Welcome to our newsletter ...
August 2007
MEETINGS
Next at IABC Fort Worth ...
Branding Lessons Learned
There'll be a crash course in branding -- what to do, what not to -- at the August IABC meeting from First Command CMO Dennis Holland, the man tasked with rebranding the company while keeping the traditional feel of what its customers had come to trust.
First Command Financial Planning was founded in 1958 and is steeped in tradition. When the business model was changed to no longer cater only to the military but to the public as well, all marketing materials -- brochures, booths, advertising, PR initiatives, web site -- had to be geared toward the new mission. It was vast. It was expansive. And it was exhausting.
Holland will share his secrets of marketing, public relations, building a team, and instituting a strategy and selling it to the execs to create a comprehensive marketing/PR arm of the company.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28
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 (online sign-up add $1)
RSVP by noon Aug. 24: Tim Tune, tim.tune@fortworthgov.org, or iabcfortworth.com/paypal.htm
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Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ...
You Tell Five People, and They Tell Five People, and ...
The August meeting won't be on the usual second Wednesday, nor will it even be in Fort Worth. Greater Fort Worth PRSA will meet with Dallas PRSA on Thursday, Aug. 9, at the Las Colinas Country Club to plumb the intricacies of "Five Simple Steps to Effective Word of Mouth Marketing" with Andy Sernovitz, author of "How Smart Companies Get People Talking." Register here.
Many consider word of mouth marketing the next big thing. But what goes into such a campaign? Learn strategies to engage with consumers and generate positive talk about your brand. Learn the five steps to starting an impactful, effective, sales-driven campaign.
Sernovitz, CEO of the National Word of Mouth Marketing Association, will discuss the ethics involved, while providing tips on whom to hire, where to start and how to make the entire process successful.
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Next at Fort Worth SPJ ...
No meeting in August. But book yourself for Wednesday, Sept. 19, at Joe T. Garcia's (actually, La Puertita, the little church across the street), when former AP and Star-Telegram reportorial ace Mike Cochran discusses his new book on the Aggie who would have been governor, Clayton Williams.
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STRAIGHT STUFF
They're excited at the American Society of Business Publication Editors about former Dallas Morning News editor and writing coach Paula LaRocque speaking Wednesday, Sept. 19, on "The Secrets of Good Writing." Details next month. If you can't wait, contact organizer Tonie Auer -- 817-925-2013, tonieauer@gmail.com -- and you can get excited together. ...
Crisp topic, long title. Author Maya Reynolds tells all in "The Do's and Don'ts of Query Letters. Things I Did Right and Things I Did Wrong on the Way to Getting an Agent and Contract" at the Monday, Aug. 20, 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. Reynolds is a former teacher, stockbroker, psychiatric social worker and crisis team interventionist.who shares her desk with a 1-year-old kitten, Bob, that guards the right side of her laptop, making the letters U-I-O-P a particular challenge. She is a founder of Passionate Ink, the erotic romance chapter of Romance Writers of America. A year ago, NAL Heat, a division of Penguin, bought her manuscript "You've Been a Bad Girl." More on the Writers' League of Texas from Carol Woods at shurlock@flash.net. Other dates to save: 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, "Pitch It," a two-hour workshop; and 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 17 (regular meeting), "The Selling Author," with William F. Lee.
IABC local update: Janet White, author of "Secrets of the Hidden Job Market: Change Your Thinking to Get the Job of Your Dreams," will discuss those secrets at the Dallas IABC meeting Tuesday, Aug. 14. Info here.
PRSA local update: Oct. 20-23 marks PRSA's 2007 International Conference where top professionals in the industry will assemble in Philadelphia to share best practices for an evolving industry. More at prsa.org.
PRSA update II: TCU profs Will Powers and Melissa Schroeder will present "Misunderstandings: Intentional and Incidental" at the 2007 PRSA Ethics in Action luncheon (regular meeting) Wednesday, Sept. 12, at the Petroleum Club. Details next month.
SPJ national update: House panel approves reporter shield law; and win one, lose one in the student press. The House Judiciary Committee on Aug. 1 approved legislation to shield reporters from being forced by prosecutors to reveal their sources. The voice vote sent the bill, sponsored by Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and Mike Pence, R-Ind., to the House floor. Media companies and journalism groups have argued that the measure is needed to keep the public informed about government corruption. The Bush administration says it could harm national security. More here. ... Oregon is giving the high school and college student press back to students. Under a bill signed into law July 20 by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, students are guaranteed free-press rights at their school's newspaper or other media. "Student journalists are responsible for determining content of school-sponsored media," the law states. The law is the first student press rights law to be enacted by a state since 1995, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Student Press Law Center. More here. Meanwhile, First Amendment lawsuits by student journalists at public universities become moot when the plaintiffs graduate, according to a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. The ruling came in an appeal by two former editors of The Kansas State Collegian, who charged that their First Amendment rights were violated in 2004 when the university removed journalism prof Ron Johnson as the newspaper's adviser. More here.
SPJ national update II: Army private says he is New Republic's writer in Baghdad; and House renews funding for public broadcasting. The New Republic's anonymous "Baghdad Diarist" identified himself July 26 as Scott Thomas Beauchamp, an Army private in Iraq, and disputed as "maddening" the accusations that he invented his accounts of cruelty by American soldiers. Beauchamp is married to a New Republic staffer, and that is "part of the reason why we found him to be a credible writer," said the magazine's editor, Franklin Foer, who added that Beauchamp has put himself in jeopardy and "lost his lifeline to the rest of the world" because the military has taken away his laptop, cellphone and e-mail privileges. The Weekly Standard and conservative bloggers challenged Beauchamp's account of soldiers mocking a woman disfigured by an injury, getting their kicks by running over dogs with Bradley Fighting Vehicles and playing with Iraqi children's skulls taken from a mass grave. More here and here. ... The House rejected, 357-72, President Bush's plan to eliminate the $420 million federal subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The outcome was never in doubt, unlike two years ago when Republicans tried but failed to slash public broadcasting subsidies. The move to kill the subsidies, which make up about 15 percent of the CPB budget, was launched by Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo. More here.
SPJ national update III: Cowards and knaves, both sides of the aisle; and some in Congress pushing to reinstate Fairness Doctrine. A brawl over presidential pardons punctured the Senate ambience on the night of July 19, but Republicans and Democrats erased the evidence before the sun rose July 20. Democrats forced a vote on a nonbinding measure to instruct President Bush not to pardon former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. But the 47-49 vote won't be found in the daily record of congressional proceedings, because senators agreed less than an hour later to undo their vote and pretend it never happened. More here. ... In 1987 the FCC stopped requiring broadcasters to air contrasting views on controversial issues, a policy known as the Fairness Doctrine. The move is widely credited with triggering the explosive growth of political talk radio. Now, after conservative talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage helped torpedo a major immigration bill, the idea arises to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. That has unleashed an armada of opposition, with broadcasters joining Republicans in the fight. More here and here.
SPJ national update IV: What's a couple of fleeting profanities between friends?; and congressman to appeal taped-call case to Supreme Court. The Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill July 19 that would give the FCC the authority to regulate "fleeting profanities." The bill, sponsored by Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., is intended to reverse a recent federal appeals court ruling that challenged the FCC's indecency regime. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that the FCC had not justified why it had changed long-standing policy in ruling that a fleeting profanity was indecent. The ruling was a victory for broadcasters, who had challenged the commission's March 2006 indecency fines. More here. ... Rep. Jim McDermott says he will ask the Supreme Court to decide whether he had a right to disclose contents of an illegally taped telephone call involving House Republican leaders a decade ago. A federal appeals court ruled against McDermott in May, saying the Washington state Democrat should not have given reporters access to the taped telephone call. McDermott called the ruling an infringement of his First Amendment rights. More here.
SPJ national update V: Court rejects ACLU challenge to wiretap program; and N.C. appeals court sides with newspapers in open-records fight. In a defeat for journalists, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected an ACLU challenge to the Bush administration's warrantless wiretaps. The court vacated a lower court finding that the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program, which monitors phone calls inside the U.S. from parties outside the country, was illegal. The administration argues that the program is gathering foreign, not domestic, intelligence and is a necessary weapon in the war on terror. More here. ... And in a public-records victory, a Crolina state Court of Appeals on July 3 reversed part of a trial court ruling that allowed Columbus County officials to withhold a letter sought by the twice-weekly News-Reporter and weekly Tabor-Loris Tribune. A three-judge panel unanimously ruled that governments can't simply file a document in a personnel file and call it protected from the state's public-records law. The papers, which overlap in coverage area, filed a lawsuit in 2005 to see a letter related to hiring a new medical director for the county, which borders South Carolina in southeastern North Carolina. More here. Also on open records, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled May 25 that local law enforcement is not exempt from the state's open-records law, overturning a lower court ruling that would have allowed many files to be kept from public view. The ruling was a win for The Jackson Sun and a significant ruling in the eyes of many press and open-government advocates. More here.
SPJ national update VI: Northwestern faculty rip Medill School of Journalism. The faculty senate at Northwestern University has formally accused NU's administration of abolishing democracy at the Medill School of Journalism. A resolution adopted unanimously June 6 by the General Faculty Committee says it found NU's "suspension of faculty governance [at Medill] to be unacceptable and in violation of the University's Statutes." The resolution predicts "curricular changes that are ill considered ... the demoralization and enmity of the faculty ... damage to the national reputation of the School ... the loss of and the inability to hire faculty who believe that the faculty's role in governance is important for students, faculty and the public." The backdrop to the resolution is a series of internal and external audits in recent years that judged Medill -- which enjoys seeing itself as a journalism school without equal -- as an academic basket case. More here.
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Forum: Database Software
Ellen Brisendine, editor of The Cattleman magazine at the Texas Cattle Raisers Association, has a question: "To those who manage publications that contain paid advertising, what software program do you use to maintain the customer database, produce insertion orders, schedule the placement of ads, indicate size and shape, and support the billing process? Our company uses SpaceMaster, and we are interested in investigating other software packages."
Respond directly to Ellen -- ehbrisendine@texascattleraisers.org -- or to share your expertise with eChaser readers, reply to john@xdycus.com and watch for your answers in this space next issue.
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PEOPLE & PLACES
Que Public Relations has opened new offices at 678b Bandit Trail in Fort Worth. The boutique agency specializes in corporate communications, strategic communication planning and branding, and serves a range of clients, from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Principal Linda Jacobson began the agency in 2006 while finishing her master's degree at the University of North Texas. ...
Star-Telegram reporter Heather Landy has won the Gerald Loeb Award for Beat Writing, one of the highest honors in business journalism, for articles revealing that Dave Edmondson, the former RadioShack chief executive, lied on his résumé about his academic credentials. Landy received the award June 25 in New York at a dinner celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Loeb Awards. Other winners included reporters for "60 Minutes," The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Boston Globe. "Landy's piece is testament to how quality beat reporting can serve as an effective public watchdog," the judges wrote. "Displaying remarkable ingenuity, the reporter discovered the résumé inflation of RadioShack's chief executive officer and tenaciously pursued leads until the truth came out and the CEO resigned." The Loeb Awards, named for a founding partner of E.F. Hutton, are administered by the UCLA Anderson School of Management. ...
The Hondo Group is reaching out to the community with event sponsorship and other marketing for two nonprofit organizations. The DFW-based Alliance for Infant Survival supports research to understand and someday eliminate sudden infant death syndrome. Hondo will assist with the North Texas Golf for SIDS tournament in October; more than 140 golfers, sponsors and donors are expected. Hondo also is helping increase awareness of the National Dairy Shrine. Founded in 1949, the organization has more than 18,000 members who share a desire to preserve dairy heritage and keep the industry strong. The group gives more than $40,000 in scholarships per year.
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GET A JOB
CoServ, a growing electric cooperative with more than 120,000 residential, commercial and industrial members in parts of Denton, Collin, Tarrant, Wise, Cooke and Grayson counties, seeks a PR communications specialist to be responsible for all internal and external communications related to CoServ's image and reputation. More at coserv.com. Fax résumé to 940-270-6688, or e-mail humanresources@coserv.com. ...
A consumer-based PR firm is looking for a VP. Send résumé and salary history to Cheryl McCue at ckmccue@att.net. ... The Powell Group in Dallas seeks a senior account executive with at least four years' PR experience in corporate or agency work but a preference for agency. E-mail résumé and salary history to acctex@pro-hiring.com.
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NEW MEMBERS
PRSA ... Maiya Hollie, Reach Media ... Faye Crabtree, Cash America International ... Yolanda Yvette Walker, Cash America International ... Andrea Rosier, Child Study Center ... Liz Heck, The Hondo Group ... Natalie Parish, Stockyards Station ... John Smith, Lockheed Martin
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PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Marc Flake, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
Earlier this year, GFW PRSA asked members how we've been doing and how we could improve the services we provide. Have a few highlights of the survey, on me.
Of about 190 members, 67 participated. Two-thirds of those like the monthly luncheon meetings the second Wednesday of each month. A whopping 83 percent approve of the current location, the Petroleum Club.
A little less than half (47 percent) said they would participate in a chapter membership program, but another 38 percent said they would like more information before deciding.
Two topics tied for future chapter meetings at 39.4 percent of the votes -- "Integrated Marketing/PR/Communications" and "Measurement and Accountability." In descending order, the next five topics were "Media Relations," "Crisis Communications," "Trend Spotting," "Strategic Planning" and "Effective Writing."
Ethics remains a cornerstone of good public relations and must stay at the forefront of our programs and discussion. For the chapter's annual ethics meetings in 2007 and 2008, those who responded preferred listening to a panel of experts (47.8 percent) or participating in roundtable/small group discussions (25.4 percent).
Let's emphasize these over the coming year: networking events (43.9 percent), professional development programs (39.4 percent) and accreditation/APR preparation (34.9 percent). And what improvement did respondents think would give them the most value for their time and investment in PRSA? It was providing updates on PR trends and information.
We also received great suggestions for community service projects as well as ideas for programs, activities or initiatives for the chapter to address.
I'd like to thank everyone who responded to the survey. This is a valuable tool that will enable the board to tailor activities to the membership's needs. And the porch light's still on. Contact me at mflake@tarrantcounty.com with any fresh thoughts.
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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN
Betsy Boyett, IABC Fort Worth
This mild summer continues to fly by at the speed of light. Fortunately, IABC takes July off to regroup and analyze opportunities for the upcoming year. I hope you have appreciated your IABC membership as much as I have mine. Our membership is steady with a 76 percent retention and 24 percent membership increase. It seems others are realizing the benefits of IABC.
IABC truly attempts to arrange practical programming so that our membership will be able to utilize the advice from our speakers. We encourage our presenters to talk about the negatives and share what didn't work or what they would do differently. It's great to learn from others' experience. You can't get a better education than that!
We already have lots of great ideas in the works for more events that will allow us to exchange ideas with other organizations and utilize this great network of communicators that is at our fingertips.
On behalf of the IABC Fort Worth Board of Directors, I thank you for your support of IABC this past year and hope you will continue with your membership and will take advantage of the many opportunities planned during the upcoming year.
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Good job, Gayle Reaves-King, Paul King, Carolyn Poirot, Jack Strickland, Kay Pirtle, guitar strummer Jeff Prince, picture taker Brenda Davis and Mother Nature for hospitality, organization and breathtaking lake weather at Splash Day '07. Even the Fort Worth Boat Club fajitas had a little extra snap, as did Gayle's brownies for dessert, but then, the latter always do. Truly a great time. ...
Speaking of which, a great time is pretty much guaranteed when living legend Mike Cochran takes the stage Wednesday, Sept. 19, at Joe T.'s to sneak-preview his new book on 1990 Texas gubernatiorial candidate Clayton Williams. Williams himself might even be there, a fitting setting for a character who reportedly urged Hispanics to support his candidacy because he met his wife, Modesta, in a Mexican restaurant. What a bang-up way to start the FW SPJ year. Programs VP Paul LaRocque is at the top of his game, and it's just the first inning. ...
Life imitates art. Celebrated now-they've-got-him, now-they-don't freelance journalist Josh Wolf, recipient of the largest Legal Defense Fund grant in SPJ history, has announced plans to run for mayor of San Francisco. ...
Not the most uplifting (or surprising) report from SPJ member Stephanie Kanowitz, web editor at Federal Computer Week magazine. FOIA requests filed almost 20 years ago are still pending, according to the Knight Open Government Survey released July 2 by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. In January the archive filed FOIA requests with 87 federal agencies for copies of their 10 oldest open or pending requests. Five agencies -- the State Department, Air Force, FBI and CIA and the Justice Department's Criminal Division -- reported FOIA requests that have been pending for at least 15 years, according to the report. Other findings: Ten agencies misreported their oldest pending FOIA requests to Congress in their fiscal 2006 Annual FOIA Reports, which are required by law; 10 agencies misrepresented their FOIA backlogs to Congress; several agencies contradicted their own responses to the archive's two previous "10 oldest" audits by reporting requests this year that were significantly older than those they produced in 2003 or 2005. Bipartisan congressional efforts to solve some of the problems exposed in the archive's audits have stalled in the Senate, with Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., holding S. 849 from an up-or-down vote, according to a press release from the archive. The bill would impose penalties for agency delays, mandate accurate and timely tracking and reporting of FOIA requests, and give FOIA requesters new tools to hold agencies accountable. The House passed its FOIA Amendments of 2007 with a significant bipartisan majority. ...
Throughout the year, SPJ seeks nominations for its highest national honors. Members may leave feedback on candidates for the SPJ executive committee to see. Log in to the "For Members" section of the SPJ web site; anonymous feedback will not be accepted. More from programs coordinator Heather Porter at hporter@spj.org.
Closing words: "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." -- mathematician and mystic Blaise Pascal ... "There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do." -- Bill Watterson, who drew the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" for 10 years, then retired to devote his time to painting
Closing words II: "I was really gobsmacked when I got the call. ... I was thinking we were doing better, cranking out a lot of copy." -- William M. Reilly, 66, on learning that United Press International's long-running United Nations bureau will close after 62 years; Reilly joined UPI in 1961 and covered beats ranging from the Vietnam War to New York City courts before taking the U.N. beat 10 years ago ... "This is all bogus, because we won't have an economy if we destroy our environment." -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, refuting claims that protecting the environment will hurt the economy
Closing words III, one civilized man regarding another: "That fashion he has of brushing his hair and goatee so resolutely forward gives him a comical Scotch-terrier look about the face. ... But that queer old head took on a sort of beauty ... as I thought of the wonderful mechanism within it ... that could create men and women ... murder them, marry them, conduct them through good and evil, through joy and sorrow, on their long march from the cradle to the grave, and never lose its godship over them, never make a mistake! I almost imagined I could see the wheels and pulleys work." -- Mark Twain, one of the people who went to see Charles Dickens perform when he came to America