Brian A. Kilgore Communications Consulting Communications - Based Management Counsel Our principal business is providing public relations and corporate communications services Learn about our public relations & corporate communications firm, at  Who we are, how we think, and what we do  or click here for a list of what we do. E-mail to BrianKilgore@BrianKilgore.com Phone 416 - 879 - 5771 Hello IABC Cafe Readers. Warren sent you to the wrong page. Click here, and you'll be up to date. But you're welcome to read this page, too. Dangers of caching. Here's why you are here. Warren did a Google search to get the link to post inside the IABC Cafe, and Google has a cached version of this page up near the top of its listings for me. So Warren used this as the link. WWW.BrianKilgore.com gets you to my current web opening page.   New July 2004 BAK's Report is here. Portraits from the Sears Cosmetics Gala May 1  Portrait photos taken at the Sears Cosmetics Gala are here right now Take a look! LANCOME PORTRAITS AT SEARS The photographs are wonderful. Here's one below I really like. PORTRAITS TAKEN AT LANCOME / SEARS START HERE and continue on several web pages. Page two is here. Page three is here. Page four is here. Page five is here. And page six is here.   PERSONAL PORTRAITS I'm delighted with the number of requests I am receiving, asking me to shoot portraits of individuals. It's long been a serious part of my business, but until recently most of the shooting has been on behalf of corporations or government departments. A great many portraits were of authors, used for book covers and publicity. But now the requests are coming for photographs for mantels and frames in homes, and for desks at the office to remind hard workers of their loved ones. The new web site will have a special personal portrait section, but there's information here, now.   JUMP TO NEWS & COMMENT JUMP TO PHOTOGRAPHY SECTIONS There's a street circus -- free -- in Toronto next weekend. Out for a walk tonight, I met Duke Dreamer, one of the performers, and he gave me these posters. The Distillery District is well worth a visit, and kids and grownups alike love the circus. It turns out that Duke knows one of the performers my son really likes. Small world. Go to the circus if you are in Toronto.   For David and Chrissy and others. Two jumps to  employee opinion info are here and are here. And going back a bit in time, more employee communications info is here. Coverage of June's International Association of Business Communicators Toronto 2003 Conference-- Click here for coverage inside BAK's Report  Read the wrap-up story.

	Suzanne Kilgore Classical singer -  For biographical and performance information about Suzanne Kilgore, please click here.	BAK's C.V., bio. ,   resume   is here Photo Portrait Packages  here
		Coming to Toronto?  Tourist info  is here.

TOURISTS COMING TO TORONTO  Read about Toronto for visitors here This is useful for any visitors to Toronto this summer. It was originally for another purpose, but you'll still find it informative. NL FOLLOW UP ON THE SPECIAL TREAT ON THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 4 Ctein, California fine art photographer and dye-transfer printer maker  visited Toronto this summer. Click here for a collection of BAK's Report stories about his visit. Many articles I first published on this page are now in Advice & Features or at: Advertising  Crisis Communications   Internal & Employee Communi.   Internet & WWW PR    IABC, PRSA, CPRS ... What are the differences between and among PR, marketing, marketing communications, and more?  Just click here for lots on the topic. BAK'S FIRST PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS is here.  My essay What management should know about employee communication is in the  Ragan  Journal of Employee Communication Management.                         Read it at www.Ragan.com, clicking on Search, and typing in "Kilgore" PHOTOS ADD IMPACT Here's a shot I did for a client's web site. There's more general information about my photography here  For info on portrait photography packages, click here. ADVICE & FEATURES PAGES ARE HERE -- Stories on a variety of public relations topics.

PUBLIC RELATIONS AND CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS 
NEWS & COMMENT

There's a Tip-A-Day for a week that professional communicators can adopt, and offer to others within their organizations over in my Advice and Features section here that you might find useful

New on Tuesday, January 13, 2004

I've got a soft spot for good small PR agencies, 
and a BAK's Report reader heads up one of the best.

I got a note for my readers from John Devaney in New Orleans today. Here's what he said:

I am thrilled to share some exciting news.

Our industry's leading publication, PRWeek (www.prweek.com), has
named Deveney Communication as one of the top five Boutique PR
Firms in the country.

And, they recognized our own Nick Shapiro as one of the top five Young
PR Professionals of the Year.

We are overwhelmed with this recognition. Nick and our entire team will
be honored for both distinctions at the 2004 PRWeek Awards program in
New York in March-where PRWeek will also name the top finalist for both
awards.

The five agencies that made the PR Week boutique list are:
Airfoil Public Relations
Deveney Communication
Keating & Co.
Kirvin Doak Communications
Travers Collins & Co.

And who, you ask, is on the young professionals list with Nick? Here's the five:

Ken Birge Weber Shandwick
Natalia Flores Burson-Marsteller
Nicholas Shapiro Deveney Communication
Melissa Smolensky Porter Novelli
Shauna Wreschner Ruder Finn

I like some lists, and I offer congratulations to these folks. A million years ago I made it onto one of these lists myself;, as one of the five most respected PR people in Canada. I was pleased, of course, to make the list, but more pleased when I saw the company I was keeping, including Ruth Hammond and John Francis and Luc Beauregard. 

New on Monday, January 12, 2004

I had to photograph myself last week

This is BAK

I've written a feature column for O'Dwyer's PR Daily, to be published, I believe, later this week, and O'Dwyer's needed a photograph. So I did it myself. PR LESSON? This is the kind of casual business photograph that I believe should be in the media relations section of most business web sites, easily accessible by business editors looking for a shot ti illustrate a story in which your company is mentioned.  My face naturally falls into a fairly non-happy expression, so I needed to get myself smiling for the shot. My trick? I told myself a story about a boy named Chief and a dog named Ben. (Chief''s my younger son and Ben is my best friend who is not a human.)

I continue to promote the National Film Board animation workshops, for free. (my promotion, not the workshops

Allan, above left, is a newcomer to the workshops, and that's his great Frankenstein creation in the close-up photo. Jonathon is one of the NFB staff that make the workshops a lot of fun, and very educational, for the kids. At left is my boy and his mom. Parents are allowed to help the kids with their creations, but this boy is the executive producer and creative director, and the mom is his production sculptor.

The National Film Board Toronto office, a block from my office, holds animation workshops for children on Saturdays and Sundays. they run from 1 - 3, and cost $5 per child. Bring a VHS tape and you'll be able to take home a copy of your little animated film.

Re-Imagine! is a great book for PR People -- it will encourage you,  if it doesn't depress you that so much, so good, gets not done

Re-Imagine! Tom Peters Dorling Kindersley Limited

I'm reading Re-Imagine!, by Tom Peters, and by the fifth page I'm thinking that his book certainly aligns to a lot of my "Tough 2004 issues" story just below. I'm not a big reader of business books, but I wholeheartedly recommend this book. But a caution -- there's a little piece about his tombstone, and it reflects one of my First Principles, which are listed here. That principle is "We are only as good as our employer allows us to be." And the tombstone Tom does not want" Thomas H. Peters  1942 - 2003 He would have done some really cool stuff  but his boss wouldn't let him And the tombstone Tom would like? Thomas H. Peters 1942 - Whenever He Was A Player

New on Monday, December 29,  2003

It's going to be a tough 2004 for us and our profession

New on Wednesday, December 24,  2003

Merry Christmas

New on Saturday, December 13,  2003

UPDATE: There's a wonderful portfolio of his work in the year-end Person of the Year issue of Time Magazine.

James Nachtwey, one of the greatest war photographers of all time, and Michael Weisskopf, a reporter, both working for Time magazine, were injured in Baghdad Wednesday night

According to a New York Times story, Mr Weisskopf grabbed a grenade that had been thrown into their vehicle and was throwing it back out when it exploded, losing his right hand but limiting injury to others. Two soldiers riding in the same Humvee were also injured.

Sometimes we forget that journalists put themselves in the acute danger in order to bring back stories about war.

Mr. Nachtwey has been featured in a wonderful TV documentary about how he works. War photographers are a different breed -- Salvador, In the Line of Fire, a Year of Living Dangerously, and a more recent movie set in Yugoslavia (the plot was a photographer was missing, his wife went looking for him...) are all too accurate, I believe, based on conversations I've had with war photographers.

The same story said that at least 16 journalists have been killed in Iraq this year.

I never was a war photographer -- I left daily newspaper work after a couple of riots and picket line battles, but was never shot at and no one ever threw a grenade at me.

And my only serious death threat came after I was in the PR business for many years, and nothing came of that.

New on Thursday, December 11,  2003

Free media monitoring for charities -- but only if you meet the criteria

A BAK's Report reader sent me the info on this; neigther of uys knows much about the organization, but you can follow the link at the bottom of my extract from the news release. And good luck...

New PR Grants Available for Non-Profit Organizations Applications Now Being Accepted; Awards To Be Made This Month

Stratford, CT. Public relations grants to not-for-profit organizations are now being made available in a new grant program announced by CyberAlert, Inc. (www.cyberalert.com), an online media monitoring company. At least five grants will be awarded, consisting of one full year of free press clipping service ranging in value from $2,400 to $4,800.

Simple and secure grant application forms are available online at https://secure.cyberalert.com/grants.html.

All not-for-profit, educational and charitable organizations in the United States and Canada are eligible for the grants. CyberAlert is accepting grant applications now and will announce the grant recipients at the end of the year. The free year of service will extend from January to December 2004.

"To our knowledge, this is the first time a media monitoring service has offered no-cost service grants to not-for-profit organizations," said William J. Comcowich, president and CEO of CyberAlert. "In this time of tight budgets for not-for-profit organizations, the new grant program is one way for us to give back to the public relations profession that has helped our business grow and expand over the past five years."

You can go to the Cyberalert site to read the rest of the news release, and learn more about the company.

New on Wednesday, December 10,  2003

More news about how the unthinking stupidity and greed 
of Wall Street and The City have harmed our profession.

Jack O'Dwyer's PR Daily is running a large feature today on the economic and social  impact, almost all bad news, of the takeovers and consolidations in the business over the past few years. Here's how the O'Dwyer's PR Daily story starts, and you almost certainly know people affected.

The announcement yesterday that Interpublic is selling $650 million in stock to pay down debt and for other purposes puts the spotlight on the staggering debt of the five big ad/PR conglomerates. It's $13.29 billion.

Their free-spending ways, criticized by the credit rating services, have caused a world of hurt in the PR counseling field, where they have behaved like the proverbial bull in the china shop.

You can get to the site and read the whole story, courtesy of O'Dwyer's Christmas time free look-see. Just use freepass as the user name and xmas as the password, at http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/1210comm_conglomsd.htm

Whether the takeovers came from New York's financial community or from London's City financial district, even the men and women selling out their businesses have seen their dreams shattered. After decades of building strong, vibrant firms, and thinking they could cash in and get rich, (and in many cases, generously share some of the wealth among their employees) many sold out for stock that's today worth about the same as wallpaper. But the merchant bankers and their stockbrokers all made out like bandits, as the expression goes. Or maybe that's not just an expression. 

New on Friday, December 5,  2003

The rules for quoting from BAK's Report -- If any journalists, or others writing a report or participating in a discussion, want to quote from BAK's Report, please make sure you get the context right. I can imagine jerks making selective quotations that will distort what I write, on purpose, and I can imagine stupid people doing this distorting by accident.

But for smart and/or honest and honorable people, feel free to quote and comment, lift paragraphs (or two or three of them) or put in a link back to here. And if you want, send your commentary back to me and I may alter my stories to reflect your comments. email to BrianKilgore@BrianKilgore.com

CANADA IS A SEPARATE COUNTRY. So is Australia, and France, even with the European Union
Further to the Edelman / PRSA / "is America loved" -- "shocked"  story below. Today I was looking at the web site of a US-based multi-national, and I could not for the life of me find a link to any kind of web site for its Canadian operations. And when I went to the media center part of the site, I got one name as the media contact for all of North America, one for all of Europe and one for all of Asia. 

I just sat here shaking my head. Do not the Yanks who run PR departments of American-based international companies know enough about the world to realize that that French journalists looking for stories don't want to go to London for info; Australian's don't want to go to Hong Kong, and Canadians don't want to go to Washington?

New on Friday, December 5,  2003

Daniel Edelman makes "intriguing" and "educational" speech at the United nations -- PRSA skips coverage and writes about new accounts at agencies, instead (see right)

Here are stories PRSA thinks are more important than Edelman's speech at the United Nations, all from today's front page of www.PRSA.org   Brightmail Retains Hill & Knowlton to Shape the Anti-Spam Debate;  ...Houston Public Relations Veteran Bruce Hicks Merges Darcy Communications With The Alliant Group... Kulesa Public Relations Opens its Doors; Technology PR Agency Serves Clients with Competitive Account Services and Seasoned Team of Professionals... New Internet Company Boosts Media Awareness for Businesses - -- PublicityFinder.com Links Reporters to Companies Through Innovative e-Commerce Tec...

Daniel J. Edelman, founder and chairman of Edelman PR Worldwide, addressed a public affairs symposium of the International Section of PR Society of America held at the U.N. yesterday and today. As I read it, I started shaking my head, wondering if this package of meat was past its 'best before" date. But Edelman has made such a contribution to our profession, I thought the story was worth repeating. On Friday, David Finn (Ruder and Finn) spoke, too.

To read the speech, go to www.odwyerpr.com and use freepass for the user name and xmas for the password. All in lower case. At the bottom of the PRSA conference news story (about David Finn and about Daniel Edelman) there's a link to the speech itself.

Jack O'Dwyer's PR Daily web site broke the Edelman story, as far as I know, and Jack has told me that BAK's Report readers are welcome to visit his site, and provided codes to get past the registration.  He wrote to me, "This is an important speech and an important seminar. You could give all your readers a temporary link to our website if you wish. It's freepass for the user name and xmas for the password (all lowercase)."  

The website is www.odwyerpr.com. You'll see Jack's story about the speech, and at the bottom of the story is a link to the speech itself. My quotation-marked words "educational" and "intriguing" are based on my reading of the actual speech, which I think contains some interesting lessons for PR people. As you read the speech, you might think of these lessons.

Edelman leads his speech with some history, saying, "When I came back to Columbia College for my senior year in September, 1939, I was overwhelmed by the surge of political support for the Presidency by a group of students from the South. They carried the message of a businessman named Wendell Wilkie. He didn't succeed in a presidential race against Franklin Roosevelt. But he brought to public view his concept of 'One World.' " PR LESSON #2: Starting a speech with history is a good way to get the audience to sleep. 

A paragraph or so later, Edelman gets to a rehash of the history of the UN --"we can consider the record of the United Nations over the past half century" -- and then another rehash of more modern history, from 9-11 to the invasion of Iraq. Again, everything the audience already knows. 

1039 words into the speech, he finally says something we either care about (we did not care about 1939) or had not read in the paper this week already. In fact, it's pretty boring well past the 1039-word mark for a few more paragraphs, until finally he gets to "Switching gears now to globalization of PR, Id like to state that it has proved extremely important to our firm to be in business in the major markets of the world. We have more than 20 multi-national clients today which we're representing in two, three or even ten or a dozen different markets around the globe. Our greatest volume comes from these multi-national clients. As everyone in this room knows, they don't automatically hand you their international business. They consult with their indigenous managers. In some places there may have been a domestic firm that had been doing the work for some years. They usually retain that company even as we launch an international program."

I put the words in boldface, but don't know if he raised his voice making the point. But at least we're past international history and talking about PR. 

And finally we get to what I think is the second most important paragraph, educational and intriguing, of the speech.

"As I'm sure all the agency people here have experienced, it's really a one-way street, taking U.S. multi-nationals to other parts of the world. Very little of it flows in a U.S. direction from Europe or Asia. Clearly, this has to be corrected in the years ahead. It's been our experience that in most instances we have to sell the company's U.S. president rather than executives at the headquarters in Europe or Asia. That's particularly the case with Asian companies."

What I love here is the imperialism inferred. When an American company expands overseas, the US bosses impose US pr companies on the branches. But when a non-American company expands in the USA, the "foreign" owner trusts his US president to hire a PR firm in the USA. Chrysler in Michingan doesn't get a German PR firm imposed upon it. Nissan does not get a Japanese firm forced on it. Or, as reported in various papers today (and in O'Dwyer) Hollinger Inc. in the USA does not get a Canadian or British PR firm imposed upon it, but hires Keksk & Co. in NY, for the USA, and a British firm to handle British issues. 

He writes about American giants taking over local PR agencies -- PR LESSON #2. If you get this kind of offer, ask for cash, take the money, and run. Canada is full of American-owned (some go back from the USA to England if you follow the ownership chain) pr agencies still locally "managed" by the former owners, tied to the firm by stock deals, with their stock prices in the toilet, facing nutsy demands for money to be sent to NY and London. The former owners have given up control, got low-priced stock, have bosses demanding ever-increasing fees, and pissed-off clients

And here, tied to PR LESSON #3, is the most important, educational and intriguing,  paragraph for my readers, from his speech.

"The United States is currently facing an unprecedented wave of hostility from foreign countries. My son Richard, our company President and CEO, and Pam Talbot, U.S. President, were shocked by attitudes of our staff and people generally toward the U.S. when they participated in a meeting of our European managers in Amsterdam recently. The Europeans feel now it's not the "Ugly America" but an "America Gone Wrong." That's basically Iraq. But another key factor is the paradox that we support free trade but we put tariffs on steel and textiles."

For months BAK's Report has been urging (it's PR lesson #3 here) PR managers in international organizations to pay special attention to how various companies view the USA, especially when American PR managers are forcing US-created programs on the branches around the world. Edelman and Edelman, a smart old man with a smart son, were both so slow of brain that, he said at the United Nations, they were "shocked." No surprise to me, or to BAK's Report readers who have been paying attention. 

New on Thursday, December 4,  2003

Billy Ray Cyrus is in Toronto, filming a television program called "Doc." One of the best two-way community relations and external promotion programs is behind the filming of this and other TV shows and movies.. From the Toronto side, there's strong and effective efforts from the municipal, provincial and federal governments, to convince film makers based in the USA and other countries that they should come to Toronto to shoot. And at the same time, the film makers work hard to get the city to make extra special efforts to accommodate their special needs. Below we see a genuine Toronto police officer directing traffic during rush hour, as Billy Ray "drives" his pickup past a faked New York advertising pillar, followed by a fake New York taxi-cab.

New on Wednesday, December 3,  2003

David Miller is Toronto's new mayor, with a PR lesson or two for us

Yesterday was the most important day in this man's life, I would think. He's David Miller, and was sworn in as mayor of Toronto, Canada's largest city, and then he hosted a skating party in Nathan Philips Square, in front of City Hall. And it must have been a really long day, because here he is yawning for my camera, getting ready to be interviewed on the Toronto One television station. Click on the photo to see a bigger yawn.

PR LESSON 1 Tell your clients that whenever they are in front of a camera, TV or still, or near a microphone, anticipate that everything you do will be recorded for posterity. I'm sure this yawn is in the TV station archives now, recorded while waiting to go to air. And, PR LESSON 2, assume that the least flattering photograph, not the most flattering, will be the one that gets published, like I did here. I think Mr. Miller may be a good mayor -- I believe our last one was nuts, partly because he was very sick -- so Mr. Miller can't help but be an improvement. So I'm a touch embarrassed at running the worst of the photos I took. But they make the point, and are more interesting than the bland ones, aren't they?

New on Tuesday, December 2,  2003

BAK's Courses and Coaching
In response to several questions over the past few days, I'm formalizing my offerings of training courses. There will be more information shortly, and you'll be able to learn more by clicking on the little green ads up above. Information is already there on courses relating to employee surveys. 

I have a multi-module course on interpersonal business communications, designed to help managers communicate among themselves on business topics. It takes several hours, once a week, for several months, and worked well for the management team at a Canadian electronics manufacturing plant, and for field managers across a province for a public service organization.

I have a course on understanding media relations, which has proven useful to the management team at several companies, trying to get their collective heads around how the media works, how to deal with reporters, how to understand the agendas of reporters and editors, and so on. There's a course on Employee Communications that radically challenges the accepted conventional wisdom. And I'm developing What PR Pros Need To Know About Digital Photography. 

COACHING offerings are aimed at recently promoted public relations executives who know they can benefit from my thirty years experience; at non-PR executives to whom PR departments report; and at lower-level public relations people who have taken on new responsibilities in fields in which they lack experience.

New on Monday, December 1,  2003

New on Thursday, November 27,  2003

My readers write, in regard to the story below about employee communications.

Charles Pizzo, New Orleans-based PR man, friend, former IABC world-wide chairman, 

Jana Schilder, one of the best, most innovative, deepest-thinking internal communications people in Canada, although now a broadly-based senior communications pro who does much more than internal stuff. She's Senior Manager, Firm-Wide Communications, at KPMG in Canada.

1.  Readership surveys are totally useless. 

 

2.  What organizations should be doing are employee attitude surveys, where the effectiveness of the publication is part of the communications mix.  But traditionally, publications (hardcopy and electronic) only account for between 7 - 12 percent of how people get their information.  The two biggest questions about publications are:  a) it is timely and b) are the articles actionable?  Do they help you do your job better?

My response to Charles was that I used the bright green to make the story very visible to one particular reader who was new to BAK's Report, but that I'd fix up the design later. What you see below is the fixed up version. Line length has been shortened, color of the words changed, new background added, column form established, and more. Plus Jana notes that many readers love the words but wish I'd team up with a good designer. My response is that I'm after readability, not beauty, and the volume of content requires the format and the typographical tricks, like bold face and color. That said, there's a redesign underway based on, among other things, the fact that most monitors have higher resolution than when BAK's Report was first designed.

New on Wednesday, November 26,  2003

New on Tuesday, November 25,  2003

Nonsense from The Toronto Star

Reader determines if it's a public relations disaster
RANDY COHEN
EVERYDAY ETHICS

Q I'm considering hiring a public relations representative to promote my new business, but I worry about having him write letters for me to sign. When I read an article or a letter, I expect the name on it to be the author's.

The public relations rep argues that he is simply conveying my message more effectively than I could. But wouldn't I be lying to tack my name on his work?

Tal Ziv, Honolulu

A Context is all. When the president gives a speech, few Americans believe he composed it. We assume that the words are those of a speechwriter; the president is merely endorsing the policies he articulates, and there's nothing wrong with that.

However, when someone's name appears on a novel or a magazine article, it is fair to assume that those are his words, not just a collection of sentiments he admires. And yet novels have been ghostwritten, and the president has signed his name to op-ed articles that some people find difficult to believe that he wrote (or, among the more cynical, that he read).

In such cases, to sign your name is to claim credit for work you didn't write — i.e. to lie. What's important is the assumption of the reader.

If the customs of your business are such that your recipients will take your signature to mean you wrote these letters, then that's what you must do — write them. If they'll assume someone wrote them for you, then no problem. Your obligation is to avoid being deceptive.

And so it's fine to employ a public relations firm to help with your communications skills, but it's not fine to do what amounts to plagiarizing.

Who knows where this crap comes from, but to consider an executive agreeing to the words written by a Pr person, created for the express purposes the signer hires the PR person for, is plagiarism, is nonsense. Should we note that the words in annual reports are not written by the CEO? That the quotes in news releases started off with the CEO? 

No. What matters, what is ethical, is that the person identified agrees with the words, and is willing to stand by them.

New on Friday, November 21,  2003

Stories have legs, and they act like germs, and things get worse ...

A little way down the page, here, I write about a crisis in Ontario hospitals, based on poor sterilization of some instruments. The story grows each day, with more and more hospitals reporting they don't sterilize properly either, and notifying former patients that t they may be infected. Back in June, Malcolm Gladwell spoke to the big conference of the  International Association of Business Communicators. He's the author of The Tipping Point, a book that discusses how "things" grow, and then boom, they reach the tipping point and are upon us with a vengeance..

Our job as PR people is to anticipate the excrement hitting the rotary atmospheric motion instigation device, and be ready with shields, mops, and disinfectant. Earlier this week I've been in several discussions about the Hollinger / Conrad Black / unauthorized payments scandal. My belief is that this story is going to travel far, and perhaps fairly fast. Because Black's sort-of Canadian, (he renounced his citizenship so he could be ...) sort of British (he's a Lord over there, not allowed by Canadian law if he was still a Canadian citizen) plus he owns The Telegraph, and many of Hollinger's investments, and shareholders, are in the USA, this will be a three-legged, tri-nation story.

Now, combine Hollinger with prostate instruments, and we come to today's PR LESSON. You really should be a pessimist, and when you see something out in some part of the world that could go wrong in your organization, get ready for things to get worse. The bad news is your non-PR colleagues will get annoyed with you for being negative, and they won't thank you when it turns out you are right, and things to get worse. 

Here's my prediction of a few things -- broad strokes thoughts --  that could affect a large number of the organizations for which my readers work. Are you up to speed and ready to talk about, for attribution ...

-- Corporate governance issues. Independent directors, and sign offs on the financials, special payments and one I think will explode, just how much work do directors actually do for their fees?. And related..

-- Changing definitions in financial communications. Do you, for instance, know what "independent" means, today?

-- Offshore operations taking jobs away from your "native" country. Companies have a headquarters somewhere, and only a few are thought of as not "belonging" to some nation. So when Morgan Stanley, an "American" company, starts killing US jobs and hiring people in India (see the latest Fortune magazine) be prepared for internal communications problems, and government relations problems.

-- Politics meets business -- I hope I'm wrong, but I anticipate anti-American actions hurting (perhaps literally) operations of American-controlled businesses outside the USA. We've already seen how Americans are trying to punish French organizations operating in the United States of America. Yesterday and today's demonstrations in London are politics-based, but I wonder when they will turn to anti-American-business. McDonald's franchise owners in many countries already know, and have suffered, because they are a symbol of the USA.

Managers who screw up love to blame the messenger. That's you, so get ready to get in trouble because you are anticipating the worst, and then get blamed again when you are proven right. 

And, to quote Stanley Bing in Fortune, about not being believed when being pessimistic, I write, "just remember two words. 'Arthur Andersen.'"

New on Thursday, November 20,  2003

Great story about public relations and the media in 
The Guardian, from London.

Go to http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,1086527,00.html and you'll see the story, written by PR woman Julia Hobsbawm

Here's the first part of the story:

Why journalism needs PR

Members of the fourth estate may love to hate the world of public relations but without it they would struggle to fill their newspapers, argues Julia Hobsbawm

Monday November 17, 2003
The Guardian

Journalism loves to hate PR. It has become the norm in the media to knock us, whether for spinning, controlling access, approving copy, or protecting clients at the expense of the truth. Yet journalism has never needed public relations more, and PR has never done a better job for the media.

If you think I'm exaggerating the antipathy, here's what Bryan Appleyard, the distinguished author and journalist, wrote in the Sunday Times in May: "Hacks still naively pursue something they like to call the truth. Their problem is that it no longer exists. For truth has been destroyed by public relations executives, or 'scum' as we like to call them."

Singling out showbusiness, celebrity and sport PR in particular, Appleyard concluded that it has become "a virus ... infinitely more infectious and, in the long run, more damaging than Sars" (I kid you not).

Given that a (conservative) estimate of 75% of entertainment stories and 50 to 80% of news and business stories emanate from public relations, it is understandable that journalists can resent their reliance on us.

It's worth reading the rest of the story. I've gone through daily papers over and over, during my career, marking the stories that clearly have the hand of pr upon them, and it is astounding how much we in the PR profession contribute to the content of newspapers, radio broadcasts, and television news and public affairs. 

What many unobservant observers observe incorrectly is that even the anti-pbursinss, anti-government stories that are published are often at the instigation and with the support of PR people; it's just that they are not PR people on the side of business or government but PR people  on the other side, whatever side that might be.

Who is Julie Hobsbawm, anyway? She's in her late-thirties. chairwoman of Hobsbawm Media + Marketing Communications Ltd (www.hmclondon.co.uk) in London, and, she writes to BAK's Report, " I'm now London's first Professor of Public Relations."

Her firm has  23 employees, and she is the daughter, the Guardian tells us, "of the well-known Marxist historian, Eric Hobsbawm," and then says, "Julia has specialised in promoting mainly leftwing and ethical clients." It says her energy is legendary, and "She is a staunch defender of public relations against its critics and recently attacked journalists for "biting the hand that feeds" the media."

Good for her. I don't see the defense coming from the associations that should be doing this.

Plus, she wrote to us, "I liked your site very much!" although not in bold type. But she did put in the exclamation mark.

New on Wednesday, November 19,  2003

UPDATE ON: Bad communications is a life and death issue JUST BELOW

I've now read the sterilization instructions on the prostrate probe that has caused vast worry to hundreds of men. The instructions are clear; the technician at the hospital was both lazy and badly trained, but the fault sure does not lie with the manual writer. 

New on Saturday, November 15,  2003

PR LESSON: Think about dates and get them complete and easy to understand. Do you know what day of the week it is, based only on the number, like 19 in this sign? No?  Do you have a better idea if you're free on, say, next Wednesday, or free on the 19th? You don't even know which day the 19th is, without doing math in your head, do you? Neither do most people, so if you want to schedule an event and alert people in advance, put the damn day of the month into the sign, on the invitation, into the flyer, at the bottom of the ad.  Make dates easy, and as PR person, it is your job to make sure everyone in your organization communicates clearly.

New on Thursday, November 13,  2003

PR LESSON: promote your advertising, inside and out

When your marketing department does an interesting advertising campaign, make sure your employees know about it, just before it breaks, and you can often get external publicity, if your campaign is interesting. Part of your job as PR expert is getting good photos to give to the media, of course.

I just happened upon the chance to take these shots: I was not shooting for a client, but they illustrate real world meeting fantasy, as the genuine fire truck heads out on a run, putting a pause in the shooting of the beer commercial. In Canada, beer and hockey go together. I shot from my office window and from the street in front of my building.

The fake action of the hockey-based TV commercial filmed at the fire station across from my office was interrupted as the real fire truck headed out on a genuine call. The grey blurs in the big photo are pigeons, some of whom live on the outside of my office air conditioner.

New on Tuesday, September 30,  2003

Update to an earlier story
The National Film Board in Toronto has great animation classes for kids. Here's more about them. 

I wrote an earlier story here about the animation workshops my son has been attending at the National Film Board Mediatheque. Since then, I've visited the NFB web site and discovered a special site for kids, at www.nfbkids.ca with games for children. It's fun to watch how kids learn when they get to exercise their creativity doing something they think is special.

For information about the Animation Workshop info, go to http://www.nfb.ca/mediatheque/en/fallworkshop.html and to just learn more about the offerings of the NFB in Toronto, go to http://www.nfb.ca/mediatheque/en 

New on Monday, September 29,  2003

Hacks insult flacks
We in PR continue to get insulted by journalists
Problem is, too many of us deserve it. 

Richard Morochove is an accountant-turned computer consultant who writes better than the average bean-counter, and has his words in front of hundreds of thousands of eyes every month. Today he writes in the Toronto Star's business section, and some other papers, about Kodak's financial and organizational moves, and he writes about digital photography. He's not that far off being right on the photo front, although he leaves out some info about Kodak's leadership in professional hardware, and he appears to not have visited the latest Kodak photo kiosks. You can't read his column on the web, as far as I can see. It's not on the Toronto Star web site, nor in his own.

But, inside Morochove's own web site there's a funny-if-it were-not-so-true section aimed at the PR people who send him releases and leads and story ideas they want him to cover. You can read the whole list at Six dumb PR questions you should never ask  inside www.morochove.com There's some other very good advice in the site about how to send stories and photos to a freelance journalist, too.

Here's one of the"six dumb" I particularly like from his site. It rings so true, from Toronto's Richard Morochove ...

I'll Be Coming Around the Mountain When I Comes

Q: Will you be coming to my press conference?

A: If I'm coming, I'll be there. If I'm not, I won't. I attend very few press conferences, because most are a poor use of my time. Due to the fluid nature of my work, I cannot guarantee my attendance at most events.

Except, except...

Over in Jack O'Dwyer's PR Daily, the biggest and best (next to BAK's Report) on-line PR publication, my friend Fraser Seitel (never met him in person, still think he's a friend) has written today, in a great professional development feature, these words...

Seitel

#7 Alert the media.

And speaking of the press, journalists are notorious no-shows at special events.

They'll tell you they're coming and may, in fact, plan on making it. But then, at the last minute, a new assignment beckons, and you're left with a low media turnout at the function and egg on your face with the CEO.

So journalists must be called early and often. See if they're available for the event by notifying them early on. Check back with them prior to the event to see if they still plan to attend. Finally, on the morning of the event, call their offices just to make sure.

Few things are more disconcerting - or suicidal -- for a PR professional than having no reporters show up at a press conference.

So how do you resolve the apparent conflict between Mr. Morochove's view, as the getter of the callers, and Mr. Seitel's position, as the gettee of the calls?

PR LESSON? Develop really good lists that indicate the nature and preference and relationship with various reporters. There are some events where you are only working with an assignment desk, and do not know the names of individuals who might come. Other times, you have specific names of reporters. We all know now that if we've invited Mr. Morochove, we'll just annoy him if we call again. Seems to me that since he's an accountant, he understands how to keep dates straight, and since he's a computer expert, he knows how to be reminded electonically.  So, beside Morochove, on your list you mark -- call to invite; do not remind by phone. Then the day before, send him a reminder e-mail. Don't call and annoy him.

But for me, say, if you wanted BAK's Report to cover an event, call me twice if you want, and send a pre-paid taxi.

Media relations is not a job for juniors. If someone is going to call a reporter, make sure it is someone senior enough, and knowledgeable enough, to talk intelligently with the reporter if you should reach a human and not an answering machine. Oft-times the reporter will write a pre-interview story, and you'll get two hits for the price of one, but only if the call the day before is from someone willing and able to be quoted. And the media relations person needs to know the industry, its issues, and where your organization fits in. 

BAK's Hint for best phone reminder system? Have one of the speakers at the news conference make the call, unless you really need to keep a lid on the content of the event. Let the reporter pre-interview one of the principals.

And finally -- Mr. M. is right on when he says most press conferences are a waste of his time. Instead, don't hold a press conference, hold some sort of industry event, aimed at clients and prospects and educators and other prime audiences, and then invite the reporters too. They'll still learn about your product or service, they'll be able to interview other people, and all in all, the efforts to hold the event will pay off much better.

I shake my head at the public relations organizations ...

Here's the intro to a paper I'm presenting at the management committee meeting this afternoon of one of my clients.

For more than 30 years I’ve been in the PR business, and for that entire time, the profession has done a poor job explaining just what public relations is, and why it matters.

The result; half the world seems to think PR is lying to the media, and the other half thinks it means organizing parties.

Here is the world’s best definition of the craft and profession;

PUBLIC RELATIONS, as defined by BAK:
"The management function which determines an organization's communications-related objectives, evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or organization with the public interest, and plans and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance and cause actions to meet the objectives."

The definition of public relations, and a phrase by phrase breakdown of it, are here, near the bottom of this page. It would be great if the bosses of the organizations would go out and tell the world what it is we do, instead of organizing more was to extract more money from their members. But that, unfortunately, seems to be what drives them.

New on Monday, September 22,  2003

Are ethics and communications in general 
important topics in the business community, or not?

I had two interesting conversations last week. In one, a man who supplies keynote speakers to major business conferences in Canada and the US told me that when discussions of what speaker to select get around to experts on either ethics or communications, the conference organizers lose interest. 

And, on the other side of the coin, (and the other side of the ocean) in an e-mail exchange with Sandra Macleod, Chief Executive of Echo Research in London, Paris and New York, she told me about the ever-growing interest in ethics, and corporate social responsibility, telling me she's launching a new study this Wednesday, September 24,  about CSR and the business community.  "Ethics will not die down that easily," she wrote. I hope to have more about her conference here by the end of the week.

New on Thursday, September 18,  2003

PR LESSON: Always include the day when you publish a date.

It seems so obvious, but designers who can't think, and poor PR people, all too often leave out useful information. Today I read this notice from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: "... Hosted by Andy Barrie, September 22,  5 - 7 p.m. ..." which forced me to go to a calendar and look up the 22nd, to determine what day of the week it is. Why not just put "Monday" in the notice, making it easier for everyone? Are people brain-dead?

Kids learn animation at National Film Board: 

The Toronto office of The National Film Board of Canada has a wonderful Saturday and Sunday program teaching animation to children. It's from 1 - 3 both days, costs $5 per session, parents are welcome to watch for free or participate for their own five bucks. The kids learn about scripts, make their own props, think about the actions, learn to plan and implement, and all in all, have fun while learning a lot. If you bring your own blank videotape, you can take away a copy of your work. 

The NFB office is in the Toronto entertainment district, at the corner of John Street and Richmond Street. The instructors are recent graduates of one of the best animation courses in the world, and they really know how to work with kids.

I'm planning on telling a newspaper education reporter about this course. It really educates kids, and it is fun. If you arrive early, you get to watch movies for free. I recommend Wrabbit, a cartoon, if the kids are seven or older. Parents will enjoy it, too. Info about the workshops is at at http://www.nfb.ca/mediatheque/en/fallworkshop.html