Confused by the ethical/public relations dilemmas surrounding Gizmodo’s reporting on the lost/stolen iPhone? Fast Company has created a flowchart to help:
Filed under: GroundFloor Media
GroundFloor Media vice president & managing partner Ramonna Tooley has been elected to the Board of Directors of SafeHouse Denver. SafeHouse Denver serves victims of domestic violence and their children through both an emergency shelter and a non-residential Counseling and Advocacy Center.
Filed under: PR Moves
Liz Pope has been named media and research manager at Sarah Evans’ Chicago-based Sevans Strategy. Pope will remain in Denver and consult with businesses on how to integrate social media into their public relations strategies. Pope formerly was PR and marketing manager at Scott Systems.
Denver jobs guru Andrew Hudson has launched a new blog focusing on career advice and insights – http://andrewhudsonsjobsblog.com/.
Filed under: Public Relations
Is it just me, or does the idea of public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard teaching kids “how advertising works so they can make better, more informed choices” just make you laugh your ass off?
And if that doesn’t, how about this: A representative of FH’s client, the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission, defended the hiring, saying, “(FH) know(s) the tricks of the trade. We’re tapping into their expertise.”
What’s lesson No. 1?: “Advertisers shout lies. Public relations executives whisper them?”
PRSA Colorado will pay tribute to Joe Fuentes at its annual Gold Pick Awards ceremony on Thursday, May 6. Joe, who lost his battle with cancer in March, was a longtime PRSA Colorado member and well-known in the Denver PR and media communities. According to PRSA Colorado, “The tribute to Joe will include a video featuring many of his friends and colleagues reminisremembering the five attributes he displayed daily throughout his life, including: professional excellence, community, mentorship, family and ethics/integrity.”
Following the video, Joe’s widow, Christine, and her family will present the “Joe Fuentes Rookie of the Year Award.” The award was renamed to honor Joe and will continue to be awarded annually at the awards ceremony. The tribute also will include a Coors toast in Joe’s memory as a nod to the 14 years he spent leading PR efforts for the Coors Brewing Company.
Filed under: Public Relations
Do you go “off the record” with journalists? Fifty percent of your colleagues do.
The bad news for newspapers continues. The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) reports that domestic weekday newspaper circulation fell 8.7 percent over the past six months. Meanwhile, here in Colorado, the Denver Post reported a 10.2 percent weekday circulation decline over a year ago, which now puts it as the nation’s 14th largest newspaper in terms of weekday circulation.
Filed under: Public Relations
Occasionally. But if you are feeling stressed, CNBC explains why: “potentially hostile members of the media.”
Among those hiring this week are the Boulder Chamber Orchestra, the Competency & Credentialing Institute, Competitor Group, Fuel Team, Gambo, KPMG, Lumension, Westword, Vail Mountain, Orion Multimedia, National Opinion Research Center (Chicago) and O’Malley Hansen Communications (St. Louis).
The Colorado Health Foundation has selected GroundFloor Media as its agency of record. GroundFloor will support the foundation’s traditional and social media campaigns.
Congratulations to MGA Communications, which was recognized by the Denver Business Journal as the 2010 ‘Partners in Philanthropy’ Small Business of the Year.
Filed under: Public Relations
Aaron Kwittken of Kwittken & Co. compiles the list for Entrepreneur:
- You want to be on Oprah
- You want to spend less time on PR
- The agency is willing to take equity in lieu of cash
- It’s the least-expensive agency you could find
- Agency fees are on a per-media placement basis
- The agency is guaranteeing a minimum number of media placements
- You want media placements in the next 30 days
Filed under: Public Relations
If you are the PR firm that signed singer Macy Gray to a $2,000-per-month contract and then let her run up a $43,000 tab without paying, well, you may be too stupid to be in public relations (and that’s a phrase I never thought I would type). Here’s a free PR tip: If your client hasn’t paid in 21 months, you should cut them off.
Filed under: 5280
5280 has hired award-winning designer David McKenna as art director. McKenna most recently worked at National Geographic Adventure, and his work has been recognized with a National Magazine Award nomination for General Excellence, as well as other honors including a Society of Publication Designers award and Folio’s Ozzie Award recognizing excellence in magazine redesign.
Filed under: KUSA
Congratulations to 9News anchor Cheryl Preheim, whose reporting on Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano was featured last night in a David Letterman bit, “Iceland Volcano Mispronunciation Roundup.“
Filed under: TV News
How many cockroaches does it take to freak out a weatherman meteorologist? Just one.
Filed under: PR Fail
If you are looking for a change of public relations scenery, you might try (and thrive in) New Zealand. Apparently, Australia’s little brother is a little behind the curve when it comes to public relations strategy. From the New Zealand Herald:
“A marketing stunt to promote a video game sparked an armed police callout after an actor pointed a fake gun at terrified pubgoers in Auckland’s Viaduct Basin.”
If you saw Dean Singleton cackling like a James Bond villain today, it is because highly respected former Rocky Mountain News reporter Kevin Flynn has taken a position with RTD as ”public information project manager for the public-private partnership that is to build and operate trains to Denver International Airport and Arvada/Wheat Ridge, along with other FasTracks elements.” Flynn spent 27 years at the Rocky covering a host of beats, including transportation.
The Bawmann Group has named Rich Martin as director of creative and interactive services.
Filed under: AP Stylebook
Somebody buy Ef Rodriguez a drink: The AP Stylebook has officially changed the preferred usage of “Web site” to “website.”
A Wall Street Journal blogger examines the differences between public relations and marketing. If you need more clarification, see here.
Filed under: Apple
Apple’s PR department is no doubt working hard this morning trying to rationalize why a Pulitzer Prize-winner cartoonist’s work is not acceptable content for its App Store.
Filed under: Denver Magazine
Denver Magazine has named Nicole Frehsée associate editor. Frehsée formerly was an assistant editor at Rolling Stone, where she interviewed musicians ranging from Yoko Ono and 50 Cent to Kings of Leon and The Jonas Brothers. She also was a frequent television correspondent for Rolling Stone, appearing on CNN, Entertainment Tonight, E! and Fox Business.
Filed under: Public Relations
Vladimir Jones has named Margaret Ebeling as Director of Emerging Brand Communications. Ebeling, who formerly was marketing director for Larimer Associates, “will serve as the agency’s lead for staying on top of emerging trends in the brand communications realm, further fulfilling the agency’s commitment to taking an integrated approach to client challenges and opportunities.”
Filed under: Brand Iron
Brand Iron has officially moved into its new 3,000-square-foot digs in RiNo (2450 Larimer Street), just a few blocks from its old office in LoDo.
Filed under: Philosophy Communication
Congratulations to Philosophy Communications, which is celebrating its 9th anniversary today.
Filed under: journalism
What’s the problem with journalism today? Brent Cunningham of the Columbia Journalism Review and Alan C. Miller of the News Literacy Project argue that the Internet has moved you from a news consumer to a news gatekeeper, and that you aren’t paying enough attention to do that job effectively.
Joanne Ostrow at the Denver Post has seen the future of Denver television news, and it does not include co-anchors such as Karen Leigh, Libby Weaver and Mark Koebrich. Instead, expect more of the 20-20-20 rule: “Hire 20-year-olds, pay them $20,000 a year and have them work 20-hour days.”
- Dovetail Solutions added Amy Secor as marketing coordinator. Secor is a recent graduate of the University of Denver.
- Linhart PR added Lauren Cameron as an account associate. Cameron’s experience includes stints at Ogilvy and APCO Worldwide.
And the hits keep coming for Toyota. After months of terrible press about its unintended acceleration and braking problems, Consumer Reports today gave the Toyota-built Lexus GX 460 its once-in-a-decade ”Don’t Buy: Safety Risk” rating due to what it views as an unacceptably high risk of rollover.
Filed under: journalism
… but let’s hope this isn’t a harbinger of things to come (of course, Rush Limbaugh probably considers moving from the New York Times to homelessness as a lateral career move).
Filed under: Public Relations
Mint.com’s Jason Putorti credits public relations – and, more specifically, San Francisco’s Atomic PR – for the company’s meteoric growth and ultimate acquisition by Intuit.
Filed under: journalism
The money quote from the summary of a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism in association with the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA):
“Fewer than half of all (journalism executives) surveyed are confident their operations will survive another 10 years – absent significant new sources of revenue. Nearly a third believe their operations are at risk in just five years or less. And many blame the problems not on the inevitable effect of technology but on their industry’s missed opportunities.”
Congratulations to Denver Post photographer Craig Walker for his Pulitzer Prize for photography. Walker was recognized for his series, “Ian Fisher: American Soldier” that chronicled 27 months in the life of soldier Ian Fisher.
Among those hiring this week are the American Cheese Society, Aspen Chamber of Commerce, ClearChoice Dental Implant Centers, Covidien, FoodServiceWarehouse.com, Nutrition Business Journal, Quiznos, The White House Project, Cricket Communications (San Diego), Glendive Ranger-Review (Glendive, Mont.), Kiewit Corp. (Omaha, Neb.), Minnesota Timberwolves/Lynx (Minneapolis, Minn.), Smith Micro Software (Aliso Viejo, Calif.), SUPERVALU (Earth City, Mo.), and Weber Shandwick (Minneapolis, Minn.).
Filed under: 60 Minutes
If any of you manipulative PR people have been pushing Steve Kroft and the gang at “60 Minutes” around, they respectfully request that you stop. Meanwhile, somewhere, Mike Wallace is rolling over in his grave on his couch.
Filed under: Politics
It was a good fundraising quarter for U.S. Senate candidate Jane Norton, so much so that her communications staff rushed out a press release. The problem? It wasn’t quite finished.
(Hat tip: Colorado Pols)
Filed under: Denver Press Club
The Denver Press Club has named Philosophy Communications’ Jennifer Lester as the co-chair to the Club’s Marketing and Public Relations Committee. Lester will head the committee with co-chair Jennifer Shermer of Fransen Pittman.
- Metzger Associates has been retained by AC Golden Brewing Company, a subsidiary of MillerCoors, to help launch the company’s newest beer, Colorado Native.
- Cloud computing solutions provider LTech has selected Catapult PR-IR as its agency of record.
Among those hiring this week are the Bureau of Reclamation, Encana, HealthTrans, Hitachi Consulting, ista, Janus, Merkle, MMG Mardkis, MWh, Pendum, Project C.U.R.E., Pure Brand and Rally Software.
Filed under: PRSA
Nothing makes you want to drink as much as landing your first job in public relations and seeing first-hand how the PR sausage is made (except maybe trying to find that first PR job). So, either way, head on over to the Ginn Mill bar at 2401 Larimer Street this Thursday from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. to attend PRSA Colorado’s Young Pros Event. The event is celebrating the formation of PRSA Colorado’s Young Professionals group that is designed to be a go-to resource for all young pros looking for peer-to-peer networking opportunities, professional development and a nontraditional mentorship experience. Click here for more details.
Zach Knaus has left MGA Communications to form 4degre.es, a full-service online communications firm that focuses on social-media marketing, search-engine optimization, Web design and public relations.
GroundFloor Media has signed two new clients: Brassica (BroccoSprouts) and The Medical Center of Aurora. And after pausing their PR efforts in 2009, three former GroundFloor clients have renewed their relationships: Bellco Credit Union, Young Americans Center for Financial Education and Seattle-based Point B Solutions.
SE2 finally wised up and dumped partner Eric “Dead Weight” Sondermann. Said SE2 senior associate Olivia Gallegos, “His incessant afternoon naps and audible snoring deeply affected company morale and even productivity. We decided something had to be done.”
Congratulations to Denver’s MGA Communications and its client Rocky Mountain Arsenal, which were named one of the top five public relations campaigns of the past decade by the Holmes Report. MGA President Jeff Julin said, “We are so pleased to have our clients and their programs recognized by our peers. We realize how fortunate we are to have clients who give us the opportunity to partner with them on programs that have a positive impact on the community.”
The four other campaigns recognized were:
- Ketchum and Frito-Lay for encouraging customers to create a SuperBowl ad for Doritos.
- Liz Claiborne and its agency Patrice Tanaka & Company (now part of CRT/tanaka) for their long-running Women’s Work cause-related marketing program.
- The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide for The Heart Truth campaign and its introduction of the Red Dress icon.
- Fleishman-Hillard and its support of SBC Communications, Yahoo! and Cingular Wireless for their efforts to help individuals displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
