Corporate shirt. PR flack. Web guy. Blogger. Beverage enthusiast. Hubby. Daddy. Diggity. Giggity.
36 hour 'til Monday. 54 dollars and change.
A mildly arrogant critique on the time-dishonored PR tradition of press release embargoes from Mike Yamamoto, founder of CNET News.com — but then again, I am just as arrogant.
If there's one subject that will always elicit a frothing response from me, along with politics and sports, it's embargoes. Whether it's the kind that restricts news or bans Cuban cigars, I would rise from my deathbed to vilify either atrocity.
In a nutshell, an embargo is a time stamp affixed to a press release or other official statement that tells the media "thou shalt not report upon until thy time stamp hath passed." For years, the press halfheartedly agreed to the practice, but these days it's akin to post-dating a check. The all-too-tempted recipient will just cash it regardless of what you or the bank say, and you will suffer the consequences.
Quite frankly, I believe embargoes still have their place, given the right relationship with the right reporter. There is something to be said about offering exclusives. Then again, I've had editors break embargoes over reporters' heads, and bloggers flatly admonish the practice. That said, I don't bother with them anymore. Way too risky when a well-intentioned embargo could turn corporate communications into crisis communications.
| 5:20 a.m. | Wake up, head for gym. |
|---|---|
| 5:21 a.m. | Wife regrets to inform that she feels sick. |
| 5:22 a.m. | Scratch gym. |
| 7:13 a.m. | Change toddler's diaper while just-turned-5-today older sister of said toddler refuses to rise. |
| 8:24 a.m. | Drop off precocious birthday girl and 24 pink frosting cupcakes to kindergarden class. |
| 9:00 a.m. | Coffee. |
| 9:01 a.m. | Conference call with PR agency to streamline media monitoring. And there was much rejoicing. |
| 10:55 a.m. | Caravan troops to West Michigan PRSA luncheon at the University Club in downtown Grand Rapids. |
| 11:27 a.m. | Network with fellow flacks, including Erin Russ, former TV anchor-turned-budding PR pro. |
| 11:37 a.m. | Assemble burrito and salad from otherwise unconventional buffet line. |
| 11:42 a.m. | Listen to local social media maven Laura Bergells tell us we already knew everything she had to say. Quotable tweets throughout her keynote. Make that "tweetable." |
| 11:59 a.m. | Observe varied body language and facial expressions throughout the crowd of entry-levels and senior execs furiously scribbling and texting, chomping every bit of jargon, mystified and demystified all the same. |
| 12:36 p.m. | Ask the good Ms. Bergelis about the relevance of homepages and emergence of microblogging and sidewikis. Not entirely sold on her answers but satisfied enough to want her business card. |
| 12:40 p.m. | The good Ms. Bergelis asks me about FriendFeed, to which I respond "Facebook bought it to kill it." |
| 12:44 p.m. | Thumb three new events into my BlackBerry I need to show my mug in as many weeks, sadly realizing how little I network in person anymore. |
| 1:11 p.m. | Make friends with Ms. Bergelis. |
| 1:20 p.m. | Huff it back to headquarters. |
| 1:47 p.m. | Marvel at the number of meeting invites, emails and Facebook updates that have metastasized my mailbox since lunch. |
| 1:56 p.m. | Coffee. |
| 2:30 p.m. | Meet with social media team to disc |
| 2:30 p.m. | Meet with core team for news update. |
| 2:42 p.m. | Pretend I didn't just see what I saw on live TV about a kid trapped in a balloon, suddenly thinking about my own kids. |
| 2:59 p.m. | Plod ahead. |
| 3:11 p.m. | Try not to get further distracted by the fact that some kid from Colorado didn't just fall from 10,000 feet up. |
| 3:45 p.m. | Fight with frozen screens and drained batteries at the worst possible time. |
| 3:50 p.m. | See footage of the landed balloon. |
| 3:51 p.m. | Refocus. |
| 4:28 p.m. | Wrap with core team and wait for lasagna from Vitale's. |
| 4:43 p.m. | Prep with night team while throwing my laptop across the room. |
| 4:49 p.m. | Sneak in a Gobbledygook award entry. |
| 4:52 p.m. | Call the wife to keep dinner in the fridge. |
| 4:57 p.m. | Set up time with one of my favorite employees. |
| 5:00 p.m. | Glue self to the TiVos. |
| 5:12 p.m. | "He's alive. He was hiding in the garage!" |
| 5:27 p.m. | Lasagna. |
| 5:30 p.m. | Wait for local news to unfold. |
| 5:40 p.m. | Am reminded that today is Thursday, not Wednesday, making tomorrow Friday. |
| 6:12 p.m. | Crack up at the #balloonboy hash tags. |
| 6:31 p.m. | Wait for local news to unfold. |
| 6:44 p.m. | Wrap up. |
| 7:07 p.m. | Go home. |
| 7:39 p.m. | Hug and tickle my girls until they can't breathe. |
| 7:42 p.m. | Apologize to my Mac for leaving it home today. |
| 8:02 p.m. | Endure the nightly bedtime ritual torture. |
| 8:29 p.m. | Hot cocoa and a pink cupcake. Add two miles to my next run. |
| 8:56 p.m. | Make a $100 million offer for W. 117th Street in Cleveland on Monopoly City Streets. Toss in two streets to boot. |
| 9:11 p.m. | Watch "The Office." |
| 9:36 p.m. | Catch up on catching up. |
| 10:00 p.m. | Record the local news against my wife's will. |
| 10:07 p.m. | Ping the core team for updates. |
| 10:23 p.m. | Make new connections on all social networks. Because at 10:23 p.m. on a Thursday evening, that's what I do. |
| 11:00 p.m. | Start this blog post. |
| 11:17 p.m. | Hush at least one child. |
| 11:52 p.m. | Bounce off the walls with the late night core crew. |
| 11:59 p.m. | Blog up. |
No comment. None needed:
Kudos to Wondergem PR and West Michigan PRSA for putting this together. Moreso to Grand Rapids media for being candid on camera.
Opening drive. First and 10 at the 35.
Hewlett-Packard PR takes the snap and goes into motion:
"HP Names Marc Andreessen to Board of Directors" http://bit.ly/ajAGj tip @techmeme
The New York Times Bits Blog opens up the line:
Andreessen should add some entrepreneurial thinking to HP's board. http://bit.ly/N5Xhz ^VG
HP peddles right, then left, then right again:
RT @nytimesbits: Andreessen should add some entrepreneurial thinking to HP's board. http://bit.ly/N5Xhz ^VG
Bits Blog blitzes for the sack:
Odd to be retweeted by @hpnews on a news release from HP.
HP drops back and throws long:
@nytimesbits we liked your commentary, hence the retweet...thx!
Pass is incomplete.
Corporate shirt. PR flack. Web guy. Blogger. Beverage enthusiast. Hubby. Daddy. Diggity. Giggity.
Corporate shirt. PR flack. Web guy. Blogger. Beverage enthusiast. Hubby. Daddy. Diggity. Giggity.
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