Great Sales, Marketing and PR Tips on Donny Deutsch

My good friend, Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid and Beyond Booked Solid, appeared on CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch last night. The show was titled, “Ultimate Playbook: The New Art of Selling.” The program was full of great energy and very well done.

Here’s the lineup – and I must say – any and all of these guests would make great keynote speakers for law firm and corporate events! To view what all the guests had to say about the bottom line, click here.

Lisa Robertson - Host, QVC
Lisa Robertson has sold millions of dollars worth of merchandise as one of the all-star hosts of QVC with her own show, "PM Style."

Joe Maloof - Palms Casino, Sacramento Kings
Joe Maloof is the eldest son in a family business that owns everything from the Palms Casino in Las Vegas to the Sacramento Kings.. And his family built this empire by knowing the fundamentals of selling.

Donna Flagg - President, The Krysalis Group
Donna Flagg has spent more than 15 years in sales and trains people gain inner-confidence to sell themselves.

Kendra Scott - Founder, Kendra Scott Jewelry
Kendra Scott had no experience in sales until she put herself to the test and discovered a talent for selling millions with her jewelry line, Kendra Scott Jewelry

Michael Port - Author, The Contrarian Effect and Beyond Booked Solid
Michael Port has coached more than 20-thousand business owners in the art of selling and is the best-selling author of "The Contrarian Effect: Why it Pays to take Typical Sales Advice and do the Opposite."

Guy Kawasaki - Garage Technology Ventures
Guy Kawasaki is the managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, and the ultimate decision maker for new business owners trying to make the sale of a lifetime.

Dave Lakhani - Author, The Art of Getting What You Want
Dave Lakhani is a master of persuasion... His latest book is called "Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want."

Janine Driver - Body Language Expert
The woman who knows the code of body language better than anyone is Janine Driver, the human lie-detector who's spent more than a decade with the Department of Justice, and trained more than 30-thousand police officers in how to LISTEN... with their EYES.

Tim Russert Dies - What a Huge Loss

I can't believe Tim Russert died today. I don't want to believe it. He has graced our living rooms with stalwart, balanced, and pointed discussions for years. He came to Philadelphia in November to serve as the keynote speaker for the national PRSA conference. He was amazing, approachable and pointed. What a shame.

Russert dies after collapsing in NBC News' Washington bureau
msnbc.com WashingtonPost.com NYTimes.com
Tim Russert, 58, was recording voiceovers for Sunday's "Meet the Press" program when he suffered a heart attack. Howard Kurtz: The Democratic operative turned NBC commentator revolutionized Sunday morning television and infused journalism with his passion for politics. Tom Brokaw tells viewers: "This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice."

PRSA Chair and CEO Jeffrey Julin Issues Video Response to CBS News Commentary

PRSA Chair & CEO Jeffrey Julin has issued a video response to CBS Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen's commentary challenging the integrity of the public relations profession. Julin refutes Cohen's irresponsible condemnations through positive affirmation of the industry, and reinforces the fundamental role of the PRSA Code of Ethics as a guide for public relations professionals. The video, which also has been posted on the PRSA YouTube channel, follows a written response to CBS submitted by Julin on behalf of PRSA and its Board of Directors.

Feldman Shepherd's Mark Tanner on Inside Edition

Feldman Shepherd's Mark Tanner of Philadelphia pushes for justice on Inside Edition. Three years ago, Dean O'Halloran was driving a rental truck, making deliveries, near Scranton, Pennsylvania. He crossed into the opposite lane and crashed head-on into Diane Glynn, killing her instantly. He was drunk and never charged because his step-father is a State Trooper. This is a must-read story.

Philadelphia Radio Ratings Are In!

Philadelphia's radio station ratings are just in. WBEB 101.1-FM was the top rated radio station in Philadelphia in April with an 8.0 rating for listeners six-years and older. WDAS, WOGL and KYW were close runners up. See how your favorite radio station ranked and follow news on Philadelphia's TV and radio industry by visiting Laura Nachman’s blog.

The Importance of Print Publications

Keith O’Brien of PRWeek recently wrote an article titled; Print journalism teaches us the importance of precision. In the article, O’Brien discusses the pros and real importance of print publications and what they still bring to the table in comparison to the Web. O’Brien spells it out as clear as day saying, “You can’t read Web sites in the subway (though you can read RSS feeds, and wireless connectivity is on the way); print publications are easier on the eyes; everyone wants something tangible to hold in his or her hands; and a spread provides a better opportunity to display a story’s expanse than a six page breaks online.”

He also outlines three tried and true reasons why we should all care about print which are listed below.

- The judgments of journalists and readers keep things in context. The print issue takes the news of the world into a substantive, concise solution. No print title can ever encompass all the news that’s fit to print, but it can constrain it.

- In each story, we have to reach the core elements in a shorter space. This benefits all, providing both writers and readers the challenge of constructing arguments in shorter spaces and times. The world still revolves around the elevator pitch, which is what a print story ensembles. I have never encountered a piece written above word count – including Op-Eds – that couldn’t do with a fat trimming.

- Deadlines help us all. I know very well that the “unofficial deadlines” of a Web property are frenetic and unforgiving. I know very well that a publication that wants relevancy online needs to publish as close to instantaneous as possible. But those online deadlines that never begin nor end don’t teach us much. Print deadlines are real. They control the situation. There’s no room to follow up – or amend – later that day. Print deadlines give us a structure by which to operate.

I found this article to be very interesting and hope as O’Brien does that print stays viable forever.

Pew Releases "State of the News Media 2008" Report

All this, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts" . . . .

This fifth edition of the annual report "The State of the News Media 2008,"tracing the revolution of news by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, can certainly not be summarized in a "Research Brief." However, the content is so encompassing, and the analysis so probing, that it begs excerpting to compel interested readers to pursue the complete study through the link provided.

The recently released study opens by saying "The state of the American news media in 2008 is more troubled than a year ago. And the problems, increasingly, appear to be different than many experts have predicted."

Online, for instance, the top 10 news Web sites, drawing mostly from old brands, command a larger share of audience than they did in the legacy media. And research shows blogs and public affairs Web sites attract a smaller audience than expected. Several trends, says the report, bear particular notice heading into 2008:

News is shifting from being a product - newspaper, Web site or newscast - to becoming a service. There is no single or finished news product anymore. As news consumption becomes continual, more new effort is put into producing incremental updates, as brief as 40-character e-mails sent from reporters directly to consumers without editing. But service broadens the definition of what journalists must supply. The hope is, however, that service, more than storytelling, could prove a key to unlocking new economics.

A news organization and a news Web site are no longer final destinations. They move toward being gateways to other places. As much as half of every Web page, designers advise, should be devoted to helping people find what they want on the rest of the site or the Web. A year ago, only three of 24 major Web sites from traditional news organizations offered links to outside content. Eleven of those sites now offer them.

The prospects for user-created content, once thought possibly central to the next era of journalism, now appear more limited. News people report the most promising parts of citizen input currently are new ideas, sources, comments, pictures and video. But citizens posting news content has proved less valuable, with too little that is new or verifiable.

Increasingly, the newsroom is perceived as the more innovative and experimental part of the news industry. New technologies are seen as less a threat to values, or a demand on time, than a way to reconnect with audiences. Majorities think things such as journalists writing blogs, the ranking of stories on Web sites, citizens posting comments, and citizen news sites are making journalism better.

The agenda of the American news media continues to narrow, not broaden. A comprehensive audit of coverage shows that in 2007 the war in Iraq and the 2008 campaign filled more than a quarter of the newshole and seemed to consume much of the media's energy and resources. At the same time, domestic issues each filled less than a single percent of the newshole including education, race, religion, transportation, the legal system, housing, drug trafficking, gun control, welfare, Social Security, aging, labor, abortion and more.

Madison Avenue, rather than pushing change, appears to be having trouble keeping up with it. Like legacy media, advertising agencies have their own history, mores and cultures that keep them from adapting to new technology and new consumer behavior. In the short run, this may be helping traditional media hold onto share of advertising revenue. The question of whether, and how, advertising and news will remain partners is unresolved, concludes the report.

Concluding this brief summary, the report says that an analysis of more than 70,000 stories from 48 separate news outlets in five media sectors in 2007 offers an empirical look at the content of the American media. Among the findings overall:

The agenda of the American news media is quite narrow

• The agenda of the American news media is quite narrow
• Rather than cover the world, only two countries in 2007 received notable coverage, both closely related to the war - Iran and Pakistan
• Geopolitical events in the rest of the world made up less than 6% of coverage studied that includes Afghanistan, Korea, China, Russia, Israel and everywhere else combined
• The media and the public often disagreed about which stories were important in 2007. Citizens wanted more coverage of bread and butter issues, such as rising gas prices, toy recalls, and the legislative battle over children's health insurance, and less coverage of the crisis in Pakistan, certain aspects of the Iraq debate, and of other distant places in the world.
• The media also showed a marked short attention span in 2007

Each news medium is examined in more detail, and the complete study may be freely accessed here.

Court Decision Perpetuates Fodder in Mumia Case

Today, a Federal Court overtured the death penalty in the Mumia Abu-Jamal case. To this, I certainly have something to say since I was Judge Sabo's law clerk in the mid-90's when we heard the PCRA matters. I published my two cents on The Legal Intelligencer's Blog at http://thelegalintelligencer.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/court-decision-perpetuates-fodder-in-mumia-case/.

Details about the Court's ruling can be found in Shannon Duffy's article, Abu-Jamal’s Death Sentence Overturned, But Conviction Upheld.

As I said in my blog for The Legal Intelligencer, this decision just gives rise to plenty of fodder for the media, continues to keep the case alive and perpetuates the injustice to the Faulkner family.

Here is some of the coverage today......

Court orders new death-penalty hearing for Abu-Jamal; murder ...USA Today - 59 minutes agoA federal appeals court has ruled that black activist Mumia Abu-Jamal cannot be executed for murdering a Philadelphia police officer in 1981 without a new ...

US court overturns death sentenceBBC News, UK - 2 hours agoA US federal appeals court has overturned the death sentence imposed on former Black Panthers member Mumia Abu-Jamal. The court said Abu-Jamal's conviction ...

US court orders new hearing for death row campaignerAFP - 4 hours agoWASHINGTON (AFP) — A US federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the murder conviction against Mumia Abu-Jamal, but ruled the death-row campaigner cannot be ...

US court says Mumia death sentence may be reviewedInternational Herald Tribune, France - 7 hours agoPHILADELPHIA: A US federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the murder conviction of black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal for killing a white policeman in 1981 ...

Court: Mumia Deserves New HearingThe Associated Press - 7 hours agoPHILADELPHIA (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday said former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal cannot be executed for murdering a Philadelphia police ...

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Emergency protest March 28Bay Area Indymedia, CA - 57 minutes agoby Partisan Defense Committee ( pdcbayarea [at] sbcglobal.net ) On March 27, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision upholding Mumia ...

New Hearing On Sentence But Not Murder Conviction For Death Row InmateAHN - 1 hour agoWashington, DC (AHN) - The Third Circuit US Court of Appeals on Thursday refused to reinstate the death sentence of death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal in the ...

Mumia Abu-Jamal to Be Re-Sentenced, Date Not Yet ScheduledBay Area Indymedia, CA - 1 hour agoThe Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal. The court has called for a sentencing hearing that would result in ...

Abu-Jamal conviction upheldphillyBurbs.com, PA - 1 hour agoFormer Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal can’t be executed for murdering a Philadelphia police officer without a new penalty hearing. The murder conviction was ...

BREAKING! Court rules against new trial for Mumia! SF Actions Friday!Bay Area Indymedia, CA - 2 hours agoby SF Mobiliation to Free Mumia LOCAL PROTESTS SET FOR FRIDAY, MARCH 28 FOLLOWED BY NATIONAL PROTEST APRIL 19 (SAN FRANCISCO) AND APRIL 26 (PHILADELPHIA). ...

RIGHTS-US: Court Rules No Death Row for Mumia Abu JamalIPS, Italy - 2 hours agoBy Adrianne Appel BOSTON, Mar 27 (IPS) - A federal court has ruled that Mumia Abu Jamal, known the world over in the fight against the death penalty, ...

Court: Mumia deserves new hearingWLOS, NC - 3 hours agoPHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Prosecutors in Philadelphia are reviewing a federal appeals court ruling that orders a new sentencing hearing for a former Black ...

He Still Shot the SheriffReason Online, CA - 3 hours agoRemember Mumia Abu-Jamal, the cop-killing NPR contributor who rallied legions of campus radicals during the 1990s to protest his innocence? ...
Death sentence lifted for time being against Black PantherMonsters and Critics.com - 3 hours agoWashington - A federal appeals court Thursday upheld a lower court decision to suspend the death sentence against Black Panther member Mumia Abu-Jamal. ...

Cop's Widow Reacts to Third Circuit Court of Appeals Granting ...SunHerald.com, MS - 3 hours agoBy The Lyons Press "Today, after 26 years of waiting, my family and I can finally say that Mumia Abu-Jamal is officially a 'murderer. ...

Federal appeals court backs new sentencing hearing for Mumia Abu-JamalJURIST - 4 hours ago[JURIST] Journalist and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal [advocacy website; Philadelphia Inquirer archive], convicted in 1982 of killing Philadelphia ...

No death for Mumia Abu-Jamal — at least for nowPhiladelphia Inquirer, PA - 5 hours agoBy Emilie Lounsberry In a major victory for world-famous death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, a federal appeals court today refused to reinstate his death ...

US court overturns rights campaigner's death penaltyRaw Story, MA - 5 hours agoA US federal appeals court on Thursday overturned the death sentence passed against human rights campaigner Mumia Abu-Jamal, while upholding his conviction ...

Court: Mumia deserves new hearingKGAN, IA - 7 hours agoPHILADELPHIA (AP) -- It's up to prosecutors now to decide whether to seek another death sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal . The former Black Panther has been on ...

No death sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal without new hearingCNN - 1 hour agoBy Bill Mears WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, sentenced to death for gunning down a Philadelphia police officer 27 years ago, ...

Court says famed death-row inmate deserves new penalty hearingInternational Herald Tribune, France - 7 hours agoAP PHILADELPHIA: A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the murder conviction of former Black Panther and celebrity death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, ...

National DigestAnnapolis Capital, MD - 3 hours agoPHILADELPHIA - A federal appeals court has ordered a new penalty hearing for celebrity death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. The 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals ...

News Minute: Curfew in Baghdad...Economic report...TI's guilty pleaLocalNews8.com, ID - 1 hour agoPHILADELPHIA (AP) - Prosecutors say they are weighing their options now that a federal appeals court has ruled that former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal ...

Cop's Widow Reacts to Third Circuit Court of Appeals Granting ...SunHerald.com, MS - 3 hours agoBy The Lyons Press "Today, after 26 years of waiting, my family and I can finally say that Mumia Abu-Jamal is officially a 'murderer. ...

Keep Your Press Releases Relevant

Craig McGuire of PRWeek recently shared tips on how we can all keep our press releases relevant to the rapidly changing times. According to McGuire, “In this digital age, social media and video elements are essential.”

News releases are used by 90% of business journalists as sources for story ideas and 54% of the same journalists also use bloggers for story ideas. McGuire urges his readers to go beyond simple text and to incorporate links, social media tags, images, etc., into all press materials. It is crucial to give journalists all the resources to use our releases and to offer bloggers and social media site users the same tools.

McGuire then goes on to highlight the dos and don’ts of keeping your press release relevant:

Do
- Include links to pages where multiple instances of your keywords/phrases reinforce your message.
- Place terms in key positions like headlines and first paragraphs.
- Distribute a release through a service that carries hyperlinks to downstream sites such as Yahoo Finance, AOL News and Netscape.

Don’t
- Go link crazy. Too many links will confuse journalists and draw focus away from key messaging.
- Use low-res images. Opt for high-res multimedia that can easily be used by layout pros.
- Use all tools, all the time. Focus first on the message. Use the bells and whistles to complement the campaign.

Public Relations Propaganda, Hype and Fluff – Words Not to Use

I was doing some press material editing recently and read the phrase “state-of-the-art.” That’s a big red flag for me and I know it’s a media pet peeve. So I decided to come up with a list of words and phrases that you should avoid in your public relations outreach. This included press releases, media kits, pitching, blogs, etc. These words lessen the credibility of what you have to say.

• Always
• Best
• Best-of-breed
• Biggest
• Boasts
• Breakthrough
• Cutting-edge
• First
• Flexible
• Never
• Next generation
• Only
• Out-of-the-box
• Perfect storm
• Revolutionary
• Robust
• State-of-the-art
• Unique
• User friendly
• World class

David Meerman Scott hits the nail on the head. Check out www.webinknow.com, and The Gobbledygook Manifesto -- Cutting Edge! Mission Critical! An analysis of gobbledygook in over 388,000 press releases sent in 2006.
If you have words you want to add to this list, please post a comment or send me an email. Gina (at) furiarubel.com.

New York Times to Cut 100 from Newsroom

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the New York Times will cut its newsroom staff by 100 this year. According to David B. Wilkerson of the WSJ:

“New York Times Co. spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said Bill Keller, executive editor at the flagship newspaper, told staffers that newsroom jobs would be reduced by ‘not filling newsroom positions, attrition, buyouts and, if necessary, layoffs.’”

To read what the New York Times had to say, click here.