Force For Good Communications

What are you thankful for?

As we near Thanksgiving Day in the USA ...

What are you most thankful for this year?

Family, friends, good health ... yes, but also

... the cusp of possibility ...

... the sense of having survived a deep and awful downturn ...

... the thrill of a sunrise breaking through distant purple and orange clouds ...

... smiles on other people's faces telling me, "It's going to be all right" ...

... what else?

- Jon Harmon

Free sample alert: Excerpts provide sneak peak at Feeding Frenzy

If you haven't already rushed out to get your copy of Feeding Frenzy (makes a great Christmas gift for that p.r. pro or communications student on your shopping list!), you can read an excerpt here.

The link takes you to Jonathan Bernstein's excellent bi-weekly crisis newsletter, Crisis Manager. If you aren't already a subscriber, you should be -- it's free. (If you used to subscribe, but didn't get your usual e-mail with the link, it means you need to resubscribe. Jonathan recently updated his distribution list as he has moved the newsletter to HTML format. That means two things: 1) Anybody wanting to continue to receive it has to resubscribe; 2) The newsletter has a snazzier look, beginning with the issue featuring Feeding Frenzy.

The excerpts in Crisis Manager offer a look at the thorny issues of dealing with a media-savvy plaintiff attorney determined to keep your crisis in the news, and the circus atmosphere of a Congressional hearing.

- Jon Harmon

Crisis Management X01: Never stop learning, become a student of news events

Today's Bulldog Reporter includes an interview with me as author of this blog and author of Feeding Frenzy. The interview focuses, as you might expect, on crisis communications.

Here's one quick take-away: Become a student of current affairs and think about how you'd handle issues in the news:

We don't know what the next crisis will be, but we do know that it's coming. So pay attention to how others are handling crises. Watch the news closely and envision yourself in the crisis. Imagine that you're Robert Gibbs, and ask, how would I handle that? As PR professionals, we should be students of the news, instead of just consumers.

- Jon Harmon

Start thinking about the upside of the business cycle, reinvest in vital communications

As the economic recovery slowly begins to take hold, smart  business leaders will start activating their companies' recovery plans. That means going after new market opportunities aggressively. And it means starting to invest again in essentials to the business, investments that were deferred during the downturn.

And that may include communication. If your company cut its communication budget to the bone, now is the time to make the case to adequately (not extravagantly) resource smart, effective communication.

Here's an excerpt from an interview I gave to the Bulldog Reporter:

My advice is to start thinking about the upside before your competition does. Think about how the industry will look and how you will gain market share over the competition. The first people who start looking at the horizon—as opposed to at their feet—will have the advantage.

You still want to stay as lean as you can. But this idea of saying "no" to opportunities in the name of cost cutting will not serve companies well.

One thing you should look at in particular is internal communications ... extremely important in difficult times and in times of change.... Employees are worried and insecure—and they need to hear from senior management....Communicating optimism is hugely important for getting employees in the company to buy in to the strategy and work at full capacity. Management and leaders in business should be communicating frequently and candidly. That means listening as well as talking."

- Jon Harmon

Passing of the no-name decade: Drop the oh and ... Celebrate like it was 19-99!

A little year-end rant, a little early ...

Hard to believe, but this first decade of the new century, this decade with no name, is almost history.

One bright spot: we finally can get back to talking about a year in two easy-chunks: "Twenty-Ten," "Twenty-Eleven," etc. Just like the good all days of "Nineteen-Ninety Nine."

Ever since we were saddled with "The Year Two Thousand," we've struggled with the two-chunk dates. "Twenty-Nine" just doesn't work. So we inserted the obligatory oh: "Twenty-oh-Nine." It worked well enough. And it allowed us to further abbreviate the year to simply "oh-nine."

But, please, come New Year's Day, drop the oh! I cringe every time I hear someone refer to next year as "oh-ten," as in "the oh-ten emission standards will be tough to meet." (Remember: it's '10 -- not '010!)

- Jon Harmon

Leslie Gaines-Ross has high praise for Feeding Frenzy

"For all of us anticipating or living through reputation recoveries and crises now, [Feeding Frenzy] is a must read." -- ReputationXchange.com

So writes no less an authority on reputation than Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, Weber Shandwick's Chief Reputation Strategist and author of CEO Capital and Corporate Reputation. 

A brilliant thinker and a terrific writer, Leslie is a friend, but she plays it straight and true. So I especially appreciate her complimenting my writing:  "His minute to minute descriptions of the frenzy keeps you on the edge of your seat (if that is how you read)."  

- Jon Harmon

Can reporting co-ops save the local newspaper?

Newspapers simply will not survive under their existing business model. Readers and advertisers are leaving in droves. Newspapers are losing out to competition from alternative news sites--including aggregators such as Yahoo! News and Google--delivering pithy electronic news bites to on-the-go consumers. Newspapers' own websites are increasingly displacing the printed word, but they haven't been able to sufficiently monetize content as on-line readers resist having to pay for content and advertising hasn't delivered enough revenue.

In the six months from April to September, the top 400 newspaper in the U.S. saw their weekday circulation decline by a staggering 10.6%, and that followed what had been considered a horrific circulation decline of 6.1% the previous six months, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation's latest data.

Unless something changes quickly, you can write the newspaper's obituary.

Along with similar pressures facing traditional television news operations, the death of the newspaper could spell the end to strong, competent news reporting. Who will provide the reporting for the news aggregators to collect and distribute? Or will hard reporting largely go by the waste side, largely replaced by entertainment fluff and gossip? And even if a few strong, national news organizations--such as the Wall Street Journal and USA Today--survive, who will do the indispensable but not very lucrative work of reporting on local issues?

One possible remedy to this dark picture could be provided by local news co-ops. The New York Times has begun publishing a local edition in San Francisco and is moving ahead with plans for a Chicago edition as well, stepping into voids in those markets caused by newspaper bankruptcies. The Wall Street Journal has similar plans. While these localized national papers will put additional financial pressure on truly local newspapers in those markets, they also are spawning news co-ops that may be the future of serious local news journalism.

In Chicago, the non-profit news co-op will be headed by James E. O’Shea, a former editor of the Los Angeles Times and a former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, and other well-regarded journalists will step into key reporting and editing responsibilities. The co-op will provide content for the NY Times' Chicago edition as well as for Chicago public TV and radio stations. It will compete with the news organizations of the Tribune and Sun-Times, both in bankruptcy, at least as long as those newspapers continue to exist. 

In smaller markets, perhaps non-profit news co-ops will supply reporting for all of the area's newspaper, broadcast and web news outlets just as pool arrangements today cover national news stories that are either prohibitively expensive or are not conducive to being covered by the full circus of dozens of camera and sound crews.

Whenever a full complement of news organizations are replaced with a single reporting operation, the worry grows about compromised or less than fully objective news coverage. But as the economics of news organizations grows increasingly dismal, it may be the only local alternative.

P.S. - Nearly three years ago, I posed the question here: "Does the newspaper have a future?" But I certainly did not foresee the dire situation newspapers find themselves in currently. In fact, the lead of my post was: "Reports of the death of the newspaper have been greatly exaggerated."

- Jon Harmon

FCC moves forward on needed net neutrality rules

(update of previous post...)

The Federal Communications Commission appears to be moving ahead in establishing regulations that would enforce so-called "net neutrality" on Internet providers.

"The FCC voted 5-0 to begin the rule-making process, with the agency's two Republicans dissenting with parts of agency's initial findings," reported MarketWatch.

Once the rule-making process begins, it is almost a foregone conclusion that the regulations will be enacted. That's a good step forward in maintaining an open Internet. Under net neutrality, Internet providers would not be allowed to block access to users of competitive Internet providers.

The FCC appears to be wisely allowing for exceptions--as long as they are openly disclosed--for providers to block spam or other unwanted content, such as child pornography. (Any reasonable step taken to limit child pornography, as well as minors' accidental exposure to pornography, is certainly positive. And consistent with the "Blogger Power" initiative championed here two years ago that gained a groundswell of support from around the globe. Blogger Power achieved some small success in highlighting the issue but we always knew that government action was required for any real victories to be declared. A special thanks to Michigan Congressman Thadeus McCotter for his leadership and support.)

- Jon Harmon