Oh, this is not the way I wanted to start my Christmas

Oh, this is not the way I wanted to start my Christmas

by | Dec 18, 2013 | Business, Media | 2 comments

I was told I should put more photos in my posts. So here you go. It’s got nothing to do with what I wrote, but I hope you like it.

Ooops. It seems I was mistaken yesterday when I wrote that short item on Facebook about the brains behind F64’s successful PR stunt a few days ago – the one that involved lying to the press when the photo retailer announced it was being sold to a foreign investor. (It was to Santa Claus, it later yucked.)

I apologize. So for all my faithful readers, let me write a correction. And while I’m at it, let me ask you all a rhetorical question: Just how perverse can things get here? (Wait, I’ll show you.)

Now, I was under the impression that F64 acted without a professional PR agency when it pulled that mindless stunt. It must have, I thought. Apparently, I was wrong – as I’m told the press release was issued by some firm called 2activePR here in Bucharest.

Of course, I would never want to suggest that these specialists must be a bunch of juvenile nincompoops to think that tricking reporters, embarrassing them, and wasting their time was a good idea. No. (You think any press is good press? Ask Tylenol or Wendy’s about that one.) In fact, the PR agency’s stated “vision” on its website reads in part that it specializes in “maintaining and enhancing corporate reputation in the eyes of clients, employees, analysts and the media.” At least with the media, I do believe in this case the agency fully succeeded in “enhancing” F64’s reputation – if, in fact, this result was the reputation the company was seeking.

But wait, that’s not the only reputation that has been enhanced here. I’m also told that while reporters were suckered into coming to the fake news conference, the members of the press were all given stuffed animals and cameras – as a gift you understand, as a token of appreciation, as an expression of heartfelt thanks, as an adorable little lagniappe, as – well, I don’t know, what would you call it? I know what I call it. And, I’m told, when they found out they had all gathered there as part of a joke, no one in the press stood up, objected, and told them where to put their cameras. (I suppose if I got a free teddy bear, making a fool of me would be quickly forgiven also.)

And then, just in case you still have your lunch, the retailer announced that all this had been for a good cause (oh my goodness, this is the Sensiblu Foundation all over again) because the store has a place for customers to bring toys and clothes for poor children.

Hey, I’d like to enhance an idea also. Why don’t the reporters put their pencils away, fill the poor kids’ boxes with the stuffed animals and cameras they were just given (maybe some did), thank the retailer and agency for wasting their time and insulting their professional ethics (even if you don’t have any, doesn’t it insult you that people look at you and assume that you don’t?), and then everybody can go home, celebrate Christmas and pretend they’re professionals.

Happy Holidays.

Journalism in Romania: A Diogenean Essay (Part 6)

by | Jul 12, 2013 | Business, Journalism, Media | 0 comments

A Simple Conclusion

Feel free to dismiss all of this. After all, I’m from the US. What do I know? Things are different here. That’s what some people tell me.

Perhaps they’re right.  But judging from the reaction that I’ve received in private regarding this long essay, while witnessing so little public comment or debate, I can’t help but be dismayed by the sad state of the industry here. Nodding in a smug, self-satisfied way does not absolve a person from responsibility. Knowing while not acting is not an accomplishment to be proud of. Isn’t that precisely what journalists rightly criticize others for doing? Isn’t the argument of ideas, after all, at the very heart of good newspapering? (more…)

Journalism in Romania: A Diogenean Essay (Part 5)

by | Jul 10, 2013 | Business, Journalism, Media | 0 comments

“A Line That Moves Is No Line At All”

I hope we all agree that theoretically, somewhere, there exists a line between what editorial does and what advertising should be allowed to do. The question is: precisely where is it? You cannot decide on a daily basis. The pressures are too great. You have to decide beforehand and stick to it.

In this case (the one we’re discussing where you link a word in a story to an advertiser’s pitch), you have continued – indeed, furthered – the process of destroying that line. Or moving it a bit. And as we said previously, a line that moves is no line at all. So now, in essence, anything is possible. (more…)

Journalism in Romania: A Diogenean Essay (Part 4)

by | Jul 8, 2013 | Business, Journalism, Media | 0 comments

“No matter what you think, your publication is not your product.”

(An introduction to journalism that even the owners can understand – I hope.)

The previous blog postings attempted to explain why it’s bad journalism to insinuate, insert, or overlay anything having to do with advertising into or onto the editorial content. I’d like to think reporters readily understood my point.

I’m less optimistic when it comes to the business side of the industry. So I will attempt to write this so even the media owners – whether you are in newspapers or magazines – can understand. (more…)

Journalism in Romania: A Diogenean Essay (Part 3)

by | Jul 5, 2013 | Business, Journalism, Media | 0 comments

“If their ideas are so good, let advertising write the stories.”

When I was a journalist (and I hope it’s still this way in the US) if an advertising executive walked into the newsroom, one of us editors would jump up and block their path, asking if there was something they needed (or more likely and facetiously whether they were lost).

If a suggestion was made that a reporter might want to talk to someone, we would take that person’s business card, read it, and promptly throw it away. We would remember their name and we would try to be certain never to call them. Because even as a coincidence, the last thing we wanted was for someone to think we could be influenced. (In fact, just the idea that someone thought we could be, honestly, made us quite angry. I won’t tell you what we mumbled, but it was a request that they go do something.) (more…)