Issues management firm SE2 has crunched the numbers, and determined that:
Interestingly, the Colorado Sun has already jumped to the #11 spot in terms of unique monthly visitors, ahead of more-established media outlets such as 5280, Denverite, and the Denver Business Journal.
A work strike is at its heart a public relations battle. Economic leverage and political influence are only as strong as the strikers’ ability to win the hearts and minds of the public.
That is why Denver Public Schools’ misstep last night – a letter sent to teachers threatening to report visa-holding teachers to immigration authorities – hurts so much. They lost a bit of their moral high ground at a pivotal negotiating moment, and no doubt increased solidarity among teachers. DPS spokeswoman Anna Alejo quickly apologized for the letter, calling it an “incorrect communication” and an “error.”
Denver Public Schools wasn’t alone this week with its misstep. Douglas County Schools is continuing to address the fallout from one of its middle school teachers who incorrectly identified the Covington Catholic student at the center of the Lincoln Memorial viral video and then doubled down by alleging he was a member of “#HitlerYouth.” (Side note: I imagine there is a long line of defamation attorneys lined up at that student’s house.)
DougCo quickly suspended the teacher, but the school board was not in the mood to dwell on the issue. As Erin Powell at 9News reported last night, the board selectively enforced its civility rules and had a sheriff’s deputy remove a speaker from the room for merely citing the teacher’s name. If the goal was to minimize media coverage, that failed spectacularly.
Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann’s family has retained Louisville, Ky.-based RunSwitch PR to help guide it through the media firestorm that ensued over the weekend. Grace Schneider of the Louisville Courier Journal reports:
Asked about its role, RunSwitch released a statement saying that the firm “has been retained by the Sandmann family to offer professional counsel with what has become a national media story. We are working with the family to ensure an accurate recounting of events which occurred this past weekend.”
RunSwitch partners Steve Bryant and Gary Gerdemann said that Sandmann family asked people they knew over the weekend about getting help with handling the media.
“They reached out to our firm, and we responded,” said Bryant, adding that the business specializes in crisis management “all over the country.”
Scott Jennings, a conservative political commentator and a columnist for the Courier Journal, is the third partner in RunSwitch.
Diana Bradley at PRWeek reports:
It seems Wendy’s can’t stop trolling McDonald’s on social. Burger King, too, attempted to make the Golden Arches the butt of the joke with its #WhopperDetour stunt last month. Year after year, McDonald’s has been a target for its sassy rivals – an easy one, too, mainly because the brand never defends itself or fights back. …
The principle McDonald’s has adopted is that no fighter in the history of boxing has ever won simply by blocking punches.
“You have to go on the offense,” said Jano Cabrera, SVP, U.S. comms, global media and PR at McDonald’s. “There has to be something you stand for that is appealing. What is the case, proactively, you are making?”
“The nature of leadership brands is you get to a point where you understand real ROI is being mindful of and responsive to competition,” he said. “But you don’t stay a leadership brand by simply responding to competition. You do it by continuing to innovate and staying customer-focused.”
Mass Transit: “Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chief Communications Officer Pauletta Tonilas will leave the L.A. area transportation agency to return to the Regional Transportation District (RTD) in Denver to serve as assistant general manager, communications,” replacing long-time AGM Scott Reed who retired last fall.
“Tonilas held the positions of FasTracks public information manager and senior manager, Public Relations & Public Information at RTD before joining L.A. Metro in August 2015.”
“Less than a month after 9News’s Gary Shapiro caused a tweetstorm by bluntly refuting Twitter charges of fake news, the veteran morning anchor has announced that he will stop posting as he has been out of frustration over what he characterizes as the commandeering of his account,” Michael Roberts at Westwood reports.
“My feed has been taken over by tons and tons of people who are from out of state and probably don’t even know who I am,” Shapiro says. “So except for tweeting about breaking news and weather, I’m going to shut it down.”
Meanwhile, fellow 9News anchor Kyle Clark has doubled down on his approach to confront and mix it up with trolls, which has put him in an online fight with the QAnon, the shadowy, far-right conspiracy group.
Three years after forcing NFL players, including then-Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, to withdraw from a fantasy football convention in Las Vegas because of its connections to gambling, the NFL announced that Caesars Entertainment is the first-ever “Official Casino Sponsor of the NFL.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to work with one of the world’s largest gaming and entertainment companies. Combining the NFL with Caesars’ expertise in world-class entertainment will provide our fans unique experiences both here in the United States and abroad.”
–– Renie Anderson, SVP of NFL partnerships, sponsorship & consumer products
PR Week has named its 2019 Best Places to Work, and the news isn’t particularly good for agencies not located on an ocean. Denver agencies like GroundFloor Media, Linhart PR, Ink Communications, Turner PR, Sterling-Rice Group, Room 214 and others may be recognized on other lists, no firms located outside California, Florida, New York and Washington, D.C. were recognized on PR Week’s list.
The locations of the winners:
Small Agencies
Mid-size Agencies
Large Agencies
It has been a tough year for the Pac-12 Conference. Despite having traditionally strong teams like UCLA, USC, Stanford, Oregon, Arizona State and (ahem) Colorado, the conference continues to be overlooked on the national stage. Add to that a series of self-inflicted wounds – an exorbitantly paid commissioner, exorbitant HQ office space and a less-than-exorbitant television deal – and you can see why it has been a troubling year for the conference’s schools.
To better tell its story and repair the damage to its brand, the Pac-12 has engaged mega-agency FleishmanHillard. John Canzano at The Oregonian reports:
“Conference commissioner Larry Scott recently pitched his bosses a plan that would sell a 10-percent equity stake in the conference’s media rights to private investors for $500 million. The hiring of FleishmanHillard is designed to help position the conference for that possible offering.”
“Still, when your motto is ‘Conference of Champions,’ being left out of the championship tournaments in college football and failing to matter in men’s basketball is far more impactful to your brand than talking points.”
Denver Public Relations Blog 