What went wrong with Yahoo7’s bewildering media release?
Following Yahoo7’s jargon-heavy restructure announcement on Tuesday, Fee Townshend, director of Curve Comms, takes a look at the nitty gritty of what went wrong.
It seems ironic that a publishing company – which exists to provide us independent news and insights – has taken such a clumsy and cagey approach to sharing its own business.
But there you go.
Oh, where to begin on this ‘restructure’ that will ‘carry the company into the future’ piece, I wonder? As I sit in my glasshouse polishing my stones.
There but for the grace of God go I… Any good PR will tell you it is always foolish to weigh in on the ‘PR fails’ of other professionals. Because karma is bitch. And we’ve all been there. Or almost have. Or could easily be next week. A cheap win isn’t always a good win. And ghoulishly feeding off the missteps of others to generate publicity for yourself is neither a savoury, nor a very smart strategy. Is this how you really mean to begin with your fledgling consultancy? If these are the sorts of grubby tactics you’d like Curve Comms to develop a reputation for, then I imagine you will attract the clients to match.
Hi PR Fraternity. We asked Fee for her view on the Yahoo7’s media release so it would be unfair to accuse her of ghoulishly feeding off their missteps.
Hope that clarifies things,
Paul Wallbank
News Editor
Hi “PR Fraternity”.
You’re right that we’ve all been there. You more than most, I suspect – given that your IP address suggests you work for Yahoo7.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
This is so beautiful I want to cry
It’s disappointing to see Mumbrella using IP addresses to shame their commentors. And hey check my IP, I’m not a Yahoo employee. Just surprised to see the editors piling in over a comment they do not like. Not very encouraging for open debate.
It’s great to have an independent opinion on this PR schmozzle, however, I think many who have experience in this space will tell you, Frankenstein releases like this happen because it is not the company PR who is in control. They may have written an original draft, which was written and re-written by each of the joint venture parent company PRs, until it resembled the unintelligible release we’ve all pored over.
It is also interesting to see the revenues listed as proof of failure. I was actually surprised to see an Australian media company showing consistent (whilst diminishing) profits 😉
It is a shame to see the industry being further hacked away, and then gnawing away at its own foot. The debate I’d rather see is how will Australia have an independent journalism by the end of the decade. At this rate I can’t see it surviving.
Yes I acknowledge that I am casting stones from my very own glasshouse. But I am okay with owning my opinion – not hiding behind a moniker. Their is no deceit or malice in my critique ‘PR Fraternity’.
Don’t PRs have to be able to spell these days???
Quite right, ex-ABC. Nothing annoys me more than the misuse of their, there and they’re. I’ll own that typo. Maybe it’s karma on my tail!
Whether or not you agree with the article, you can’r argue with this response from Fee. Nicely put.
I’ve worked in comms for big US media firms – and whilst this is a particularly painful example of the genre (no doubt doubled down due to two lots of corporate legal/compliance/hr and execs editing away any cohesive narrative) – it’s indicative of the differences between global media.
In a previous EMEA role, I could talk till I was blue in the face about how something that would work in the US, might work in the UK but definitely not France etc – advise that was sometimes, but more often than not ignored until something like this blew up.
If anything the release and associated navel gazing about it will serve as a good show and tell for future comms teams/agencies to demonstrate there is a different tolerance for corporate double speak in AU.
Thankfully some of the crap I had to put my name to was issued pre- decent SEO so it doesn’t haunt me too often…
What is the PR Agency for Yahoo7? Anyone…?
Disappointed at the IP stalking mumbrella, seems unnecessary, invasive and against the spirit of seemingly being able to comment anonymously.