The best leaders among us take responsibility when things go wrong.
In today’s Washington Post, the paper’s Publisher & Chief Executive Officer Katharine Weymouth attempted to do just that by apologizing to The Post’s readers for the now cancelled ”salons”, the first of which was to be held in Weymouth’s home on July 21. The question remains if her apology is enough for readers whose confidence in the journalistic integrity of the paper has been shaken or for Post employees, who were not mentioned by Weymouth, but who may have lost confidence in her leadership. Keep reading →
Categories: Crisis Communications · Internal Communications · Issues Management · journalism
Tagged: David Carr, Hank Stuever, Katharine Weymouth, LinkedIn, Marcus Brauchli, Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, Tom Rosenstiel, Washington Post
Yesterday was a tough day for the corporate communications department at The Washington Post. A little after 8:00 a.m., POLITICO reported that The Post was asking lobbyists to underwrite the costs of off-the-record “salons” at the home of Post publisher, Katharine Weymouth. The day went downhill from there.
Katharine Weymouth, Publisher of The Washington Post. Image Credit: James Thresher, The Washington Post
Dubbed “pay-for-chat” by The New York Times, the “salons” were billed to lobbyists on Capitol Hill as an opportunity to interact with Obama administration officials and Members of Congress who would have a leading role in the upcoming debate on reform of the nation’s health care system. Lobbyists could sponsor a single event for $25,000 or they could underwrite the cost of the series of 11 events at Weymouth’s home for $250,000. Obama administration officials and Members of Congress invited to the first “salon” on July 21, denied knowing that The Post was soliciting financial support from lobbyists to finance it. Keep reading →
Categories: Corporate Communciations · Crisis Communications · Internal Communications · Issues Management · journalism · media relations
Tagged: Washington Post, New York Times, LinkedIn, Katharine Graham, Katharine Weymouth, Kris Coratti, Charles Kaiser, Marcus Brauchli, Andrew Alexander, Eugene Meyer
I’m not a lawyer and apparently I shouldn’t play one on TV.
Earlier this month, I told you about Tanner Friedman, a Farmington Hills, Mich. public relations firm, which found itself to be the victim of a brandjacking on Twitter. Rather than give Twitter time to respond to their complaint, the firm’s principal, Don Tanner, immediately went to local media with their plight and subsequently filed a suit in Federal Court in Michigan. Keep reading →
Categories: Branding · Crisis Communications · Twitter
Tagged: brandjacking, LinkedIn, Marx Layne, Tanner Friedman, Twitter
Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu delivered the commencement address this year for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Image credit: UNC News Services.
Graduation season is in full swing.
I love this time of year, because it’s a time of celebration for families. Graduates from high schools, colleges, graduate schools and professional schools seldom make it to their commence ceremonies on their own. They are there because of their own hard work, yes, but they are also there because someone special in their life supported them. Whether financially, emotionally, spiritually — most people are graduating because someone has been supporting them, indeed rooting for them, for many years.
As for the graduation ceremonies, I generally loathe them. These occasions are usually entirely too long and there are too many speeches from people who have nothing worthwhile to say. Keep reading →
Categories: speechwriting
Tagged: commencement speech, Desmond Tutu, James Humes, LinkedIn, The Sir Winston Method, University of North Carolina, Winston Churchill
American Idol fans may not realize it, but Simon Cowell, the judge they love to hate, is also a judge and producer a British TV show with a similar format called “Britain’s Got Talent.” I had never heard of this show until the YouTube video of contestant Susan Boyle showed up on my Facebook page tonight. She performed on Saturday night.
Keep reading →
Categories: Branding · Business philosophy · Corporate Communciations
Tagged: American Idol, Britain's Got Talent, Business lessons of Susan Boyle, LinkedIn, Simon Cowell, Susan Boyle
JetBlue is ready to welcome bigwigs who are forced to give up their private jets.
Yesterday I was utterly charmed by a new web campaign launched by JetBlue. The airline created three videos which are housed at www.WelcomeBigWigs.com. The site and videos are the second part of a web campaign launched last month.
Dubbed, “The CEO’s Guide to Jetting,” the humorous concept is simple and brilliantly executed. In light of the down economy, JetBlue recognizes that the nation’s CEOs are hurting and that they might have to give up their private jets. Fortunately, JetBlue is happy to step in and offer an alternative for air travel for the country’s down-on-their-luck CEOs.
Launched coming off of the weekend when we learned that the taxpayer-owned AIG would be giving $165 million in bonuses to the very executives who caused the company to fail, JetBlue’s timing couldn’t have been better. Keep reading →
Categories: Branding · Corporate Communciations · New media
Tagged: AIG, Dick Fuld, JetBlue, Lehman Bros., LinkedIn, Welcome Bigwigs
This month, close followers of politics witnessed a rather pointed exchange between CNBC reporter Rick Santelli and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs over President Obama’s economic stimulus plan. For me, this exchange highlighted how rude our culture has become, particularly in politics. Some would say that this courseness is enabled, if not exacerbated with the advent of social media tools like 
