The A Team’s PR Missteps

TechCrunch’s ArringtonIsn’t it ironic? After years of railing against PR people, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington certainly could have used a good PR person when announcing CrunchFund, his first formal and well-financed foray into funding tech startups.Absent such counsel, Mr. Arrington now finds himself summarily booted from the tech media enterprise he started and nurtured into…… Continue reading The A Team’s PR Missteps

Friday’s Video Views

Eisenberg on ZuckerbergThe Social Network’s long and much buzzed about ride to the nation’s movie theaters ends today (though countless outlets jumped the review embargo. Was there one?) As predicted, critics have gone boffo with Rolling Stone’s venerable movie guy Peter Travers handing out four stars and glowing words from which SONY will create a…… Continue reading Friday’s Video Views

Friday’s Video Views

Sergey Speaks In yesterday’s blog post we explored/exploited the PR muscle Google allocated to its search upgrade Google Instant. Here’s company co-founder Sergey Brin chatting up the enhancement, Web on TV and Google’s competitive advantage with Bloomberg TV’s Cris Valerio. Some quotes: “It’s an exciting time to be in technology…” “I’m really excited for Apple’s…… Continue reading Friday’s Video Views

Forget the Bong

Over the weekend, the inimitable Michael Arrington — he of TechCrunch fame — laid down the gauntlet to reputation minders everywhere via a blog post titled: “Reputation Is Dead: It’s Time To Overlook Our Indiscretions.” The post, which Mr. Arrington tweeted and retweeted assiduously, asserted that the myriad anonymous opinions, spawned by social media, renders…… Continue reading Forget the Bong

Facebook Finds Its PR Mojo

Tech Crunch’s Michael Arrington has tweaked a few noses as proprietor of perhaps the most influential tech blog in a milieu overrun with tech influencers. We all remember the brouhaha he created by publishing the business-sensitive internal emails provided to him by some randoid who hacked into Twitter’s email.And then there was his spirited defense…… Continue reading Facebook Finds Its PR Mojo

PR, Influence and Networking

On Sunday, PR Newser’s Joe Ciarallo asked me whether I had seen Claire Cain Miller’s prominent piece on PR 2.0, or as some valley wags may soon call it, “the crowning of Brooke Hammerling.”Of course I had. Who hadn’t? It’s so rare that The New York Times visits our enigmatic profession, and with 3000+ words,…… Continue reading PR, Influence and Networking

Quick Draw McGraws

The spat between TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington sparked by The New York Times’s tech editor Damon Darlin seems like eons ago, in spite of only hitting a crescendo in the last two weeks. (I guess today’s continuous news flow creates short-memoried news consumers.)You may remember that Mr. Darlin decided to compare the journalistic proclivities of bloggers…… Continue reading Quick Draw McGraws

Being Scoble

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington’s observations of how his uber-socially networked friend Robert Scoble parses his time nowadays raises some valid questions about achieving the right the balance of ingredients for growing and monetizing one’s personal brand.Is it through more thoughtful editorial output, a wider (but admittedly thinner) digital footprint, or the attraction of legions of devoted…… Continue reading Being Scoble

Embargoes Crunched, except if you’re…

I never liked embargoes. Sure, in a different age when there were but a handful of authoritative media in a given industry sector, the ability to work with each of them on an embargoed basis made sense — or at least was manageable as long as you were upfront about it.Today, with a myriad media…… Continue reading Embargoes Crunched, except if you’re…