Recently, The New Yorker wrote a feature piece in Talk of the Town for our book entitled DON’T: The Essential Guide to Publicity in New York City (and any other city that matters). The review might be characterized as “adventurous” – running a fine line between enthusiasm for the content and censure for it being self-published.
So, is this sharp article in The New Yorker still good? Decidedly. Is bad press still good for company profiling? Decidedly, NOT.
Besides celebrity gossip and juicy tabloid crap (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6835364.ece), which is the exception to this rule, bad media coverage works badly for companies, regardless of the exposure. Negative press travels 20X faster than good news, and as such, has the ability to damage carefully developed reputations 20X faster.
There are those who would say that it is simply the exposure and recognition, regardless of the quality, that can ultimately be measured. (This opinion seems to prevail from those that are still licking wounds from an editorial spanking.) Certainly crisis management comes into play to mitigate those disasters, but in the end, bad press is bad. It can swiftly destroy the solid media foundation you aspire to achieve.
I mention this as a caution to publicists who embark upon a campaign without considering negative press as a possibility, and as such, fail to plan.
By all means, think about the great press you anticipate getting, but also consider any chinks in your story’s armor (such as failure to prove, or potential for insult). Doing so may protect you from a windfall of negative press. Which is, however you look at it, bad. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/04/att-has-a-human-working-for-it-and-his-name-is-seth/
Tags: PR, press, public relation
