The Nimble Communicator

Organizers expect 250 or more participants in this year's Tour, compared to 190 in the 2009 debut.

In the heart of the industrial Midwest, where smoke-belching steel and auto factories have put bread on the table for generations, one might not expect much fervor for ”green” initiatives.      

But promoters of the Tour of the Valley, a three-day bicycle racing event opening July 9, are unabashedly leveraging messages about cleaner air and a greener planet as they seek participants and volunteers.      

“Carbon Racing rides for purpose,” blared a recent Vindicator headline about the bicycling concern owned by Dan and Erin Quinlan of Greenford. The outfit is the promoter of the July event in the Youngstown area, and also a team of top-shelf cyclers who compete in similar events across the eastern United States.      

The Quinlans named their company “Carbon Racing” to draw attention to the concept that Americans can reduce carbon emissions by riding bikes instead of driving cars. One of the team’s members, Shawn Adams, an Akron firefighter, told The Vindicator he bikes eight miles to work and back instead of driving his car.      

He also told the paper that he joined this particular team because of Dan Quinlan’s green leanings. ”I like his vision for the team, which is to develop younger riders and also push the environmental issue to make cycling a clean sport — to get people to stop driving so much and ride their bikes more; to get people involved in their community.”      

Like the Carbon Racing website, the Quinlans talk a lot about being “carbon neutral,” or avoiding activities (like driving) that add carbon to the atmosphere.   

Commuting by bike is almost impossible in the Mahoning Valley, where several excellent trails lack connections to the downtown area, and where bike-storage facilities are hard to find.      

Still, some do it. Alan Wenger, a lawyer from North Lima, cycles to Harrington Hoppe & Mitchell in downtown Youngstown on weekends, when road traffic is lighter and the dress is more casual.

He and Quinlan think more Youngstowners would leave their cars at home if there were safer bike routes and secure places to store a bike and shower before walking into work.    

“I would love to see it,” Quinlan said.    

Added Wenger, “Many cities, particularly ones rediscovering themselves, make significant efforts to accommodate and encourage cyclists.”      

The local cycling community may be larger than one would think.  As of Monday, some 175 had signed up for the Tour, with 11 days before the deadline, compared to 145 pre-registrants at the deadline last year, Quinlan said. She expects 250 or more by race day, compared to 190 last year.    

Entrants include cyclists from out of town who heard about last year’s Tour and want to be part of it, as well as local cyclists who would travel elsewhere to race if not for this event.  Also new this year is a non-competitive community ride through scenic Mill Creek Park.       

With the expansion in the field, Carbon Racing is looking for more volunteers — a lot more — for the event’s three days.     

“Corner marshalls” are needed to stand at intersections with flags to keep pedestrians off the race course.  Volunteers also set up, clean up, register riders and hand out water bottles and snacks, on all three days.      

Volunteers can sign up here at the event’s website.     

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BP has purchased space at the top of the Google search results, and so has a plaintiff's law firm. (Click the image for a full view.)

An Associated Press news analysis over the weekend offered some suggestions about how BP could improve the way it’s managing the crisis from a public relations standpoint.

Although BP’s recent PR gaffes suggest it may need a hand, the view from here is that the oil giant would find itself in deeper goo if it heeds any of the recommendations the AP relayed.

Here are those suggestions, along with our comments.

Daniel Keeney, president of a Dallas PR firm, suggested putting BP CEO Tony Hayward in a hard hat and life vest, helping crews contain and clean up the spill.

“You want to get him right in the thick of things, even if he looks somewhat uncomfortable doing it,” Keeney told the AP.

This sounds like the spillover from a brainstoming session by interns. Putting Hayward in the thick of things would be viewed as a cheap publicity stunt.

Hayward needs to be seen as the champion of doing all that can be done to fix the leak. That’s a big, serious job that leaves no time for dress-up.

Richard Levick, president of Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, suggested BP could have cut gas prices at its stations along the Gulf Coast in a “show of financial solidarity,” the AP reported.

Another “creative” idea, but also likely to be viewed as a stunt. No discount would be viewed as large enough, or in force long enough, to truly show solidarity with those who have lost loved ones and livelihoods. Worse, a 50-cents-a-gallon sale could run counter to claims that BP is investing all it can to stop the leak.

Every cent should go into doing whatever can be done to fix the leak. A suspension of BP’s cash dividend for that purpose would have been much more meaningful, though potentially calamitous to BP’s tens of thousands of shareholders.

Former Shell chairman John Hofmeister told the AP it might have been more appropriate for BP’s senior U.S. executives to take the heat on the Louisiana spill, instead of Hayward, the Englishman who runs London-based BP.

“I think it was a mistake for Tony Hayward to come and put his physical presence in the U.S.,” Hofmeister told the AP. “The U.S. has its own culture and traditions. Foreign companies can come and do business there, but they are not necessarily welcomed.”

One of those U.S. traditions is that leaders take responsibility. If Hayward were to give way to his U.S. minions, he’d be viewed as hiding in an ivory tower in a foreign country. That would send the wrong message.

The above suggestions aim to make BP look better, for a moment. But none support BP’s pledge to do all it can to plug the leak and address the damage.

As this crisis rages on, BP needs to be single-minded in its PR efforts. We would counsel BP, or any company living such a nightmare, to:

Stick to the message. Demonstrate how the priorities of stopping the leak and cleaning the mess are being carried out. BP’s website is indeed loaded with information and video that support its activities.

We would do more with the media to convey the scope of the response, at the leak, on the beaches, in the animal clean-up facilities and in the offices with claims. Show us that you’re doing all that can be done.

Be more forthcoming, even with unfavorable information. Two upward revisions in BP’s estimates of the volume of runaway oil suggest that earlier versions were lowballs. The stonewalling on the video of the leak also looked like hiding.

If BP trains the public to doubt its portrayals of the damage, it will have no hope of convincing us that it’s doing all it can to stop the leak.

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Finally, BP released video last week of the deep-sea leak. Withholding the footage was one of BP's PR mistakes.

We’re watching one of the most overwhelming public relations challenges in the modern history of American business unfold around the BP oil spill in Louisiana.

And under the circumstances, the team there isn’t doing half bad.

Yes, the oil is still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico at the rate of over 5,000 barrels per day. And yes, the financial and environmental damage are already devastating and will grow.

But those results were guaranteed April 20, when the disaster first made news. Even the best public relations strategy can’t change the facts. 

Since then, BP has kept its executives visible, shared information with its broad constituencies and even ponied up cash to support tourist bureaus in the region.

As is always the case in a situation like this, BP has been given a daily forum in the major media. Though the company has made some mistakes, its spokespersons have used the spotlight effectively to convey the company’s commitment to clean up the mess and to demonstrate that commitment with action.

BP has portrayed the spill as the enemy, and itself as the protagonist.

Contrast its behavior with companies in previous situations, large and small, that relayed limited information and demonstrated no action. The silent approach is not safe, but creates a dangerous vacuum that sucks into the spotlight every opponent, from the credible to the crackpot.

BP is filling the vaccuum, not only by taking advantage of the media limelight but more importantly by updating regulators, members of Congress and local communities.

“It seems like almost on a daily basis somebody has sort of checked in or called or come by the office providing information, being available to answer questions,” Senator Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican, told Business Week (read the full article).

Last week, TheStreet.com polled its readers on whether BP would halt the catastrophic leak in time to avert a disaster as massive as the Exxon Valdez leak in 1989. Some 58 percent of respondents thought BP would.   

The investing public seems more optimistic. Although BP’s stock price has declined almost daily since last month’s explosion, and closed Monday at $46.57, it’s still far above the $35 it hit early last year. That suggests the spill is less a drag on BP’s value than the 2009 economic catastrophe from which stocks have generally recovered.

The story is not over, and there’s only so much PR can do amid a disaster like this.

At least BP’s doing that.

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Channel 33/27's story the day of the event.

When it comes to pursuing the publicity that is so important for their success, many nonprofits, especially faith-based groups, fall into sin.   

They tend to advance messages about their causes and their leaders ahead of information that media professionals consider newsworthy.   

Fortunately, the organizers of the recent Men’s Rally in the Valley in downtown Youngstown didn’t fall into that temptation. Although their cause – building a Promise Keepers-style event that would challenge Christian men to live up to their faith – was noble enough, their approach relied on strategies and content that scored with the secular media.   

As a result, the first-time event drew a huge volume of print, broadcast and online publicity en route to what organizers and the Covelli Centre considered an extraordinary success. Some 3,500 men from diverse Christian backgrounds packed the downtown arena on Saturday, May 8, for a day of challenge and commitment.      

Tribune coverage.

(Pecchia Communications led the event’s nine-month campaign, pro-bono, leveraging its own handiwork and that of five other northeast Ohio companies that also donated all their time: American Sign Co., Bob Popa Entertainment, Gregoryfilms, On the Brink Creative and Ten29 Productions).     

The team effort involved capitalizing on real news hooks:   

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams. An outspoken Christian, the mayor agreed early to give the opening remarks for the May 8 event. In addition, he spoke in a compelling video (produced for free by Ten29) about what the Mahoning Valley would be like if Christian men commit to “walk the walk” of their faith. His involvement was a media magnet, and the video played in dozens of Valley churches and on YouTube.   

Rally speaker Dave Dravecky.  The Boardman native’s name and inspiring story  are huge among sports fans and the Christian community.  Dravecky’s picture in articles and on the Rally website, posters and fliers gave the event more credibility than a first-time effort typically deserves.  His live interview on WYFM 95.5 The Fish in Cleveland was replayed twice. 

Vindy story about the planning, quoting Newton and Moncrief.

Covelli Centre. In Youngstown, the rebounding downtown and its flagship entertainment venue are news. Far before the Rally took place, we invited media to interview event leaders in front of the arena. We secured the Covelli’s community room for a  press conference four weeks ahead of the event.   

Diversity. The large and diverse volunteer team that planned the Rally reflected extraordinary unity. That resonated with the media, and our handout picture of Bing Newton and Rev. David Moncrief in front of the Covelli Centre was published prominently in several papers.   

The marketing effort went far beyond publicity. The team also developed a website, television commercials, radio spots, billboards, yard signs, two videos, an email newsletter and much more.  It’s amazing what can be accomplished when not one, not two, but six communications companies donate heavy volumes of time.   

Media publicity, though, is achieved not with time but with news value. Non-profits that can objectively apply an editor’s mindset to their activities and create that value can expect answers to their prayers.   

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The Indianapolis Colts have goofed again.

A month after bumbling their way to defeat against the underdog New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl, the AFC Champion Colts took some shots from their online fans Saturday after goofing up big-time on Facebook.

This morning, the Colts began flooding the newsfeeds of their Facebook fans with posts from February about pre-Super Bowl activity. More than 50 of the outdated posts rolled in by late this afternoon.

The blitz ended this evening, marked by two messages from the Colts. One included an apology and a vague description of the problem, and another stated (accurately) that the goof was fixed.

Reactions ranged from amused to ticked off.

“Please quit posting stuff every five minutes and taking up my whole homepage feed!!!!!,” hollered Kevin Brock of Monrovia, Ind.

Joked Michael Wallace of Cincinnati: “Appparently, the Colts have just announced that with the 1st pick of the 1998 NFL Draft they have selected Peyton Manning, QB from U. of Tennesssee. So much for the information age.”

Reflecting a stronger team spirit, Heather Harlan of Kingsport, Tenn., cheered, “i still love the colts!!!!!!!!”

In this first message from the Colts, the team appears to blame Facebook.

An API (application programming interface) is basically a way for a program to accomplish some task, usually through an alphanumeric API key. The reference to “a change” in the Facebook API that activates the feed of Colts news to its fans is hard to understand.

Here’s the Colts’ second message:

Now the word is that the API got stuck last month, then made up all of its lost ground today. The old posts really were done at this point.

As a long-time Colts fan, I don’t agree with all the criticism levied at the Facebook page caretakers.

Those guys should get a shot to replace Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis on the defensive line. If we had any kind of rush like that in Super Bowl XLIV, we’d have the Lombardi Trophy on our Facebook profile.

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Ernie Brown and Ted Suffolk, right, are pleasant fellows and publisher Betty Jagnow manages a smile here. GM Mark Brown ... not so much. (Click for a full view of this photo from last Sunday's paper.)

The Vindicator’s new design enjoyed a stunning debut this past week, making good on all the fanfare.

Leveraging the capabilities of a newly refurbished press, the Youngstown-based daily has carried heavy doses of color photos and graphics with far more clarity than Vindy readers have ever seen. Even the daily comics are in color.

The paper looks great. The new, slightly larger body typeface is much easier to digest and the sharp headlines beckon from the orange boxes without hollering like a tabloid.

Even the narrower size, which portends a smaller news hole, has an appeal to it. Outside a few minor goofs that are unavoidable in such launches, the Goss International press that once printed the Los Angeles Times has ”the People’s Paper” looking as crisp as the USA Today or any other U.S. daily.

Along with Vindy.com and the new Neighbors editions, the new press and new look give the locally owned Vindicator Printing Company a huge new opportunity to regain advertisers, hold onto readers and haul in high-end commercial work.

Hopefully, in addition to the meticulous planning required to launch the new press, the paper will work hard to retool its public image as well. That can use some investment.

On the front of a special section last Sunday, in a huge color photo showcasing the new equipment behind the paper’s management team, nobody could miss the snarling scowls. Unfortunately, that’s the puss the Vindicator wears as an organization at times.

The paper suffered through an eight-month strike in 2004-05, the latest byproduct of many years of strain between the management and employees. Reporters picketed daily downtown. Some started their own newspaper to compete with their employer. Vindy managers, meanwhile, camped inside for days at a time to keep the paper running.  It’s not hard to understand why the work environment remains challenging.

While the paper has long claimed financial hardship (a credible story in this market of declining population), employees and Newspaper Guild unionists have scowled over management’s chronic inability to improve the financial look.

The Vindy is no Fast Company, to be sure. Though its capital launched the innovative cBoss Internet years before many Youngstowners used email, the paper itself took forever to get online. Various heroes recruited to reignite ad sales have come and gone. Even the press installation has been a miniboondoggle fraught with delays and legal action.

Fortunately, the paper has plenty of capacity to redesign its image. Its new editor, Todd Franko, is a newsman and no scowlmeister.  Since joining the paper in 2007, he has brought personality to the paper with his affable Sunday column. 

Since the impressive new color comes with a premium, some low-budget advertisers still prefer black and white. (This ad ran in Friday's business section.)

The online edition — still free — has increased the following of popular columnists like Bert deSouza and Ernie Brown, who also play well with the public and know Youngstown through and through.  Several writers, editors, photographers and designers have won statewide Associated Press awards lately. And the online polls and comment threads on vindy.com are engaging the online audience, drawing thought leaders, business people and young new readers along with the gadflies.

Keeping with tradition set by its founders, the Vindicator remains heavily involved in community affairs. In addition to its storied Vindicator Spelling Bee, the paper invests quietly in many do-good initiatives, ranging from the Community Improvement Corp. that sparks business activity downtown to the Power of the Pen student writing competition. The much-ballyhooed Youngstown Business Incubator owes its existence to a benevolent building donation from Vindicator Printing.  

In the past year, Franko has taken on more speaking engagements, which have given the paper more of a happy face. That’s a front-page public relations strategy for the Vindy, which has a big room full of professional storytellers.

Though quiet philanthropy was fine in the day when competition was limited, the paper needs to toot its horn more emphatically now that it’s competing with so many others in town and online for the hearts, minds and budgets of readers and advertisers. Its toughest assignment is to delete the union-management strife before the next round of Guild negotiations.

As reflected last week in the widespread cheers for the paper’s new look, many in Youngstown are pulling for the Vindy. One of America’s few locally owned dailies, it employs more than 250 people, most of them downtown, and has over 300 independent carriers.  It’s as much a bedrock Youngstown institution as Youngstown State, the Canfield Fair or the Symphony.

If it’s to avoid being the next Sheet & Tube, Dollar Bank or Butler Wick, it will need stronger bonds with its employees and other neighbors. That’s why a corporate smile has to run daily, above the fold.

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Now, as spokesperson for the Cafaro Company, he’s learning difficulty at a whole new level.

Bell, 51, chased news for WKBN Channel 27 in Youngstown from 1992 to 2007 and had an edge to him.  Though a short fellow, his deep, clear voice was good for a zinger at many a news conference.  He was a newsman in a trade often plied by would-be movie stars.

When he joined Cafaro as director of corporate communications in early 2008, he could not have imagined a week like the last one.  Last Monday, J.J. Cafaro pleaded guilty to making an illegal payment to an election campaign of his daughter, Capri, now an Ohio senator. The next day, Flora Cafaro was revealed as the provider of a loan accepted illegally by a Youngstown judge.

These stories surfaced less than two months after Bell’s team announced the retirement of J.J., 58, and his older brother, Anthony, 63, from their leadership positions at the real estate concern in what was described as a transition long in the making.

Last week’s news was tragic in that the Cafaro Company, one of America’s largest shopping center developers and a highly philanthropic and still-Youngstown-based concern, established in the 1940s by J.J.’s father and uncle, is being mentioned alongside serious criminal offenses. So is Senator Cafaro, a respected young stateswoman.

To minimize the damage, Bell, the family’s Cleveland lawyers and Capri’s personal public relations firm have cut the ribbon on an anchor store full of clarifications, corrections, asterisks, addenda and other ”corporate communications.” To wit:

These are the kinds of clarifications the old Joe Bell may have ripped apart … especially if they were being conveyed by a Congressman, commissioner or contractor charged on the public record, making them safe targets for such rippage.

Today, though, Bell is a contributing author and provider of such clarificata.

“We are only stating what the actual relationships are,” he stated in a phone interview.

“On the whole, our local writers have been fair and balanced,” Bell said of last week’s front page coverage.  “There have been some inaccuracies, but a lot of the stories don’t have an awful lot to do with the work I do.”

He says he has no second thoughts about his leap from Channel 27 to Cafaro.

“I feel the same way as when I first left the news business,” Bell said. “It was time for a change.”

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The magazine took another step in that direction last week when it published its latest Most Miserable Cities list, with Cleveland (No.1), Youngstown (18) and three other Ohio cities in the top 20. 

The Town Criers are a chain of Ohio weekly newspapers, and about 10 years ago they birthed an intriguing idea.  They decided to award the “best” businesses in their communities, in a range of categories. 

The Town Criers published forms, about eight inches square and bordered by a dotted line, on their back pages for several weeks and encouraged readers to fill out the forms and mail them in for their favorite businesses. The businesses for which the most forms were received were declared the Town Crier Best.

Initially, being the best caught on. Merchants implored shoppers to mail in the Town Crier forms. Those who won proudly displayed their Town Crier Best plaques. Some put “Town Crier Best” in their ads or on banners.

Over time, though, being the best lost its allure. As it became common knowledge that some businesses bought dozens of Town Criers and had employees cut out forms, fill them out and send them in, credibility suffered.  Readers and businesses lost interest. 

In the last few years of that initiative, the Town Crier looked silly.  Some of the restaurants they declared the best were ones I had never heard of. Sometimes really ugly home-made ads by merchants of lousy repute included the words, “Town Crier Best.”

Forbes doesn’t look quite that silly, but it’s getting there.  The magazine now publishes more than 50 lists, many of them with questionable value.

In the early 1990s, when I left a news job to work at a public relations firm, I badly wanted to land our larger clients in Forbes.  So I studied the book so closely I became obsessed with it.  I got to know Forbes writers by their work and made inferences about the information we needed to get a client through that gate.

At a media relations conference in New York, a Forbes editor talked about how difficult that process was. The room was packed. I was fortunate enough during that trip to schedule a meeting with a Forbes editor at his office.  I’ll never forget the high doors, soft carpets and stern faces.  This was a news office, but it felt like a corporate law firm.

Despite our firm’s best efforts, we couldn’t get our clients in Forbes with any regularity or prominence. They were pleased to land small mentions now and then.

Today, some of the articles I see in Forbes look like rewritten press releases. There are some great reads, but also a lot of very, very light fare.

And tons of lists. Forbes has leveraged its popular Richest Americans list into lists of the wealthiest people in Australia, Japan, China and other nations, and that’s smart. The magazine has also expanded to lists of colleges and cities.

But line extensions have natural limits, and Forbes‘ list strategy has surpassed those. Its roster of 50-plus lists now includes the top-earning models, top-earning dead celebrities and best cities for singles.  This ain’t the book it used to be.

Because of its knock on Youngstown and Cleveland, I was thinking of boycotting this latest edition of Forbes.  But I’ve decided to buy one.  I want to see if there’s a form with a dotted line border on the back.

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Comments welcome below. Here are a couple other takes on Forbes’ latest list: 

• Forbes Magazine is Worse Than a Dirty Lover; It’s Fickle (Plain Dealer)
• Get a Clue, Forbes (Hit the Trails blog)

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The Lemon Grove's Jacob Harver has played the media well.

A downtown Youngstown café where an Ohio senator was assaulted last week is turning the proverbial lemon into lemonade.

Jacob Harver, owner of the fortunately named Lemon Grove, has used the attention sparked by the February 6 incident as a forum to deliver good news about his establishment, the downtown and even the guy accused of suckering Senator Robert Hagan.

The soft-spoken Harver is no public relations luminary. But by reacting quickly, being accessible and telling the truth on his own terms when the bad news hit, he squeezed out a pitcher full of favorable publicity, goodwill and patronage.  

As The Vindicator and others have reported, a 30-year-old dancer was charged with punching Hagan, 60, after the two exchanged words. 

Seizing an opportunity

Many in a position like Harver’s would have ignored calls from the media and issued a meaningless “statement.” 

But Harver welcomed interviews. He told reporters that the Lemon Grove isn’t a rowdy bar, but a café that serves alcohol and coffee to patrons who listen to its music, admire its art, play board games, crochet, work on their laptops and whatever.

He called the incident out of character for the café and the downtown — and the dancer, whom he knows.

Nice results

Harver’s comments have drawn excellent exposure on all three Youngstown television stations, in The Vindicator and on several local blogs.  A few days after the incident, Harver wrote his own recap and distributed it to reporters, customers and friends (read the detailed letter on the Youngstown Renaissance blog).

Snippets from his report were quoted in several of the follow-up stories, including Vindicator Editor Todd Franko’s column on Sunday.  In terms of business, last weekend was one of the best since the Lemon Grove opened last summer, Harver said.

“The Vindicator did a good job of covering this from the start,” he said, “but I didn’t think the whole story was told in full, so I compiled my own report.

“I don’t believe in the whole ‘No comment’ thing. I think people should talk about their points of view.”

That’s a premise that can bear fruit in a lot of situations.

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