If It’s Icahn, It’s News
A few weeks ago, one-time corprate raider now would-be guardian of corporate governance (talk about the Mother Of All PR coups) Carl Icahn won a seat on the Yahoo Board.
Yahoo and Icahn forces issued press releases and seconds later, in the land of digi PR, it’s news on a zillion on-line news services and websites. In time traditional media gets in on the act too.
Moments after the news breaks, I get a call to rush down to Fox Business Channel to appear on air to talk about how a 70 plus year old who doesn’t use a computer winds up on the board of a an Internet giant. I wrote a book, King Icahn: The Biography oF A Renegade Capitalist years ago, and whenever Carl makes news, I am asked to comment on it.
And everything Carl does, makes news. And it all converges: digi,
tv, print, radio….and it all reinforces each other. And that’s the key element for PR pros. In most cases, digi is the first match that gets lit but it all spreads like wildfire throughout the media machine. And the best pros know how to work it from all ends.
Soon after my Fox appearance on tv, the segment appeared on the Fox website. From there, bloggers spread my comments to other bloggers and some of this viral chatter wound up, of all places, at the BBC in London, which then asked me to do a live remote on the radio.
Which I did.
And then comments on my Carl comments wound up on my firm’s website and in my Blackberry email. It all swirls around the world in nanno seconds and its all interconnected. PR pros have to look at this news meteor from a mile up looking down and from the ground looking up. We have to see all of its component parts. We have to see how they come together. We have to know how to orchestrate not any one channel, but the fusion of the channels.
This is the big story. This is the difference between today and any other time in the past. This is the challenge and the exhilarating opportunity.
Yes, if it’s Icahn it’s news. The same is true when your client does something exceptional. Or something terrible. Wins a Nobel Prize or is the Wall. Street scandal of the month.
Un either case, in any case, be prepared to master an entire set of moving parts, flying fast, in different directions, and various speeds. And then all converging.
When you make news, be sure to manage it before it manages you.
You can’t simply ask The Times to hold the story any more. Drudge won’t. Huffington won’t.
Ask Icahn. Ask Edwards.
on August 24th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
True Icahn isn’t computer savi however at least he knows how to conduct himself in a professional manner and get results, unlike a bogus company I recently encountered called IncreaseVisibility a self proclaimed SEO company who’s leadership is anything but, here is recent excerpt from their websites blog section under the comments to a recent blog - Hi my name is James (Jim) Lisi CEO of Increase Visibility.com I just want to comment that my company and I our a true scam based internet only, bogus business designed to bilk honest hard working legitimate companies and individuals of their money, I look forward to ripping you off soon and feel free to contact me at the 800 number listed on my site. - hey at least his dishonesty is matched by his honesty about it - so you have leaders like Icahn and then leaches lining the seedy underbelly of the corrupts most reprehensible depths like James Lisi so at least Yahoo didn’t give a seat to some pariah like Lisi although I am now considering 86ing my yahoo accounts just because Icahn is a mindless self interested leach of his own breed who is bent on dismantling every company he attaches himself to… I’d like to see him try to get control of the devils online media corporation TImeWarner AOL again though and destroy it since it truly deserves to have it’s head cut off and burned in the fire
on August 24th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
True Icahn isn’t computer savi however at least he knows how to conduct himself in a professional manner and get results, unlike a bogus company I recently encountered called IncreaseVisibility a self proclaimed SEO company who’s leadership is anything but professional, here is recent excerpt from their websites blog section under the comments to a recent blog - Hi my name is James (Jim) Lisi CEO of Increase Visibility.com I just want to comment that my company and I our a true scam based internet only, bogus business designed to bilk honest hard working legitimate companies and individuals of their money, I look forward to ripping you off soon and feel free to contact me at the 800 number listed on my site. - hey at least his dishonesty is matched by his honesty about it - so you have leaders like Icahn and then leaches lining the seedy underbelly of the corrupts most reprehensible depths like James Lisi so at least Yahoo didn’t give a seat to some pariah like Lisi although I am now considering 86ing my yahoo accounts just because Icahn is a mindless self interested leach of his own breed who is bent on dismantling every company he attaches himself to… I’d like to see him try to get control of the devils online media corporation TImeWarner AOL again though and destroy it since it truly deserves to have it’s head cut off and burned in the fire
on August 24th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
True Icahn isn’t computer savi however at least he knows how to conduct himself in a professional manner and get results, unlike a bogus company I recently encountered called IncreaseVisibility a self proclaimed SEO company who’s leadership is anything but professional, here is recent excerpt from their websites blog section under the comments to a recent blog - Hi my name is James (Jim) Lisi CEO of Increase Visibility.com I just want to comment that my company and I are a true scam based internet only, bogus business designed to bilk honest hard working legitimate companies and individuals of their money, I look forward to ripping you off soon and feel free to contact me at the 800 number listed on my site. - hey at least his dishonesty is matched by his honesty about it - so you have leaders like Icahn and then leaches lining the seedy underbelly of the corrupts most reprehensible depths like James Lisi so at least Yahoo didn’t give a seat to some pariah like Lisi although I am now considering 86ing my yahoo accounts just because Icahn is a mindless self interested leach of his own breed who is bent on dismantling every company he attaches himself to… I’d like to see him try to get control of the devils online media corporation TImeWarner AOL again though and destroy it since it truly deserves to have it’s head cut off and burned in the fire