Yesterday’s appearance by James and Rupert Murdoch in front of a Parliamentary committee was one for the ages. It was remarkable not only in how rare it was for an American company to face questioning before the UK’s governing body, but in the degree to which it demonstrated just how far the company has fallen and how much work it must do to rebuild its now shattered reputation.

One thing is clear: News Corp. faces a looming reputation and credibility challenge. No matter how many times Rupert Murdoch claims that the hearing amounted to the “most humble day of my life,” he must still atone for the illegal and unethical acts of some within his company.

Furthermore, News Corp.’s disastrous response to this scandal proves that public relations should be at the top of a CEO’s skill set.

Overall, I would grade the Murdochs’ performance as satisfactory.

Continue reading " Is Restoring News Corp.’s Reputation Just Pie in the Sky? "

Editor’s Note: The following post originally ran in Ragan’s PRDaily. It has been re-posted here in full, with permission.

The fallout from the News of the World phone hacking scandal has been stunning. Equally shocking was the reprehensible actions some News of the World journalists took to scoop their competitors, including hacking into the mobile phone of 13-year-old Milly Dowler, who went missing in 2002 and was subsequently found dead.

While pundits and journalists continue to flesh out the aftermath of this escalating global scandal — yesterday The Guardian reported that reporters from The Sunday Times, News International’s venerable broadsheet, had attempted to hack the voicemail of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown while he was in office — the question for public relations professionals now turns to the long-term impact these transgressions will have on how we counsel clients in managing their reputations.

Jane Wilson, CEO of the U.K.’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations, wisely notes that the closing of the News of the World “is a great example of traditional and social media working together to produce a staggering outcome.” In this case, following immense pressure on several News of the World advertisers earlier in the week from online activists and the general public, brands started pulling their advertising, en masse, beginning with the high-profile defection of Ford.

Unfortunately, this combined with several other factors led to the loss of more than 200 editorial and staff jobs as the 168-year-old British tabloid was shuttered; a loss no one should cheer.

Continue reading " PR Lessons from The News of the World Hacking Scandal "

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from Stefan Stern, a former management columnist for the Financial Times, who joined Edelman in July 2010 as director of strategy.

“So, tell me, how’s life on the ‘Dark Side’?”

I have been asked this question frequently over the last few months, usually (although not always) by journalists. After four happy years columnizing for the Financial Times, and after almost 20 years in total working as a journalist, last summer I took up a job in London with Edelman, the PR firm. After seven months in my new world, it seems like a good time to reflect on what I’ve found

I entered this business possessing some, if not all, of the prejudices that journalists have traditionally held against PR. Surely, I would be immersing myself in a world where some slippery, obstructive people spent their time on behalf of clients trying to hide embarrassing truths from the media, while distracting journalists’ attention with flimsy and banal “stories.” Everyone in the newsroom knows what those PR pros are like, right?

It would be an understatement to say that I have been pleasantly surprised by what I have found. Where I work — and, I am sure, Edelman is not alone in this — colleagues are hard working and knowledgeable. Of course, they are getting privileged, behind-the-scenes glimpses of their clients’ activities. Even so, I have been impressed by the seriousness and sophistication with which people approach their work. Frankly, they understand these businesses quite a bit better than some journalists do. I certainly feel I know a lot more about business now than I did eight months ago.

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As the Columbia Journalism Review revealed in a recent op-ed, “Churnalism” may be the next new concept on all of our radar screens. But is it really something that we all need to worry about?  I don’t think so — if we’re doing the right things in the right ways. And that’s an important distinction.

The term churnalism describes the recycling (or churning) of press releases into journalistic (journalism) news. A new website (Churnalism.com) in the UK compares press release text with the content produced by British newspapers, as well as the BBC and Sky News. When the similarity is greater than 20 percent, Churnalism.com suggests the content may be churn rather than true journalism.

Critics in the UK say that this exposure of journalistic news as public relations material could undermine PR professionals’ ability to influence their clients’ publics, and that journalists will suffer a loss of credibility when their dependence on PR for content is revealed.

Continue reading " Time for PR to Consider Impact of ‘Churnalism’ "