Mutually Inclusive PR

CBC's Corporate Disengagement Plan Is Working

There has been a lot of posturing before and during the lockout of CBC employees this summer and fall.

But the loudest statement was the action taken by management moments after the Canadian Media Guild's strike mandate became legal. Without a by-your-leave, management changed the locks, locked out the workers, cancelled health benefits and maternity leaves, and reduced news and entertainment programming to the bare minimum, as provided by managers. All that without even the pretense of trying to operate for a day under a strike threat.

The message to the union members was clear: "We don't value you. We don't respect you."

That is a message management will have to downplay, once a new contract is ratified.

You have to wonder what carefully crafted messages of concilliation have already been written as part of management's resumption plan, following their concerted effort to break the employee's resolve and weaken the union.

The problem with CBC management's approach over the past few years, and most noticeably during the lockout, is that they don't seem to understand their employees very well.

While the 5,500 locked out workers are not all journalists, CBC is by and large, a community shaped by journalistic values. At the forefront of these is a profound distrust of authority's double-speak, and an endless hunger to find the truth beneath it. Yet in discussing the corporation's future, management tries to deluge its audience with staged meetings, rhetoric-heavy memos, pompous e-mails and news releases when the one thing employees would pay attention to is plain talk.

A review of management's missives shows a remarkable lack of vision, lack of subtlety and lack of openness. How do they hope to engage a group of aggressive, ever-questioning knowledge workers in the complex business of reflecting Canada to Canadians and the world when they can't clearly and simply reflect the organization's role to their employees?

Actually come to think of it, that's management's second problem. Their first problem is that no communication, however eloquent,can speak louder than that initial action of locking out people who view their work not just as a job, but in many cases, a vocation, and a service to their country. The locked out CBC workers are more than foot-sore and poorer by seven weeks' pay. They are insulted. Furious. And, judging by the outpouring of podcasts, blogs, and personal messages from the picket line, heart-sick.

There will need to be an action as loud as the first resounding slam of the locked door before the employees will listen to any kind of communication, no matter how well crafted.

My take? CBC management will find that it's impossible to engage employees in any kind of dialogue about the future until president Robert Rabinovitch and his top two VPs have left the building. They may not be burned in effigy, but the exec. pinatas are ready for bustin'.

Then the reconcilliation can begin.

(Note:  my spouse is a locked-out CBC employee.)

All-News Shows Continue to Evolve

Dave Traynor points to a Wired News article about CNN's high-tech show The Situation Room. 

The show pushes the boundaries of what kinds of information -- and in what format -- can be presented live to a news audience.  I have to admit the Hurricane Katrina coverage was pretty amazing, and I check in from time to time to see what else they are covering, and in what way. Says Dave T.:

"I think that CNN, while leading the way in many respects, is just scratching the surface of integrating a lot of different news feeds into programming. There's a lot of stuff going on, and as we become ever-more connected, it's going to be interesting to see how these things evolve.

"But one thing is clear. Things like blogging, podcasting, BitTorrent, file-sharing, IPods -- these things are not just flash-in-the-pan items. They are changing the way we perceive the world around us."

Would I be even watching CNN if CBC TV and CBC Newsworld had news programming? Maybe, but certainly not as much as I am now.

Given the digital nature of TV news, the adoption of new ways of presenting information is happening a lot slower than I would have guessed. I'm sure some of the layering of multiple images and text will be hard on the eyes, but it's nice to see some experimentation with a format that's been fairly static since I was in high school.

Now that networks pre-empt regular coverage during major events and keep the eye on a special event for days or weeks, I'm all for eye candy that makes the events more palatable. And CNN's weather guy did an incredible job of describing and showing how Hurricane Rita was going to blow inland and then stall over Texas, dumping huge amounts of rain. I now know more about hurricanes than I ever thought I would.

CNN blog on Rita.

Handbook on Blogging and Human Rights

Reporters Without Borders has published The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents (download the PDF) to help people avoid repression in countries that are targeting online activists and commentators..

Thanks to Allan Jenkins for the link.

#1 Search for Crappy Wine

Ben Metcalfe One of the observers of an online spat wondered aloud how long it would take Hugh MacLeod to get the wine label he's promoting to show up at the top of  a search for Crappy Wine (the title of a posting McLeod made taking blogger Ben Metcalfe to task for criticizing the use of his blog to promote products).

Answer: not long.  The top three Google hits for Crappy Wine bring you back to MacLeod and the brand he's pitching.

With that search engine marketing hurdle surpassed, how long will it take MacLeod to achieve the same result with a search for Overpriced Suits?  ;-)

Metcalfe's response to MacLeod.

Trademark Fight May Backfire

A clothes retailer opposing a trademark application for a brand with a similar name may find itself on the losing end of a trademark fight.

F.I.T., a clothing brand by the Fashion Institute of Technology community college, opposed a trademark application for NyFit, a line of nylon fitness clothing (hence the name).

By arguing that a brand with the word "fit" in it is confusing to the F.I.T. brand, the college may have opened up its own trademark to being invalidated, trademark lawyer Frank Weyer reports in a news release.

Weyer represents NyFit in the trademark battle. In it, he claims that, because so many brands already had "fit" in their name when F.I.T. was granted its trademark, issuing the mark was a mistake that leads to confusion by consumers.

Thanks to TaubmanSucks.com David-vs.-Goliath Hank Mishkoff for the link (see comment).

Where to Get Your CBC News During the Lockout (Not on CBC)

In my last CBC post, I neglected to mention CBCUnlocked.ca, a site maintained by locked out CBC journalists who want to wipe the journalistic floor with the wire copy filling most of the CBC.ca website.

I've given up on radio news. Pretty much given up on radio altogether these days. The Unlocked site helps with my news addiction, but it's no substitute for the news fix I normally get on the hour.

Bring back CBC.

(I'm married to a locked-out CBC employee, but I'd be just as pissed off about the virtual shutdown of the public broadcaster even if I was just a consumer.)

Blogging for Benjamins Explained

Okay, Allan Jenkins explains what "Blogging for Benjamins" means -- an obscure reference to U.S. $100 bills, with Benjamin Franklin on them.

Now, what sets good professional bloggers apart from the ones Jenkins taunts with this phrase?

Jenkins partly anwers the question by referring to an undue emphasis on search engine optimization, selling ads, or selling reports "of dubious quality". I don't mind some of these blogs nearly as much as Jenkins does. Some of these folks are using their blog as part of their business. As long as the quality's there, they're welcome to make an effort at making money. Just as long as they're not expecting me to click on their ads...

CEO Blogs Explored on Global PR Blog Week 2.0

Jeneane Sessum looks at why CEOs are blogging in a lengthy post to the annual online learning/sharing now taking place at Global PR Blog Week 2.0.

In a comprehensive review, Sessum suggests the benefits of CEO blogging come mostly from interesting CEOs sharing interesting conversations that open doors for the CEO and for the organizations.

Sessum quotes Gil Friend, CEO of Natural Logic, saying that blogs can help a company build relationships: "Blogging facilitates a dialogue about what matters to companies and communities—a discussion that often leads to a working relationship."

Sessum agrees with Seth Godin's advice that CEOs who aren't willing to take some risks in their writing shouldn't bother blogging.

For a wide range of articles about corporate and public relations blogging, visit Global PR Blogweek 2.0 all week. Join the conversation.

Fewer Dogs Wagging Tails Makes Easier Reading

Dave Taylor argues in The Intuitive Life Business Blog that writers should be able to impose their formating preferences on the publications they write for. Hah! I wish him well on his campaign.

After the editors get finished forwarding his impassioned pleas to their friends and co-workers, with caustic comments attached, they'll go for drinks with each other and shudder at the prospect of each story in a magazine having its own unique visual style.

Taylor is completely right that some things in this world are designed by the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Magazines and newspapers, on the other hand, tend to be designed by professional designers, to improve the reading experience for us, the readers.

When Taylor recently submitted an article to a magazine, he was appalled to find that his text formating was being removed by their composition system.

What Taylor sees as the tail wagging the dog (he's the writer, so he's the dog), is actually a case of the dog (the editors are in charge of the content of the publication) wagging the tail (the writer, who is commissioned to write something that will be edited and formatted to fit the writing style and visual guidelines for the publication).

Dave wants a particular word to be bolded?  Fine, as long as it's on his blog, where he's the dog. If publications altered their style guidelines for each different writer, guess what? They wouldn't have a consistent style, and readers would hate it.

If readers are used to a newspaper or web site bolding company names, what are they going to think when Dave decides to bold a quote form a source. Is the quote a company name, the reader is wondering. Variations from the publication's style create confusion, which may make the writer feel good, but it doesn't encourage the reader to renew their subscription.

Taylor's right, the dog should wag the tail. He just needs to realize that when his writing appears in a publication that has a style its readers are used to, he's the tail, not the dog.

Tech Memory Lane

I am fascinated by old photo albums, so it's no surprise these two sites suggested by Ivor Tossell (paid sub after about a week) are intriguing.

Apple History - all major products ever released by Apple
Windows Versions - goes back to the original version of Windows that so many people have called a piece of crap (site is in German). I got a demo disk of that version. I installed it, but gave up on it almost immediately. Why use a graphical interface when DOS was so fast and easy?

Thanks to Judy Gombita for pointing out Ivor Tossell, whose columnn on things Webby reaches Toronto readers all the time, but hardly ever makes it into the Globe and Mail's national edition.