“Is it PR, or is it advertising?”

This is a question that many in the public relations field must consider on a daily basis, but worry not; the debate will soon disappear as the two disciplines become one and the same.

Marketing pro Geoff Livingston attended USA Today’s 30^th anniversary/”USA Tomorrow” multimedia rollout event this month, and he left the “future of news” mini-conference believing that the PR/marketing debate will be irrelevant within five years.

Why?

In the traditional “mass communication” media landscape, a clear line existed between advertisements and press releases or related content; they may have had similar goals (publicity and consumer outreach), but they had to reach them in different ways due to the limits of their respective venues.

Now, however, the model is shifting due to a fractured media landscape and an increasing public distrust of traditional advertising and corporate messaging efforts (stop us if you’ve heard this one a million times before). Livingston thinks that promotional content will still be separated into the “earned” and “paid” categories, where “earned” content is more trusted by customers and “paid” content earns more ROI.

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Romney’s Paul Ryan Pick: A PR Win?

Patrick Coffee — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:26:49 +0000

We generally prefer to avoid dipping our toes too deeply into the political arena, but we think we can judge Mitt Romney’s choice of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate to be a PR win–for the moment, at least. Why? It serves as an irresistible dog whistle to those who make their livings polling and pontificating about politics, and the presumptive Republican nominee’s recent PR stumbles have now been obliterated by a wave of news and opinions about his new, “edgy” veep pick.

Judging by a big surge in related activity throughout the Twitter-verse (ugh), Romney won the weekend by announcing what struck many as a bold choice while making the pundit class look a little silly in the process. Let the “pros and cons” pile-on begin!

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Revolving Door: MSNBC, Salon, and More from the News Corp Hacking Scandal

Tonya Garcia — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:20:45 +0000

MSNBC’s top spokesperson Jeremy Gaines is heading to the Gannett Company to lead the corporate comms division as VP, effective May 21. Gannett owns USA Today, a number of broadcast stations, and tons of other media properties. NBC News’ lead spokesperson Lauren Kapp is heading to The Huffington Post as of April 30. NBC has not announced replacements for either position. [via]

Speaking of USA Today, two of the papers journalists say they’ve become the target of a “smear campaign” after reporting on “government propaganda contractors.” We tweeted the PRSA response; here it is as well. [via]

Salon has a new look. Thoughts? Separately, the site’s press release for the redesign says the number of monthly unique visitors has grown 30 percent to 7.7 million since 2011. [via]

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Revolving Door: ‘USA Today,’ Reuters, Time Inc., and More

Tonya Garcia — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:02:46 +0000

USA Today‘s editor John Hillkirk has stepped down to be senior editor of the paper’s investigative projects. And Rudd Davis, who joined the company last year as VP of business development, has been named president of the paper’s travel media division. [via Businessweek]

Muck Rack, which covers news from Twitter, has relaunched with the addition of Muck Rack Pro. Free for reporters and available by subscription for publicists, the service helps to organize and manage media lists, complete with social media info from networks like Google+ and Facebook.

The revamp of CBS’ The Early Show continues (sort of) with the announcement of a new name. Starting January 9, the program will be called CBS This Morning, which is what the show was called from 1987 to 1999. Were the ratings better with that name?

Crazy Don Imus took to his microphone to talk smack about the Fox News PR team. They took it in stride. [via TVNewser]

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Journalists: We Love Twitter

Celeste Altus — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:40:55 +0000

Access Communications interviewed more than 25 reporters from a wide variety of outlets including Gizmodo and the Wall Street Journal, finding that 69 percent use Twitter as a reporting tool, up 21 percent from last year. Sixty-eight percent believe that reliance on social media has increased significantly. And 95 percent believe that social media can be a reliable means to find sources. We’ve got the SlideShare after the jump.

“I use it religiously,” said USA Today reporter Jon Swartz. “It’s the best service in the world, bar none.”

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Revolving Door: Questions about Ghadafi Coverage, the Murdochs, ‘USA Today,’ and More

Tonya Garcia — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:15:30 +0000

Traffic to newspaper websites is up 20 percent since last year. Page views and time spent is also up. [via Fishbowl NY]

The media is predicting that Rupert Murdoch and his sons will have a tough time at this year’s shareholders meeting. They’re pretty much guaranteed continued spots on the board, but they should expect an earful from the folks gathering in L.A. today. The New York Times outlines a few things to watch out for. The Guardian is live-tweeting the meeting.

USA Today has begun offering commercial access to its data and content, which is useful for developers building apps. [via Nieman Lab]

Lisa Simeone, host of radio program World of Opera, will be allowed to keep her show, though it’s unclear whether the show will be distributed by NPR. Simeone was dismissed initially for breaking with the NPR ethics code prohibiting contributors from participating in rallies that the company is covering. World of Opera is produced by a member station. [via AP, Poynter]

Click through for more changes in the media world.

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Competition is Fierce When Pitching Sports Media

Nancy Lazarus — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:51:44 +0000

The St. Louis Cardinals have made it to the World Series. AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Current and former athletes are the hottest tickets for sports media outlets. Sports stars’ extracurricular activities, such as competing on Dancing with the Stars, are sought after stories, along with business news like endorsement deals. And if they are big enough names, these sports celebs can also use the media exposure to promote the many causes they support.

These were a few of the tips from a sports media panel held earlier this week by the PRSA’s New York chapter. The participants also offered their take on the competition, including social media, as well as a behind-the-scenes glimpse at their jobs.

Apparently it’s not all fun and games on their side of the field… or is it?

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Revolving Door: Thrillist, AOL, News Corp, and More

Tonya Garcia — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 17:35:03 +0000

Here are this week’s media highlights from Mediabistro’s Revolving Door Newsletter:

Richard Blakeley has been named managing editor of strategy & content at Thrillist. He had been editor-in-chief at Gawker.TV. (release)

Ting Wang has been named manager, corporate events at AOL Inc. She had been manager, event marketing at Fairchild Fashion Group (Conde Nast). (mb)

James Murdoch has been named deputy chief operating officer and chairman and CEO, International at News Corp. He had been chief executive and chairman of the international there. (FBNY)

David Lieberman has been named executive editor at Deadline.com. He had been business reporter at USA Today. (FBLA)

Alexandra Kotur has been named creative director at Town & Country. She had been style director at Vogue. (mb)

Click here to receive mediabistro.com’s Revolving Door Newsletter via email.

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‘WSJ’ Available at Choice Hotels Beginning January 2011

Tonya Garcia — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:23:23 +0000

The Wall Street Journal will be available to guests upon request at the 3,700 Choice Hotels in North America starting January 1, 2011. Rather than distributing a newspaper to every guest, Choice Hotels gives guests the option to take a paper.

USA Today has been the “preferred paper” of Choice Hotels, and will continue to be an option in 2011, a spokesperson told Reuters. The WSJ overtook USA Today as the largest paper in the U.S. in 2009.

USA Today recently announced more than 100 layoffs and a series of changes in an effort to adapt to the changing media landscape.

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Impact of ‘USA Today’ Changes on Media Plans

Tonya Garcia — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:01:16 +0000

Recently, USA Today announced big changes – a massive round of layoffs (130 staff members) and a bigger focus on digital including content for the iPad.

USA Today has always been a top target for media relations outreach because of its large nationwide audience and the wide range of topics covered in its pages. But as the world has gone digital and audiences fragment, the newspaper has seen its circulation numbers drop.

PRNewser asked a couple of PR pros for their thoughts on the planned changes. More after the jump. continued…

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