Flack's Revenge

If it iBleeds, it iLeads; Is tech journalism (and PR) Broken?

Recently some media critics have found fault with the state of tech journalism, particularly in light of all the attention lavished on the new iPhone.  E.g., Tom Foremski (who previously wrote about "tedious product journalism" in tech) said, in his piece What the iYawn 5 Reveals about the Dire State of Tech Journalism:

The rise of pageview journalism now dominates most newsrooms and its effects are seen in the torrent of near-identical news stories that desperately link-bait readers to click on rewrites of corporate PR releases...

Foremski says, essentially, that weightier stories are being ignored while the media goes overboard on their Apple enthusiasm: Here is another excerpt:

Tech journalists swarmed into Yerba Buena in San Francisco earlier this week to cover the much-anticipated Apple iPhone 5 launch. Some news organisations sent multiple reporters, Fortune sent five.

This small improvement in a mass-produced consumer product resulted in a flood of news coverage. Yet just yards [away]... Intel..was..  releasing details of its next generation Haswell microprocessor, and discussing where it sees the future of computing...How many stories have you seen about Haswell and IDF compared with the launch of Apple’s slightly longer, slightly slimmer iPhone?

Mic Wright wrote for Telegraph about what he called complicity between tech journalists and PR, using Apple as an exmaple too:

Reviewers tread a tricky line – they must be critical and honest to keep the confidence of their readers but can, if they hammer a particular brand too hard, find themselves left out in the cold, unable to get access to the review units they need to do their job.

Product-focused journalism is a compromised world. Even those voices that seem to be utterly outspoken ...are nothing of the sort. Gizmodo... turned viciously on Apple only after it was shut out of the company's briefings when it took possession of a stolen iPhone.  When someone strays from that plan... the complicity... between PR and the tech press is revealed. The product-led brand of tech journalism is not about objective reporting – it’s about access to shiny new objects.

If you were one of the many tech vendors or PR firms not aligned with Apple last week, it might be tempting to agree with Foremski.  We want the media to focus on what we think are the substantive stories involving our clients.

Yet complaining about this is like complaining that most bestselling books are not literature and most TV shows are crap. The media writes about the shiny new tech toys because we like to read about and own them. The media sometimes favor the lighter story because many readers want diversion and enterainment in news, not a homework assignment.

As far criticism that PR plays a role in corrupting the process, I have found that the outliers are the ones that make the news; we have all read about some of the more famous flameouts in tech PR.

However, from where I sit - as someone who has worked in the field for many years, and has watched, and been involved with countless campaigns - it seems to me that most PR folks are just trying to do their jobs, and get coverage for clients in a very ethical and non-controversial way.

Doubling Down on Sheer Idiocy

I used to love reading William Safire's NY Times magazine column On Language. Safire, was, among other things, a wordsmith. He loved to examine the hot phrases and words of the day, exploring their origins,  usage and relevance.

If Safire was alive today he would probably be writing about the phrase "doubling down".  It has been in the news quite a bit lately and seems to be one of those things that Safire would latch onto (I think most know that it is a phrase from the gambling, meaning to double your bet on a hand, for example when you are dealt a pair of Aces in Black Jack).

I am not even going to try a Safire-style piece, let's face it he was a genius. but let me at least make some observations.

The phrase started to get some play recently when Mitt Romney made some unfortunate comments following the attack on our embassy in Libya, and murdering of the ambassador and other U.S. personnel. He was challenged, did not back down and many in the media reported that he had "doubled down" on his position the next day.

Here's another example: This Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press show, David Gregory asked Representative Peter King:

DAVID GREGORY: Do you double down on a comment that this president has thrown Israel under the bus?

REP. PETER KING: He has not shown-- yes, I will. In the context of politics, yes, he has.

DAVID GREGORY: --the context of politics, it's either true or it's not.

REP. PETER KING: It is true.

And now apparently Romney is doubling down on his idiotic videotaped statement that dismissed most of the electorate as government-dependent. As the NY Times reported:

Mitt Romney on Tuesday fully embraced the substance of his secretly recorded comments that 47 percent of Americans are too dependent on government, saying that his views helped define the philosophical choice for voters in his campaign against President Obama.

(WSJ reported that the numbers have some validity; OK, but what about the part where Romney said that he didn't care about almost half the electorate?).

When politicians are asked if they are doubling down, you can interpret the interviewer's question as: "Did I really hear this correctly?" At this point the spokesperson has two choices: they can either back down or double down.

As you can see, the trend has been to do the latter, accompanied by some spinning and fancy footwork. I think the better strategy can be to man up, and admit that the statement was just plain dumb.

Romney and company are doubling down on sheer idiocy,

NY Tech Story Roundup: Invasion of Valley culture, Rise of AlleyCorp

Perhaps I enjoyed the end of the summer too much, and am now overdue for my usual Friday wrap on NY tech stories that are in the news.  Without further adieu, I share the latest, below:

The NY Times featured a nice profile of AlleyCorp, and NY tech titan and serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan.  Here's an excerpt:

Mr. Ryan, chief executive of the Gilt Groupe and a founder of several prominent Internet companies, is one of the technology world’s most influential people, with a career trajectory that mirrors the rise of New York’s tech scene.

Mr. Ryan and Dwight Merriman run a start-up factory called AlleyCorp, after Silicon Alley, a nickname given to New York’s answer to Silicon Valley. It has churned out companies that have almost nothing in common, from e-commerce to publishing to database software.

On a lighter and more fun note, the WSJ wrote that Silicon Valley mainstays such as beer pong are starting to invade the NY tech scene:

New York's recent technology boom is spawning a new cultural phenomenon: The laid-back, offbeat workplace vibe of Silicon Valley is now becoming more common in a city known for more traditional industries like finance, law and publishing. Start-ups are offering everything from free catered lunches to beer kegs. They're also bringing employees together for ping-pong games, rock-climbing lessons and laser tag.

What say you, NY tech denizens (or is it techizens)?  Are you seeing some of these things in your many and varied work spaces?

Attention Story Shoppers: Only 6 Pitching Days Left (NY Times Deconstructs Tech PR in Light of Apple News)

Our clients generally have very busy PR and marketing schedules. 

To get everything in, we try not to let external events dictate the pace. There are some obvious exceptions; you don't want to announce news on a major holiday, or shortly before or after one. If there is a major industry event, such as a trade show, and you or your client are not there, why compete with the noise of other announcements?

Then, there are the planned and unplanned events and news outside of tech that can steal the thunder from your announcement; You need to use good common sense and look at each situation, in general we are an aggressive shop and don't like to stand down if we don't have to (see my post Hypocrisy Rampant in "When not to Pitch a Story").

To use a real example, if you follow the world of tech or use an iPhone, you by now probably know that next week - September 12, to be exact - is when Apple is expected to announce iPhone 5 details.

The New YorkTimes covered how other vendors of consumer tech have adjusted their PR schedules in light of Apple, which does tend to suck the air out of all other coverage (see Rivals Jostle for Spotlight... and excerpts below).

Back when Apple was an underdog, it had an easier time shrouding its product announcements in mystery and perhaps catching its competitors off guard. But now technology companies are watching every one of Apple’s moves — and scrambling to get out in front of them.

Several major tech companies are cramming product announcements into this holiday-shortened workweek...

In past years it was common for technology companies to deliver product news at trade shows like the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Now some major companies have scaled back their presence at those conventions and followed Apple’s lead in running their own elaborate news conferences, hoping to grab the news media’s undivided attention.

Fall product introductions are important to companies seeking to generate excitement ahead of the holiday shopping season. The fall has become especially jam-packed with news in recent years as both the number of companies involved and their product lines have grown, with the addition of players like Amazon and its Kindle products as well as all the companies building mobile devices based on Google’s Android operating system.