How Are the Mighty Fallen!

There have been massive changes in the practice of public relations since I first joined the PR firm of Makovsky + Company more than ten years ago. Back then, most major cities had two or three local newspapers. Today, many are down to just one, as Ken Makovsky has described in his recent “My Three Cents” blog… and it’s at risk of folding.

On March 16, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its last print edition, leaving the biggest city in the state of Washington, with just one daily newspaper, The Seattle Times. The 146-year-old Seattle P-I will live on in a digital version as a “news and information portal.”

The struggling U.S. newspaper industry must be waiting with bated breath. Who’s next?

Just a week, content provider 24/7 Wall St. released a list of the 10 most endangered major daily newspapers. Based on an analysis of the financial strength of their parent companies, the amount of direct competition they face in their markets and their financial losses, these are the newspapers likeliest to fold or begin publishing an online edition only … many within the next 18 months!

1. Philadelphia Daily News
2. Star Tribune
3. The Miami Herald
4. The Detroit News
5. The Boston Globe
6. San Francisco Chronicle
7. Chicago Sun-Times
8. New York Daily News
9. Fort Worth Star-Telegram
10. The Plain Dealer

I’m a big believer in consumer-generated media and the importance of citizen journalists as investigators and whistleblowers — but as a public relations consultant and a citizen, I certainly would hate to lose the professionals of the Fourth Estate.



Technorati Tags: media crisis, newspapers, journalism, 24/7 Wall St., Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle Times, Philadelphia Daily News, Star Tribune, Miami Herald, Detroit News, Boston Globe,San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times, New York Daily News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Makovsky + Company, PR firm, Ken Makovsky, My Three Cents

10 of the “21 Dumbest Moments in Business”

I don’t know anyone who wasn’t happy to see the back end of 2008. It was a tough, tough year. There was, however, at least one bright light in the dismal landscape: The “21 Dumbest Moments in Business – 2008”, Fortune magazine’s annual list of the year’s “most laughable corporate moves.” As Fortune reports, it “proves that, even in moments of crisis, stupidity lives on.”

What I found particularly interesting is the number of these crises and scandals that could have been averted if the parties involved had taken a moment to conference with their chief communications officer, public relations firm or PR consultant about what our CEO, Ken Makovsky, calls a “PR bailout.”

Here’s an abbreviated version of the top 10 business gaffes of 2008. Check out the complete list for a look at all 21 of last year’s monumentally dumb moments.

1) Detroit execs flying to D.C.
2) Detroit execs driving to D.C.
3) Henry Paulson's initial $700 bailout proposal:
4) The final bailout
5) The Mozilo e-mail
6) The iPhone 'I am rich' app
7) Paulson's 'bazooka'
8) Tough talk from Fannie Mae
9) Scandal at the Department of Interior
10) GM's Lutz on global warming