Crisis Management

PRNEWS welcomed Lori Perlow, communications manager at Camden County Educational Services Commission of New Jersey, as our guest. We talked about the increasingly important role of communicators as districts return to school over the next month.

PRNEWS welcomes Sara Joseph, SVP at BerlinRosen to talk about innovations in the travel and lifestyle industries during COVID.

There is tremendous uncertainty about the upcoming school year as the novel coronavirus continues to ravage the country. As a result, stakeholders will depend on clear, decisive communication in an attempt to calm concerns. Unfortunately, not every school district has a trained communication professional on staff. We asked an experienced education communicator about best practices.

Everybody likes to take shots at government and social media. They’re easy targets at the moment. Still, when Hurricane Isaias headed toward the US east coast this weekend, government departments took to social to provide top-notch emergency information. We take a look at a few examples.

It’s the White House calling. Your expertise in strategic communication is needed. They want you to rush over right away. The question on the table is one you’ve handled many times before with CEOs and other C-suite members: What do you advise when the CEO’s 1:1 interviews are a disaster? Should the CEO continue to do interviews?

Both The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Hearst publications were caught flatfooted after allegations appeared in the media that their brands’ values failed to equate with reality. In her regular Image Patrol feature, Katie Paine analyzes the slow response to each PR crisis and provides tips for how brands should handle such issues.

Like a Nancy Drew page-turner, Sunday’s mystery of the vanishing baseball player took a shoddy communication road not many PR pros would care to ease on down. Yoenis Céspedes, an outfielder and DH for the New York Mets, chose to opt out of the rest of the 2020 Major League Baseball season. But before that acknowledgement, the Mets issued a statement suggesting the blockbuster player was missing. 

When your brand is built on being kind, it’s important to actually be kind. Ellen DeGeneres is learning this lesson the hard way. Staff have come forward to claim the culture at her eponymous talk show is anything but kind. In a letter dangerously close to a non-apology apology, Ellen says she’s committed to fixing what ails her staff, though she offers few details. Time will tell if this PR crisis has caused significant damage to her kind reputation.

The long-simmering battle between PRSA and gadfly and former board member Mary Beth West reached a new level this morning. A group of PR pros has formed to support some of West’s latest allegations against the PR association. PRNEWS obtained a copy of the letter the group sent to PRSA.

If a global business behemoth like Google can pivot quickly to address COVID-19 concerns, many other organizations may be asked follow and keep employees informed. Planning ahead instead of reacting to a crisis seems to be de rigueur for communicators. It’s a smart move.