Submitted by Bob Burton on
At last weekend's Midwest Journalism Conference in Bloomington, Minnesota, Dave Beal reports that Lynn Casey, the CEO of the PR firm Padilla Speer Beardsley, referred to the controversy over video news releases as a "wake-up call" for the PR industry.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
The 2005 Corporate Responsibility Index, published by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, ranks British American Tobacco (BAT) as amongst the six worst performers out of the twenty-seven companies included. The index is based on corporate self-assessments reviewed by Ernst & Young accountants.
Will ongoing investigations and public outrage be sufficient to end the debased media practices that result in "fake news"?
Producers of the fake TV news stories called video news releases (VNRs) hope not. Some are worried, though. "Crisis" is the word Kevin McCauley of the public relations trade publication O'Dwyer's used in a recent column.
VNR producers are struggling to find allies, even within the PR industry. For the last three weeks, O'Dwyer's has been running an online poll asking, "Should there be a limit on the U.S. Government's use of video news releases?" Seventy-two percent of respondents to date support VNR restrictions. (O'Dwyer's doesn't disclose the number of respondents.)
VNR producers may very well be thanking their lucky stars for the Bush White House.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Under a new agreement, the video news release company Medialink Worldwide "will produce programs about auto-related topics for WheelsTV, a cable TV and Internet service devoted exclusively to consumers' interests in cars, trucks and motorcycles." Medialink's "sponsored and non-sponsored content" will start appearing on WheelsTV in June.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"As part of its ongoing effort to improve its image, Wal-Mart is hosting its first-ever media conference for 50 invited print journalists this week near company headquarters in Arkansas," reports PR Week. "We are doing this to send a clear signal of Wal-Mart's willingness to be open with the media," said a company spokesperson.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
"The two dirty words of market research," writes Carl Bialik, are "sponsored by." One example is a recent Microsoft-funded study, which found that "Microsoft was the company respondents most associated with reliable, high-quality hardware peripherals." The problem is that "the other choices" survey participants were given "weren't household names. ...
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Gina Cavallaro, who's traveled to Iraq four times to report for the Army Times, has mixed feelings about embedding journalists. "The media is afraid ... and rightly so," she said.
Submitted by Bob Burton on
Kevin McCauley at O'Dwyers PR Daily writes that despite video news release producers' hopes that the debate over fake news "would just blow away," it has become a "crisis" for the industry. "A simple solution," he suggests, is labeling VNRs. "A corporate or government credit on video material wouldn't matter much to today's TV watchers, especially younger ones who are bombarded with advertising," he wrote.
Submitted by Diane Farsetta on
Radio behemoth Clear Channel Communications created the position of Chief Communications Officer and named their Senior Vice-President of Corporate Communications, Lisa Dollinger, to the post. The position includes "corporate communications and branding, reputation and issues management ...
Submitted by Bob Burton on
In a Fox News interview, Laurence Moskowitz, the CEO and President of Medialink Worldwide, defended video news releases (VNRs).
Center for Media and Democracy (CMD)
520 University Ave, Ste 305 • Madison, WI 53703 • (608) 260-9713
CMD is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit.
© 1993-2024