Scrap the App:We seldom get a pitch like the one we received June 15. An email promised that a new study contained “qualitative and quantitative data” revealing “that women would rather forego sex AND makeup than shop via social media.” As PR pros are students of the human condition and selling on social is a hot topic, we bit. The data is from a poll of 1,000 women, 18-65 years old, by WE Communications and YouGov, the London-based research firm. 40% of the women said they’d forego sex, wearing makeup for one month and eating candy to avoid using retailers’ apps. (No candy? Really?) In short, the women bash retailers’ apps. A majority of the women said they had fewer than five shopping apps on their phones and most rate the apps “not at all useful.” Women “simply don’t buy via social media” owing to privacy issues and inability to compare prices, the study, From Like to Buy, says. Just 9% say they use retailers’ apps to make a purchase. Yet importantly for communicators, 60% say they research products on social. They make purchases on Amazon (44%) or a retailer’s site (38%). In addition, they spend 3.5 hours daily on social, yet 73% prefer using it to interact with friends as opposed to shopping.
Walk the Walk: Cision said June 17 its previously announced acquisition of PR Newswire from London-based UBM was finalized, except in China and Dubai, where it’s pending regulatory review. The hookup marries Cision’s analytics, database and technology with PR Newswire’s distribution platform. “The combined product roadmap and timeline will be finalized in the coming months,” the announcement said. PR Newswire’s CEO Bob Gray will “transition out of the business.” Cision CEO Peter Granat will run PR Newswire. We especially liked the conveyance: a colorful interactive press release complete with videos, tweets, an infographic and links to six translation options, a feature in keeping with the point that Cision now will reach 170 countries. A rep at Geben Communications pitched the release via email, personalized it and responded tout suite to a follow-up email we sent. Nicely done, folks.
and Boston SMPS President Anna Luciano.
News Bits: Kudos to Rhino PR president/CEO Susan Shelby, who was named Marketing Professional of the Year by the Boston Marketing Professionals Society. – PRSA Boston said GE’s CCO Deirdre Latour will keynote its 66th annual meeting, Nov 9. It will be her first speech in Boston since GE relocated its global headquarters there. – The Buzz Agency of South Florida acquired PR firm Tradewinds Media Partners, based in Palm Beach. Enid Atwater joins the firm as VP of PR to run the Palm Beach office. She was VP, corporate communications, for the Palm Beach County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Going, Going, Gone? The Pew Research Center issued its 13th
State of the News Media report, an exhaustive look at 13 sectors of the industry. In sum, the news about much of the traditional news media is grim. While these news organizations are adjusting to the realities of the internet era and their digital circulation is growing, the picture remains bleak. As the Pew report says, “There is money being made on the web, just not by news organizations.” The newspaper sector had “perhaps the worst year since the recession and its immediate aftermath,” the report says. Average weekday newspaper circulation, print and digital, fell 7%, the biggest drop since 2010. While digital circ was up 2%, “digital subscription gains or traffic increases have still not translated into game-changing revenue solutions.” Smaller budgets continue to mean smaller newsrooms. The latest newspaper newsroom employment figures, from 2014, show a decline of 10%, greater than in any year since 2009. The workforce is 20,000 positions smaller than 20 years prior. An earlier Pew study this year said just 5% of U.S. adults who followed the presidential election responded that print newspapers were their “most helpful” source, “trailing nearly every other category by wide margins, including cable, local and national TV, radio, social media and news websites.” On a positive note, broadcast, local and cable news saw modest revenue increases.
People: TV One formally announced veteran cable PR exec Tosha Whitten-Griggsas the network’s SVP, PR. Whitten-Griggs joined TV One earlier this year and reports to TV One’s CEO Brad Siegel. Whitten-Griggs was president/CEO of The FrontPage Firm and was with BET as senior director of corporate communications. – Former Capitol Hill Republican advisor and Ogilvy SVP, public affairs Dan Scandling joined APCO Worldwide as senior director for public affairs, based in the D.C. office. – Congrats to our good friend Jordyn Linsk, the new director of media relations and communications at Save the Children. The veteran cable communicator worked at Travel Channel, TLC and TV One previously.