2015 PR Apprentice is underway!

College students from across western New York are now brainstorming creative ideas to promote an early childhood literacy program as part of the PRSA Rochester chapter's 2015 PR Apprentice competition. Check back for details.

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A few hours with Kurt Busch

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I spent a few hours riding PR shotgun with several NASCAR drivers during my corporate career. Kurt Busch was one of them. Busch was driving for Roger Penske at the time, and Penske's organization knew how to partner with corporate sponsors, each of whom spends millions to affix their logos on race cars, drivers' fire suits, and so on. By U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman John Suits.Hutcher at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons Busch was then a previous NASCAR champion, but known for a fiery temper on the track. Yet, during a day's worth of local media interviews, meet-and-greets with corporate employees, and visits with hospitalized kids, Busch was consistently polite and patient. He posed for photos with strangers, did interviews that wouldn't be seen outside a small upstate TV market, and autographed die-cast cars for use in charity auctions. He was no hothead that day. And a pleasure to work with. He even let me d...
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Readers get the (drive) shaft in motorsports coverage

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In mid-August, the U.S.'s premier auto racing sport will compete at a road racing course in Watkins Glen, NY. NASCAR's brutish Cup series cars will race in this rural community Aug. 20.  May 2023, Charlotte Motor Speedway. (c) DKassnoff, 2023. But, don't expect  The New York Times  to cover NASCAR before then. The newspaper's sports section -- now outsourced to The Athletic, its sportsbook subsidiary -- hasn't covered NASCAR since July 2. That's when NASCAR's drivers competed on the rain-soaked streets of Chicago. The Times provided no coverage of their July 30 race in Richmond, VA, or any NASCAR race since early July. The Times  has focused its motorsports coverage on Formula 1 racing. These are the expensive, open-wheeled, high performance racing teams once called Grand Prix. This class of racing is controlled by another media company: John Malone's Liberty Media, which purchased Formula 1 in 2017 and returned it to profitability. Visit the Times ...
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Don't call us, we can't decode news releases

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You've got to admire an online news release distribution channel called 24-7 Press Release. They're honest about their service: they take a news release you write, and distribute it to media outlets via a newswire-style service. What they won't do is also pretty clear: "Please do not attempt to contact 24-7 Press Release Newswire. We are unable to assist you with any information regarding this release." In other words: "We aren't the writers or people quoted in the news release you're reading. We're not set up for media relations." Honest? You bet. Helpful? Not so much, at least if you  read releases on 24-7 Press Release -- in this case, "Fresh Design Studio is the First Millennial Agency in the Midwest" .  Millennials, I guess. Courtesy: http://www.todomktblog.com/ 2013/11/millennials-marketing-mkt.html The release's lead was a head-scratcher."Fresh Design Studio, LLC, a leading creative agency, ann...
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