Month: March 2010

Take note: Rehab is not the best solution for crisis PR

I was in the checkout line at the grocery store last night and, as I was throwing my purchases onto the conveyor belt, I noticed that almost every tabloid and entertainment magazine had a cover story about Jesse James’ marital affair and the word “monster” somehow worked into the headline. My first thought was, “How sad.” My second thought was, “What’s his PR team doing about… Read more »

Take a Chance, Make it Happen

I’ll admit, I’ve never been one for gambling, yet I can fully see its allure to others. There is something appealing about rolling a winning pair of dice, turning over a winning hand, or pulling down on the arm of a winning slot machine. Heck, even I wholeheartedly enjoy simply walking the floors of a casino and seeing all the excitement unfold. So why is it… Read more »

Tarnishing the Halo: Biden Drops the Bomb

Use of profanity is traditionally accepted as an occasional outburst reserved for situations of duress or frustration, but as recent events have demonstrated, it can also be used to ring in historic government change. By now, we all know that Vice President Biden said on-air, for millions of Americans to hear, that the new healthcare bill was a ‘big f***ing deal’. It sure is. However, as… Read more »

Matter Communications Doubles Office Space

Click Here to View PDF > Newburyport, Mass. –To support current and projected growth, Matter Communications, Inc., a full-service public relations agency specializing in high-technology and consumer markets, announced today that it has doubled the size of its offices in both Newburyport, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island. While many of the top PR firms reported reductions in staff and revenue during a challenging 2009, according to recently published data from… Read more »

Hey, reporters, we have a few things in common

A few years ago when I was a reporter snooping around Boston covering the political beat and thinking about crossing over and starting a career in PR, a few nagging concerns were holding me back. I really had no idea what PR people did day to day, except for what a few colleagues who had made the same move told me. Would my skills and experience… Read more »

The ‘P’ word

Procrastination – we’re all guilty of it at some time or another. Heck, I did it with this blog post (shh).

“Polluting” the Story

  In the competitive environment of PR, our job is to not only know everything about our clients and their messaging, but also to know their competitors businesses and PR strategies. Between google searches and constantly scanning headlines, keeping up with the competition isn’t as difficult as it used to be. Recently, members of the Matter team successfully and single-handedly polluted a major PR story a… Read more »

Marketing – and PR – on'ROIDS

Last week’s Harvard Business Review blog post by Dick Patton got me thinking about some of the challenges Matter has recently been tasked with. On more than one account, we’ve been asked to blur traditional PR boundaries to help our clients develop installed base marketing programs. It’s no secret that it takes less resources to market to existing customers, and yet, start-up firms and established companies… Read more »

Magazines in the Digital Age

Much has been written about newspapers and their ongoing transition to digital (the topic was covered on Matter Chatter last year); but what about magazines? On Monday, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) released the findings from its survey of practices at magazine Web sites (in addition to a related article), which reveal some very interesting, and at times unexpected, information about the state of magazines’ online… Read more »