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Sports Writers Tell it Like it Is

Sports writers are sometimes underestimated. How hard can it be to write up a game?

David Shoalts found a good way to measure the impact of the three-day suspension of New Jersey Devils' Cam Janssen.  Calling it a 12 minute, 36 second suspension, Shoalts multiplies the player's average ice time per game, multiplies it by three games, and voila.

You  can fill a book and still not make a strong, clear point like that.

Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette wrote a similarly strong column recently.  He pointed out that Ryan Smith, the tearful Edmonton Oiler who found himself traded at the last minute, had turned down a $27 million offer, because it was short of the $27.5 million he was asking for.

Smyth tried to make the trade look like a betrayal of his status as a home-town hero.  If he was that worried about it, Cowan writes, he could have taken the deal.

Both writers cut through the crap and make their points economically.  We should all do as well.

Tags: sports, new jersey devils, montreal gazette, edmonton oilers, david shoalts, stu cowan

Picktonmania: Remembering the People Who Died and their Families

It's been a relief in the past couple of weeks to see media coverage shift briefly to stories about the women who went missing over the years in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.  For years, with some notable exceptions, the focus has been on the man accused of killing 26 women.

Most of the stories show that the families lost their daughter/sister/mother to drug addiction long before they disappeared.  But I didn't notice that making the loss any easier to handle for the people left behind.  It was a wrenching fight to get the police to pay attention to the large number of missing women.

Then, once there was a suspect, the pig farmer became the centre of attention.  Even when a story was about a victim, the headline generally referred to the accused murderer.

The coverage to come will include a lot of details about body parts and the depressing lifestyle of the "drug addicted prostitute".  I hope the journalists covering the case remember to talk about the victims as real people, with real families and friends.

Tags: picton, vancouver, murder, pig farm, victims, crime

Flack May Have Ghostwritten a Celebrity Interview - News at 11

An L.A. publicist denies making up quotes by Ryan Phillippe and supplying them to a magazine as an exclusive about the breakup of his marriage to Reese Witherspoon.

How to file that item?  Dog Bites Man?  PR Secrets?  Celebrity Myth Revealed?

Celebrity magazines are an art form. They triangulate the star power or level of ridicule appropriate for their subjects, wrangle quotes, photo sessions and gossip from publicists, "friends", enemies and passers-by, and seek out details and images that will either feed or undercut the myths constructed for the celebrities who are in or out of favour.

The exclusive comments and revealing admissions about the stars are often pasted together by, or negotiated with, the publicists.

When a magazine posts an item revealing that Charlie Sheen has copies of The Iliad (in the original Greek) and War and Peace on his bedside table, what is more shocking -- that Charlie Sheen has a bedside table, or that it's possible he reads less esoteric literature?

If a celebrity has clout (and a lot of them do), the magazine is in the position of either currying favour or losing access.  A lot of favour is curried, and when access is cut off or reduced, the editor rarely lets it be known.  The gushing nature of most celebrity coverage overlooks or underplays the fact that much of the coverage is heavily controlled and managed by publicists, or is originated by publicists to affect how their celeb is perceived.

So, getting back to Ryan Phillippe, we find that the New York Post assigned three reporters to chase down a rumour that a publicist subcontracted to help him position himself during his marriage breakup was quickly unsubcontracted because quotes attributed to the star may have been fabricated.  Or maybe because an exclusive already arranged for one publication got handed to another publication.  Or maybe the firm that's been handling Phillippe's media relations for years decided they'd rather live with the conflict of interest while juggling with the interests of the star couple that is now uncoupled.

Liz, a public relations student, writes in her Crazed PR blog that  this is an example of bad PR, because the publicist fabricated quotes.

I highly doubt this is the first instance of quotes being attributed to a celebrity that weren't spoken out loud by the celebrity and faithfully transcribed by the publicist. And, other than a single unnamed source, my quick search didn't turn up any corroboration of the claim that this is something other than a freelance publicist losing a gig.

I suspect all celebrity publicists would prefer that their clients be available at all times to agree on a PR plan, provide quotes, approve edits, confirm facts and sign off on agreements negotiated with various media outlets.

In instances when that doesn't happen, I'll reserve judgement on whose fault it is.

CBC's Blog Became Its Dark Site

Inside the CBC suddenly became one of the only sources of information Monday about why the cbc.ca site was unavailable for many hours.

The problem was caused by a server malfunction.  It took several hours to get a back-up server online.
So, for a few hours, the company's blog was there to inform people that the main site was offline due to technical problems.

Get out your business continuity plans, everyone, and test them.

In a post earlier this year, Tom Murphy wrote that a dark site is the best approach in the event of a crisis.  The company website is one of the first places people go when a company is in trouble. He warned against rushing to include blogs in the crisis communications mix.

Case in point - I'm sure the CBC PR folks would have preferred a bland statement on the blog that vaguely referred to technical difficulties on the cbc.ca server.  Instead, the blog posting went into detail about the cause of the problem, which led some blog visitors to suggest there's not enough redundancy built into the news service's IT infrastructure.

Well, the blog was created to talk openly about what goes on at CBC, without management oversight.  It served the added purpose of alerting some people why they couldn't get their fix of online news that day. 

Job well done, I'd say, no matter what the PR folks might say.

Tags:  pr, socialmedia, crisis, darksite, communications,businesscontinuity

You Can Tell a Blog Has an Audience When...

Antonia Zerbisias doesn't post to her popular blog about media, politics and culture for two months.

She drops in on Halloween, posts 17 words, and gets 157 comments. Those are dedicated readers.

With some blogs, half the fun is in the comments section. (Or in this case, all of the relentless personal attacks and mind-numbing semantic debates are in the comments section.)

Tags:  media, torontostar, blogs, canada, debate,bitchfest

R.I.P. Lister Sinclair

I didn't even know there was an Ideas show before Lister Sinclair until the last few years.  Whenever I tuned in, he was always the voice of the CBC Radio show that was willing to examine thinkers and their thoughts in detail.

News this morning of his death brought to mind his gentle, whimsical voice.  There's still a tribute to him on the Ideas website, put together when he retired in 1999.

What I liked best about him was his willingness to share his interest in a topic without presenting himself as smarter or better-read than his listeners.  (Which is different from playing dumb.)

Ideas will play a tribute to him over the next three nights.  9 p.m. on CBC Radio One.  I'll try to catch it.  I want to hear if they play some tape from his earlier days as a playwright and actor.

Missing the Zerb

After taking some pretty intense criticism over her postings about the Middle East, and putting up with frequent nasty flame wars in the comments sections of her blog, Antonia Zerbisias put visitors on notice that their comments will be deleted and they will be banned if they get out of hand.

Then her dog died.  She has been taking a well deserved break for the last 10 days.

Not afraid to express an opinion, and usually willing to argue a point in the comments section, Zerbisias hosts a compelling blog about the media and politics.

Every blogger needs a bit of a break from time to time.  Glad to see Ms. Z went offline before the flame wars burned her out.

Tags: antonia zerbisias, media, politics, flame wars, blogs

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Sarah Polley: My Life as a Road

Leah McLaren's front-page Globe and Mail interview with actress turned director Sarah Polley goes pretty well until you get to the background description that says "she took the title role in Kevin Sullivan's hit show, Road to Avonlea."

I have only one question:  Did she play the road, or Avonlea?

Definition: title role

(Image from Sullivan Entertainment website)

Tags: film, canadian, media, english, language, sarahpolley, globeandmail

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Fallen Fruit from Scott Baradell's Orchard

I enjoy the often interesting, sometimes fratboyish view of the world provided by Scott Baradell.

I try to look the other way when he pimps for links, the way you pretend not to notice when your uncle zips his pants closed on his tie.

His latest gambit to build his global personal microbrand is a special button for bloggers to use when they have been blessed with a link from him.  With a wink, I've adapted the logo.  I'll use it for this special commemorative list of some of my favourite Media Orchard postings, chosen haphazardly from his recent outpourings.

The John Mark Karr School of Viral Marketing

If Hollywood Publicists Did Corporate PR, Would They all Be in Jail?

What GoDaddy Recommends when You Accidentally Check on the Availability of Ho.com

Go Negative with PR at your own Risk

Strumpette Goes after Scott's Accreditation

Happiness Lessons for PR People

10 Greatest Countries in History

Tags: blogs, media, scottbaradell, communications

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Buzz can Replace Media Comps, but it Takes Work

As Gnomedex organizer (with Ponzi Indharasophang) Chris Pirillo notes, there are times when a conference is priced low enough for media to afford the full fee, and organizers don't need to give them a free or reduced pass.

But anyone who doesn't have built-in buzz from bloggers (see gnomedex on Technorati), or some other method of motivating their target market to action, will still want to comp enough media to keep their conference in the news (most conference coverage is promotion for your next conference).

Pirillo has depended on media coverage in the past, and likely will in the future.  But he also has the reputation and network to get the word out on the conference.  He and Ponzi run a well-oiled promotion machine for their projects, so someone considering raising barriers to free media access would do well to think about the profile the Seattle tech mini-magnate has created for his global microbrand (to borrow a phrase from Hugh MacLeod). Pirillo and Ponzi have put in a huge effort at building an audience, establishing relationships in the technology field, positioning him as the ultimate early adopter with a positive attitude, and making sure something cool happens at the 400-person Gnomedex conference every year. 

There are no simple shortcuts to that kind of reputation.

Tags: conferences, tech, gnomedex, chris pirillo, media, blogs, promotion

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