Tom Murphy’s post this morning had me wondering if he was playing an April Fool's joke on his readers. There is a UK-based event underway with journalists and PR folk discussing how they work together "in the delivery of news and opinions." It is my hope that it yields positive results.
US-based public relations societies might try and arrange a similar summit. It would be a welcome change to the media panels where the guests tell us to customize our pitches and do our homework before contacting them. And, when we do, don’t ask if they received the release. The only thing more tired than this programming staple is the rubber-chicken lunch that comes with it.
Other news of note...
Google's New Gig: Google announced it will offer free email accounts with 1GB of memory. This is a nice response to competitors Yahoo and Microsoft. It makes me wonder...was this done out of spite? "So, you want to top our search engine technology, huh? Well, we want to top your free e-mail." Nyah, nyah! :-P
Goofus & Gallant: This installment is on how to replace a host. NPR gets the Goofus here. It wants to make sure "Morning Edition" stays competitive and is ousting Bob Edwards. And it has a fight on its hands. Regardless of how it might turn out, NPR has handled this VERY poorly.
Gallant goes to The Boston Globe for its idea on who could replace Martha Stewart. Business will move on while Stewart focuses on her sentencing instead of her salad. Now, if the Fab Five were seriously deemed to be Martha's replacements, it would spread the person as brand issue across five people instead of one and defuse the problems that brand personification can create. It would also be a testament to Martha Stewart's importance in that no one person can replace her. More thoughts on this are at the Martha mini-blog.
Another idea on how to replace a host is to not replace them at all.
Sesame Street shows us you can change with the times without changing people. Sesame Street has had the same main characters for 35 years. It creates a familiarity that gives the show staying power. It also does not hurt that there are always a fresh crop of kids to tune in when its audience grows up and gets bored. Disclosure: I have a three-year-old daughter and am more experienced on this topic than I care to admit.
What I think is so strange is that the NPR spokespeople keep saying, "The show needed to improve" and "things will get better," but what they have consistenly failed to answer is the question, "What was wrong with the show as it is?" I'm a little in fear of soundbite Foxification.
Posted by: HMS | 04/01/2004 at 01:35 PM