The Update

2/2005

Welcome to the first issue of our new online newsletter.We believe you will find it easier to read than the former PDF version. Past issues can be found by going to www.prsaspokane.org and clicking on the "Newsletters" link.

Measurement guru Katie Delahaye Paine is guest speaker for the Feb. 4 joint meeting of the Greater Spokane PRSA Chapter and the Spokane Public Relations Council. The meeting begins at 30 a.m. in the COG Building at Gonzaga University. Cost is $9 for PRSA and SPRC members, $7 for students, and $11 for non-members and guests.

Paine will present an SPRC-sponsored workshop from 9:15 to 11:15 a.m. at the COG. That event is free for SPRC members and $10 for others, payable at the door.

Paine is the founder of KDPaine & Partners LLC and publisher of The Measurement Standard, the first newsletter for marketing and communications professionals dedicated entirely to measurement and accountability.

For the past 17 years, Paine has been providing marketers and communications professionals tools, data and information to help them make better business decisions. She and her firms have read and analyzed millions of news articles, Internet postings and internal communications and conducted hundreds of thousands of interviews in her relentless pursuit of quantitative and qualitative measures of her clients'  marketing success.

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(Maggie is home recuperating from surgery. We all wish her a speedy recovery.)

Once again we find the public relations profession sullied by the actions of a few people that most of us wouldn't even consider public relations practitioners. The Spokesman-Review on Jan. 27 gave the story the headline "Report: $88 million spent on PR," and the lead tells us that the value of the Bush administration's contracts with PR firms last year was 128 percent more than during the Clinton years.

But if you read the rest of the story, you learn that the uproar is really over syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher touting Bush's "healthy marriage" initiative while working under a $21,500 contract from the Department of Health and Human Services, and conservative commentator Armstrong Williams failing to disclose his $241,000 Education Department contract to promote the president's No Child Left Behind law.

Seems to me that "syndicated columnist" and "conservative commentator" are titles given to folks working in the news media, not public relations firms. During my 17 years as a journalist, taking money from a news source was always a sure-fire way be summarily discharged.

Columnists who are on anyone's payroll without disclosing that source of income are in violation of the Code of Ethics of the Public Relations Society of America as well as the Society of Professional Journalists. We should all own up to the failings in our own profession. In this case, the shortcoming is not with the "$88 million spent on PR," but with news media columnists and commentators who fall short of ethical standards.

Garry Matlow
President-elect

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Advocacy * Honesty * Expertise * Independence * Loyalty * Fairness

 The six values mentioned above summarize the Public Relations Society of America's pledge—a pledge expected of all members—to act ethically regarding clients, the public, the law, and our profession.  Our PRSA Code of Ethics is designed to help us build the image of our profession. The thought is that all of us as public relations professionals ought to recognize that our industry needs to work hard to develop better respect and recognition as a professional institution.

The PRSA value-of-the-month is independence.

Perhaps, to you, this concept of independence, by itself, doesn’t make a lot of sense as a driving value of the Public Relations profession.  I mean, what does it mean to be independent?  We’re already free.

But if we look a bit deeper into PRSA’s Member Code of Ethics, we see that independence is related to two more “grippable” concepts:  objectivity and accountability.

Each of us is expected to provide objective advice to our clients or employers.  That means, if a client asks us for advice, we have to weigh that advice on the scale of the client’s best interests.  Not our own.  So, for example, let’s say we have a day care center as a client.  The director tells you she wants you to produce a direct mail piece to solicit funds to help them make ends meet for the short term, because their cash flow is slow because of decreased foundation funding.  A legitimate cause, no doubt. 

Here’s where objective advice and the client’s best interest come into play:  You know that every Tom, Dick and Harry charity is currently out there looking for funds for the same reasons.   You can intelligently surmise that the day care center won’t be able to raise what they need no matter how cute their photos of their little kids are nor how snappy your copy is.  What do you do?  A) Be frank with the director and tell her the direct mail piece is a waste of time and effort and try to direct her to a professional fund-raising firm.  B) Do the piece for her because things are pretty slow around the office right now, and, what the heck, they’re paying up front, and they’ll probably raise some money.  Still, the answer is clear—and B isn’t it.  Whose best interests should you put first? 

The other half of this independence equation is accountability.  In short, any PR person or firm is accountable for their actions.  Of course, this isn’t exactly astrophysics, but let’s look at being accountable.

For example, you advise your boss (or a client)—after not knocking yourself out doing your homework—that it’s not really necessary to take the lead and announce publicly that arsenic has been found in the soil surrounding their old metal-stamping plant—after all one of your other clients hasn’t gotten caught (yet).  Why upset the applecart?   In the meantime, the EPA oh so courteously does your arsenic news release for you.  (Read: ugly.)  Whose fault is it?  Well, the arsenic dumpers are some real culprits, but, dearie, it’s your butt, too.   Why?  You say you didn’t dump the arsenic, why are people picking you?  As a PR advisor, you just don’t get to use the excuse you’re having a down day.  Kind of like heart surgeons.  Sometimes, we rush.  Sometimes, we don’t think things through.  Sometimes, we don’t ask enough questions.   Tough.  It’s still your neck. 

So, when the eagle of independence flies overhead, 1) remember to put your client’s best interests first, and, 2) understand that when things go bad, you’re going to have to quote Harry Truman:  “The buck stops here”—your desk, not Harry’s.

Reprinted with permission by Mary Pieschek, ethics officer, PRSA Northeast Wisconsin, (mary@pieschekpr.com)

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Feb. 3 Teleseminar Held at Gonzaga University’s Foley Teleconference Center

“Turning an Advertising-Based Marketing Program into a Public Relations–Driven Program”

You Will Hear From: Claudia Vecchio

Date: Thursday, February 3, 2005            Deadline to Register: Friday, January 28, 2005    

Check-in: 11:30 a.m.      Time: 12 noon    Duration: 1 hour

Cost: PRSA Members & Students: $15   General Public: $30

From the 2004 PRSA International Conference

Public relations and its ability to cross many marketing disciplines is the ideal promotional tool for corporate, nonprofit and government-based organizations. Through its ability to tell the entire story, influence critical niche audiences and gain enhanced credibility through message management and greater accountability, public relations can drive communications efforts and be more effective than traditional advertising.

By attending this teleseminar, you will:

• Understand how public relations can supersede advertising in a budget-constrained environment.

• Learn how to sell a public relations-based program to any constituency.

• Understand how to measure public relations against traditional advertising.

Marketers have historically favored advertising as a means of developing or enhancing a brand. Find out how public relations can drive communications efforts and be more effective than traditional advertising in developing, building and reenergizing a brand.

Feb. 15 Teleseminar Held at Desautel Hege Communications, Conference Room

“APR Study Programming: Planning Terminology and Structure”

You Will Hear From: Steven L. Lubetkin, APR, Fellow PRSA

Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2005           Deadline to Register: Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Check-in: 11:30 a.m.      Time: 12 noon    Duration: 1 hour

Cost: PRSA Members & Students: FREE            General Public: $10

This session is designed to give you an overview of planning terminology and experience in organizing the function of public relations and gaining acceptance for a professional approach. Material presented in this session relates to several of the knowledge, skills and abilities areas to be tested in the Examination for Accreditation in Public Relations.

Attending this session will allow you to:

• Distinguish among goals, objectives and strategies.

• Determine the difference between process objectives and outcome objectives.

• Describe strategies, tactics, tools and activities that lead you to your objectives.

March 10: Teleseminar Held at Gonzaga University’s Foley Teleconference Center

“Big Results, Little Budgets: Campaigns on a Budget”

You Will Hear From: Jeffrey Ory, APR

Date: Thursday, March 10, 2005  Deadline to Register: Friday, March 4, 2005

Check-in: 11:30 a.m.      Time: 12 noon    Duration: 1 hour

Cost: $15: PRSA Member & Students     $30: General Public

In today’s marketplace, it seems that the tiny budgets left after massive budget cuts could never be enough to achieve success. However, this is not the case. The job of the public relations specialist is to find those outlets for exposure without breaking the bank. Learn practical ideas on how to stay at the top of the public relations game during an economic downslide, and produce awe-inspiring results on a limited budget.

Understand how to get the most from a limited budget while increasing your effectiveness in these key areas:

· Strategic planning

· Finding outlets for exposure

· Analyzing your audience

May 26: Webseminar Held at Gonzaga University’s Foley Teleconference Center

“Building Community Relationships: Gaining and Maintaining Public Consent”
A PRSA Master Practitioner Series ™ Program

You Will Hear From: James E. Lukaszewski, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA
Date: Thursday, May 26, 2005    Deadline to Register: Friday, May 20, 2005

Check-in: 9:30 a.m.        Time: 10 a.m.    Duration: 90 minutes

Cost: $25: PRSA Member & Students     $50: General Public

There are some powerful relationship realities between various community groups and organizations. Constituents are asking more questions; decisions are taking longer. Very small forces, sometimes individuals, can stop very big ideas and projects. People without credentials have enormous credibility. Corporations and institutions must prove their validity, honesty, and trustworthiness every day. Most public debate and discussion, on issues that matter, is focused more on embarrassment, humiliation, and blame shifting than on achieving beneficial progress.

In today’s environment of public suspicion, gaining and maintaining public consent to operate has become an on-going, top management concern for most businesses and large organizations. Community relationships are effectively maintained primarily through engagement with various publics and audiences within the community and your organization.

This 90-minute program will outline the key elements that lead to gaining and maintaining public consent.

Program objectives:

Some of the important questions this program will answer:

· Why do people without credentials have real power?

· Why do we have to keep proving ourselves, even if we’re honorable organizations?

· Why does the news media always get it wrong, and we get the blame?

· Why aren’t powerful facts and data convincing?

· How can we prevent situations from getting emotional?

· Why do public officials take sides against us, even when our proposal is beneficial?

· How can we avoid the communication warfare that occurs when the message is useful but controversial? How do we permanently fix the trust problem?

There will be 20 minutes of live questions and answers at the end of the program to answer your specific questions.

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Nicole Graichen
Volunteer and Events Coordinator
Second Harvest Inland Northwest