A recent article in the Wall Street Journal attacks the media for its latest mistake since handing out free content on the Web in the 1990’s. The author makes a clever analogy to professional sports teams writing, “Ask the community to contribute players. For instance, instead of using only highly paid pros on the baseball diamond, try adding a citizen shortstop. And how about enlisting bloggers to serve as coaches?”
This analogy works because unlike your typical law or medical profession where it takes years of schooling and formal training to gain recognition in society, journalists and athletes are judged by their skill level. Does that mean we should let them play the field?
Due to recent newspaper budget cutbacks and confusion among publishers about their role, some newspapers are turning to “citizen journalists” to fill space. The term “coffee shop journalism” has also been coined as quite a few papers are closing their doors and instructing displaced and disgruntled reporters to their local coffee shop to get a sense of what the caffeine-crazed citizen thinks is news worthy…
Locally focused reporting is key to any publications’ success, however the way to achieve this is not to take on unqualified sources, instead these pubs should be hiring more trained journalists and ensuring they have adequate time for reporting. The author ends the article saying, “News organizations can use all the citizens they can get – in the bleachers, not on the field of play.”
Come check out “Smashing The Glass Ceiling” February Luncheon Event featuring Kristi Krueger and Boardroom Communication’s President, Julie Talenfeld, on February 2 at the Tower Club in Fort Lauderdale!
Where:
100 SE Third Avenue
28th Floor
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
When:
February 2, 2012
11:30 a.m. -1:30 p.m.
Cost:
$30 for members
$45 for non-members
Please include attendee name and company name when registering.
Advance registration is required. Please note: Registration closes February 1st, 2012 at noon. Registrations received after noon on Wednesday, February 1st will be charged an additional $10 late fee at the door.
Let’s face it— there’s no such thing as a straight print journalist anymore. If you’re in the journalism field, never has going multi-platform been more important.
Miami Herald reporter, columnist, blogger (and tweeter!) Cindy Goodman agrees, encouraging all journalists to use new media to enhance their brand as well as the quality and readership of their stories.
This is 2011. If you’re not on the new media train, you are most likely soon without a job.
Goodman is an awesome example of using new media to stay alive in journalism, without sacrificing her journalistic integrity. Here are some tips and tools you can use to follow this new media maverick into the realms of multi-platform journalism:
BLOGGING
Have fun with voice and personality in your blog. It’s a platform where there’s some wiggle room for editorializing. But don’t go overboard! You are still a journalist at heart.
Make sure your blog has a consistent theme, voice, or message to establish yourself as an “expert” or “go-to” on your topic.
Use your blog as a place to put ancillary, fun, less relevant information that didn’t necessarily fit into your stories.
Keep up a conversation with your readers on your blog. Listen to their opinions and give them what they want!
TWITTER
Be smart about your tweets to bring traffic back to your news story rather than give it all away in 140 characters. Always try to tweet with links to a bigger story unless you are giving periodic updates from an event.
Create a conversation with your followers. Don’t simply promote yourself, your brand, and your stories.
Be careful about retweets: even if you’re not the one writing them, they still reflect on you and your journalistic voice and integrity. Make sure your retweets are reputable and that you are willing to be liable for them.
Follow and retweet relevant sources to expose your readers. Twitter is all about vanity, so retweeting twitpics from your followers will encourage others to send in their photos, and ultimately follow you.
VIDEOREPORTING
Be sure your videos complement the print/online story. They should not reiterate the print but augment it.
Keep your videos short, from 90 seconds to 3 minutes.
Sometimes you can use footage from an interview as online video; an interesting fact that didn’t necessarily fit into the story could make it in to the piece this way.
Again, don’t shoot video for the sake of shooting video. There has to be a reason for people to play it.
With regards to all of this new media, take a deep breath before you post or upload. Think, do you really want to say this? Once you click submit, your words, pics, and video have free reign in the online vortex. You can never really take anything back! So next time you write a story, grab your flip-cam and your smartphone, because you’ll need them!
As a journalist, you may be entering uncharted waters, but with street smarts and adaptability, you should be a-okay.
The University of Miami football scandal has rocked the college sports community, players, and coaches for almost a month now.
In mid-August Yahoo! Sports reported the corruption within the University of Miami football program- detailing a UM football booster’s showering of 72 players (and even administrators!) with lavish gifts including parties at night clubs, prostitutes, jewelry, clothing, and electronics. Nevin Shapiro, the culprit who is currently serving time for a $930 million dollar Ponzi scheme, wined and dined the players to get into the “in crowd,” and develop a posse of top players turning top recruits and then pro. Shapiro is serving a 20-year prison sentence for his actions- but the University of Miami as a college, community, and brand is facing serious repercussions. In fact, in their September 5th game against Maryland, certain UM players who were deemed ineligible to play because of their part in the scandal left many inexperienced freshmen taking over their positions. The investigation will continue on.
The scandal floats like a black cloud over campus, and University President Donna E. Shalala has only recently instated a crisis communications plan. As WPLG-Miami reporter Michael Putney writes in his opinion piece in The Miami Herald on August 23rd, “UM President Donna Shalala certainly didn’t look good the other day striding around the campus with a pasted-on grin as she welcomed reporters, none of whose questions she would answer…Not even ‘no comment.’” Even if Shalala didn’t have all of the facts, we at Boardroom Communications would have advised her to at least let reporters know she was on their side. She could have said, “I have no comment at this time other than to say that we are taking this very seriously and investigating it,” or something of this nature, from the very start. Putney puts it well, asking, “Why didn’t Shalala just call a news conference, say she wouldn’t be answering questions and read the limp, ineffectual statement her office issued…?” Maybe the media would’ve given her a break if she went humbly to the camera right away.
Then again, it probably wasn’t too fun greeting the parents and students of the Class of 2015 amidst the biggest scandal in University of Miami history.
Shalala did pen a letter to the community, and has made two videos reaching out to the university and community at large- directly addressing the incident from her own office. “When our values come into question, we only have one option,” she says in the video. “Do what is right and have confidence in tomorrow. The allegations leveled…are serious. And we are treating them with the urgency and priority they warrant.” Shalala also notes that the NCAA has instructed her and the university to not yet comment on specifics, and her personal frustration with being “unable to speak more freely and answer questions.”
Though initially faltering (and getting beaten for it), Shalala is starting to take the right steps by confidently looking straight into the camera and accepting responsibility for this scandal. When CEOS and corporate executives are faced with any sort of catastrophe, more often than not there is simply a press release, a general statement sent to publications and mass media, and nothing more. Shalala has employed a simple yet successful public relations strategy- appearing personal, humbled, and intimate with her audience and community. It’s obvious that she and the University of Miami administration are trying very hard to remain proactive in an attempt to redeem themselves and the reputation of their college. Thankfully, their current coach Al Golden remains untainted by the scandal- having arrived long after Shapiro’s departure. If he takes the reins and focuses on the future, maybe, just maybe, Miami can recover.
Here atBoardroom, we have a very open environment in the office. Rather than isolate ourselves from each other, our cozy cubicles allow us to communicate easily and efficiently. Unlike most, we like our cubicles.
Thanks to an article in Fast Company magazine titled, “Redesigning Cubicles,” our cubicles may be receiving a face-lift. The typical cubicles or “corporation killjoy” are no more.
On those beautiful sunny Florida days, all you want to do is be outside. And according to the article, giving your office that “outdoor” feel is simple; you can add plants for some natural greenery and have shorter cubicle walls. The plants will give your cubicle the fresh oxygen of the outdoors, and the shorter walls will give you a better view of your office’s window and a better opportunity to interact with colleagues.
Other creative ideas for ways to be interactive and friendly would be to add a foldout chair and a media screen. The foldout chair can be used to let clients sit in your cubicle comfortably or colleagues can join you for a scenic view of a tropical paradise on your large media screen.
To accommodate colleagues and clients’ needs, an adjustable desk is perfect for all heights so no one has to squeeze or stretch to get their work done. And if you have a client who requests a webcam-meeting, you can have a special webcam lighting feature in your cubicle so it doesn’t look like you’ve been partying all night.
But say you want some alone time for the hectic office life for you and your client or for yourself, adding a privacy shield gives your cubicle the “office-like” feel. Another great thing to add is noise-canceling speakers to cancel out those bothersome noises if you’re hounded with work or ifcolleaguesare shouting throughout the office.
With these simple tips, you can create your own safe-haven at work within your walled-in space. We certainly have. And Boardroom has never looked better!
Sun Sentinel re-runs Miami Herald article on Boardroom PR Client Flamingo Road Nursery and Farmers Market
It’s no secret that many newspapers don’t have as many reporters as they used to, so securing home run media placements – such as the Miami Herald Business Monday Cover story on innovative ways that nurseries are bringing in more business – are often some of the most challenging part of a publicist’s job. But sometimes, it can work to your advantage.
The Sun Sentinel recently re-printed the original Miami Herald article featuring Jim Dezell, owner of Flamingo Road Nursery and Farmers Market.
New York Congressman, Anthony Weiner, has had a “ca-tweet-strophe” for the ages. A photograph “mysteriously” surfaced on Weiner’s twitter account of an underwear-clad groin. Subjected to puns for perhaps the rest of time, Weiner has consistently refused to say “with certitude” that the picture was of his, well, you know. But he hasn’t outright denied it either.
While the situation is utterly embarrassing to say the least, Weiner’s pickle provides a lesson for all of us in crisis communications, or the process of skillfully handling news stemming from a bad situation.
The congressman has said his account was hacked, but never went to the police. It’s important to have some sort of credibility in these situations. While a hacking was definitely possible, without a second source it’s harder to believe.
Weiner has also given contradictory remarks to various media outlets. Our advice to him would have been to “Pick a stance, defend it, and stick to it.” After he said he was “not going to allow this to be what I talk about all week,” he sat down for approximately eleven hours of interviews with NBC, Fox News, CBS, CNN, ABC, and others. Through it all, he’s remained mysterious and said different things as to his breadth of knowledge regarding the photo, and if in fact it was taken of him.
As House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said on Fox news this week, “My advice would be to come clean and clear it up. I mean, perhaps he’s trying, but I know there’s a lot of explaining going on without a lot of clarity.”
Crisis communications isn’t about spinning bad news into good, it’s about limiting the fall-out from bad events and making sure the stain doesn’t permanently taint your good reputation. Weiner could’ve used some tips from Boardroom’s crisis communications experts.
To get his panties out of a bundle, (pun intended), Weiner could and should have done the following:
o Call his trusted advisors. As soon as word gets out, call your PR consultant versed in crisis communications, as well as your attorney.
o Think before speaking. Take time to assess the situations, and the irrevocable consequences. If Weiner wasn’t prepared to speak he should not have expressed concern, as he told Fox News, “We’re concerned about saying anything indefinitely.” Right there, it implies that Weiner has something to hide. If you’re not prepared to speak, say, “We are determining exactly what has happened and will respond with a statement when we can.” This shows you’re actively engaged and not avoiding the questions, and the truth.
This year, Boardroom Communications will be posting videos on our blog with advice from our very own public relations professionals. For our first video log, Boardroom Executive Vice President Todd Templin gives tips on how to effectively pitch your story to the media. PR professionals can agree that there isn’t one right way to pitch your story, however there are wrong ways. Check out our first video log below for Todd’s PR tips and keep checking back for more. Enjoy!
Boardroom Communications is pleased to announce a new client – Sky Limo, a full service aviation company that provides air charter, aircraft management, aircraft maintenance, whole and fractional aircraft sales.
Boardroom has been busy ramping up the public relations for Sky Limo, as they will be the first aircraft ever to participate in the Winterfest Boat Parade on Saturday, December 11th. A 48-foot long, eight-passenger, twin-engine Sabre 60 jet aircraft, with a 44-foot wingspan was transported through the streets of Fort Lauderdale, lifted by crane and placed onto a barge where it will be dropped into the Intracoastal for Saturday’s festivities.
The unorthodox float idea – coupled with the lifting of the jet via crane onto the barge – drew plenty of South Florida media coverage: reporters from the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, WFOR CBS 4, WPLG Local 10, WTVJ NBC 6 and WSVN 7News have been closely watching the events leading up to the parade’s 6:30 p.m. Saturday kickoff, dubbed “the greatest show on H2O.”
The jet will be themed “Fly Me to the Moon” and will also serve as a collection site for the United States Marine Corps “Toys for Tots” campaign.
Pictured above: Boardroom members and Channel 10 team
Several Boardroom Communications’ public relations practitioners visited WPLG, Channel 10’s new state-of-the-art Hallandale Beach, Florida studios this week along with other PRSA, Gulfstream Chapter members to tour the TV newsroom and meet with the anchors, reporters, producers and directors.
The tour enabled the group to go behind the scenes and learn about the Broward County’s first high definition television newsroom. Members watched as Chief Meteorologist Trent Aric delivered breaking news on Tropical Storm Nicole, and participated in a meet and greet with Anchors Laurie Jennings and Calvin Hughes.
No question, television news has changed dramatically over the years with digital media, satellite and online technologies making the greatest impact. You don’t see film processing, videocassettes or gigantic studio cameras on the floor like you used to. You are also seeing a greater reliance on the social media like Facebook and Twitter being used in an effort to engage the audience and drive traffic to the station’s website.
Even with all of these changes, much of public relations has remained the same. If you have a good news story, understand the media you are pitching and maintain good relationships, you get can get your news on the air.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal attacks the media for its latest mistake since handing out free content on the Web in the 1990’s. The author makes a clever analogy to professional sports teams writing, “Ask the community to contribute players. For instance, instead of using only highly paid pros on the baseball diamond, try adding a citizen shortstop. And how about enlisting bloggers to serve as coaches?”
In mid-August 
New York Congressman, Anthony Weiner, has had a “ca-tweet-strophe” for the ages. A photograph “mysteriously” surfaced on Weiner’s twitter account of an underwear-clad groin. Subjected to puns for perhaps the rest of time, Weiner has consistently refused to say “with certitude” that the picture was of his, well, you know. But he hasn’t outright denied it either.
