Trevor Cook on public relations, social media and politics

Category Archives: Public Relations

Has News Ltd been stung again?

May 22, 2009 – 4:02 pm

The News website has been making great fun with their Clare the Bogan story all day, but is the joke on them? Is it the Pauline Hanson photos fiasco all over again?
Update: I now have reason to believe that she is real and went to Stella Maris College in Manly.
Update 2 (Sunday morning): She [...]

By Trevor Cook | Also posted in Media | Tagged Clare the bogan, News Limited, PR stunts | Comments (0)

Ken Henry’s communication problem

May 20, 2009 – 6:08 am

Treasury boss says he’s got one. If he does he might want to reflect that arrogance and an extreme sensitivity to criticism are never the foundation for great two-way communication:
STEPHEN LONG: For eight years now Ken Henry’s given the post-Budget speech to economists as the head of Treasury and in that time, few Federal Budgets [...]

By Trevor Cook | Also posted in Business & economics, Media | Tagged Federal Budget, Ken Henry | Comments (0)

How to pitch bloggers – PR gives social marketing advice

May 18, 2009 – 7:51 pm

By Trevor Cook | Also posted in Advertising & marketing, Business & economics, Social Media | Tagged Marketing, PR, Social Media | Comments (1)

What Matthew Johns should do

May 13, 2009 – 8:41 am

Johns’ reputation is a key part of his future earning capacity. At the moment his reputation is sinking faster than the Irish economy. Sydney talkback callers are ignoring the Budget to keep talking about Johns. Even his well-meaning supporters are doing him damage with arguments like: ’sure group sex is disgusting but …’. Instead of [...]

By Trevor Cook | Tagged Matthew Johns, NRL | Comments (5)

“Skyful of lies”: crisis management in a new era

May 13, 2009 – 6:01 am

From Richard Bailey: “A new Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism paper (free pdf) by BBC newsreader Nik Gowing discusses the challenges of information control in the era of news 24 and citizen journalism.”

By Trevor Cook | Tagged crisis management | Comments (0)

Is PR part of the media’s problem?

May 5, 2009 – 3:44 am

The PR industry provides a large and, apparently, growing share of media content:
Macnamara said the data showed 30-80 per cent of media content was sourced from, or significantly influenced by, PR practitioners, depending on the outlet, with estimates of 40-75 per cent common.
The definition of PR material included all information released to the media by [...]

By Trevor Cook | Also posted in Advertising & marketing, Media | Tagged Media, PR, PRIA | Comments (1)

Cluetrain stalled at the platform

April 29, 2009 – 7:23 pm

So it’s been ten years. For a few years, I was like a latter day Karl Marx scouring the newspapers looking for evidence that the revolution was underway. Now, I don’t bother anymore. There’s lots of marginal stuff, many organisations that are dipping their toes in the water. But for the most part, like say [...]

By Trevor Cook | Also posted in Advertising & marketing, Business & economics, Enterprise 2.0, Social Media | Tagged Cluetrain | Comments (1)

A comedy show can make (or break) your book

April 24, 2009 – 8:31 am

Barry Ritholtz reports on a fascinating discussion with his publisher:
What really surprised me was their reactions to two of the quasi-news opinion programs — The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The Glen Beck Program.
After Oprah, these two are (apparently) amongst the biggest book sellers on TV. Like Oprah, Glenn Beck has a loyal audience, is perceived [...]

By Trevor Cook | Also posted in Books | Tagged Books, Jon Stewart | Comments (2)

Indigenous communications

April 22, 2009 – 12:47 pm

This is a shameless plug. I did a fair bit of work with Noel Niddrie, of Winangali, a few years ago and I reckon he does a great job. Noel has just got a brand new, gorgeous, website. So if you need someone to help get a message out to Aboriginal communities, check out Winangali.

By Trevor Cook | Tagged indigenous communications | Comments (0)

It’s the content, stupid

April 22, 2009 – 7:37 am

Nathan Rees chief of staff, Wedderburn, is right, the NSW Ministers are hopeless media performers.
Part of the reason for that is that for the most part they are dull, unintelligent and uninspiring people. But perhaps even more importantly they have nothing of substance to say. They are a strategy-free zone. The NSW Government is directionless. [...]