So what’s the point of holding a news conference when the news already is out? That’s the feeling I’m having at this very moment as the entire New York media corps gathers at Madison Square Garden to hear that Larry Brown has been hired (at $10 mill per year!) as the new coach of the New York Knicks. The danger of pre-announcing the main headline lies in the fact that reporters’ questions may delve deeper into areas the Garden may not be willing or prepared to address. Of course, local TV sports producers and talent need pictures, so Larry and Isiah re-united at The Garden will nicely fill that void making the no-new-news news conference viable.

(I’d be surprised if Jim Dolan, the much-maligned (by the city’s rabid basketball and hockey fans) CEO of MSG parent Cablevision, subjects himself to the gaggle of the NY sports press.)

One of the more astute advertising industry beat reporters, Brian Steinberg of the Wall Street Journal, today reports on plans by the perenially beleagured ad holding company Interpublic Group to consolidate the function that measures the effectiveness of the company’s varied lines-of-business. Other than the fact that it’s refreshing to see some media coverage of IPG that doesn’t include a restatement or postponement of the company’s earnings, I wonder how practical it will be to assess advertising, direct-marketing and public relations using comparable analytics.

Truth is: these are disparate marketing approaches, which behave differently and thus require different means of measurement. PR simply has too many dimensions. How can one reasonably compare an effective crisis communications campaign with a 30-second TV spot? Still, those in the PR measurement game continue to strive to bundle it with other marketing disciplines…probably because that’s how many CMOs want it.

For fans of the NYC tabs, the name “The Teflon Don” will always be associated with the late John Gotti for his ability to avoid having the charges stick. I don’t know what Teflon’s inventors DuPont had to say about the high-profile brand exposure (after all, it’s commonplace nowadays for the infamous to land spokesperson roles), but I do know that the Wilmington-based chemical company is hoping that the re-surfaced media coverage alleging Teflon’s potential health hazard does not stick around much longer in the news.

Unfortunately, it likely will…given the voluminous body of deleterious information about Teflon residing on the Web, and its migration to the mainstream media. DuPont has done its best to counter the criticism with its own perspective (that pops as a paid result ranking at the top of a Google search for Teflon).

The steaks are heating up as DuPont is feeling the effect of these allegations on its bottom line.