Stop Pillorying PR: Let's Call Out Crappy Reporting for a Change - Who's With Me?
By Christopher Parente, Managing Director, Strategic Communications Group
If you are a communications professional, you are sure to have heard that PR staff and the media need each other. It's a symbiotic relationship that won't work unless each side respects the other and understands where the other party is coming from. That may have been true at one time, but the relationship is a very uneven one when it comes to accountability.

Agency Management Series: Research Reveals Six Traits of Stellar Agency Leaders
By Maureen Broderick, CEO, Broderick & Company, Author, "The Art of Managing Professional Services: Insights from Leaders of the World's Top Firms"
Of all the ingredients in the professional service mix, leadership is probably the most essential to success - and often the most elusive. In most industries the person in the corner office calls the shots. Operating within a traditional command-and-control environment is relatively straightforward: the divisions between leading, managing, and following are clearly defined and widely understood. In contrast, the matrix structure that most professional service firms have embraced is a far more dynamic business model; it's flat, fluid, fragmented, and often unruly. "In a partnership," observed one CEO, "everyone's an owner, so you have to make sure that everyone's interest is heard and dealt with."

Lock in the Job! 5 Ways to Rock the Dreaded Phone Interview
By Marie Raperto, The Hiring Hub
These days, phone calls and smart phones are an everyday part of the job interviewing process. In fact, an Accountemps survey last week showed that: 81% of managers cited phone calls as an appropriate way to express thanks after meeting with a hiring manager. And similarly, recruiters and hiring managers are using phone interview screenings more and more. It is estimated that more than half of all first interviews take place over the phone.


.BIZ CHANNELS

Hunter PR: Five Things You Need to Know About Visual Storytelling In Social Media
By: The Social & Digital Media Practice at Hunter PR for Latergy's Social Video Channel
Social media has forever changed the way people share information. But the origins of social media behavior can be traced to an exercise most learn at a young age: show and tell. While traditional media has always done both, the early days of social media included long-form blogging and a Facebook page that featured only one image - your profile photo. Today, Facebook's Timelines highlights images more than status updates and microblogs lean on photo captions more than narrative posts.


Public Relations News

PR Fall Gal? Stephanie Harnett, Member of PR Team Hired by Walmart, Fired for Posting as Reporter
Huffington Post
An employee of Walmart's Los Angeles public relations firm was fired Thursday for pretending to be a news reporter at an event staged by a labor union trying to organize the retail giant's warehouse workers. Stephanie Harnett, 26, showed up at a June 6 Warehouse Workers United press conference claiming to be a journalism student at the University of Southern California. She signed in as "Zoe Mitchell," records show, and interviewed attendees about labor conditions at Walmart's warehouses. At another press conference a week later, union members spotted Harnett again. This time, she introduced herself as a Mercury PR representative and offered reporters interviews with Walmart officials. When confronted, Harnett denied attending the union's press conference. Harnett "is no longer with our company," said Becky Warren, managing director of Mercury Public Affairs, in an email statement ...

PR Services News: Cision, Dow Jones Announce Copyright Settlement
Bloomberg
Dow Jones & Co. says it has settled with a Swedish public relations research firm that reproduced its news content without paying for it. Dow Jones, a unit of News Corp., announced Wednesday that Cision AB and its U.S. subsidiary have paid "a significant sum" to settle a claim based on Cision's unauthorized reproduction of content including articles from The Wall Street Journal. The parties agreed to settle Dow Jones' claims without litigation. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. As a result of the settlement, Cision is no longer redistributing Dow Jones' original content. Instead, Cision's subscribers will be directed to Dow Jones if they seek to obtain such content ...


Marketing News

Mobile Marketing: iPad Widens Its Lead over Tablet Competitors
Washington Post
The global market for tablet computers is growing faster than expected, with Apple Inc.'s iPad widening its lead as consumers' top choice, according to market researcher International Data Corp. Worldwide shipments of tablets this year will be 107.4 million units, up from an earlier projection of 106.1 million, Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC said today in a statement. Worldwide shipments should reach 142.8 million next year and 222.1 million by 2016, the group said. Even as companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. release new tablets running Google Inc.'s Android operating system, Apple's iPad continues to dominate the market. IDC predicts the iPad will account for 62.5 percent of global shipments this year, up from 58.2 percent last year ...

One in Five Americans Will Use Tablets by End of 2012
emarketer
In just over 12 months, tablet ownership has expanded beyond the early adopter set to include nearly all population groups. To reflect this rapid growth in tablet adoption and purchase intent over the past six months, eMarketer has raised its estimate for the number of tablet users in the US. The new forecast projects that the triple-digit growth seen in 2011 will carry through 2012, fueled primarily by the popularity of Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle Fire, as well as by an expanding selection of low-priced tablets. eMarketer projects more than 20% of US consumers - nearly 70 million Americans - will use a tablet by year's end, and in three years' time half of all internet users will be armed with them. Of this growing population of tablet owners, more than half reported shopping on their tablets at least once per week and 12% shopped daily, according to data released by rich media marketing platform provider Zmags in January 2012 ...

Say on Pay News: Growing CEO Pay Creates PR Problem for Governance
Forbes
A new study for The New York Times reveals that the media pay for the top 200 CEOs is now $14.5 million. This is up 55 in the last year. While any one CEO may be well worth his/her raise, it is a growing political and PR problem for corporate America to be seen as rewarding those at the top, with little consideration for actual performance. For millions of Americans who are unemployed, under employed and being foreclosed on, it seems inconceivable that corporate CEOs can be getting significant raises at a time of such economic hardship. Those who have a vested interest in corporate governance and in public markets have a duty and obligation to reduce cynicism in the eyes of the public. Public companies and their CEOs need to start dealing with pay cuts in bad years, or face an angry uprising from investors and citizens who might demand something a great deal more dramatic ...

Wall Street Week Ahead: Greek Elections and Fed Statement to Keep Tensions High
Chicago Tribune
Instead of backyard barbecues and beer, this Father's Day saw many investors with their minds on Greece. The Greek election, that is. One thing is almost certain to come from the Sunday event, and that is more volatility for U.S. stocks, according to analysts and investors. "I think the S&P futures will see their high or low depending on the outcome within one hour of the futures' opening on Sunday night at 6 p.m. Eastern time," said Elliot Spar, option market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Analysts have viewed the Greek election as a potential turning point for Greece, with all eyes on whether voters will favor the leftist Syriza party opposed to the austerity measures that are part and parcel of Greece's international bailout package, or the conservative New Democracy, which is committed to upholding terms of that agreement. The rest of the week is not likely to be any quieter. The Federal Reserve is due to release a policy statement on Wednesday at the end of its two-day meeting ...

Employee Communications: New Research Reveals High Performing Organizations Incorporate Employee Recognition
MarketWatch
"The State of Employee Recognition in 2012" report from Bersin & Associates reveals organizations with recognition programs highly effective at improving employee engagement have 31 percent lower voluntary turnover than organizations with ineffective recognition programs. Other highlights include: 46% of employees ranked "being valued and rewarded" as one of the top three factors when choosing where to work. When on the job, the reality is: 57% of CEOs strongly agree or agree that employees are regularly recognized/ Only 9% of employees strongly agree they are regularly recognized ...

Crisis Communications: VatiLeaks Puts the Pope's Spokesman in PR Hell
Daily Beast
Talk about bad timing. In week that saw news break Thursday that U.S. Bishops are launching a PR campaign to polish their image, a set of Vatican leaks puts the Vatican's Jesuit spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, in a tough spot coping with allegations of a disappeared hacker. The Vatican's chief information technology guru had disappeared without a trace, taking with him the passwords, codes, and presumably secrets from the Vatican's intranet servers. The nameless Vatican employee was, curiously, said to be an ex-hacker who had broken the Vatican firewall once before and then redeemed himself to land a trusted position. That's just the beginning of the stories that the Holy See's spinmeister is juggling this week ...

Microsoft Files Patent to Serve Ads Based on Mood, Body Language
Ad Age Digital Next
Microsoft has filed for a patent for technology to target ads to consumers based on their emotional states, taking the notion of "tracking" to a literal level. In an application made public last week, Microsoft sought to patent an advertising engine that gauges people's emotional states based on their search queries, emails, IM and use of online games, as well as facial expressions, speech patterns and body movements. The ad engine is device-agnostic, but the Microsoft product that appears ready-made to deliver emotionally targeted ads is Kinect, the motion-sensing input device that was released for Xbox but now also has a version for Windows. The application states that a user who screams or paces back and forth, when observed by Kinect, could be assigned a negative emotional state by a currently hypothetical advertising engine ...

Ad Festival Kicks Off: Cannes International Festival of Creativity Underway
USA Today
Advertising and marketing pros have gathered in the South of France for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which is the ad world's largest trade show and awards event. Thousands of ad executives gather each year at the festival, where they learn about the latest digital advances, hear from creative-minded speakers and view standout marketing from around the world. Panels of judges also evaluate campaign entries to select the most creative and innovative in categories such as digital, print and outdoor. This year, there are more than 34,000 entries from 87 countries. The festival began on Sunday and wraps up on Saturday, June 23 ...