My home state newspapers are in a world of hurt, according to recent reports. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer publicly rejects rumors of “all the news that’s fit to print” becoming MSNYT. Washington Post’s CEO is selling off bundles of WP stock. Nearly a century-and-a-half of Seattle Post-Inelligencer on paper, kaput! Advertising revenues for print are dropping faster than interest in Bernie Madoff’s financial advice. This all spells a shift to online and mass-customization for consumers. It also spells opportunity for PR types and the companies they represent. Opportunity to help online outlets generate content for a never-ending news hole. Opportunity to counsel clients on the communications channels used online. Opportunity to identify innovations, such as Time Inc.’s “Mine,” to shore up print news bottom lines. When one door, or in the case of the print-word world, many close, another one opens.
Posts Tagged ‘Washington Post’
Paperless News, PR Opportunity
Friday, March 20th, 2009AIG Story Doesn't End Until…
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009Public shaming is not dead as we are about to see when AIG CEO Edward Liddy testifies before Congress. But this morning on MSNBC one pundit said all the PR people on Wall Street must be dead. The banter on cable network news is all about the millions paid out in AIG executive bonuses after receiving taxpayer-funded bailout money. David Cho of The Washington Post went as far as saying, “This story does not end until AIG executives give the money back.” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews adroitly pointed out a pattern that forms around these types of stories. The end result being the public gets its way. Indeed!
Knowing this pattern exists, AIG CEO Edward Liddy and his PR counsel have one option, and it’s not the Japanese act of falling on the sword suggested by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. Give the money back and this story goes away, which is the best outcome at this point. If the money was returned earlier, or even before this story broke, AIG and all involved with this situation would not only have avoided this costly debacle but would have been able to stake a claim to the high moral ground of leading the charge toward economic recovery.
