Monday, September 26, 2005

What a relief to hear him say this!


Wells Fargo CEO dismisses talk of megamerger

The Milwaukee Business Journal reports that Wells Fargo CEO Dick Kovacevich downplayed speculation that the San Francisco bank will combine with another major bank.

Note to blog readers: Remember when Mark Twain said "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated?" This is what bank CEOs all say right before they jump in and buy something big. I'd put my money on something here in the Northeast...maybe next Monday (they like to announce them Monday morning...)

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Great Minds ... (yadda yadda yadda)

While I was producing today's podcast interview with PRSA National Board Member John Deveney, ABC, APR, president of Deveney Communications in New Orleans, about John's experience dealing with Hurricane Katrina, evacuation, and crisis PR for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson of the For Immediate Release podcast were interviewing Charles Pizzo, ABC, past chairman of the International Association of Business Communicators (in photo), also a New Orleans resident, about his experience.

You can access their interview with Charles at this link.

Another example of how podcasting can bridge the gap between superficial broadcast news coverage and the in-depth highly specialized and carefully focused content that people will find valuable and can use in their daily work.

LOBP #10: Lubetkin's Other Blog Podcast -- A Special Interview, John Deveney, ABC, APR, president of Deveney Communications, New Orleans



In this special podcast, produced in cooperation with the Public Relations Society of America, we interview John Deveney, ABC, APR, president of Deveney Communications. John and his team had to evacuate from the affected area after Hurricane Katrina struck, and recently returned to New Orleans to help coordinate media relations in the crisis operations center of the New Orleans Travel and Tourism Bureau. He is still coping with the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

In this podcast, John describes the evacuation experience, the implementation of his firm's hurricane evacuation protocol, and the lessons learned from the experience. He provides advice for public relations practitioners reevaluating their own firms' crisis communications preparedness.

For more information on hurricane and disaster relief activities being undertaken by the Public Relations Society of America, visit http://www.prsa.org.

Theme Music: The New World Relámpagos, El Arlequín de Toledo, from GarageBand.com

LOBP #10 - 34:05, 47.9mb stereo.

Strategic Public Relations: 20 Creative Uses for Podcasts

Kevin Dugan lists 20 creative (commercial) uses for podcasts, and other podcasters like me are adding suggestions to the list. See his original list at
Strategic Public Relations: 20 Creative Uses for Podcasts: "http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/3165185"

Since starting this blog and podcast, I've tried to advocate for professional production values in podcasts (that means editing out the glitches, false steps, feedback, etc.) I also believe that our listeners want something more than just me talking to myself, so I've tried to make interviews and location recordings a standard part of my programs. Take the listeners somewhere they can't go themselves.

Go portable, y'all. Record the events you attend, the activities in which you participate. I always have to force myself to get out of my windowless basement office once in a while.

Monday, September 19, 2005

LOBP #9: Thomas Doll, EVP & CFO of Subaru of America


Thomas J. Doll, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer of Subaru of America, was the keynote speaker on Thursday, September 15, 2005, at the Rutgers University School of Business (Camden) Executive Breakfast Series, held at the Tavistock Country Club, Haddonfield, NJ. This podcast features Mr. Doll's remarks. (61 mb, 48:30, stereo audio file.




http://libsyn.com/media/lubetkin/LOBP9-Subaru.mp3

Friday, September 02, 2005

Steve is published in Financial Planning magazine, about effective conference panel moderation

Steve's article, "Message Control: Leading a panel discussion can be an effective way to get your ideas across, if you're prepared," appears in the September 2005 issue of Financial Planning magazine. You can download a PDF of the article here. (2.9mb PDF)

I would really like someone to tell me...

...does this guy have anyone counselling him about his career-limiting ideas?

Yesterday, there was this report in the Inquirer:

His blog is laced with references to pornography and strip clubs, a lust for whiskey and women, and disdain for President Bush and Céline Dion. [News -- Philly.com]


This has got to be one of the dumbest things an elected official ever did. Blogging is becoming like the CB Radio craze of the 1970s. Everyone had to have one, and then some people started using the radios to broadcast profanity for no other reason than to hear themselves speak. So goes the blogosphere. It's this kind of juvenile spewing that will discredit the technology's really valuable attributes for delivery of narrowcast messages to interested audiences.

The rule of thumb always used to be "If you don't want to see it on the front page of the New York Times (well, ok, the Philadelphia Inquirer can hurt you too), don't say it."

Today, the Inquirer reported that the blog was offline. And to add embarrassment to stupidity, the Inky editorial page had this comment:

"But when Daylin Leach makes jokes about drugs and sex, he has given away his moral position on those issues in Harrisburg. And when he maligns the standard-bearer of the opposition party, he can kiss bipartisan cooperation goodbye.


No doubt Republicans are already targeting his 149th District as a winnable seat next year. They're smart enough to know voters don't want a representative who is a joke."

Where were the communications advisors when Rep. Leach said, "I want to blog about my fantasies about teenage girls, getting high, and visiting S&M clubs." Are we all so afraid of being fired that we don't give people the common sense advice they are supposed to be paying us for?

PR counselors, take note: You may need the revenue, but you don't get to keep the revenue over the long-term if you let your client make a fool of himself in public.

Incredible photos of the devastation by NY Times shooter Vincent Laforet

PDNOnline has a Q&A interview with Vincent Laforet, the New York Times photographer on the ground in New Orleans, whose dramatic photos have been illustrating most of the Times' coverage of the disaster.


[PDNonline: Today's Most Viewed Articles]


There's also an article about all of the photographers covering the catastrophe, and Laforet has posted many of his photos on the SportsShooter.com website.

Our thoughts and prayers remain with the people of New Orleans and all the surrounding areas. Please contribute to the relief efforts.

You can start at the Union for Reform Judaism's Disaster Relief Fund website.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Thank Heavens Katie Paine is bringing some perspective and sanity to the blogging question!



Katie just posted a commentary on the New Communications Blogzine that is well worth the time. It's about the value of measuring the blogosphere. Everyone in PR whose clients are asking about blog measurement should read this to put things into perspective.

Katie writes (in part):

"Having just wasted another hour or so in the blogosphere, I've come to the conclusion that most companies should not be measuring blogs at all. To quote Bill Murray in Meatballs, (one of my all-time favorite flicks), "IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER!"

"Okay, if you are Hewlett-Packard and people are trashing your product on www.gizmodo.com you need to know about it. But there are maybe a dozen or so blogs out there that qualify as "influential" and that's exactly .00008% of the total. If you are Raytheon, and there are a hundred people on the planet who are allowed to buy your products, I can promise you that the purchasing decisions of those hundred are not going to be unduly influenced by what's being said in the blogosphere. "

All I can say is "Go get 'em, Katie!"