The Flack highlights changes and trends in the news, examples of communications practices, and content we at BYRNE PR thought you might find useful.
We hope you enjoy, and we always welcome your feedback.
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Peyton and Eli Manning Are Changing Television — For the past few weeks, Peyton Manning and his younger brother Eli have been sitting around watching NFL games, making fun of each other and interviewing legends like Alabama head coach Nick Saban. And it’s been breathing new life into NFL broadcasting. It’s Mystery Science Theater meets Monday Night Football, and it’s the biggest sports broadcasting story of the year. The Wall Street Journal digs in.
More Than 90 Local Newsrooms Closed During The Coronavirus Pandemic — More than 700,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, but the pandemic also has claimed other victims: newsrooms. It starts with layoffs and furloughs and then often leads to a reduction in print days. But that’s just the beginning of the end for many newsrooms in communities across the country. From Tama, Iowa, to Mayo, Florida, more than 90 newsrooms have shuttered for good since the pandemic started, and there’s no end in sight. Poynter looks into a disturbing trend.
Facebook Has Another Bad PR Day When Whistleblower Testifies At Senate Hearing — It has been a rough few weeks for Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues at Facebook. It started with a damning multi-part series of investigative reports by The Wall Street Journal and culminated (so they hope) with last Sunday’s 60 Minutes episode, in which former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen told all. Forbes takes a shot at summing up the worst fortnight Zuck can remember.
Goldman Sachs, OZY Media and a $40 Million Conference Call Gone Wrong — Digital-media company OZY burst onto the scene in 2013 as what its founder, Carlos Watson, hoped to be the new way for millennials to consume media. On the cusp of securing a $40 million investment from Goldman Sachs earlier this week, OZY is now shuttered, its internal channels shut down and its employees let go. What happened? The New York Times digs into the infamous conference call that marked the beginning of the very rapid end for OZY.
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Feed Your Head: 5 Techniques to Build Rapport with Your Colleagues
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flack
: one who provides publicity
flack
: to act as a press agent or promoter for something
The word flack was first used as a noun meaning “publicity agent” during the late 1930s. According to one rumor, the word was coined in tribute to a well-known movie publicist of the time, Gene Flack.