07/04

There are too many countries and too many peoples struggling to end violence, to find a modicum of personal choice, to speak without fear of punishment, to feed their families rather than burying them.  Liberty is hard won and easily lost.

Public relations practitioners could not ply their craft without the liberal free speech environment the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights provide us.  Our jobs would be no better than those of propagandists who have little or no respect for facts or truth. 

I am glad I live in America for all of its faults -- and they are many.  I am happy we stand as a nation in support of freedom in spite of administrations that have abused their responsibilities. 

America will never be perfect because humans are not perfect, but America can seek perfection and in its quest, provide a society that is a model for the world.

What more could we wish?

07/03

A nonpartisan advocacy group for pro-choice women's rights, the Center for the Advancement of Women, has released a survey that appears to show that American women opposing abortion except in the case of rape, incest or life-threatening complications have moved into the majority.  Click below to read the release:

http://www.advancewomen.org/for_reporters/press_releases.php

What happened to change their opinion?  I have seen no great hue and cry in the media or elsewhere, as there was against smoking.  I have seen no efforts by tort lawyers or others to sue those who provide abortions.  I have seen religious groups conduct information campaigns, but since when has religion dictated general opinion in the United States?  

What happened to change the outlook of millions of women?  Or, is the survey a data point that will shift the next time a study is done?

The study's conclusions are extraordinary because anti-abortion activists have been painted as violent kooks in the media -- and some are.  I don't think personally that activists have had much impact on women's opinions, but I don't know.

If there ever was a case that called for social and PR research, it seems to me this is it.  What the study tells me is there are cultural and societal shifts that occur no matter what prevailing opinion-makers think.  So how does one go about tracking how people actually change rather than what  "experts" say people are doing? 

Yet another survey doesn't seem to me to be the answer.  America is over-surveyed as it is, and many conclusions are dumb because survey instruments are poor, the analysis was wrong or a process failure occurred.  I wish I had the time to look into this study in more detail.  It would be interesting.  Then, I wish I could figure out how to "ground-truth" its conclusions.

In Public Relations, whenever we think we know, almost certainly we don't.  This is one more case of apparent facts flying in the face of conventional wisdom.
 

07/02

I suspect some are asking," What took them so long?"  Basic stock data and analytical/charting tools have been available online for five years or so -- an eternity in Internet time.  A sample screen is here:

http://apdigital.stockgroup.com/snapshot_quote.asp?ticker=.DJI

It is my understanding that stock tables and financial data were a moneymaker for the AP, so one would have guessed that the organization would have found a way to sell them online before now.  On the other hand, AP is owned by its newspaper members, and they might have objected to such a move.  I don't know.   But the reality is that AP's financial product is joining a crowded field that is already well-served. 

I suppose if the 30 financial and software tools and 100 data sources are meant only for members that time lag means little.  On the other hand, one has to ask how late a vendor can come to online and still build a successful business. 

In fairness to AP, it has had a online news service for a long time and it was serving news to online media like CompuServe even before the Web was invented.  But that was news and not financial data. 

It is going to be interesting to see if the AP's new product takes off quickly. Meanwhile, Investor relations specialists have a new source and outlet for company financial data.
 

07/01

Just because one advises on communications for a living doesn't mean one needn't prepare to communicate.  I have an extra burden to get ready because I am a professional communicator.  I have to take my own medicine.

I'll admit I didn't prepare well for The New York Times interview.  That was a mistake.  I could have delivered message points better than I did.  Chastened by that experience, I practiced my speech twice for Columbus, Ohio.  It went well except that I forgot to click slides over in PowerPoint and my hostess alertly leapt to my aid.  For the TV interview, I have asked my boss to go over message points with me so I can deliver concise and clear answers to the reporter without hemming and hawing. 

Why is it, I wonder, that those who teach a craft are often the worst at doing it themselves.  Perhaps we forget the pressure of having a camera in our faces, of having an audience staring at us or of getting unanticipated questions.  It is true that those who face reporters and audiences frequently get used to it.  I don't get out as often as I should to maintain command of skills developed decades ago.  I'm rusty.

It is no different than practicing a musical instrument.  If you drop piano for years, when you come back, you will find your fingers have forgotten things they are supposed to do.  Sure, you can play at a minimum level, perhaps, but runs that your fingers once glided through are now stumbles and pieces you once played are indecipherable.    There is an old saying that "Those who can, do.  Those who can't, teach."   It's cruel but accurate. 

In the same way, if I failed to write five days a week in this "thoughts" section, I would have trouble finding a daily theme.  Because I know I must write daily, I subconsciously search for ideas.  I couldn't imagine what I would do if I wrote just once a week.  I suspect I would think I have nothing to write about.

Take your medicine. Practice what you teach.
 

06/30

Fisher shows convincingly that It wasn't a one-made ride, and it wasn't a triumph of an individual.  Revere was part of a network that he built along with others and his warning was part of a planned response to any further British intimidation.  It struck me at the point where Fischer writes a crack about Revere's hard work of organization in advance of his ride being different from modern public relations "image-mongering" that either Fischer or I don't understand PR well. 

All this time I thought PR was a programmatic approach to public persuasion that did the hard ground work necessary to establish and maintain a position.  In other words, PR was not all that different from Revere's quiet and prolonged attempts to establish communications and coordination among many independent groups.   Ah well...  David Hackett Fischer is a brilliant fellow, so I won't dispute his view, but I will say that what I have been doing for much of my career doesn't square with his thinking. 

In fact, any political campaign undertaken today doesn't square with his thinking.  Look at presidential candidates.  All have assembled communications and coordination machinery to persuade citizens that their person is the one who should be in charge of the country. 

After the battles of Lexington and Concord, Fischer writes of a successful scramble by the colonists to get out their version of events before General Thomas Gage, the British commander who was in overall charge of the territory.  This, too, is a fundamental part of modern PR strategy, and it is precisely the "image-mongering" that Fischer describes.  

Nonetheless, the book is brilliant and should be on every PR practitioner's must-read list because it demonstrates what successful public relations can accomplish.
 

06/27

The stupid part of the affair was the CEO hid earnings, not losses.   And, he was hiding them to make sure the organization's financial profile did not spike and alarm investors.  He had apparently manufactured the smooth earnings curve CEOs want because it shows stewardship and builds credibility with investors who know what to expect.

But by keeping investors in the dark, the CEO strained his credibility and that of his organization.  It will take a long time for people to trust the new CEO and the financials.  Questions about earnings management will lurk in the background for years.

Taking a simplistic view, it appears the CEO identified personal self-interest with absence of spikes in earnings and revenues.  Hence, it was an easy next step to hide earnings today for when one needs them tomorrow.  What the CEO apparently forgot is that public relations starts with facts and not spin.  It is frustrating to those of us who practice PR to have to fight this issue over and over.   Facts come first and persuasion later.  Any attempt to change facts jeopardizes a PR program from the outset.

If I thought only middle managers failed to understand this rule, I might be patient, but they aren't.  What happens to leaders that they think they can make up a story and sell it with impunity to their boards, investors and the public at large?   It takes arrogance to think one can get away with that.   PR practitioners cannot afford to let arrogance run  unchecked if they care about their organizations and publics they serve.  I regret, however, that we do far too often -- and with reason. 

For example, I met a woman recently who works for a non-profit in a town somewhere in the U.S.  She related that her CEO believed everything he did should be in the newspaper, but, she said, he was a bore and a bad interview.  If she dared tell the CEO that, it was her career.  What should she do?   I told her this was the function of an outside PR agency -- to communicate news a CEO doesn't want to hear.  But, is that true?  Unfortunately, no.  Too many PR agencies are afraid of losing a  client so they kowtow along with everyone else.  But, it should be true. 

What I would like to know about Freddie Mac was whether the PR and/or IR person knew what was going on, and whether the PR and/or IR person tried to stop it?   I'll bet the answer is "no" to both questions, but it should have been "yes."