REICH COMMUNICATIONS

Lazy PR

 

David Segal writes a column in the Sunday New York Times that deals with consumer complaints.  But he went off-topic in his Nov. 24th column to deal with a personal complaint that those of us in the public relations field should listen to.

Segal complains about the large number of unsolicited and totally off-topic pitches he gets from PR people.  He did some investigating and learned that many come from people using one of the PR media databases that are available -- Vocus and Cision being the largest.

Segal is 100% right in pointing out that too many PR pros rely on these databases without doing the proper editing to be sure pitches and news releases are being sent to journalists who might actually be able to use them.  The result of this lazy PR is reporters get lots of unwanted junk email, which gets them frustrated and annoyed at all PR people, including those of us who don't spam via Cision and Vocus.  It just makes our job harder when those frustrated journalists delete all email they see coming from PR people.

I was glad to see Segal call out by name some of the PR agencies who had recently sent him off-target pitches.  They and the clients they represent should be embarrassed. It shows lazy, wasteful and unprofessional PR practices.

I've never used Vocus.  It's way too costly for a smaller PR practice.  Cision is costly too, but less so than its rival.  But when I have used Cision to build a database, I've found it difficult to use.  There doesn't seem to be any way around the old-fashioned way of going through all the names and vetting those who are not appropriate.  That takes a fair amount of time and a lot of patience.  And that's where we run into the problem that leads to all the spam reporters get from PR people. 

Time is money, and I suspect that too many PR agencies who are already overworking their underpaid lower-level employees discourage them from taking the time to build a proper PR media target list.  They figure they're already paying thousands for their Cision or Vocus subscription, so why spend more valuable time doing the job properly by going through all the names and selecting only those who might actually be able to use the material they're sending out.

It's PR 101 -- how to build a media list.  I suspect too many agencies don't give their junior-level employees the proper training or guidance.  Worse yet, some may actually discourage their people from doing it the right way, opting for the faster and lazy way.

But in the end, it's bad PR for the rest of us in the industry.  David Segal's column proves the point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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New York City

Katie Couric move to Yahoo... Is it really news?

 

Katie Couric is a celebrity, so pretty much anything she does gets the attention of the media.  But a widely-followed online site, Daily Beast, is calling her move to Yahoo as a global news anchor a pivotal event in the impending move away from traditional media toward digital media as our major source of news.

That move may be gradually taking place, but I just don't see the Katie Couric job move as THE pivotal event in that transition.  People still tune to the networks, and also to the cable news channels, for reliable and up-to-the-minute information on big breaking stories.

Yahoo is probably hoping that Couric's likability and news credibility will draw online viewers to its site.  I'm not so sure Katie is the one who will pull viewers.  Toward the end of her run at Today on NBC, she was getting a bit tired.  Her time as anchor at the CBS Evening News was hardly a big win for her or her reputation. To be fair, it may not have been all her fault, but she took a major hit in the public eye.  And her syndicated show Katie has been struggling and may not be renewed for next year, even as her star at ABC News never seemed to rise to expectations.

So I just don't think Katie Couric is the one who will pull viewers to Yahoo for news.  And the competition is stiff, as traditional news media have established their own online sites with breaking news and an array of reporters and anchors we know and respect.

A quick look around online and I found some pundits questioning the viability of Yahoo longterm as a relevant news site.  Maybe I'm in the minority, although I don't think so, but when I look for news online, Yahoo is far from my first choice.

 

 

 

 

What we too often take for granted

 

"... the home of the brave and the land of the free."

That final line from our nation's national anthem is something we live with every day, but it's too easy to take the "land of the free" concept for granted.  I was reminded of that earlier today when I saw a piece on "CBS This Morning" profiling jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, who receives the Medal of Freedom from President Obama at the White House today.

I've loved Sandoval's music for years.  I've seen him in concert and I have several of his albums.  But there's a great story behind the music.

Sandoval grew up in Cuba and began playing trumpet as a young boy.  He attended Cuba's top music conservatory, but he knew nothing about jazz.  A visiting journalist first exposed Sandoval to jazz, and the trumpeter never looked back.  But jazz, considered an American art form, was banned from the Cuban airwaves and from music clubs on the island.  Sandoval listened to Voice of America and whatever jazz records he could manage to find.  As a young man, he played jazz at clubs in Havana, but received threats from the Castro regime that if he continued playing jazz, he and his family would be at risk.

He met jazz master Dizzy Gillespie when Dizzy played in Havana in 1977.  He managed to get himself a gig as Dizzy's driver in Cuba, and Dizzy heard Sandoval play.  Neither spoke the other's language, but they connected through the music and Sandoval was invited to the stage to play with Dizzy and his band.  Eventually, Gillespie got him a spot to tour with him as part of the United Nations Orchestra.

Dizzy helped Sandoval defect to the U.S. in 1990.  Sandoval became a U.S. citizen in 1999.

In the CBS interview this morning, Sandoval talked about how much he loves this country for its freedom -- which includes the freedom to express himself through jazz.  When you've lived without freedom, one can appreciate it that much more.

There's a fantastic movie about Sandoval's life, produced by and starring fellow Cubano Andy Garcia --  "For Love or Country," released in 2000.  Sandoval plays in the soundtrack.  It's worth checking out.

And gracias, Arturo, for reminding us of the meaning of freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

Look who's reading books

 

When we think of how teens spend their free time these days, reading books probably doesn't make the list.  Instead, they're listening to digitally-downloaded music, gaming and, of course, keeping up with friends via social media.

But surprise -- a recent Pew Research poll shows 86 percent of 16 and 17 year olds have read at least one book in the past year, and 56 percent have taken books out of the public library.  Among younger teens ages 13 - 14, 63 percent say they keep up with the latest young adult books.

Many of these young readers may be using digital devices rather than the old fashioned ink on paper.  But the key thing is, teens are reading books.  And that's good news.

 

Multi-tasking not good for ad recall

 

I'm not quite sure what to make of a story I saw online a few weeks ago under the headline "Can Chewing Cause Brand Amnesia."

It reports on a study done at the University of Wuerzburg in Germany that suggests people who watch an ad while chewing gum or eating popcorn (typical movie theater behavior, right?) had lower recall of the ad than a control group that saw the ads while not eating or chewing.

And we pride ourselves on being able to multi-task.  I wonder what the ad recall must be for those of us who see an ad on TV while checking our cellphone or taking a quick trip to the refrigerator or bathroom.

The researchers called this lower recall the "oral interference effect." 

So does this mean marketers should pull back their ad dollars spent on cinema advertising?  Or perhaps theater owners need to prevent patrons from chewing gum until after the ads are finished running.  I'm not sure how TV advertisers can prevent such "oral" distractions while their ads are running.

Just another hurdle the ad community needs to clear.  Hmmm.