Crisis experts salivate whenever a PR crisis occurs. These self-proclaimed know-it-alls, like most PR people, say that they have all the answers. Currently, crisis specialists in sports PR are providing unasked-for advice regarding how Major League Baseball, the Los...
In addition to being a football game, the 2024 Super Bowl became a political hot potato when MAGA supporters attacked pop star Taylor Swift for being a Democratic operative. This is not the first time that a sport has become embroiled in matters political. In fact,...
A PR person assigned to gain major earned media publicity for a sponsors’ Super Bowl tie-in during the early years of the Big Game was the equivalent of being given an ice cream sundae by agency management. Reporters were anxious to interview football players that PR...
Early in July 2023, I wrote an article on this website regarding news events that provided free important PR lessons in the first half of the year. Here are my choices for the second half of last year. From the international scene Israel was widely condemned by a...
With only a few weeks left in the year, one thing is a certainty: 2023 has not been a very good year for old-timers, especially on the political and sports scenes. But in our business, some old-time tenets that date back to the Founding Fathers of public relations are...
During my long PR career, I was called a maverick because I often disagreed with my colleagues’ widely accepted PR principles, and when we came to a fork in the road, I took the one less used. Here are some beliefs that set me apart from the clan: 1. Don’t pitch...
The reporting errors regarding the Palestinian terrorist attack on an Israeli musical festival and kibbutzim should have provided important lessons for PR practitioners, especially when doing research for a program or speech: Never rely on one single source. The...
On September 25, a headline in The Wall Street Journal read, “Bosses Say They Want The Truth. Do They Mean It?” How you would answer the question above if it was asked of you could determine your status at public relations agencies—which statistics show is short-lived...
On August 28, The U.S. Department of Transportation posted the following: “WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) today fined American Airlines $4.1 million for violating federal statutes and the Department’s rule prohibiting tarmac delays of three...
Let’s be honest. Looking out for themselves is the primary priority of businesses, both private and public. And since public relations agencies are businesses, both private and public, that definitely applies to them. The importance of client relationships to PR...
Many years ago before jumping the fence to the PR side, I was a sports reporter for several New York City newspapers and a wire service. In those days, sports news was considered unimportant, compared to business, political and world news. (It still is, in my...
Prior to jumping to the PR side of the fence from the newspaper wall, I was a reporter and editor at New York City dailies and wire services. As a reporter and editor, I always took into account the news value, the feature story possibilities or the uniqueness of a...