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I just read an interesting account of the latest dust-up between PR agencies and two disgruntled journalists who have shutout PR pitches or outreach of any kind. I guess it was wishful thinking that the worst abuses by the PR industry – which continue to tarnish the reputation and many of its professionals – would not be exported to the Web. The Seven Promises proposed here by Todd Defren - essentially a checklist designed to avoid egregrious PR practices around “pitching” a story - make a lot of sense. Anybody starting out in the business should paste these rules on their cubicle wall. In the meantime, don’t be surprised if you get called a hack or publicist. You are paying the price for the mistakes of others.
Our friends at All Things Digital have apparently unearthed the latest internal memo from Jerry Yang at Yahoo – this one updating employees on the attempt by Carl Icahn to replace the Board of Directors. Check out the memo here. You’ve got to give Yang some credit for being somewhat candid and timely with employees, but upon closer examination the memo lacks credibility. (FYI – the ATD folks describe the memo as the latest example of Yang’s ”keep-your-head-in-the sand” argument.) For one thing, the FAQs are laughingly short and conveniently avoid the toughest questions that are surely on the lips of most Yahoo employees and investors, such as:
- Why did our stock value plunge by tens of billions of dollars the day the Microsoft deal fell through?
- Why are Yahoo senior leaders the only ones who apparently see the hidden value and potential of our company?
- Is there a chance we will reconsider the Microsoft offer?
- What is the plan to boost our revenue and margins and restore the value of our stock?
For another, Yang does not add much from previous updates to employees. And the “us against them” cheerleading is becoming stale and less relevant by the day. Yang needs to go beyond sparse, defensive statements and lay out his arguments for why the company can survive better without a new Board or partner. It’s possible Yang has already made that case with employees, but if so now is the time to reaffirm his key points and provide a progress report. Is it working? What are the next steps?
Finally, I suspect Yahoo employees do not see much value in being told (again) to not get distracted by this latest front-page drama. Not get distracted? Of course not, they’ll just keep their head down and continue working despite the fact there is massive media coverage about their CEO’s isolationist position and ongoing rumors about the viability of their strategy and company. Thanks for the advice. It’s understandable Yang wants to calm the waters and keep his employees focused, but at this stage in this melodrama such bromides are likely useless, if not counter-productive. Rather than telling them what not to do, Yang may want to tell his employees what he wants them do…to direct their energy and attention on his master plan for survival, whatever that is.
Stay tuned….
AOL’s recent announcement that it was launching a number of new “micro-sites” marks another step in the evolution – and struggle for survival – of one of the initial mega-portals on the Internet, which for many was their first connection to the Web…sort of a digital first kiss. Check out this article on Wired for details. AOL’s experimentation was caused by the implosion of their original business model about ten years ago – charging millions of subscribers for access to the Web (via dial-up!) within the context of a closed environment. That was fine while it lasted, but the model became irrelevant when dozens of competitors began offering cheaper and faster connections and users made it clear being behind firewalls was no longer acceptable.
This latest move reflects the ongoing strategic exploration that seems to vacillate between a focus on prominent portals – be they Google or Yahoo – or building numerous sites designed to reach ever smaller on-line communities of interest. Clearly, AOL is moving as fast as it can towards the latter. The strategy can work, but the challenges of drawing (and retaining) an audience and somehow making money remains. In fact, it may be harder to draw users to these smaller sites given the increasing number of blogs, sites and online forums competing for traffic. As an aside, Kudos to AOL for finally opening the door to links to/from their sites, which will allow them to spread their networking reach and make their content much more credible and dynamic. Anything that presents a hurdle to users – be it a registration process, entry cost or difficulty getting information – is a very big negative in the increasingly free-flowing and inter-connected Web.
