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| Tuesday, March 28, 2006 |
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A new meaning for "user" 
Mercury falling
| | Some business leaders said they were hoping that Tony Ridder, Knight Ridder's chief executive, would lead a bid for the still-profitable paper. But Ridder told another industry executive that he wasn't interested. |
| | That has left a vacuum that no one seems ready to fill, which some attribute to the valley's extreme preference for the cutting edge over tradition. After all, many on the Forbes list got there by founding or investing in Google Inc., Yahoo, EBay Inc. or other online firms that are eating the newspaper industry's lunch. |
| | Not all of the local powers even read the Merc anymore — let alone debate the merits of buying the company, said restaurateur Jamis MacNiven, proprietor of a favorite deal-making spot, Buck's of Woodside. |
| | "Nobody's interested in buying the paper that I know of," he said. "It seems like yesterday's news." |
| | I'd love to buy it. I don't think newspapers are dead. I think some newspaper owners are lame beyond hope. But newspapers themselves don't have to be as dull and gray as too many have become. Readership may be down, but the flywheels of business and culture are huge. Newspapers are not going away. But many, including the Merc and the LA Times, are, to put it kindly, troubled. |
| | Here are two things papers need to do, just to start untroubling themselves: 1) Charge for the news, recycle the olds (which means becoming net-native rather than net-hostile, which they are when they lock their archives where neither search engines nor citizens can find them); 2) Embrace the growing abundance of news producers in the blogosphere. |
| | Or look at it this way. Newspapers have three environments: 1) Local business; 2) local culture (including politics, sports, society) and 3) The Net. They need to be steeped in all three. If their main job is delivering income to a group owner elsewhere, they'll die counting beans. |
How do you kill TV?
A campaign for weasel relief
| | Senator Russell Feingold is the best man for president. I don't know what works politically. My new theory is the you go with the best person and his or her virtues will be apparent and he/she will win, or not. By best I mean smart, forthcoming, and courageous. Not full of shit. People consumed with tactics and stragery turn into weasels. I'm sick of that. |
You heard it here, um, fifteenth
| | Her Christian name (pun intended) is Amanda Chapel. (A name that brings up bippo on Google.) Her politics run conservative (judging from her blogroll), and her practices run libertine (judging from her bio). Sez she, |
| | I am a former vice president in the Consumer Marketing Group at Weber Shandwick, one of the world¹s largest PR firms. Prior to Shandwick, I spent about 10 years bouncing around various top agencies. This includes senior posts at Cone Communications in Boston and Porter Novelli in Chicago. I cut my teeth at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising in London. |
| | Truth is, I have a killer portfolio. I¹ve been involved in award winning campaigns in key consumer sectors: food and beverage, health and beauty, retail and fashion. I've worked with and advised many blue chip organizations including Kellogg Co., Procter & Gamble, Motorola, American Express, Frito-Lay, Porsche, Kodak, Anheuser-Busch, Mexico Tourism, to name drop a few. But... food and beverage is really what I¹m best at. Love food. Giada De Laurentiis is a personal friend (and my hero). I am passionate about all things Italy. |
| | Bottom line professionally speaking, I am 5' 4" tall, athletic, Pantene shoulder-length black hair, perfect perky boobs. I present well and am most accomodating. I¹ve slept with clients. I sleep with my boss. I am the consummate PR strumpette. When I was 7 my mother told me I'd "never get anywhere with that mouth." I've apparently dedicated my life in proving her wrong. |
| | I have a BA degree in Economics with a minor in Italian Literature from Columbia. I graduated cum laude. I went on to get a law degree from Dartmouth but flunked out after two semesters. They were just way too snooty and serious. To be fair, I think I was just bored. |
| | She calls her blog a naked journal, and explains, |
| | What you'll find here is an honest treatment of the PR business. Why? Because there really isn't one. Some are sure to argue that point. Fact is it's quite rare. Bulldog has its "Barks and Bites." They've recently run: "Do the Right Thing, Right Now — It's Time for PR to Stop Practicing "Truthiness;" "Have Lying and Deception Become Job Requirements for PR Professionals?;" "Vinnie Launches Home Security Business: Strong Words on PR¹s Ethical Stewardship." But they're not consistent. The last piece is "Earn a Seat in the C-Suite: Ten Essential Strategies for Moving up PR¹s Career Ladder" by Rhoda Weiss, President-Elect of Public Relation Society of America. Complete dreck. It's infuriating and at the same time sad. |
| | And the others, O'Dwyer's, PRNews, Holmes Report... even more depressing. Well, Jack may occasionally take a whack; but at their core, he/they seem afraid to tell the truth. Reminds me of the folks that comprise the Board of Ethics at PRSA. They give industry weather reports and some lip service to the issues. But everyone knows it's not real. Surely, if they got honest they'd likely alienate their peers and their peers are who rationalize their very existence. Self-reinforcing groups can be so insidious. |
| | ... and successful. "Why is that?" It's the $3.7 billion question (that's how much was spent on PR in the U.S. last year according to the NY investment bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson). |
| | The answer is a combination of the nature of what PR does for living combined with what humans do for a living. Here, imagine life as a game of poker. Of course, it's "best hand wins all;" but the object is to increase the pot. So everyone holds their cards close to the chest. We all bluff on what we've got. That's where PR comes in. I am, we are, the Strumpette in acrylic heels behind the fat man at the table, a billboard for his brash confidence, stroking his ego, attending to his every need. Don't let anyone kid you, that whore is every man's fantasy the animal that is business is male. |
| | But then came the Internet. Now we all can virtually see through the bluff. The game is now Indian poker where everyone else can see your hand apparently except you. And the most absurd thing is to watch the posturing, puffing and bluster that continues. |
| | Here we expose that. Strumpette is a totally naked journal of the PR Business. Watch as I work the pole. Care for another cocktail mister? |
| | Have you fired your agency yet? Give her time... |
| | Certainly, pharma has been a veritable feeding frenzy for our industry in the last few years. As with the "tech bubble," during irrational exuberance, PR hucksters, shysters, pickpockets and whores flourish. |
| | Reactions from Scott Baradell, John Wagner, SplaTT, Pub, Jeremy Ballenger, Niall Cook, Usher, Blogs4Biz, Tom Murphy, Neville Hobson, LeRoy Rooks, Phil Gomes, Forward Blog, Gary Goldhammer, Todd Defren, David Burn, Robert French, Giovanni Rodriguez and Mike Krempasky, who checked the source of Strumpette's server with Netcraft, looked into her RSS feed, and detected::: Brian Connolly. Hmm.. here's a story about PR dude by that name... Of course, that doesn't mean she's him. It could just mean she slept with him, no? |
More on the above
Peace pieces
| | Pax said he was "more than happy" to see Saddam's regime toppled, but that the aftermath of the invasion hasn't gone as he would have liked. |
| | "I used to be stupidly optimistic," Pax said. "These days I find it more difficult." |
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