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DKC running communications for Huffington Post ball

Posted January 16, 2009

DKC is handling PR and logistics for the Huffington Post’s Preinagural Ball, taking place the night of January 19 at the Newseum in Washington. The agency is conducting outreach to titles across a broad spectrum of media to promote pre-, post-, and during-event coverage of the ball, which boasts a celebrity guest list ranging from Steven Spielberg to Ashton Kutcher, said Matthew Traub, chief of staff and MD at DKC. The event itself features a broad range of new media components, as well as a theme of encouraging public service, Traub told PRWeek.

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Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Blogs, Events, Journalism 2.0, Media, New Media, Politics, Web sites

Tags:Ashton Kutcher, DKC, Huffington Post, Matthew Traub, Steven Spielberg

MS&L memo: Focus on AP

Posted January 12, 2009

It’s not a coincidence if more MS&L Washington-based staffers are adding Associated Press journalists to their speed dials, buddy lists, and Twitter accounts.

With the local media landscape changing rapidly, pitching DC journalists can be a confusing task. With that in mind, MS&L’s DC office is advising staff members to increasingly pitch AP reporters.

“Putting on a concerted push at the AP in Washington will be a key to any media strategy, and it is important that MS&L clients meet as many of these reporters and editors as will agree to see them. It is not as prestigious as a sit-down at, say, The New York Times bureau, but ultimately it may have more impact,” said Michael Flagg, SVP at the agency, in a memo to staffers. “In one of the stranger new media developments, a television channel – CNN – has announced a competing print wire service that utilizes the same global reach AP has. That is bad news for AP, but good for MS&L clients, since the CNN service is likely to have a big Washington component, too.”

Says Flagg about Web news: “The big fish is still the conservative-oriented Drudge Report, but middle-of-the-road Politico and the left-leaning Huffington Post have a lot of visibility.”

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Filed under: Journalism 2.0, Media, New Media, Politics, Public Affairs, Web sites

Tags:Associated Press, CNN, Drudge Report, Huffington Post, Michael Flagg, MS&L, Politico, The New York Times,

Gibson gets first Palin interview, but why?

Posted September 11, 2008

After two weeks of having Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on the Republican ticket, Sen. John McCain’s campaign eventually had to develop a media relations strategy – other than hiding her, of course. For its part, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said Palin will do interviews on her own terms.

But why ABC News’ Charles Gibson for the first interview, especially considering the widely criticized Democratic debate he hosted in April? The Huffington Post’s Rachel Sklar has seven reasons why Gibson gets the first interview, and not Katie Couric or Brian Williams.

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Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Media, Politics

Tags:Brian Williams, Charles Gibson, Huffington Post, John McCain, Katie Couric, Rachel Sklar, Rick Davis, Sarah Palin

PR advice for the Obama campaign

Posted September 10, 2008

Leah McElrath Renna, managing partner at Renna Communications, posted an Op-Ed on the Huffington Post yesterday titled, “For God’s Sake , Get on Message! Ten Tips for the Obama Campaign.” She writes: “As a Democrat, I am nervous and on the verge of desperation. As a media relations professional - someone who does messaging and media training for a living -I am simply puzzled. This is not hard stuff.” She then proceeds to give the Obama campaign advice it needs to follow if it has any hope of defeating Sen. McCain. While Renna’s political leanings are clearly Democratic, the points she makes are useful for any political campaign, or for that matter any campaign at all. It’s a reminder that in politics, a little PR 101 can go a long way.

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Tags:Barack Obama, Huffington Post, John McCain, Renna Communications

MSNBC’s left turn not obvious to everyone

Posted August 22, 2008

MSNBC’s , announced Tuesday, to remove legal analyst and former network GM Dan Abrams from its 9 pm time slot in favor of commentator Rachel Maddow, by The New York Times’ Brian Stelter as a move to the left in search of higher ratings. Stelter noted that ratings of Keith Olbermann’s Countdown have nearly doubled since he began delivering “special comment” on-air editorials, usually criticizing President Bush. Therefore, placing the generally liberal Maddow in a coveted spot where MSNBC could conceivably gain ground on ratings leader Fox News Channel, would seem to be a logical – some would say obvious – step.

The Huffington Post’s Rachel Sklar, for the most part, concurs. However, the management of the Huffington Post, curiously, did not. Sklar’s column was published on a Poynter Institute forum by media blogger Jim Romanesko because the post was not “congruent with HuffPost’s editorial position against the media’s penchant for viewing everything through a left/right prism.”

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Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Blogs, Media, Politics, Web sites

Tags:Brian Stelter, Countdown, Dan Abrams, Fox News Channel, Huffington Post, Jim Romanesko, Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, New York Times, President Bush, Rachel Maddow, Rachel Sklar

If satire isn’t your thing…The New Yorker isn’t for you

Posted July 15, 2008

If the goal of The New Yorker’s July 21 was to grab attention, it has succeeded – maybe beyond the wildest dreams of the magazine’s editors.

Here’s some reaction to the cover – which depicts, satirically, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and his wife in garb associated with al Qaeda and a 1960s radical leftist group, respectively – from around the Web: Read more »

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Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Blogs, Culture, Media, Politics, Web sites

Tags:Andrew Malcolm, Barack Obama, Black Panthers, Bush Administration, David Remick, Huffington Post, Jeffrey Feldman, John McCain, Los Angeles Times, Michael Scherer, Michelle Obama, Oval Office, Rachel Sklar, Supreme Court, Swampland, The New Yorker, Time, William Rehnquist

Times’ Carr takes on Fox News PR

Posted July 7, 2008

Fox News’ PR operation took a beating in today’s New York Times by David Carr, who alleges that media relations at the network is “a kind of rolling opposition research operation intended to keep reporters in line by feeding and sometimes maiming them.”

Carr reports that the strategy is born from CEO Roger Ailes’ days as a political adviser for presidents Nixon, Reagan, and George HW Bush. Says Carr: “Once the [PR] apparatus at Fox News is engaged, there will be the calls to my editors, keening (and sometimes threatening) e-mail messages, and my requests for interviews will quickly turn into depositions about my intent or who else I am talking to.” Read more »

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Tags:Brian Lewis, Broadcasting & Cable, Choire Sicha, CNN, David Carr, FishbowlNY, Fox and Friends, Fox News, George HW Bush, Huffington Post, Jacques Steinberg, Mike Malone, New York Times, News Corp, Noah Davis, Rachel Sklar, Radar, Richard Nixon, Roger Ailes, Ronald Reagan

Washington Post could launch standalone politics Web site

Posted July 1, 2008

Many politically focused Web sites and blogs are enjoying the popularity wave of this year’s presidential election, but no doubt worrying about where their readers will go afterwards. The Huffington Post, for instance, announced last month that it will launch a Chicago edition, focused on local news.

The Washington Post may be going in the opposite direction. With its Web site already filled with local, international, business, sports, and lifestyle news – in addition to its leading political coverage – the newspaper is reportedly considering launching a politics-only site. Ironically, former Post staffers John Harris and Jim VandeHei in November 2006 with a similar idea, which evolved into Politico.com.

However, Jim Brady, WashingtonPost.com executive editor, speaking to the Washington City Paper, didn’t exactly give the idea a ringing endorsement.

“I don’t know what it is yet,” he said. “The question is, basically, that we already have a politics page that kind of aggregates everything we do in politics.”

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Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Blogs, Journalism 2.0, Media, New Media, Politics, Web sites

Tags:Huffington Post, Jim Brady, Jim VandeHei, John Harris, Politico.com, Washington City Paper, Washington Post, WashingtonPost.com

BurrellesLuce ranks top media outlets

Posted May 23, 2008

USA Today, AARP The Magazine, and Huffington Post are the top newspaper, magazine, and blog according to the annual ranking conducted by BurrellesLuce, now in its fifth year. The ranking is based on the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ (ABC) circulation figures and the Technorati Authority, which measures the influence of a blog based on links to it.

“The top five blogs didn’t have as much movement as in previous years,” said Gail Nelson, SVP of marketing for BurrellesLuce. “At the top of the blogosphere, there are these franchises that are being developed that stick.”

Also in the top five, in descending order, are TechCrunch, Engadget, Gizmodo, and Boing Boing.

Nelson also notes that, among the top 25 magazines, many women’s magazines appear. Among the top ten magazines are Women’s Day (#8), Ladies’ Home Journal (#9), and Better Homes and Gardens (#4). Magazine rankings cover the six months ending December 31, 2007.

Rounding out the top five daily newspapers are The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Daily News (New York). Newspaper rankings cover the six months ending March 31, 2008.

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Filed under: Blogs, Media

Tags:AARP The Magazine, BurrellesLuce, Huffington Post, magazines, newspapers, USA Today

DKC running communications for Huffington Post ball

MS&L memo: Focus on AP

Gibson gets first Palin interview, but why?

PR advice for the Obama campaign

MSNBC’s left turn not obvious to everyone

If satire isn’t your thing…The New Yorker isn’t for you

Times’ Carr takes on Fox News PR

Washington Post could launch standalone politics Web site

BurrellesLuce ranks top media outlets

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