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Home > Blogs > The Cycle
The Cycle

Behind the McCain campaign

Posted December 3, 2008

For an upcoming JQA, I spoke with Katie Connolly, a political correspondent for . Connolly was granted behind-the-scenes access to the McCain campaign under the agreement that none of the reporting would be published until after Election Day. One question not included in the printed interview was, how did the McCain camp handle the final weeks of the campaign?

Connolly replied: “After the financial collapse in September, senior advisers knew the outlook was grim, but they continued to believe there was a path to victory, however slim. They decided not to tell McCain that he would likely lose while they believed his candidacy still ‘had a pulse,’ as one adviser put it.

Read more »

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Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Media, Public Affairs

Tags:John McCain, Newsweek, Steve Schmidt

Media will miss political ad spending

Posted October 27, 2008

It’s been well documented that the presidential election has equaled record ratings and online visitors for much of the media. However, the candidates are helping the media on the business end as well, as The New York Times’ David Carr . Political advertising spending is helping to keep ad revenues afloat through a significant drop in automotive, retail, and financial ad spending, Carr explains.

Yet even the hundreds of millions in media spending by Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and John McCain (R-AZ) won’t be enough to offset losses in other sectors, Carr reports, citing Marci Ryvicker, VP for equity research at Wachovia Capital Markets, who predicts a 1% 2008 decline in overall ad sales.

“This is the first year in history that advertising could decline in an even year,” she told Carr. “The finance guys, the auto guys, the retail sector are used to getting pushed off the air by the political ads and then returning, but this year, they won’t be coming back.”

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

Tags:Barack Obama, David Carr, John McCain, Marci Ryvicker, The New York Times, Wachovia Capital Markets

‘Newsweek’ reacts to Palin cover outrage

Posted October 10, 2008

Newsweek is responding to criticism over its October 13 , featuring a close-up shot of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, with a statement defending the photo choice.

The statement reads as follows: “Nigel Parry’s compelling portrait of Gov. Sarah Palin was shot and cropped so we could see clearly into her eye and be engaged by her smile. Gov. Palin and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) were photographed exclusively for Newsweek on August 29 and the portrait used on this weeks’ cover is from that session. As a news magazine, it is not our policy to cosmetically retouch the photography we publish; accordingly, we have not retouched the cover photos of Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. McCain.”

Said
Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly this week: “When they put you up close and personal on a magazine, even the most gorgeous supermodels in the world, they retouch you to get rid of the normal flaws that human being have. That’s what they do in the magazine business. [Newsweek] didn’t do it for Gov. Palin.”

Republican media consultant Andrea Tantaros expressed many of the same concerns on CNN and Fox News, which, it should be pointed out, was heavily criticized in July for drastically altering the photos of two New York Times staffers.

At the time, Brian Lewis, Fox News EVP of corporate communications, The New York Times that the network’s PR staff does not alter images of competitors, but had no control over stories that appeared on the network’s shows. He added that Fox News personalities going after other reporters also makes the job of the network’s PR department more difficult.

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Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Media, Politics

Tags:Andrea Tantaros, Barack Obama, Brian Lewis, CNN, Fox News Channel, John McCain, Megyn Kelly, New York Times, Newsweek, Nigal Parry, Sarah Palin

Politico to add staff, circulation, print days after election

Posted September 22, 2008

When Politico executive editor Jim VandeHei sat down to talk with PRWeek last month, he was confident that his publication and Politico.com Web site would not see a plunge in interest after the November 4 presidential election.

On September 22, the publication that it will beef up its staff after the contest, adding a White House reporting team among an additional 20 staff members. The publication will also increase its circulation from 26,000 to 32,000 and add a Monday issue to its thrice-weekly printing schedule.

“I think there will some drop-off in interest because there will not be as sustained of an interest,” VandeHei said last month. “But if Obama were to win…there would be a fascination with how he governs and how he runs the White House, and if McCain wins it will be similar because he is, in his own sort of way, a larger-than-life figure, so I think there will be a tremendous amount of interest.”

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Tags:Barack Obama, Jim VandeHei, John McCain, Mike Allen, Politico

McCain takes turn on ‘People’ cover

Posted September 15, 2008

Asked last week about increasing coverageof presidential contenders by celebrity and entertainment magazines, Tom Hollihan, professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication, told PRWeek that “the magazines are realizing that politicians have become celebrities.”

Almost on cue, Sen. John McCain appears on the cover of this week’s issue of People magazine with his family. The interview mostly centers on the Republican candidate’s family life and the role of his wife, Cindy.

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Tags:Cindy McCain, John McCain, People, Tom Hollihan, University of Southern California

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

AP: Fournier memo standard internal communications

Posted September 4, 2008

Ron Fournier, the Associated Press’ Washington bureau chief, has taken some criticismfrom liberal bloggers for what they considered a too-cozy relationship with former White House strategist Karl Rove. Some have also accused him of of the McCain campaign.

This summer, Ellen Hale of the AP’s corporate communications department wrote an internal memo to organization managers reminding them of Fournier’s qualifications and career highlights, including highly critical coverage of the response to Hurricane Katrina. The memo became public.

AP director of media relations Paul Colford told PRWeekthat the memo is authentic but declined to comment on blogosphere reaction.

“The readers of PRWeek in particular will surely recognize the wisdom of summarizing and addressing internally any abundance of outside chatter about a valued employee, in this case our Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier,” he said.

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Tags:Associated Press, Ellen Hale, Fournier, John McCain, Karl Rove, Paul Colford

Paris spoofs McCain

Posted August 7, 2008

Paris Hilton responded to Sen. John McCain’s use of her image in an against Sen. Barack Obama, in a slightly different manner than her . She created a campaign ad of her own. Posted on FunnyorDie.com, the video shows Hilton, lounging by a pool.

“I’m Paris Hilton and I’m a celebrity too,” she says. “Only I’m not from the olden days and I’m not promising change like that other guy. I’m just hot. Then that wrinkly, white haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which I guess means I’m running for President. Thanks for the endorsement white-haired dude. And I want America to know I’m totally ready to lead.”

She also focused on her energy policy and mentioned Rihanna as a possible running mate. “See you at the debates, bitches!”

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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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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

Next Page »

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For both journalists and communicators, the news cycle never ends. At The Cycle, PRWeek’s editorial team offers commentary and viewpoints on how the latest marketing, business, political, and cultural news impact the PR industry.

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