June 2008
MEETINGS
Program to be announced.
Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, June 24
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St.
Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: members $25, nonmembers $30, students $20
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Measuring the Impact
Research abounds on the power of non-paid media to generate real business
results. But what happens to an organization when positive ad messages collide
with negative news? It’s not pretty.
At the June 11 luncheon, Angela Jeffrey, APR, editorial research vice president at VMS and a member of the IPR
Commission on PR Measurement and Evaluation, will present research that proves
public relations works. She also will examine cases that illustrate the synergy
of paid- and non-paid media working together. The session may get a bit
granular, too, with a five-step measurement process and faux case study on how
to do it yourself in Excel.
The Petroleum Club has temporarily relaxed its dress code so “casual” is cool for meetings this summer. The club newsletter states that “jackets and ties are optional through August.”
After two decades in PR, advertising and marketing with JCPenney and major
national agencies, Jeffrey started Houston-based Jeffrey Communications. Armed
with the PRtrak measurement system created by her programmer brother, she
talked data giants Nielsen, Arbitron and others into letting her resell their
data a la carte. In 2002 she sold her company to SDI, an international analytics firm, and three years
later played a large part in the acquisition of SDI’s PRtrak division by New York-based VMS.
Time & date: 11:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, June 11
Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St.
Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets
Cost: members $25, nonmembers $30, students $20
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Scalawag or Scapegoat: Someone Had to Pay
Did James Scott really cause a destructive levee break during the Great Midwestern Floods of
1993, or was he an easy target for a town raging at its devastation? Adam Pitluk, for seven years a contributor to Time magazine and now editorial director at
American Airlines Publishing, wrote “Damned to Eternity: The Last Victim of the Great Midwestern Floods” on the heartbreaking community loss and subsequent events, and he will sign
copies of the book and share his views at the next SPJ meeting.
A former staff writer at a host of publications, from the Dallas Observer to
CourtTV.com, Pitluk brings to life the horrific impact the floods had on West
Quincy, Ill., and the possible miscarriage of justice that ensued. After a
levee failed, suspicions focused on Scott, then 24, who a dozen years earlier
had helped set fire to a school. Scott eventually was convicted in the levee
break and sentenced to life in prison under an obscure state statute of
intentionally causing a catastrophe.
Pitluk writes that the case against Scott was weak, relying mostly on his
alleged admissions to unreliable witnesses. Seemingly overlooked was compelling
expert testimony that the levees could have broken without human help.
Pitluk also wrote “Standing Eight: The Inspiring Story of Jesus ‘El Matador’ Chavez.” He advised the UTA student magazine, Renegade, which in its first year of
publication (2003) won two of the most coveted awards in college journalism:
the Pacemaker, presented by American Collegiate Press, and the SPJ Best
Magazine award.
Time & date: mingling 6 p.m., eats around 6:30, then the program Thursday, June 12
Place: Joe T. Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant, 2201 N. Commerce St.
Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers, $10 students
Menu: Joe T.’s famous family-style enchilada dinner
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STRAIGHT STUFF
Everything you want to know about self-publishing could very well unfold Saturday, June 28, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at a workshop on
self-publishing at the Richardson Public Library, 900 Civic Center Drive,
sponsored by the Writers’ Guild of Texas. All WGT events are free and open to the public. More from organizer Carol Woods. ...
Deadline is June 16 to apply for the 7th annual USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Fellowship, to be offered Nov. 1-22 for six or seven mid-career arts editors and critics.
Based in Los Angeles, the fellowship includes attending as many as 23
performances, art exhibitions and architectural sites. E-mail an application
request to uscgetty@usc.edu. Include your name, media affiliation(s), number of years you have been
practicing arts journalism and contact information. ...
The Sigma Delta Chi Foundation seeks nominations for the Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award. Honorees do not have to be journalists. In fact, the foundation encourages
recognition of those outside the profession — public officials, lawyers, educators, librarians, students — for their First Amendment initiatives. The recipient receives $10,000 and an
engraved crystal, plus airfare and two nights at the 2008 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference in Atlanta to accept the award. And if you’re looking to hone your editorial writing skills but can’t find the time, apply for the
Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writing. The $75,000 award allows time for study and research for a mid-career editorial
writer working at a U.S. paper. More on both awards from Heather Porter at 317-927-8000, ext. 204.
IABC local update: Can social media thrive behind the firewall? You bet it can,
says Steve Crescenzo with Chicago-based Crescenzo Communications. He will offer a 90-minute webinar Tuesday, June 17, on how to set up blogs and discussion boards for inter-company dialogue, do interactive workplace podcasts that
entertain, inform and educate, and convince management that social media tools
are business tools that can have true return on investment. The session,
sponsored locally by IABC Fort Worth, starts at 2 p.m. at Immotion Studios,
4717 Fletcher Ave. Cost is $25 per person. RSVP to
Tim Tune at tim.tune@fortworthgov.org.
PRSA local update: Rassai Internet Solutions at 512 Main St. Suite 500 in
downtown Fort Worth will host PRSA members and their guests for an evening of
professional development and networking Thursday, June 12, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Space is limited. E-mail your RSVP to Bill Lawrence at lawprmrk@flash.net or Laura Van Hoosier at lauravanhoosier@gmail.com.
PRSA local update II: The Texas Public Relations Association needs volunters on the awards banquet and
in promotion, sponsorships and Best of Texas/Silver Spur judging for the
Southwest Communicators’ Connexion, next year’s combined TPRA Annual Conference and PRSA Southwest District Conference, Feb.
27-March 1 at the Frisco Embassy Suites Spa and Conference Center. Contact TPRA
president-elect Scott White at scottwhite@bizcompr.com or 972-490-0903.
PRSA local update III: Join PRSA national before July ends and receive a $45
chapter membership for one year. National membership is $225, plus $65
initiation fee. Visit prsa.org/membership/freechapter.html; be sure to enter CHAP2008 on the application. PRSA national benefits include
teleseminars, e-Learning, on-demand research from the PRC search database, the
relaunched JobCenter, RFP Exchange and Blue Chip Expert service. Contact Andra Bennett, APR, at abennett@fortworthchamber.com or 817-336-2491, ext. 265, for a snail-mail application or with questions on
other membership issues.
PRSA local update IV: Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman; Dallas Mavericks corporate sponsorships VP George Killebrew; Dave Stephenson, founder of Titus Sports Marketing; and Billy Sanez, American Airlines director of advertising, promotions and corporate
communications, will discuss “Sports Marketing — What’s in It for Me?” at Dallas PRSA’s Pro Am Day on Thursday, June 19. Details here.
SPJ national update: First NBC News, then The New York Times. The White House
called out both last month for, first, “deceitful” editing of an NBC interview in which the president is asked whether comments
about the president of Iran were directed at Barack Obama, and then for the Times “irresponsibly distort[ing] President Bush’s strong commitment to strengthening and expanding support for America’s service members and their families.” More here and here. ... Hillary Clinton did not get tougher press coverage than Barack Obama when it came to the main themes about their character, history, leadership
qualities and overall appeal. Actually, according to a new study, the opposite
was true, starting after Clinton criticized the media for being too soft on
Obama. More here.
SPJ national update II: The web site DeSmogBlog e-mailed 122 of the scientists
listed in a widely distributed Heartland Institute article entitled “500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares” and says that within 24 hours “three dozen of those scientists had responded in outrage, ... demanding that
their names be removed.” Exhibits A and B: “I am horrified to find my name on such a list. I have spent the last 20 years
arguing the opposite,” Dr.
David Sugden, University of Edinburgh; “I have NO doubts ... the recent changes in global climate ARE man-induced. I
insist that you immediately remove my name from this list since I did not give
you permission to put it there,” Dr. Gregory Cutter, Old Dominion University. More here.
SPJ national update III: House Commerce Committee chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., asked FCC chairman Kevin Martin to investigate whether the Department of Defense using ex-military officers to talk up Iraq and other policies violated requirements of TV sponsor identification. The former officers have ties to lobbying groups that were not disclosed to viewers, a recent New York Times story said. More here. ... Gov. David Paterson signed the Libel Terrorism Protection Act on May 1, helping New York set the pace in protecting American journalists from foreign libel verdicts. The bill came in response to a ruling from New York’s highest court that the state could not exercise jurisdiction over Khalid Salim a Bin Mahfouz, a Saudi Arabian businessman and banker who obtained a default judgment in a defamation suit against American author Rachel Ehrenfeld in a British court. Bin Mahfouz is a notorious libel tourist, having used or threatened to use British courts to sue for libel at least 36 times since 2002. More here.
SPJ national update IV: The Senate on May 15 voted, without debate, to invalidate the FCC’s Dec. 18 decision to loosen the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., has been pushing for the resolution of disapproval, which passed the Senate Commerce Committee in April. He argued that media consolidation has already led to a lack of localism and diveristy, so any more loosening of rules is uncalled for. More here. ... Newspaper web sites attracted more than 66.4 million unique visitors on average (40.7 percent of all internet users) in the first quarter of 2008, a record number that represents a 12.3 percent increase over the same period a year ago, according to a custom analysis provided by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America. More here.
SPJ national update V: The police chief’s rosy crime statistics were a lie. The councilman who urged water conservation was using 80,000 gallons a month at his home, more than five of his colleagues put together. And the school board president spent a full third of his time out of town and out of touch. The Voice of San Diego, a nonprofit online media outlet, relies on donors and doesn’t have enough journalists to field a softball team, yet it takes on the powerful with the panache of a scrappy big-city paper. “The best coverage of city politics that we’ve had in years,” raves Dean Nelson, a journalism professor at San Diego’s Point Loma Nazarene University. Could be a trend, observers say. More here.
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PEOPLE & PLACES
Native Texan and Academy Award-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones is featured in a new Barnett Shale television piece by Chesapeake Energy Corp.
The rancher and San Saba native filmed the spots in and around Fort Worth,
including the Stockyards, Trinity Trails and the Pier 1 Imports building, the
future home of Chesapeake’s Barnett Shale headquarters downtown. Jones, who grew up in Texas oilfields,
even collaborated on the script, writing much of it himself.
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GET A JOB
Phil Harvey, an editor with the Light Reading Communications Group, has an opening on his
team for a reporter covering telecom equipment. Pays around $50k. “I’d love to hire someone in DFW, especially FW, because we could be in closer
communication,” he says. More on the job here or from Harvey at 817-731-9228 or harvey@lightreading.com. ...
Wanted: freelance sports writer to write weekly news release for mid-size DFW
ad/PR agency during the 2008 football season. Must know football and be
passionate about it. Excellence in writing, grammar and style required, plus
ability to meet firm weekly deadlines. Fee negotiable. May work from home
anywhere in the U.S. Contact mcritsch@yahoo.com. ...
The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History seeks a media relations manager.
Requirements include a bachelor’s degree in marketing, journalism, PR, public affairs, advertising or related
field and at least three years experience, including media pitching. Candidates must demonstrate excellent writing skills. E- Steve Anderson at sanderson@fwmsh.org.
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NEW MEMBERS
PRSA ... Liesl Logan, Shannon, Gracey, Ratliff & Miller, LLP ... Sasha Denman, Weaver and Tidwell ... Kristy Emory, Weaver and Tidwell ... Lauren Fernandez, American Mensa
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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Laura Van Hoosier, APR, Greater Fort Worth PRSA
Here it is almost summertime, and I have amassed a gigantic stack of books I
hope to read, ideally by some beach or pool. The Memorial Day weekend provided
a nice opportunity to finish two I’d recommend to everyone: “The Shack” by William P. Young and Maria Shriver’s “Just Who Will You Be?” Originally written for graduates, Maria’s book suggests that the time is always right to chase your dreams.
Almost a dozen GFW PRSA members have committed to starting the APR exam process.
APR chair Kim Speairs, APR, and I are fired up about the excitement in this group. These PR
professionals want the APR for a number of reasons, not the least of which is
it’s a goal — a professional dream.
My daughters had their dance recital Mother’s Day weekend, and the theme was “Wishes, Dreams and Imagination.” In advance of the big day, every dancer completed a flyer that went on display
at the entryway along with her photo. Each sheet began with “My wish” or “I imagine” or “My dream is.” Nine-year-old Bryn Van Hoosier completed her message with: “My wish is to get a trained horse that I can ride all the time and groom it
sparkly clean.” Pie in the sky, right?
How could we have known that two weeks later she would spend Memorial Day
weekend at her grandparents’ farm in Weatherford caring for and riding horses her grandfather got for his
four granddaughters. As” luck” would have it, a family friend moved and had two older, trained horses for the
taking. They just needed a new home.
You can only imagine Bryn’s joy. Her smile that weekend will stay with us for a long, long time. There’s joy in Mary and Joe Dulle’s family, too, as their granddaughter, Clara Smith, age 6, returned home from the hospital after being kicked in the head by a
horse at her parents’ ranch in Canadian, Texas, near Amarillo. “It´s wonderful,” Mary writes, “what the power of prayer, good thoughts and energy can do.”
Sadly, little Juliette Brown’s story had a different ending. The 9-year-old Haltom City girl died after being
dragged a mile and a half by a horse near Benbrook Stables. The story touched
many, including the Van Hoosier girls. Our sympathies are with the family.
Life is fragile, life is grand. Here’s to your dreams. It’s never too late — or early — to start living them.
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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Betsy Deck, IABC Fort Worth
IABC has provided me a wealth of information and professional contacts that make
my job easier. Please consider renewing your IABC membership to continue
networking with peers and sharing great ideas. IABC members have been very busy
the past year. Among the highlights:
• IABC Fort Worth membership continues to expand. We currently have 50 active
members, 10 percent of whom are accredited.
• We recently hosted two successful after-hours networking events.
• The Summer Seminar Series is off to a robust start.
• Three board members attended Leadership Institute in February.
• We co-hosted the joint communicators holiday party with SPJ in December.
• IABC Fort Worth is financially sound.
• Our Bronze Quill awards continue to recognize the best and most creative work
across the region.
Many thanks to the board members who have propelled us through another strong
year. Your insight, wisdom and hard work have been invaluable.
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OVER & OUT
John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ
Registration is now open for the 2008 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference in Atlanta. Check out the growing list of professional development programs, where you can find everything from photojournalism for reporters to tips for
covering Latinos. And don’t forget the half-day training workshops. ...
In his new book, E&P editor Greg Mitchell offers a stinging indictment of the media’s complicity with Washington’s war-marketing machine. Essays in ”So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits — and the President — Failed on Iraq” date from just before the Iraq war started in 2003. Be skeptical, Mitchell
urges, and the rule applies “whether you are probing a local school board scandal or the preparation for an
invasion of another country.” ...
Seven thousand two hundred forty-four reasons for a shield law. That’s how many subpoenas U.S. daily newspapers and network television news
operations are estimated to have received in 2006, according to a new study. The study, funded by a grant from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers
College of Law, based that number on a survey of editors and news directors. It
comes out to 0.9 subpoenas for each newspaper and 10.2 for each TV news
operation. A similar 2001 Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press study
found 0.7 subpoenas for each newspaper and 7.7 for each TV news outlet. Visit
SPJ’s shield law page to learn more about proposed legislation. ...
Nine days after The New York Times reported on the hidden ties between media
military analysts and the Pentagon on April 20, ABC, CBS and NBC still had not
mentioned the report. But during their April 28 evening news shows, all three
networks reported on the Vanity Fair photo of Miley Cyrus’ naked back.
Closing words: “I was not aware that we had quarreled.” — Henry David Thoreau to his aunt, who asked him, on his deathbed, if he was at peace with God ... “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas
in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald