The Monthly NMPRSA meeting is Thursday March 23rd at the Sheraton Uptown. The speaker is Tisha Jones with Mesa PDC/Koch Industries.

The widening of New Mexico State Highway 44 from Bernalillo to Bloomfield is employing a lot more than just bulldozers and asphalt. As crews work to complete the project by November 2001, there is a behind-the-scenes effort taking place in the communities that line this much-traveled road. This presentation will showcase a new breed of community relations.

(We'll have the complete story on Tisha Jones and her efforts online later this week.)

Please Join Us!
A New Breed of Community Relations

Oh, I thought that was the lead …
Dow Jones News Service offers this tip for increasing news coverage: include a "significant paragraph" at the beginning of a news release that tells what the news release is about and why it's important. So says Bob Prinsky, Dow Jones' managing editor, quoted in Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter.

So that's what TV news seeks from us
"TV likes action and dislikes thought. It favors conflict and spectacle, and disfavors ambiguity, irony, and analytic or abstract thinking; loves violence and detests rational argument." From the 1999 book The Sound Bite Society, Television and the American Mind, by Jeffrey Scheuer. His freelance criticism has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other publications.

A Los Angeles Times cartoon says TV news media even interviewed the fish
Writing in the current edition of Television Quarterly, veteran newsman John Corporan attacked the nonstop TV coverage of the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr., whose plane plunged into the ocean. "Television was filling time when it had nothing to say. The observations were doubtless made in good faith, but they took the medium out of the role of objective reporting into the realm of subjectivity and mindless, chattering speculation." Corporan also quotes media critic Caryn James, who wrote in the New York Times of the media making Kennedy larger in death than life, "With this death television has not served the useful function of communal mourning so much as it has provided communal mind control and illusion."

Does your organization measure its reputation?
About 600 chief executive officers surveyed by public relations firm Hill & Knowlton and Chief Executive magazine report the percentage of companies that measure their reputation doubled in the last year. The Feb. 22 Business Wire article that carried news of the survey reported "there's a great deal of concern" among those surveyed with the reputation management abilities of future CEOs.

Salaries in big cities go up, up and away!
Most midlevel public relations people who changed jobs in 1999 saw their pay go up 18-35%. Business, financial and consumer technology sectors saw beginner's salaries jump 20%. Spring Associates, a headhunter firm that specializes in public relations, did the proprietary survey of 6,200 professionals in eight large metro areas.

Counterstrategies for media trashers of government
Mordecai Lee, government affairs professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, finds the tone of media coverage of government has gone from adversarial to cynical, and says government PR types must develop a new approach. Lee's study and analysis, in the recent edition of Public Relations Review, suggests: design a strategic plan with goals and stick to it, get to the media first before your adversaries and set the agenda, get your message in a simple "ten words or less," use a human interest angle, use multiple ways to communicate to a variety of media, and get public managers to see media as potential for allies, rather than foes.

The President's Column
By Tom Garrity
NMPRSA President

We are all familiar with various surveys addressing the level of believability in our society. Surveys in our industry continually point to the believability of editorial messages over advertising messages every step of the way. Now, before I go any further, let me assure my friends in the advertising world that this is not a dig at your industry. Rather, this will briefly address a growing trend that will ultimately impact the believability of the publications we interact with on a regular basis.

My concern and focus of this brief letter is to address the growing trend of "advertorial" on our market and profession. Last week, when sending a story idea a New Mexico newspaper, I was taken off-guard by the response provided by the member of the media. Specifically, here is the text from a response provided by Myrna Kohs of the Sierra County Sentinel, a New Mexico based newspaper:

Rule of Thumb - "You make money, we make money," otherwise, unless you purchase some paid advertising for those you represent you do not need to waste time and/or money faxing "stories." Otherwise if your client is charging for whatever reason, we charge for advertising. For some silly reason my employees won't work free and the telephone co, gasco, etc won't provide me free services either. Have a great day, if we can assist with getting a message I'll fax rate cards."

The issue of "advertorial" has slowly and surely been creeping into and tainting the coverage and reputations of the news media. The Sierra County Sentinel needs only to look west to the Los Angeles Times and the credibility hit they experienced as a result of the "partnership" with Staples Arena. As many of you know, prior to my joining the ranks of public relation practitioners, I was a member of the news media for ten years.

During that time I had the opportunity to work in a variety of markets in a variety of media. To maintain the level of integrity and public trust, the news and advertising departments did not interact. I am still encouraged that those same practices are alive and well with many of New Mexico's media.

Advertorial is to the media what spin is to public relations and what pornography is to art. We should stay away from the influences that appear to be a quick fix, because in the long run it will only serve to undermine our industries as a whole. If not left unchecked, advertorial will result in diminished credibility not just of the news media, but also the public relations and advertising industries.

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