June 7, 2012 in Media by Clay Zeigler
HEADS UP: A Case Study on Why Newspapers Still Matter

Here’s a rarity: a feel-good story about newspapers.

Valerie Wigglesworth was an editor at The Dallas Morning News when a reorganization landed her in a suburban bureau as a reporter. She hadn’t worked as a reporter for a decade, but she was determined to succeed. As the lone breadwinner for her family of four, she had more at stake than most.

It took some time, but she steadily improved as a reporter and writer. She could write a nice feature story, and cover breaking news. Then Valerie and colleague Matthew Haag learned about Exide Technologies, owners of a lead smelter that has been operating outside Dallas since the 1960s. These days Exide — and the lead pollution it creates — are surrounded by a fresh-scrubbed suburb, Frisco, Texas, one of the fastest-growing places in the country.

Valerie and Matthew recognized a health threat that most of Valerie’s fellow Frisco residents couldn’t see out their car windows, and they started writing. They wrote stories about lead pollution and the health threat posed by the plant, especially to children. The city manager started returning her calls, so Valerie wrote some more. The plant’s management wanted her to come take a tour. She did, then wrote some more. Groups formed. Public hearings were held. She wrote some more. She won a grant to conduct soil testing. Valerie wrote some more.

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May 14, 2012 in Brand Strategy, Media, Media Orchard, PR and Pop Culture by Clay Zeigler
RANT: Shock Value and Why Time Magazine Got it Wrong

Last week we got two reminders about going too far: the one you heard about and one you probably didn’t. But they prove the same point: If you’re going to go too far to call attention to something, you had better have a good reason and you had better deliver.

By now more than enough people have weighed in on the Time magazine cover that shows a Los Angeles woman breastfeeding her nearly 4-year-old son. The reaction was predictably mixed, but let’s focus instead on motivations. The stated reason for the photo was to illustrate a story on attachment parenting, which advocates extended breast-feeding, sleeping in the same bed with children, and carrying them in slings. Another reason for the photo could have been the slow decline of American news magazines. But is either an adequate reason to go too far?

Courage and ‘Emblematic Images’

The other reminder about going too far came with the death on Thursday of Horst Faas, who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his photographs of wars in Vietnam and Bangladesh. Let’s let his New York Times obituary take it from there:

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May 10, 2012 in Media Orchard, Media Relations, Public Relations by Clay Zeigler
ADVICE: The Phone Interview Lives, and Why That’s a Good Thing

“Is the phone interview dead?” asked a recent PRDaily post that declared, “reporters hardly pick up the phone to talk to sources, let alone cover stories by face-to-face meetings. Interviews are now done via email, Facebook, Twitter and Skype.”

That can’t be true, I thought. Newsrooms couldn’t have changed that much since I left them in September after 26 years. But just to make sure, I asked a dozen working journalists for their thoughts. Their responses make clear the phone interview is not dead, and why that’s a good thing for good journalism as well as good public relations.

Like an in-person interview, a telephone conversation offers an immediate exchange of information, and, more importantly, understanding. A reporter can ask questions and the interviewee can respond. Ideally they can continue until they understand one another’s positions. The telephone allows for a level of detail, clarification and nuance not possible with other electronic methods.

That’s vitally important for PR people, who want reporters to have the best possible understanding of their position. They want to be able to steer the discussion toward the stronger aspects of their story and away from the weaker ones. That’s possible on the telephone, which has other benefits: It can be used to provide very basic background, and both sides can better tell when they’re being deceived.

Of the dozen journalists I reached out to, all but one who responded did so in enthusiastic defense of the phone interview. And while most feel it’s in fine health, a couple worried about its future.

‘Everything’s Scripted’

“In Washington, you get people in person or you get them by email,” said Jessica Meyers, the new transportation reporter at Politico. “There’s not much of a conversation where you call up and chat.” The capital’s pace is a factor, according to Jessica, who also observed that younger journalists may not be as comfortable using the telephone.

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