By Alan Upchurch

Recently, I watched with pride as my youngest child walked across the stage and received his high school diploma.  It was a special moment for me, my wife Patty, and our son Trevor.  Trevor was diagnosed with autism when he was about 4 years old.  There have been many obstacles along the way, but Trevor has defeated most of them and grown into a bright, engaging, happy young man.

On graduation day, I also thought a lot about his future.  Trevor always tells his Mom and I that he loves the state of Michigan and can’t imagine leaving.  But as Michigan struggles to rebound from years of economic calamity, I wonder if his best opportunities will come elsewhere.  My eldest daughter has already left the state.  She’s in California. Many of her friends are gone, too.  They’re working in Chicago, Atlanta and other cities around the country.  In the last 10 years Michigan has lost nearly 800,000 private sector jobs.  What frightens and angers me is the lack of outrage, and the lack of urgency from government and business leaders throughout the state. They talk a good game. But where is the action.  The candidates for governor are as unimpressive as I have seen in the past 30 years.  Have you heard any of your friends or neighbors talking about the great ideas and leadership skills of these candidates?   People are apathetic and one of the big reasons for their indifference is the uninspiring candidates.

We need a Marshall Plan, which helped rebuild war-torn Europe, because Michigan is losing one battle after another in this economic war.   And now we are losing our children to other states that are better prepared and, apparently, more willing to fight for their economic future.   Cool cities?  How about a cool jobs creation plan that will give young people like my son a reasonable chance at economic success in a state he loves so much.

By Michael Layne

Last April, the Gulf of Mexico was impacted by a catastrophic oil spill under embattled U.K. energy giant BP, causing ongoing damage to the environment and those working and living along the coast.

We are all made increasingly aware of the enormity of the spill daily. Never before has the public been able to witness live streaming video coverage of a crisis, with underwater cameras capturing footage of barrels of an estimated 60,000 barrels of oil a day spewing into the ocean and aerial views of blackened, thick water.

One would think that a company as large and as involved in potentially environmentally hazardous activities as BP would have a top-notch crisis team - ready to mobilize should a spill occur.

Clearly, all companies need to have both a disaster recovery and a crisis communication plan in place, well in advance of any negative eventuality.

There are two aspects of crisis planning that all businesses should have documented and well rehearsed long before any crisis occurs. The first is focused on the physical aspects of responding and managing a crisis, for example, salvaging water or fire damaged property, dealing with environmental hazards, and getting the workplace back up and running without, hopefully, skipping a beat. The second is solely focused on coordinating communications. Businesses must be prepared in advance to immediately and regularly communicate their responses to employees, stakeholders, municipalities, customers and the media.

No stranger to oil spills, BP should have had a disaster team in place to quickly attempt to cap, siphon and clean up oil. BP did not appear to have either a disaster recovery or a crisis communication strategy in place. Too much time lapsed between the spill and attempts to cap it using a dome containment system. If a mobile disaster recovery team had been in place to manage the physical effort of capping the well, domes would have been at the ready and tested in advance for effectiveness.

Along with the need for a physical disaster recovery team comes the need for a communications management team that is at the ready to communicate with all stakeholders, including employees, municipalities, businesses, and the news media. CEO Tony Hayward has made appearances in devastated areas along the Gulf of Mexico, however his show of empathy was too little too late. It was a fly by the seat of your pants communication strategy. It comes as no surprise that BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward handed over management of the spill to Bob Dudley, Senior Manager.

BP has spent 2.35 billion to date trying to amend the problem and the price tag goes up by the multi-million daily. As oil continues to hemorrhage, BP stock continues to plunge, reaching 14-year lows.  The cost of not responding to this crisis immediately has been a loss of any brand equity that BP strove to earn. As oil drains into the Gulf of Mexico, so is worth draining from BP.

By Jennifer L. Cherry

I have colleagues who chuckle fondly as they recall standing in line to fax press releases to reporters. A few more reminisce about the paper cuts they gained as they stuffed envelopes to mail information on news stories to reporters via the U.S. Postal Service “back in the day.” The newest batch of executives scratch their heads. Was there a time when reporters didn’t send out queries though Facebook or Twitter and it wasn’t okay to instant message the newscast anchor?

No argument from me. The field of PR has experienced many changes as a result of new technologies. Now PR executives are reducing their pitches to 140 characters or less and firing off instant messages at the speed of light.

Journalists’ email boxes are overflowing and they are sometimes challenged to get through all the messages they receive in a day.  The features editor at a regional newspaper told me she was received more than 500 messages on any given day. Members of the news media have come to appreciate brevity.

So when email boxes are overflowing and they’re attention is being pursued by a number of social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, how do reporters know where to begin?

I can’t blame them. It can be downright overwhelming.

And as a small business owner or PR practitioner, how do you get your messages in front of them?

What I do know is that the number of pieces of mail being delivered through “snail mail” has substantially decreased. People are more likely to take the time to open a hand-addressed envelope that isn’t a part of a mass distribution-simply because the occurrence of receiving such a document is increasingly rare.  If it’s mailed and handwritten, it MUST be of importance. What a treat to receive!

At Marx Layne, we know an especially busy journalist who we expect would be interested in the information we have for him, but he’s rarely in the office and his email and voicemail are usually full.

So, we did what any sensible PR firm would do. We printed out a copy of the collateral materials, drafted a hand-written note and popped it all in the mail.

Most importantly, it was a reminder about pairing the right reporter with the right channel in order to get your story told.

My colleagues chuckled.

I never thought I’d see the day . . .everything old is new again.

PS-This tale not only applies to journalists. There is also tremendous value in dropping a handwritten note to clients, colleagues and friends in order to keep in touch and stay top of mind.

By Michael Layne

On Sunday May 16, Rima Fakih, a 24-year old Lebanese immigrant from Dearborn became the newest Miss USA and a beacon of hope for much of southeastern Michigan as well as immigrants across the country.

Fakih’s family is Shiite from a village in the south of Lebanon called Srifa. She came to the United States with her parents in 1993.

Her family eventually settled in Dearborn, Michigan, where Fakih was able to work towards her goal of becoming Miss USA. Dearborn, located in southeastern Michigan, is one of the cities in this area of the United States with the highest concentration of Arab Americans. 25% of the people living in Dearborn are immigrants, many from Arab countries. As a result, Arab cuture has made an impact throughout Metro Detroit. Hummus dip and pita bread is just as commonplace as potato chips and sour cream dip.

In today’s world, where it seems that decades of progress may go unnoticed with movements such as the recent immigration laws in Arizona, Fakih is a reminder of the cultural diversity values that many in this country hold so dear. While many Arab people in the United States face discrimination based upon ethnic ties, Fakih breaks the bonds of stereotypes associated with Arab and Muslim women.

During a time of uncertainty and unrest in the state of Michigan surrounding state budget cuts and a high unemployment rate, Fakih is able to remind the country as a whole that the heart of Michigan is still beating fast.

Beauty knows no cultural bounds.  Fakih is a testament to the fact that our cultural differences should be celebrated. She represents a new generation in which ethnic ties and racial prejudices will be broken down by perseverance, and by people willing to make a difference.

These are clearly perilous times for newspapers nationwide. According to recent figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the average weekday circulation of nearly 400 daily newspapers that reported sales slid 10.6 percent to 30.4 million from April to September, compared with the same six-month period in 2008.

Newspapers have continued to experience declining circulation as readers increasingly have turned to online sources for news. Many metropolitan dailies, including the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press continue to reduce staff; and at the same time, the price of the daily Detroit News and Detroit Free Press doubled from 50 cents to $1. The website Paper Cuts, which tracks layoffs and buyouts at U.S. Newspapers, says that the number of reporters across the nation has been reduced by nearly 30,000 since early 2008.

The only daily newspaper in the top 25 to grow (by .06 percent) is the Wall Street Journal, edging out USA Today as the top-selling newspaper in the nation. USA Today had its worst period ever, falling more than 17 percent. Much of this decline was due to the publication’s reliance on sales in hotels and airports and a corresponding decrease in travel.

In light of declining circulation, many believe that our newspapers’ ability to act as watchdogs of government, corporations and the communities in which we live is being threatened. On the contrary, I believe that we are approaching a golden age of journalism. This is not the first time there has been a change in the way we receive the printed word. The history of moveable type dates back to around 1040 in China. Metal moveable type was first invented in Korea around 1230. Johannes Gutenberg developed the first moveable type printing technique in Germany around 1439, launching the European age of printing.

The Gutenberg Bible, first printed in 1455, established the superiority of moveable type and printing presses rapidly spread across Europe. The invention of lithography in 1796 brought in the age of newspapers as we have come know them. In 1993 the digital press enabled reproduction of digital images, which rapidly changed the newspaper and magazine industry.

As we enter 2010, we are on the verge of the most exciting revolution in newspaper and magazine journalism. During the upcoming holiday sales season, consumers will be bombarded by a plethora of eReading devices. A recent Forrester Research report predicts that 900,000 units of eReaders will fly off the shelves between Black Friday and Christmas.

Amazon first introduced the Kindle reading device two years and recently updated it with a larger screen, soon to be in color. After nearly a decade and of millions of dollars of research and development, Plastic Logic will launch its electronic reader made entirely of plastic electronics. Plastic Logic will release an 8.5 by 11-inch notepad that’s less than a third-inch in thickness, based on plastic rather than silicon and glass. The company promises flexibility and durability – a shatterproof eReader with a battery that can last for days and a device that can download books and newspapers through either a 3G network or a Wi-Fi connection.

Competition in this new world of eReaders will be fierce. Kindle, for example, dropped the price of its device to $259 and just introduced a larger Kindle DX. Sony will soon have three variations of its device: pocket, large touch screen and wireless versions. A company called Spring Design will soon market a device that runs on Google’s Android operating system. Industry trendsetter Apple Computer will soon launch its highly anticipated tablet. There have been rumors that the New York Times is working with Apple Computer on its tablet to enhance the device’s eReading capabilities.
IREX Technologies has introduced a sleek, 8.1-inch, touchscreen eReader that offers multi-mode 3G wireless capabilities. The IREX device is supported by key partners Barnes & Noble, Inc., Best Buy, Qualcomm and Verizon Wireless, which together provide content, a powerful retail presence and the most reliable wireless network in the country.

It is interesting to note that while U.S. newspapers continue to lose subscribers, they are beginning to understand, enhance and reach out to their online readership instead of fighting the transition. Look for online newspapers and magazines to become more user-friendly, to feature better integration of multimedia and to be more adaptable to the imminent world of eReaders Adobe is busy creating a publishing tool for the new format which will be offered to publishers.

While print circulation may be declining, Nielsen research shows that year-over-year traffic to the top online newspaper websites has grown 16 percent. Nielsen notes that in December 2007, just over 3.5 million unique visitors daily came to newspaper hubs; that number increased in December 2008 to just over 40 million unique visitors. Nielsen Online goes on to report that nine of the 10 top newspaper websites experienced positive year-over-year growth.

With nearly a million eReaders getting ready to hit the shelves this holiday season, newspapers and magazines are gearing up to adapt to new eReaders, new smart phones and other formats. And, as with all electronics, prices will continue to drop after companies begin mass marketing. It is conceivable that the cost of receiving a new eReading device may be included in the cost of subscribing to your favorite newspaper or magazine.

While newspapers and magazines adapt to the world of lightweight, unbreakable, flexible eReaders, look for readers to expect brilliant multimedia presentations. In today’s high-tech, razzle-dazzle computer-animated graphics world, people are going to want to experience unlimited content, lights, color and action on their eReaders. The point, however, is this. People will still want to read. In fact, it’s much faster to consume information by reading than being distracted by a multimedia presentation. We are in the early stages of another tectonic shift in information technology. Instead of mere printed words captured on a static piece of paper, words now will be floating in the ether, simply waiting for someone to download them onto a an e-device – and still packing a punch, ready to stimulate, inform and entertain!

This will extend to corporate research findings, exceptional testimonials and other areas. Could pose significant technical challenges as well as completely change word-of-mouth marketing…

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091006-709182.html

http://www.elitefts.com/news-room/Press-Releases/press-release-liftstrong2.htm

Great job to everyone here!

http://www.pr-inside.com/marx-layne-company-named-one-r1092593.htm

A good read: http://thecodist.com/article/how_a_web_newspaper_should_be_built

It will be interesting not only how news will change, but how agencies will change (the ones that survive).

When seeking future employees, we continue to go well beyond the traditional newsroom and have demanded (in addition to fundamental journalism skills) technological know-how (how do search engines work? What web tools are available and how are they used?  Etc.); Ability to discover conversations and think how you might be able to engage people in ways that provide value to both them and a brand; Power to seek and observe what people are talking about and then define keywords that help you and the public find these dialogues; The skill to tell a story in three dimensions; And, a strong understanding business and revenue models.

As the Detroit Mayoral race heats up, as well as the topic of light rail in the city, we took the opportunity to ask the candidates their opinions on the topic of light rail in Detroit. You can watch their comments here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcUrpd3LohA

And, you can see them here:

http://flickr.com/photos/marxlayne/