Karma

This summer has seen its share of communication blunders and, as we head into August, we are starting to see the consequences. Tony Hayward has been removed as CEO in light of his poor handling of the oil spill. Maybe that yacht race at the height of the crisis wasn't such a good idea? Apple said it would provide iPhone 4 customers with free cases to improve reception issues that happen when the phone is held in a certain way. General Stanley McChrystal is retiring from the US Army after he was relieved of command of NATO forces in Afghanistan by President Obama, following blatantly disrespectful comments made to Rolling Stone magazine. Laurent Blanc, the new coach of the French national soccer team, announced that none of the players who went on strike at the World Cup in South Africa would play in the next match and that future selections would be based not only on talent but on a strong sense of teamwork, as well. The lesson in all of this is that what you say and do and how it is portrayed in the media and online has a tremendous impact on companies and careers. Tony Hayward didn't cause the oil spill but the problem was his to solve. Instead of showing leadership and providing clear, regular and honest communication, he was portrayed as not wanting to deal with the problem by saying he wanted his life back, minimizing the problem by not providing accurate information on the size of the disaster and not caring by going to yacht race at the height of the crisis. Likewise, Steve Jobs probably didn't design the finicky antenna for the iPhone 4 but he did tout its engineering at the launch press conference. Instead of blaming customers for holding the iPhone the wrong way he should have said right off the bat that the iPhone 4 didn't live up to Apple's high quality standards and that they would find a solution. Instead of a story that persisted for a period of time and tarnished Apple's otherwise sterling reputation, it would have been a one day story that might have actually strengthened their image as a company that can do no wrong. General McChystal should have had media training and a thorough briefing prior to letting a Rolling Stone reporter follow his entourage for a month. If he had done so, he would not have made such rookie mistakes. The problem is that most CEOs or, for that matter, Generals and professional athletes, don't understand the importance of communication and, as a result, don't solicit much input from their communications department or agency. If they had, they would have probably reacted differently.

Cluelessness seems to be a global epidemic

What do BP, the French national soccer team and General Stanley McChrystal have in common? Answer -- an almost unbelievable lack of awareness about the power of the press. To sum up this week's blunders:

• a General was fired, or should I say resigned after he and his aides were quoted talking smack about their colleagues and higher-ups in the chain of command;

• the French Minister for Sports said the national soccer team, "tarnished the image of France" following their their first-round exit from the World Cup. During the tournament the media reported on much more than their poor play -- Nicolas Anelka, the striker, made headlines by cussing out the coach. He was kicked off the team which was followed by his teammates boycotting practice and the team captain almost coming to blows with a trainer -- all while the cameras were rolling.

• BP's CEO, Tony Hayward, went sailing while his company's offshore well continued to spew oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Cluelessness seems to be a global phenomenon with an American General, a French soccer team and a British CEO all providing fodder for the news media. Haven't any of these folks had any media training? It certainly wouldn't seem so. If General McChrystal had, he would have known that his comments would wind up in print. If the French team had, they would have known that letting intra-team disputes become public they would all look like spoiled brats. If Tony Hayward had, he would have known that going off sailing during his company's biggest ever crisis was not a savvy PR move. When the rich and powerful do unbelievably stupid things, it makes us mad. And, with social media we can easily share the stories that made us mad and soon, the story is everywhere. This often results in action being taken -- a general resigning, sponsors abandoning French football players and a CEO... well I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Can't we all just get along?

The previous two posts to this blog asked the questions, will the cloud save journalism, and is old (traditional) media dead?

I’d like to expand on this discussion by recounting the experience of a friend of mine who joined the San Francisco Chronicle a few years back to head up the “traditional” newspaper’s new online department, dubbed www.sfgate.com.

At first, she describes, “everything went well.” The traditional print side of the business didn’t fully respect, nor fear, the upstart online editors and reporters, so they simply went about their business as usual.

But soon, the online part of the paper started scooping the print-version of the Chronicle on important local stories by virtue of being able to distribute the stories electronically, i.e., instantaneously. Suddenly, the stories that would have been fresh and exciting in the morning paper were old news.

And, because some of these young, hungry online reporters were willing to get out of the office and actually talk to people, they were coming up with stories on their own that were being missed by the print version.

“Soon, our daily editorial meetings were becoming very contentious,” my friend told me. Rather than working together to provide a comprehensive view of the news – immediate and top level via online and more thorough but a little later in the print version – the two sides of the organization were locked in a ferocious battle.

“The print guys still owned the bulk of the advertising dollars,” my friend said, “so we (the online team) were always playing second fiddle.”

After a couple of years of doing this tiresome dance my friend had had enough and decided to strike out on her own.

“I knew that there was a market for an online paper in San Francisco, so I decided to start one of my own,” she told me.

Using her own money, she started the fledgling www.sfappeal.com online paper focused exclusively on local stories. “It was a lot easier than I thought,” she said.

She hired a few reporters and paid them by the stories they wrote. There weren’t any printing or distribution costs because she set up the entire operation in the cloud. She pays only a few dollars a day to have her entire enterprise housed on computers, as she puts it, “somewhere out there.” And the online ads she sells cover her costs and allow her to stash away a little for herself.

She went on to tell me she doesn’t have physical office space because she’s found that when people don’t have to go into the office they find their way onto the streets where the news is being made. As a result she gets better content and is now getting 700,000 unique visits to her site every month.

This is not to suggest that traditional newspapers, or magazines, are completely obsolete.

The way we look at it here at 3Point is akin to a pebble in a pond. The initial pebble, in this case the story in traditional media, often makes a small splash, but the ripples it causes, the tweets, the blog posts, and the online news stories expand out to cover a great distance.

Slowly these two forms of communication are finding a comfortable working relationship and will together serve to keep us apprised of the important events that occur around us each and every day.

That’s why, as Jim put it yesterday, “we believe in the intersection of traditional media and new media.”