Welcome to our newsletter ...
June 2007
MEETINGS
Next at IABC Fort Worth ...
You Want Fries With That BQ, Dude?
They'll be slapping each other on the back and handing out awards left and right at the Bronze Quill luncheon, Fort Worth IABC's annual celebration of Tarrant County communicators and their work.
This year's theme is "Bronze Age and Feather Quill Pens." Organizer Jeff Posey notes that the writing instrument with the longest history is the feather quill pen, whose 11-century run of popularity ended around 1850. The feathers of living birds were considered superior, particularly those of geese (right-handed writers preferred feathers from the left wings, while left-handed writers preferred the opposite).
Writing expanded during the Bronze Age, and Posey notes that some scholars point to the earliest forms of writing as being employed by monks to track their beer production. Could the love of beer have launched what has evolved as professional business communication?
"Barkeep, Bronze Quills all around!"
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 26
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 June 22: Jenny Walker, j.walker@recoverycouncil.org, or iabcfortworth.com/paypal.htm
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Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ...
Maximizing an IMC Strategy through Public Relations
It's called integrated marketing communications -- all communication tools working together and delivered seamlessly for maximum effectiveness. While the benefits of such integration have long been touted, the reality is that PR and marketing efforts remain isolated from one another inside most organizations. But there's never been a better time to collaborate.
TCU's Dr. Julie O'Neil will expand on these concepts at the PRSA June meeting. Learn why the growing importance of corporate social responsibility and reputation management means that PR professionals must demonstrate to upper management and marketing colleagues the ways in which their efforts build relationships with stakeholders.
O'Neil, a former board member of both the San Antonio and Fort Worth PRSA chapters, chairs the advertising/public relations division of the TCU Schieffer School of Journalism and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in PR, integrated marketing communications and research methods. Prior to joining TCU in 2001, she worked for almost a decade in corporate, nonprofit and agency PR and marketing. Her award-winning research on public relations and IMC has been presented around the world and published in international and national journals.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, June 13
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
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Next at Fort Worth SPJ ...
They're Gone! So What Did They Do?
Members of the 80th Legislature have headed home, and it's time to assess what they did to and for freedom of information in Texas. Access to public information affects all citizens, not just reporters. Two FOI specialists will tally the scorecard at the June SPJ meeting.
Attorneys Paul Watler and Tom Williams, both directors of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, are back for a return engagement. Two years ago, they briefed SPJ members and friends on Texas FOI issues and the status of shield laws. Watler is with Jackson Walker and is a past FOIFT president. Williams is a libel specialist with Haynes and Boone and a Fort Worth SPJ board member.
Time & date: mingling 6 p.m., eats around 6:30, then the program Wednesday, June 13
Place: Shady Oak Barbeque & Grill, 1600 E. Copeland Road, Arlington (south side of I-30 at the Nolan Ryan Expressway exit)
Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers, $5 students
Menu: brisket, sausage, chicken, plenty of sides, iced tea and corporate parent Spring Creek Barbeque's signature bread; cash bar
RSVP: Kay Pirtle at mkpirtle@yahoo.com
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STRAIGHT STUFF
Among the brightest in American letters -- Mary Roach, Nan Talese, Burkart Bilger, William Nack, Kevin Fedarko, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke -- will join headliner Joyce Carol Oates, a three-time Nobel Prize nominee, at the 3rd Annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest, July 27-29 at the Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center in Grapevine. The conference will include a manuscript and article/essay writing contest, with the manuscript winner earning a provisional contract with UNT Press; the 10 best articles or essays will appear in a literary journal jointly published by Hearst Newspapers and the Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism. The best articles and essays will also compete for $12,000 in cash prizes. To register or for more information, visit mayborninstitute.unt.edu or contact George Getschow, the conference's writer-in-residence, at 972-746-1633, or Nancy Eanes, conference coordinator, at 940-565-4778. ...
Author-columnist Candy Havens, entertainment critic for the Dorsey Gang on 96.3 KSCS, will present "Fast Draft: Learn How to Write a Book in Two Weeks or Less" at the Monday, June 18, meeting of the Greater Dallas Writers' League of Texas at the Richardson Public Library, 900 Civic Center Drive. Starts at 7 p.m.; the public is invited. Havens is considered one of the nation's leading entertainment writers and has interviewed numerous celebrities, including Nicole Kidman, Heath Ledger, Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon and George Clooney. More on the Writers' League of Texas from Carol Woods at shurlock@flash.net. ...
No summer meetings for the DFW chapter of the American Society of Business Publication Editors, but all things ASBPE, including job leads and a report on last month's meeting, are at asbpedfw.blogspot.com/. ...
The Fulbright Scholar Program is offering up to nine lecturing, research or combined awards in journalism during the 2008-09 academic year in Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Israel, the Maldives, Syria or the West Bank. U.S. citizenship required. Deadline: Aug. 1. More info and an online application at cies.org/us_scholars/. ...
The Religion Newswriters Association is offering scholarships of up to $5,000 to full-time designers, editors, freelancers, photographers and reporters who want to take religion courses at accredited colleges or seminaries. Recipients do not have to cover religion to participate in the Lilly Scholarships Religion Program. Deadlines: July 1 and Oct. 1. Call Amy Schiska, 614-891-9001, ext. 3. ...
The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association's Excellence in Journalism Awards recognize coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in print, broadcast, online and photojournalism. Initial publication/broadcast must have occurred between June 1, 2006, and May 31, 2007. Postmark deadline June 15. Winners will be honored at the NLGJA national convention Aug. 30-Sept. 2 in San Diego. More at the NLGJA web site.
PRSA local update: PRSA is expanding its online library with recent teleseminar content adapted to synchronized audio/PowerPoint programs and downloadable mp3 files, and upcoming seminars will add to the list. More here.
PRSA local update II: This year's ethics program will be Wednesday, Sept. 12. Details to come.
PRSA local update III: Join PRSA this month at the full member rate of $290 ($225 national dues plus $65 initiation fee) and get a year's free membership in the chapter, Greater Fort Worth PRSA. More at prsa.org/membership/May-JunePromotion.html.
PRSA local update IV: Podcasting powerhouses Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson, hosts of the podcast "For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report" and authors of the 450-page "How To Do Everything With Podcasting" being published this year by McGraw-Hill, will talk about what they do and how they do it at the Dallas PRSA joint communicators luncheon Thursday, June 28, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Midway Road at LBJ. More here.
SPJ national update: Prosecutors scuttle reporter shield law; and you're either on the plane or you're off the plane (McClatchy's off). A proposal to shield journalists from revealing their confidential sources in court was shot down in the Texas House on a technical point. Under existing law, a journalist who promises confidentiality to a source and then refuses a judicial order to identify the person can be jailed for contempt of court. The Texas Daily Newspaper Association and Texas Press Association blamed prosecutors for the bill's death. Fred Hartman, legislative chairman for the newspaper associations, said it's "extremely disappointing" that district attorneys resorted to using a technicality after their arguments against the bill failed. Added Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, a leading sponsor of the bill: "To fight for so long and to move this bill so far and have it snatched away on something that is completely non-substantive is neither good government nor good for the people of Texas." More here. And for dessert, a little secrecy for you. ... Staffers at McClatchy's Washington, D.C., bureau -- one of the few major news outlets skeptical of intelligence reports during the run-up to the Iraq war -- say they are now being punished for that coverage. Bureau chief John Walcott and current and former McClatchy Pentagon correspondents say they have not been allowed on the defense secretary's plane for at least three years. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said requests for seats always exceed supply. More here.
SPJ national update II: Suspended journalism teacher receives student-rights honor; and Pentagon's YouTube ban fought. As her suspension wound down and she awaited a transfer to a different school, an embattled Woodburn, Ind., teacher jetted to Washington, D.C., to receive an award for her fight for student rights. On May 19, former Woodlan High School teacher and journalism adviser Amy Sorrell received the Mary Beth Tinker Award from American University's law school and the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project. Earlier this year, the Woodlan principal demanded that each edition of the school newspaper be approved before it went to print. The action came after the paper printed a student's column advocating tolerance toward homosexuals. More here. ... YouTube's co-founders challenged the Pentagon's assertion that soldiers overseas were sapping too much bandwidth by watching online videos, the military's principal rationale for blocking popular web sites from Defense Department computers. "They said it might be a bandwidth issue, but they created the internet, so I don't know what the problem is," CEO Chad Hurley said. More here and here.
SPJ national update III: Why China relaxed blogger crackdown; and Iraq bans photographers, TV cameras from bombing site. The Chinese government, which spent months mulling over ways to restrict bloggers, is retreating from its campaign, a development that illustrates the difficulty China faces as it tries to control technology. Since September, the central government has deliberated the need to enforce a real-name registration system, which would have required nearly 20 million Chinese bloggers to register. The technology industry sharply protested. The Chinese government sees the online world as a conduit for slander, pornography and antigovernment views. More here. ... Police prevented TV cameramen and news photographers from filming the scene of a bombing May 15 under a new policy limiting coverage of the explosions that have become a hallmark of Iraq's violence. To enforce its order that a group of Iraqi journalists leave Tayaran Square, where the bombing occurred, police fired several shots in the air. Brig. Gen. Abdel Karim Khalaf, the operations director at the Interior Ministry, denied the government was trying to curtail press freedom. More here.
SPJ national update IV: We demean, you decide; and news site postpones coverage by reporters in India. Bill O'Reilly may proclaim at the beginning of his program that viewers are entering the "No Spin Zone," but a study by Indiana University media researchers found that the Fox News personality consistently paints certain people and groups as villains and others as victims to present the world through political rhetoric. The IU researchers found that O'Reilly called a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute during the editorials that open his show. More here and here and here. ... A news web site editor who hired two reporters in India to cover suburban Pasadena, Calif., via the internet was so overwhelmed by reaction to his plan that he had to postpone publication of their first stories. James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the Pasadena Now site, said he hadn't found the time to train one of his new staffers to cover a City Council meeting, which is shown live on the web. From nearly 9,000 miles away, the outsourced journalists plan to write their stories while their boss sleeps (India is 12.5 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time). One of the reporters lives in the Indian financial center of Mumbai and will be paid $12,000 a year. The other will work in Bangalore for $7,200. Macpherson used to run a clothing business with manufacturing help from Vietnam and India. More here and here and here.
SPJ national update V: What's this -- an editor stands up for real journalism and gets rewarded for it; and criticism rains down like police batons over injuries to journalists at melee. The International Data Group removed the chief executive of its largest-circulation computer magazine, PC World, and reinstated its top editor, who had quit days earlier over the executive's decision to kill an article critical of an advertiser. Harry McCracken rejoined the magazine May 9 after the disputed article, "10 Things We Hate About Apple," was posted on the magazine's web site. It was a hero's homecoming for McCracken, who was praised on the PCWorld.com message boards and in the blogosphere for sacrificing himself in the name of journalistic integrity. More here. ... News organizations condemned the Los Angeles Police Department for its use of batons and riot guns against members of the media after several reporters and camera operators were injured while covering an altercation at an immigrant rights rally in MacArthur Park. "We are sorry for what happened to our employees and find it unacceptable that they would be abused in that way when they were doing their job," Alfredo Richard, spokesman for the Spanish-language network Telemundo, said of the anchor and the reporter who were hurt. More here.
SPJ national update VI: Washington state enacts sunshine, shield laws; and media layoffs nearly double in first quarter. Washington state taxpayers may see more government records, and news reporters can protect their sources without being jailed under two bills Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law April 27. Under the new sunshine law, a state committee will examine more than 300 exemptions to the state's public records act, a voter-approved law that spells out which government documents must be publicly disclosed. Attorney General Rob McKenna requested the measure, which he said would repair years of damage done by laws and rules that keep government information out of taxpayers' view. More here. ... According to a report released by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, media companies announced 4,391 layoffs during the first quarter of 2007, up 93 percent from the 2,271 layoffs in the first three months of last year. The New York Times and Dow Jones also announced layoffs in the first quarter. Challenger said 12 percent of the job cuts came from newspaper publishers. The magazine business is also in turmoil, with 6 percent of the media sector's job cuts taking place in publishing. More here.
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Life After Layoffs: Learn How to Market Yourself
by Susan Tallant
It took an extra table to seat everyone who wanted to hear the Fort Worth SPJ May meeting. You think there's a little job anxiety going around?
Times are indeed difficult for news journalists, programs VP Paul LaRocque acknowledged before a packed house -- 41 people at 42 place settings -- at Joe T. Garcia's. "But we are not here to have a wake."
And what followed was anything but, as magazine freelancer John Ostdick; Paige Hendricks, who owns her own PR firm; and moderator Paula LaRocque set out to prove that your career doesn't have to end just because your journalism job does.
"Some fear being downsized. Some of you just want a change or are thinking about leaving," Paula LaRocque said. "Or maybe you have already left."
A former assistant managing editor at The Dallas Morning News, she said people change not only jobs but careers two or three times and that most moves are natural progressions. "Except for my friend who was an editor and then went on to own a tattoo parlor."
Hendricks said the demand for public relations professionals is there and the field is wide, but the search starts with being able to write. "There is a lot of potential for people out there who know how to think, for those who are curious and know how to use the written word to communicate."
A former journalist just needs to see if that new job is a good fit.
Hendricks started in print journalism right out of college but found the demands awfully difficult for a young mother of two. She opened Paige Hendricks Public Relations almost 30 years ago.
She said employers mainly need good writers but that journalists also should be familiar with other elements of the business such as graphics programs, HTML and simple web site set-up.
"I can teach someone who can write how to use Adobe Illustrator," she said, "but I cannot teach someone who knows Adobe Illustrator how to write."
Ostdick, a former Dallas Morning News writer and editor in chief for American Way magazine, advised that freelancers need a thick hide for the rejections they will get. He said his biggest adjustment after going from the newspaper and leaving the magazine was learning how to market himself.
The publishing world is just more difficult to crack today, he said. "It's hard when a good idea, thoroughly researched and matched to the publication, hits the editor's desk and the editor says, 'It's just not right for the magazine.' "
Times are tough because freelance budgets are drying up, story lengths are shrinking, and editing staffs are being used as writers. The pay is also not keeping pace with inflation.
"I pay a plumber $100 per hour to work at my house," Ostdick noted, "yet most magazines are paying writers what they did in 1950."
Sometimes it takes three or four stories until editors get confidence in a writer. Ostdick told the writers in the room to be stubborn, keep pushing, work all available contacts and not give up.
"You just can't take it personal," he said. "That is the hardest lesson."
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PEOPLE & PLACES
Interlinked Media, represented by the Hondo Group, helped the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial reach out to the next generation of PGA golf enthusiasts by incorporating text messaging into the tournament's radio and television ads. The text message campaign ran last month through the conclusion of the tournament May 27. Texting "Colonial" to 77007 brought up instructions on how to reach the ticket office by phone or to buy tickets online. ... Off the links and into the heartland, the Hondo Group is the new agency of record, providing strategic marketing communications and integrated sales support, for Wyffels Hybrids, one of the nation's largest independent hybrid seed corn companies. Headquartered in Geneseo, Ill., Wyffels serves growers in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and the Ohio River Valley area and since 1953 has focused on developing elite corn hybrids. ...
The Texas State Guard seeks a PR professional in the Dallas area dedicated to doing pro bono work in the community, whether a local neighborhood or the larger global arena. Military experience is helpful but not required. Guard members each volunteer more than 200 hours a year to assist the state during emergencies. Contact David Cauble, 469-441-6070 or caubletxsg@gmail.com.
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GET A JOB
An award-winning, global PR firm seeks a senior account supervisor-level professional in North Dallas for contract work. Strength required in consumer electronics. E-mail Alan Weatherbee, aweatherbee@cmgrp.com. ...
The president of a North Dallas PR/marketing firm needs periodic executive assistance. Flexible hours and availability to work from home. Candidate would play an integral part in current firm initiatives. Send résumé to Elizabeth Bashara, 917-447-6989, ebashara@aol.com. ...
The Newsletter Company in Dallas seeks an account manager to work with its automotive clients, princpally Cadillac and Saab dealers. Applicants should have a degree in communications, PR, journalism, advertising or marketing and be adept at telephone communication. Adds the agency's Mary Ann McKinley: "You'll be talking to customers and prospects and managing the workflow of quarterly newsletters, from design and editorial through writing, production, printing and mailing. It could be a great job for a mom returning to the workforce, as age/experience is an asset." Casual work environment near the West End, 40-hour work week. Send a résumé PDF and cover letter including salary requirements to McKinley at maryann@thenewslettercompany.com.
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NEW MEMBERS
SPJ ... Katrina Waters, Texas Cattle Raisers Association
PRSA ... Amy George, Cooper Aerobics Center ... recent TCU grad Cindy Vasquez ... Tammy McKinney, American Heart Association ... Hilary Moore, American Mensa
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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Marc Flake, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
I don't hate it. The Star-Telegram's new look does not incite in me paroxysms of negative adjectives, like it does in some people I've talked with recently. Then again, I haven't found anybody who waxes eloquent with positive reactions, either.
It does prompt those of us in the PR business to rethink the way we pitch stories to the paper. In the past, I've tried to give the reporter enough material to write a relatively long story. The longer the story, the better it was played. Now brevity is king.
Also, I may not like the jumbled look of p. 1, the oddly designed advertising and putting editorials on the nontraditional right side of the page, but I do like the larger proportion of space devoted to local news. The small news hole in the front section has been criticized, but as one who wants to get information about local government in the news pages, my total focus is on the local sections.
Tarrant County government (my employer) has had a lot more 300- to 600-word stories run about it since the change, and that's true wth other local governments, too. Sure, the stories are shorter, but there are more of them. And the stories are often fact-driven pieces that detail the nuts and bolts of local government. Not only do I think people are learning more about what we do, but I'm getting more information on what my city council and school board are doing.
This new focus on shorter and more local stories opens up new opportunities for stories that don't need so much exposition.
A few other things I like are the "editorial" comics moving to the opinion pages and the new comics that have been added; moving the Entertainment gossip page to where it belongs on the back of section B; and the whole color scheme and typeface change.
And for those of you who don't like the new packaging, it could be worse. The paper could've gone tabloid.
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Recently unincarcerated video blogger Josh Wolf reportedly has been invited to face off with Steven Colbert on June 12 on Comedy Central. Josh, and you thought those federal prosecutors were tricky. ...
SPJ national has dubbed Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., "Senator Secrecy" for placing a secret hold on Senate Bill 849, also known as the Open Government Act of 2007. The bill would significantly reform the federal Freedom of Information Act, which is one of the strongest tools Americans have to supervise the inner workings of government and to hold elected officials accountable. Ryan Patmintra, Kyl's press secretary, said it's no secret that Kyl has concerns about the Open Government Act. But if Kyl's concerns are no secret, "then why would he insist on working from the shadows to place a hold on this very important legislation?" asked SPJ president Christine Tatum, an assistant features editor at The Denver Post. "The irony of secretly blocking a vote on a bill that would make government more transparent is supreme." More on national's "Senator Secrecy" page. ...
Found this the other day, Molly Ivins at the Columbia University Journalism School's 2003 graduation. You can read her speech, hear her deliver it -- a little startling, a little sad, more than a little prescient. And funny. Molly was full of herself, but maybe that helped her get past stage fright and say the things she needed to say. No one could poke the elephant with a stick like she could. ...
SPJ plans to launch a Legal Advocacy Network this fall to help reporters get legal help and promote collaboration between the journalism and media-law communities. More at spj.org/lan.asp or from coordinator Joe Wessels at joe@joewessels.net.
Closing words: "Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death. ... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man." -- philosopher Bertrand Russell ... "Physics is like sex. It may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it." -- physicist Richard Feynman
Closing words II, on the front lines: "It just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up." -- Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former backup fullback for Baylor University, to Washington Post staff writer Joshua Partlow in Baghdad
Closing words III, real president entry: "I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof." -- President John Adams, in a letter to wife Abigail, who was in Philadelphia and had yet to join him in their new home, the President's House (White House), in the under-construction capital; about 150 years later, Franklin Roosevelt had these words carved into the mantel in the State Dining Room