Welcome to our newsletter ...
April 2007
MEETINGS
Next at IABC Fort Worth ...
Better Writing = Better Publications
Good writing sets a publication apart. At the April 24 IABC meeting, learn from a journalism and writing professor the most effective techniques for boosting your writing, purging errors from your materials and avoiding those common mistakes that easily slip by.
Jacque Lambiase has taught technology, writing and PR at UNT since 1996. She advises students in the PR sequence, serves on the Women's Studies Program steering committee and occasionally pulls cable in the department's computer labs. She serves on the Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication and is a member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, April 24
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: members $20, nonmembers $25, students $18 (online sign-up add $1)
RSVP by noon April 20: Jenny Walker, j.walker@tarrantcouncil.org, or iabcfortworth.com/paypal.htm
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Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ...
Pressure? What Pressure?
Lyrics from a Billy Joel song summarize what many PR pros may feel at some point in their careers: You will come to a place where the only thing you feel are loaded guns in your face. Gather the resistance you'll need for such occasions by attending the Greater Fort Worth PRSA April 11 meeting, where humorist-motivational speaker David Wilk will present "Thinking on Your Feet," or how to remain cool under pressure.
Wilk is a founding member of Four Day Weekend, a Fort Worth improvisational comedy group, and a graduate of the Second City Conservatory in Chicago. He travels nationally creating his signature "Man on the Street" videos and facilitating team-building seminars for corporate clients.
The April meeting coincides with the chapter's annual Pro-Am Day where local students majoring in public relations shadow PRSA professionals that morning, then attend the lunch and a résumé/portfolio review session afterward. Additionally, the TCU Bateman Competition team will present its campaign for Family Caregiving 101.
Time & date: noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, April 11
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor
Parking: free valet in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: members $25, nonmembers $30, students $20
RSVP: a Cvent invitation is electronically winging its way to members
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STRAIGHT STUFF
Registration is $250 before April 15 and $275 after that for the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest, billed as the region's leading literary nonfiction gathering, July 27-29 at the Hilton DFW Lakes in Grapevine. More at mayborninstitute.unt.edu or from maybornconferenceinfo@unt.edu. ...
The Network of Hispanic Communicators will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, at the NBC 5/Telemundo studios, 3900 Barnett St. in Fort Worth, to discuss the upcoming Hispanic Communicators' 25th Annual Scholarship Awards Brunch as well as the NAHJ chapter proposal, high school writing contest and scholarship entries. The brunch will be from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 21, at the Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak in Dallas. Gilbert Bailon, publisher and editor of Al Dia, will be the keynote speaker, with NBC 5 sports anchor Derek Castillo the emcee. Buy tickets through PayPal at dfwhispanic.org. For more information, e- Gary Piña at gpina@star-telegram.com. ...
A leadership development workshop hosted April 16-18 by the Austin American-Statesman is designed to help editors cope with meeting rising reader expectations in an era of diminishing resources. The interactive sessions will focus on practical solutions to real problems in today's newsrooms. Cost is $385 and includes a "coaching kit," a management-training tool for establishing learning programs in a newsroom. More at newsroomleadership.com or from Edward and Cynthia Miller at miller@newsroomleadership.com or 770-402-1210. ...
Nominations are due April 15 for the National Academies Communication Awards for excellence in reporting and communicating science, engineering and medicine to lay audiences. More here. ...
SPJ and the Lewis family annually present the Robert D.G. Lewis First Amendment Award to a student SPJ member who has demonstrated outstanding service to the First Amendment through journalism. The $500 cash award must be used to attend the 2007 SPJ Convention and National Journalism Conference in Washington, D.C. More here. ...
The Newspaper Association of America is offering 16 minority fellowships for July through December 2007 designed to widen opportunities for ethnic professionals to enter or advance in newspaper management. April 30 deadline. More information and applications at the NAA web site. ...
The Sigma Delta Chi Foundation is accepting applications for the Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writing. The $75,000 fellowship enables a mid-career editorial writer from a U.S. newspaper to have time away from daily responsibilities for study and research. Applications must be in English and postmarked by July 1. Contact Heather Porter at 317-927-8000, ext. 204, or hporter@spj.org.
IABC local update: Brenda Siler, who has led communications programs at AARP, the American Red Cross, United Way and now the United Negro College Fund, will discuss "Re-Engineering Communication" at the Dallas IABC meeting Tuesday, April 10. Register here.
PRSA local update: Five Greater Fort Worth PRSA members scored victories in the 2007 Texas Public Relations Association Best of Texas/Silver Spur Awards. Kay Barkin, Community Solutions of Fort Worth, garnered a Silver Spur in the nonprofit public relations category for her work with Mental Health Connection of Tarrant County. Rhenda Gray won a Silver Spur in the same category for her work with Sundance Associates in promoting the "Race to Improve Race for the Cure" for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Judy Everett Ramos, Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD, earned two awards -- a Best of Texas Merit in the feature release category and a Silver Spur in special events. Jerrod Resweber with Weber Shandwick also garnered two awards -- a Best of Texas Bronze in the internal news story category and a Silver Spur in special events. Kim Speairs, APR, of the Balcom Agency won a Best of Texas Bronze for the special purpose publication "Building Life" for the LifeGift Donation Center.
PRSA local update II: Can't get enough of the whole Pro-Am Day idea? Dallas PRSA's is Friday, April 13. More here.
SPJ national update: "It is just not Walter Reed." Ray Oliva went into the spare bedroom in his home in Kelseyville, Calif., to wrestle with his feelings. He didn't know a single soldier at Walter Reed, but he felt he knew them all. He worried about the wounded who were entering the world of military health care, which he knew all too well. His own VA hospital in Livermore was a mess. The gown he wore was torn. The wheelchairs were old and broken. "It is just not Walter Reed," Oliva tapped out on his keyboard. "The VA hospitals are not good either except for the staff who work so hard. ... " Oliva is but one voice in an outpouring of accounts filled with emotion and anger about the mistreatment of wounded outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Stories of neglect and substandard care have flooded in from soldiers, their family members, veterans, doctors and nurses working inside the system. They describe depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases, from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Fort Dix in New Jersey. They tell stories of callous responses to combat stress and a system ill-equipped to handle another generation of psychologically scarred vets. More here.
SPJ national update II: 2004 chief campaign strategist loses faith in his president. In 1999, Texas Democratic strategist Matthew Dowd was sufficiently impressed by the pledge of then-Gov. George W. Bush to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington that he switched parties, joined Bush's political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. Now Dowd is so disenchanted with Bush on so many issues -- the Iraq war, Abu Ghraib, Katrina -- that he feels a sense of duty to go public given his role in helping Bush gain power. "I'm a big believer that in part what we're called to do -- to me, by God; other people call it karma -- is to restore balance when things didn't turn out the way they should have," he said. "Just being quiet is not an option when I was so publicly advocating an election." Dowd is the first member of Bush's inner circle to break this publicly with him. More here.
SPJ national update III: Secret dockets on the way out; and House approves press-friendly bills. The Judicial Conference took steps March 13 to end secret dockets in federal courts. Meeting at the Supreme Court, the conference urged all federal courts to end the practice whereby some cases under seal vanish from electronic dockets and databases. When software changes are made, at least the notation "Case Under Seal" or "Sealed v. Sealed" will appear with a docket number, giving the media and others the ability to challenge or examine the circumstances behind the seal. Last year, a Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press study showed that as many as 18 percent of criminal cases filed in D.C. federal court were missing or undocketed. More here. ... The House on March 14 passed three bills to open government records to the public, brushing aside White House opposition and, in one case, a veto threat. The measures, highlighting the media-led Sunshine Week, would force government to be more responsive to Freedom of Information Act requests, make contributions to presidential libraries public and overturn a 2001 presidential directive giving the president authority to keep his records from public view. The Bush administration, maybe the most secretive administration in the nation's history, issued a veto threat on the presidential records bill and voiced opposition to the FOIA legislation. It also said the president would veto a fourth bill, to be debated, on whistleblower protections. More here.
SPJ national update IV: Big profits in small packages; study says newsroom spending raises profits; and journalists say U.S. military deleted photos of attack. If there's any good news in the business of newspapering these days, it can be found at the industry's littlest papers. The average daily circulation of all U.S. newspapers has declined since 1987. The smallest papers, however -- community weeklies and dailies with circulation of less than 50,000 -- have been a bright spot. Some are even prospering. More here. ... U.S. newspapers that spend more money on their newsrooms will make more money, according to a study released Feb. 14 that questioned the wisdom of the trend of cutting jobs to save costs. The authors of the University of Missouri-Columbia study, which was based on 10 years of financial data, said news quality affects profit more than spending on circulation, advertising and other parts of the business. The researchers developed a mathematical model that showed how newspapers could rearrange their spending on distribution and circulation, advertising and newsrooms to achieve a higher profit. "If you invest in the newsroom, do you make more money? The answer is yes," said Esther Thorson, an advertising professor and associate dean for graduate studies at the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. "If you lower the amount of money spent in the newsroom, then pretty soon the news product becomes so bad that you begin to lose money." More here. ... Afghan journalists covering the aftermath of a suicide bomb attack and shooting in eastern Afghanistan on March 4 said U.S. troops deleted their photos and video and warned them not to publish any images of U.S. troops or a car where three Afghans were shot to death. Afghan witnesses and gunshot victims said U.S. forces fired on civilians in cars and on foot along a six-mile stretch of road in Nangarhar province following a suicide attack against the Marine convoy. The U.S. military said militants also fired on American forces during the attack. More here.
SPJ national update V: Reporter roadblocks in Georgia but impoved conditions in Washington and Ohio; and campaign blogging the night away. Georgia House Republicans pushed through a measure March 20 that bans reporters from the floor while lawmakers are in session. Reporters will be confined to an area in the back of the chamber, from where they can observe the proceedings through windows and hear audio through speakers. More here. In Washington state, the House unanimously passed a bill that would grant reporters absolute privilege for protecting confidential sources -- the same exemption from testifying in court that goes to spouses, attorneys, clergy and police officers. And Ohio Gov. Bob Taft in January signed a bill requiring public officials to be better trained in how Ohio's open-records law works and making it easier to sue officials when they break it. Under the bill, sponsored by Rep. Scott Oelslager, a Canton Republican, state and local public offices must send at least one representative to training on the open-records law. More here and here. ... An Obama blog. An Edwards blog. A Clinton blog. A McCain blog. A Giuliani blog. Have a favorite in the presidential race? He or she will have a blog, maybe several, at newassignment.net and huffingtonpost.com under an agreement reached by NYU prof Jay Rosen, a citizen journalism advocate who heads the former, and Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of the latter. "It's campaign reporting by a great many more people than would ever fit on the bus that the boys (and girls) of the press have famously gotten on and off every four years, as they try to cover the race for president," Rosen writes in his blog, Pressthink.
SPJ national update VI: Audio from federal trials to go online; and new technique lets bloggers make their own late-night news. A computer and an internet connection soon may be all that's needed to hear closing arguments in a corruption trial or the testimony of a mob turncoat. The federal judiciary has approved a pilot program to make free audio recordings of court proceedings available online. Although a court's participation in the program is voluntary, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan, with the policy-making Judicial Conference, said he expects the system will be widely used. News organizations and open-government groups applauded the decision. More here. ... A time-honored practice of trying to extinguish coverage by dumping stacks of previously secret government documents on the press may be in for some changes after a headlong collision with hundreds of web loggers in the early-morning hours March 20. On March 19 the Justice Department delivered to Congress more than 3,000 pages of e-mails, memos and other records about the firing of eight federal prosecutors. The handover came so late that many news organizations had to scramble to skim a few summaries before late-night deadlines. But despite the late hour, readers of a liberal web site, tpmmuckraker.com, quickly began grabbing 50-page chunks of the scanned documents from a House of Representatives internet server, analyzing them and excerpting them. By 4:30 a.m., more than 220 postings were up detailing various aspects of the files. More here.
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PEOPLE & PLACES
Star-Telegram staffers won 13 awards, including a first-place showing by Jim Reeves in sports column writing, at the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors' annual convention March 31. Other S-T winners: UTA Shorthorn exes Linda P. Campbell and Steve Wilson, Bill Hanna, Bill Miller, Alex Branch, Scott Streater, Gary West, Chris Kelly, Chris Vaughn, Khampha Bouaphanh, Ron Jenkins, Dan Purschwitz, Meda Kessler, Kari Linder, Matt Pinkney, Dewuan Davis, Sarah Huffstetler, Raul Cabellero and Lucia Gonzalez. ...
The aforementioned Texas APME named the UTA newspaper, The Shorthorn, the state's best university and college paper for 2006. Continuing the theme, The Shorthorn took five individual first-place wins, six seconds, two thirds and five honorable mentions in recent Texas Intercollegiate Press Association judging. The paper also won best of show at the TIPA convention last month in San Antonio. Renegade, the university's now-defunct magazine, received one individual first place and two seconds. The students bringing home the loot included Anthony Williams, Rebekah Workman, Megumi Rooze, Dominic Bracco, Monica Lopez, Chad Nothe, Marily Jacob, Devario Johnson, Troy Buchwalter, Cliff Hale, Daniel Johnson, Isaac Erickson, Clay Swartz, Brandon Guidry, Reneé Gatons, Whitney Shropshire, Camille Rogers, Nick Galli and Kellen Cox. Meanwhile, The Shorthorn won the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Silver Crown, the organization's second highest award for general excellence, for the spring 2006 semester. The paper also won three Columbia first-place individual awards, four thirds and three honorable mentions. ...
Interlinked Media, an international provider of mobile communication strategies and integrated marketing solutions, has selected the Hondo Group to position the company's brand domestically and manage its national public relations. Interlinked Media provides businesses throughout the United States and United Kingdom with high-end mobile communication strategies. Founded in 2001 under the name Text You Ltd., the company maintains offices in Richardson, Texas, and Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and delivers custom applications for text message-based technology to clients in advertising, retail, quick-service restaurants, entertainment, hospitality and media.
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GET A JOB
The Wise County Messenger, an award-winning, family-owned semiweekly in Decatur, Texas, known for an outstanding work environment, is hiring reporters. Salary $25,000-$30,000 plus health and dental insurance, and a company car for work assignments. Must live in Wise County. Reach editor Skip Nichols or assistant editor Brian Knox at 940-627-5987 or news@wcmessenger.com, or mail a résumé to Wise County Messenger, P.O. Box 149, Decatur 76234. ...
Partners Together for Health, the foundation for JPS Health Network, seeks a 10 hours-a-week grant writer. Requires fast, fabulous reporting and writing skills. Prefer grants experience. Contact Janet Neff at 817-920-7305 or jneff@jpshealth.org. ...
The Tarrant County College District has a job opening in PR-marketing (office in Water Gardens Place in downtown Fort Worth). Required: bachelor's degree in communications or journalism; strong interviewing, writing and editing skills; knowledge of media relations, including how to pitch topics sought by editors; ability to speak and write Spanish fluently. Salary $41,643-$65,727. Experience in internet/intranet strategies and technologies a plus. Apply at tccd.edu. More from Chris Smith at 817-515-5211 or chris.smith@tccd.edu. ...
A writer with deep knowledge of IT processes is sought to create a user manual for a Fortune 200 systems integrator on behalf of its multinational retail customer. Four-month contract position will be full time to start, then half time toward the end. The account team is virtual, so the writer can work from home and communicate with project leaders by phone and e-mail. Send résumé and writing samples to info@brooksandassociatespr.com. ...
Plano-based Viachem seeks a local PR contractor to write and distribute press releases and to build relationships with a few key industry publications. Send qualifications to Mike Efting, mefting@viacheminc.com.
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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Marc Flake, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
What do you do when a nationally known television reporter intentionally misquotes the person you are representing? Pretty much all you can do is shake your head and wonder what journalism has become.
Anne Swanson, former press aide for then-Gov. George W. Bush and press secretary for first lady Laura Bush, told of that experience and many more at our chapter meeting in March. Ultimately, the reporter was disgraced for his coverage of another story and ended up the subject of presidential campaign jokes.
It's a great illustration of the "media filter" that colors the information we're trying to convey to the public. I wrote about the filter in the February eChaser and was somewhat chastised by an unsigned editorialist at Fort Worth Weekly. The columnist opined that the filter is better known "as 'journalistic pride' and 'work ethic' and 'devotion to truth.' " I wish that that were true.
While almost all local journalists do exhibit these traits, I have my doubts about some members of the national media. What news people may find surprising is that I have witnessed a considerable amount of journalistic pride, work ethic and devotion to truth in the practitioners of our own profession. We work hard to be accurate and honest in our dealings with reporters and the public. We know that if our reputations are sullied by our actions, our value to our employers and clients goes to zero.
The journalist/PR relationship does not have to be adversarial and should not be if both parties deal with each other honestly. We'll take a look at the lighter side of the relationship this month as humorist and motivational speaker David Wilk presents "Thinking on Your Feet," a treatise on how to remain cool with seven camera lenses shoved in your face.
It's also Pro-Am day, so all of you PR veterans need to think about staying after the meeting to give résumé/portfolio suggestions to students from Abilene Christian, TCU and UTA. The meeting is Wednesday, April 11; go back to p. 1 of this newsletter for more information and to register.
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Great food. Great view. Important message. The thrill of seeing students rewarded and hard work honored. Nice warm feeling at the end of the night. That's Fort Worth SPJ's First Amendment Awards and Scholarship Dinner, April 13 at Cacharel in Arlington. RSVP to mkpirtle@yahoo.com. Proceeds, at $50 a person, benefit journalism scholarships. Make check payable to SPJ and mail to P.O. Box 3212, Fort Worth 76113. We also can take money at the door but cannot guarantee a seat for unexpected walk-ins. Attendance was 95 last year. We could double that and still be comfortable. So let's do that. ...
I love the new Digital Quill. Love it. Slap it on a wide-screen monitor and "turn" the interactive pages (click in the corner) like you would if you were holding the print version. Have enough material for two more pages but not enough for four? If the thing was all digital all the time -- just add 'em! Type too small for aging eyes? Make it bigger. Printing and paper cost savings? Huge. This is a breakthrough. Congratulations to Quill editor Joe Skeel, SPJ honcho Terry Harper, et al. I understand that the current and next two issues will be available on the web site, then DQ gets tucked away as a member benefit. Another reason to join. ...
SPJ's freelancer directory launches April 9. No charge for members to enter contact info, provide details about their professional specialties and link hiring editors to examples of their work. See spj.org. ...
Follow this one. The House subcommittee on information policy approved HR 1309 to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act. The bill would create an ombudsman, located in the National Archives, to help requesters who run into agency delays or are denied information. It directs agencies to create tracking numbers for every request, improve their reporting on FOIA performance and waive fees if they fail to meet the 20-day limit for providing the requested records. It requires agencies to pay the legal fees for a requester if the agencies first deny a request but then release the information after being sued. The bill also establishes a presumption that government records are public and should be released if "the agency does not reasonably foresee that disclosure would be harmful." ...
More actual reporting from McClatchy: "Since 2005, McClatchy Newspapers has found, [President] Bush has appointed at least three U.S. attorneys who had worked in the Justice Department's civil rights division when it was rolling back longstanding voting-rights policies aimed at protecting predominantly poor, minority voters. Another newly installed U.S. attorney, Tim Griffin in Little Rock, Ark., was accused of participating in efforts to suppress Democratic votes in Florida during the 2004 presidential election while he was a research director for the Republican National Committee. ... Taken together, critics say, the replacement of the U.S. attorneys, the voter-fraud campaign and the changes in Justice Department voting rights policies suggest that the Bush administration may have been using its law enforcement powers for partisan political purposes." Read the story. ...
Next time someone mocks your concerns over climate change, show him this and this. Not that it'll change his mind. ...
"I don't have my glasses on." Presented without comment. OK, some comment. When this minnow of a man tries to talk and laugh at the same time, doesn't he remind you of Liberace?
Closing words: "You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth." -- Henrik Ibsen ... "Here we have singing, dancing, laugh, and merriment. ... When our king goes out, they fall down and kiss the earth where he has trodden; and then they go on kissing one another. They have as much happiness in one year as an Englishman in ten." -- Thomas Jefferson, newly appointed American ambassador to France, in a letter to Abigail Adams
Closing words II, special conservatives and idiots entry: "I think it's probably possible to be a conservative without appearing to be an idiot." -- U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., in what was seen as a dig at the anti-warming crowd following a verbal oust between Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, and former Vice President Al Gore during last month's high-profile House hearing on climate change