Inside PR 468: Escape with us

March 20, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR, Show Notes

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Escape with us. From fake news. From our filter bubble. From annoying videos that play sound as soon as they scroll into view. From Snapchat hype. Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are back for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

#IPRMustKnow

Snapchat hype

In the wake of the Snap IPO, we talk about what really matters for its prospects – a disconnect between its user base and its business model. And since we recorded this program, the dramatic drop in Snap’s share prices suggest that, after the hype, others have taken a closer look at what’s really going on here and have decided that its time to pull back from overly inflated excpectations.

Who is asking for Sound on videos by default? Not us.

Facebook’s move to turn sound on by default on videos that scroll into your newsfeed is another example of what happens when the interests of advertisers are placed ahead of the wants and likes of users. It’s also something that happens when one player dominates the marketplace. It can do things that don’t serve users. But, heck, where can we go? (See Snapchat above.)

Facebook is getting better at identifying fake news

Facebook has begun to more clearly mark fake news when users attempt to share it. A good move. An overdue move. And another clear indicator that Facebook is a news media company. And it should shoulder the editorial responsibilities of a news media company.

Escape your filter bubble

Social media, with its newsfeeds created by algorithms designed to retain our attention and increase our interactions, traps us in a filter bubble. We will only escape this through action on several fronts. By acknowledging and understanding standards for journalism grounded in transparency of perspective in place of the illusion of objectivity. By continuing to pressure the social networks to acquit their editorial responsibilities as news media. By promoting increased media literacy among all people.

#TryPod

March is #TryPod month. During this month, we and other podcasters are encouraging you to share with your friends one or more podcasts that you love. For my part, I want to share with you two podcasts.

Brief Remarks. Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery veteran Susan Delacourt knows all the key players in Canadian politics. And every week, she interviews them. A chance to get to know not only the politicians we see every day, but the behind-the-scenes players who make government work in Canada.
The Daily. Every weekday, Michael Barbero provides an in depth look at one of the big stories or trends that the New York Times is covering. In greater depth than is possible in the newspaper or on a blog post. Interviewing the people who researched and wrote the stories. Providing context. It’s the podcast I listen to to start every day.

If you have podcasts that you love, share them with others. Post about your favourite podcasts on Facebook, Twitter or any social media using the hashtag #trypod. Share the joy of podcasting and look for the smile on your friends’ faces as they too discover content that matters to them.

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows. Leave a comment on the blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on iTunes

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 467: Stay nimble!

February 22, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR

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Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are back for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

#IPRMustKnow

Note to Self’s Privacy Paradox series

Do you care about retaining (some) control of your privacy while online? Do you want to know who is creeping you and how they are doing it? Do you want tips for some simple measures you can take to retain some control over your personal information? If you said yes to any of these questions, click over to Privacy Paradox, a project of WNYC’s excellent Note to Self podcast. Register to participate and each day for five days you will receive and email with links to a special podcast episode, personal challenges you can take to assess your own privacy and tips on tools you can use to maintain awareness and retain some control. Time well spent.

The Washington Post goes to Snapchat

Snapchat’s user growth may have been slowed by Instagram Live Stories. But that’s not stopping news media from continuing to flock to it. The latest is the Washington Post, which launched on Snapchat Discover. I’m all for news media drawing revenue from any source they can. But it still seems to me that Snapchat is not a place people go to find the news.

The Neverending News Cycle

Round and round we go. When the United States has a President who seems to rarely sleep and always has his Twitter feed at hand, how can news organizations plan media announcements? Is there any such thing as clear space any longer. Or even a clear time of day?

It’s your turn.

Please rate us on iTunes

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 466: Email responsibly.

February 13, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR

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This week, we talk about net neutrality, Canada’s PMO fighting back against Fox fake news. And we talk about how to be effective and responsible in our use of email. Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are back for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

#IPRMustKnow

Net Neutrality is worth fighting for

New FCC Chair, Ajit Pai, has begun to undermine net neutrality. If you value innovation. If you want to ensure that the Web stays open for new entrants. If you care about choice, pay attention. It’s time to get ready to stand up again for net neutrality.

Nipping fake news at the source

We know that fake news usually is totally fabricated. But it also can be founded in erroneous reporting. So it was encouraging to see Kate Purchase, the Director of Communications to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, tackle Fox News head-on to obtain a correction to an item that was being distributed as fake news. In the wake of the Quebec City, several news organizations reported early information that one of the suspected shooters was Muslim. That was wrong. He was an innocent bystander. In fact, the victims were Muslim and the person arrested was not. Other news organizations quickly corrected the error. Fox did not. At least until Kate Purchase sent them a letter and publicly shamed them by publishing it on Twitter. Canadians are nice people. But we also can make a point when we need to. Huzzah Kate.

Earlier today I sent an email to @FoxNews about their misleading tweet yesterday. We will continue to stand up for our citizens (1/3) pic.twitter.com/sGz47PxMcb

— Kate Purchase (@katepurchase) January 31, 2017

(2/3) pic.twitter.com/QLABzidxa4

— Kate Purchase (@katepurchase) January 31, 2017

(3/3) pic.twitter.com/PosgwkBJqR

— Kate Purchase (@katepurchase) January 31, 2017

Tips for responsible use of email

Previously, we offered advice about how to cope with an overflowing email inbox. This week, we talk about how to be responsible and effective as a sender of email.

It’s your turn.

Please rate us on iTunes

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on iTunes.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 465: We make it virtual

February 6, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR

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Let’s talk about the failure of distributed content, the elimination of U.S. privacy protections for foreigners, and taking your agency virtual. Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are back for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

#IPRMustKnow

Distributing content on Facebook and other social platforms hasn’t proven to be the bonanza publishers need

A new study, reported by Digiday, reveals that a year into the new Distributed Publishing era, in which news media publish their content on platforms like Facebook, Google Amp, SnapChat Discovery, the revenues have not lived up to expectations. In fact, only 14 percent of publisher revenue is coming from distributed content. Another bullet that turned out not to be so magical. So, the search for new revenue sources continues. And their search includes podcasting. Witness the new podcast from the New York Times, The Daily.

Foreigners take note. You’ve lost data privacy protection in the U.S.

In a world in which privacy protection is often assumed and opaque, news that non-Americans have been stripped of privacy protection in the United States may influence decisions about non-Americans to seek cloud and data solutions that guarantee that their data will reside outside of the United States. Thanks to Michael Geist for pointing this out.

Virtual vs. Brick and Mortar communications agencies

Gini did it. Martin did it. Joe’s playing with a hybrid version of it. As our work applications have moved into the cloud and video conferencing and document sharing has become a one click experience on both laptops and phones, it has become easier than ever to stay connected with a distributed team. Have we reached the point the tipping point in which the benefits of virtual teams have matched and even exceeded the benefits of assembling a cohesive team in one place?

It’s your turn.

Please rate us on iTunes

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on iTunes.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 464: Is the news media too weakened to do its job?

January 30, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR

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We’ve entered a new era, a whole new world, an alternate universe. And Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley focus this entire episode on the implications of the approach to media relations (and truth) being taken by the New President and the ability of today’s weakened news media to play their important counterbalance role in relation to Power.

Sources that we found useful for this:

Liz Spayd, Public Editor of the New York Times, critiquing the Times’ coverage (or failure to cover), Trump, Russia, and the News Story that Wasn’t
Susan Delacourt‘s recounting on the Brief Remarks podcast about how the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery survived the Stephen Harper government.

It’s your turn.

Please rate us on iTunes

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on iTunes.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 463: The tyranny of email

January 27, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR

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Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are back for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

#IPRMustKnows

Things that caught our attention and that we think you should note include:

the future of Twitter? Not a social network, but a news feed, the place to see what’s happening.
Medium’s pivot away from advertising and their less-than-clear business model reminds us that we should publish the content we care about on our owned space. Then use other platforms to promote and amplify it.

Don’t serve email. Make email serve you.

And at this time of the year, all must be asking ourselves how we can get out from under the tyranny of email. We swap tips about how we make email serve us, rather than becoming the creatures of email.

It’s your turn.

Please rate us on iTunes

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on iTunes.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 462: Books that last

January 16, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR

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Books for communicators

On this episode of the Inside PR podcast, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley talk about books that had lasting impact on us and that we would recommend to others:

What Would Google Do , by Jeff Jarvis, an annual read for Gini. Always inspiring. “It’s fun to watch the progression of my own business since I first read that book,” says Gini.

Spin Sucks, by Gini Dietrich. Martin says, “I’m not sucking up. I put it on the reading list for my social media course.”

Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam, “A book written about how people were losing their social connections as they cocooned during the television age,” says Joe. A must-read to understand what social media freed us from.

Alone Together by Sherry Turkle. The other side of the social media and handheld device revolution. When can we be alone in a crowd?

Disruptive Power, by Taylor Owen. A contemporary take on how these trends have led to the era of non-hierarchical collective action.

Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. Kahneman writes in an accessible fashion about how and why we make unpredictable decisions. A primer on behavioural economics that we can all understand.

Built to Sell, by John Warrillow and Bo Burlingham. Gini found this book invaluable in helping her to conceive of how to turn here services business into a process driven company that is scalable and less dependent on her personally.

The Art of Strategy, by Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J.J. Nalebuff. Martin read this book when he was selling his business. It helped him sort through his thinking about what strategy really is and how it differs from tactics and how to manage through situations in which people are acting on very different strategies.

These books made a difference in our thinking. And we return to them repeatedly. So, we recommend them without hesitation.

#IPRMustKnows

Also, on this episode, we cover:

A recent study underlines the persistent problem of people not being able to discern the distinction between native advertising and editorially-independent news on publishers’ websites.
Snapchat adds to its content with a deal with Turner to develop original shows for Snapchat based on TBS programs.

It’s your turn.

Please rate us on iTunes

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on iTunes.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 461: We stand on guard for fake news

January 15, 2017 • thornley • Inside PR

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Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are back for another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

This week, we discuss Instagram video and the allure of the ephemeral. Then we return to the issue of fake news. Fake news shouldn’t be yesterday’s story. The problem is in the algorithms. The solution is in human intervention. And that puts the onus on us.

It’s your turn.

Please rate us on iTunes

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on iTunes.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 457: Ethical media relations

November 14, 2016 • thornley • Inside PR, Show Notes

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Twitter Moments for all of us. Large publishers’ growing dependency on Facebook. Thinking ahead about the implications of AI in our devices and apps. And the ethics of the close-hold embargo. Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are back with another episode of the Inside PR podcast.

#IPRMustKnows

Create your Own Twitter Moments

Twitter Moments, introduced for media and select users earlier this year, is now available for all users. This is a useful feature for anyone speaking at a conference or participating in an event or discussion that they want to curate and preserve. Bit by bit, Twitter is becoming even more useful.

Large publishers are becoming dependent on Facebook. But where is the revenue?

A report published by the International News Media Association and reported on by Nieman Lab indicates that 30% of visits to large publishers websites are referred from Facebook. That’s huge. But if publishers are becoming ever more dependent on Facebook’s network effect, and with Facebook favouring content published natively on it, the big question continues to be, is traffic paying off in revenue?

Getting out front on AI

The increasing introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) into apps, social networks and internet-connected devices raise a broad range of ethical, legal and policy issues. And where that happens, government is likely to act. So, it should come as no surprise that large businesses are banding together in a number of organizations to address these issues in order in advance of legislation and regulation. Of course, we can only hope that the voice of civil society will be heard alongside that of business.

A media relations issue to ponder: Close-hold embargoes

Charles Seife, writing in Scientific American, introduced us to a practice we had never encountered: A close-hold embargo. And it gives us the opportunity to ponder the line between transparency and manipulation and the ethical questions that public relations practitioners must confront when negotiating terms of access with news media.

It’s your turn.

Please rate us on iTunes

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on iTunes.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 446: Bad news for independent podcast creators

June 19, 2016 • thornley • Inside PR

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Is podcasting on the verge of tipping from a creator-driven medium to an advertiser-driven channel? UNU predicts the trends. Microsoft gets LinkedIn. And crises bring out the best in both social and mainstream media. Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley tackle these topics and more in this week’s Inside PR podcast.

#IPRMustKnow

Midroll acquires Stitcher

A big deal by podcasting standards. Podcast advertising broker Midroll has acquired Stitcher. I think that independent podcasters have reason to worry that, if successful, Midroll/Stitcher will do to podcasting what Facebook did to the open Web. Martin and Gini are still making up their minds about this. Whatever your view, if you care about podcasting, this is an #IPRMustKnow.

Who knew UNU?

UNU is a site that uses the wisdom of the crowd to answer questions and predict trends. Very 2008.

Microsoft acquires LinkedIn

The news that Microsoft is acquiring LinkedIn broke just before we recorded this episode. So here you get our first impressions of the potential benefits and downsides of Microsoft’s integration of LinkedIn with its Office suite.

Crisis brings out the best in us

Finally, in the wake of the Orlando shootings, we reflect on the current state of crisis communications, how news flows through social media and the important role of mainstream media to establish context, discern authoritative, credible witness testimony and curate the reports from social media.

We’d love to know what you think.

Leave a comment on the blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the FIR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Facebook group, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter. And we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on iTunes.

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Thank you to the people behind Inside PR. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.