Who Had the Worst Week?

• You think your co-workers suck? A hiker had to be rescued when was left behind by 14 coworkers on a “team-building” climb of Mount Shavano in Chaffee County. The hiker fell behind when freezing rain and high winds hit, and then became further lost when his co-workers removed items they had used as trail markers as they descended ahead of him.
• Of course, your co-workers could be even worse. A Wells Fargo employee in Arizona died in her cubicle and it took four days for her co-workers to realize it.
• The U.S. Surgeon General has released his office’s latest warning: parenting may be harmful to your mental health.
• University of Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders has banned The Denver Post columnist Sean Keeler from asking questions during press conferences due to what Sanders calls a sustained pattern of “personal attacks.” Sanders isn’t wrong – Keeler is a sports columnist who is more interested in provocation than insight, but calling out a guy for being a bully by being an even bigger bully is no answer.
• Arcane rules for how and when flight attendants get paid has forced many of those without seniority to near poverty and homelessness.
• U.S. Open No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev has sued a respected journalist in Germany for reporting about the allegations that he abused his former girlfriend – despite Zverev paying a six-figure settlement to the woman.
• Bryan ‘B-Large’ Avila was let go from KTCL 93.3 as part of a broader round of iHeartMedia layoffs.
• It doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to question whether the line between researcher and advocate is getting blurred when it comes to efforts to legalize drugs such as marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.
• New Hampshire is running out of phone numbers, and locals are worried that the state will have to add a second area code. What’s the big deal, you might ask. “While some outsiders won’t understand the unifying effect it has, (a single area code) is part of our shared identity,” according to Gov. Chris Sununu.
• Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky has unveiled a new marketing campaign that is leaning into its rough online reviews. One of the campaign’s taglines – “Experience what has disappointed millions of people for over 225 years!”
• The historic baseball stadium used in the Hollywood blockbuster “A League of their Own” caught fire and is a total loss. Built in 1937, the stadium was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• It was probably inevitable, but 9News anchor Marc Sallinger called his wife, a 9News reporter, the wrong name on air. She is Kelly Sallinger, but goes by her maiden name, Kelly Reinke, professionally.
• Actress Aubrey Plaza hasn’t watched her performance in “White Lotus” because she can’t remember the password to her Max streaming account.

Who won the week?

• The PRSA Gold Picks awards were announced this week. Using the highly proprietary Denver PR Blog formula (3 points for the Grand Gold, 2 points for Gold and 1 point for silver), the biggest agency winners were:
  • SchroderHaus – 11 points – 4 gold, 3 silver
  • Linhart PR – 6 points – 3 gold
  • CIG – 6 points – 2 gold, 2 silver
  • Meadows PR – 5 points – 1 Grand Gold, 1 gold
  • JKD & Company – 5 points – 2 gold, 1 silver
• Barefoot PR has added Vikki Wong as a PR associate.
• Sage Marketing Group has added Tina Martinez as opportunity manager.
• Andrew Kenney, formerly of The Denver Post and most recently Colorado Public Radio (CPR), has accepted the editor position at CPR-owned Denverite.
• 9News is adding an additional hour of local news in the 3 p.m. time slot. Eric Anderson is pretty sure this is just a ploy to have more newscast inventory for political ads as we approach the November elections.
• Douglas County will rename Lucent Boulevard as Kendrick Castillo Way. Castillo heroically charged an armed classmate during the 2019 STEM School shooting.
• Major League Baseball is 121 years old, so there aren’t a lot of “firsts” to be had. But Boston Red Sox catcher Danny Jansen managed one this week. He is the first player in MLB history to play for two teams during one game. The game – the Red Sox vs. the Toronto Blue Jays – started June 26 and was rained out in the second. Jansen was then traded from the Blue Jays to the Red Sox, and he played for the Red Sox when the game was completed this week.
• NFL owners are about to get even richer. The league agreed to allow private equity firms to purchase minority stakes in teams. I’m not 100% sure what the impact will be, but I’d bet my house that everything from season tickets to hot dogs to beer will get more expensive to help give those PE firms the return they expect.
• Speaking of wealthy football people, the Kelce brothers – Jason and Travis – signed a $100 million podcasting deal with Amazon‘s Wondery division. If Travis can sign 20 more deals like that, he’ll start to approach the net worth of his girlfriend, Taylor Swift.