Stories by Diane Schwartz

There you are, reporting to your CEO on the outcome of a recent PR campaign you spearheaded. Your excitement is contagious as the CEO wants to know more about the positive tone, product awareness and visual dimensions, more about your company’s share…

Oscar Wilde once said that the “question often arrives a terribly long time after the answer.”  For sure, asking the right questions early and often is the answer to a lot of problems we face as communicators.  Inundated with projects, challenges…

The death of your brand: have you ever thought about it? Have you considered the implications of its demise, for better or worse? What might be lost in the marketplace of ideas, products or services if your brand no longer existed? Excuse my pessimism,…

Why are so many of us addicted to “The Voice”? For me, it’s not because I am constantly reminded of what a poor singer I am.  I have my kids to remind me of that. Why I like “The Voice” over other reality shows has more to do…

At what point is it not OK for an employee to utter these words to people he’s managing: “You f—ing fairy; you’re a f—ing f—-t.” And at what point is it not OK to: Shove and kick the people you’re managing? The answer: when it

  Advice is easy to come by and just as easy to dispense. What’s more difficult is heeding advice. At a recent awards luncheon in Manhattan hosted by PR News sister brand CableFAX, a group of young “executives to watch” shared useful advice …

The commonly used word “pitch” can be a disservice to the PR trade.  Pitching a story to a reporter assumes there’s a catcher (often there is no one on the other end to receive it or the recipient isn’t paying attention). Pitch…

While nearly every brand is online  – be it with a Web site, email marketing programs, social media, apps  – many brands make the mistake of going a bit too far by not going far enough. I’m not talking about chasing the next shiny object. I’m…

The tweet caught my eye: “Don’t support The Weather Channel by calling this storm Nemo.” But I liked that name, and so did thousands of tweeters who tucked #Nemo into their 140-character updates. While not intended as the cute Nemo fish of Disney…

“It’s PR’s fault.” This is what a reporter acquaintance for a daily publication recently told me, as she was lamenting the inability to set up a meeting with a top executive at a major trade show coming up. “They didn’t get back to me, and …