The boldest of the bold-faced names in the PR field would have a hard time getting past the gatekeepers at today’s hottest restaurants and clubs. This is a good thing. If they’re doing their jobs, it is their clients who have gained the name and face recognition that opens doors. The industry has been well-served by staying out of the limelight. This long-standing tradition appears to be changing.

New York PR impresario Howard Rubenstein is a perennial staple in the city tabs…on the coattails of clients like George Steinbrenner, Rupert Murdoch and Leona Helmsley. Dan Klores, Mr. Rubenstein’s protege whose namesake firm now rivals his former employer, has pretty much checked out of the PR biz, first in favor of the lights of Broadway, but now firmly ensconced in the movie biz.

If you’re not convinced that PR people crave the public spotlight, look no further than the speed and zeal with which many PR pros have embraced the self-aggrandizing medium called the blogosphere. The proliferation of PR blogs shows no signs of abating. (This blog notwithstanding.)

Today’s New York Times trumpets Wal-Mart’s search for two senior public relations executives. Since when does a recruitment ad for a PR executive warrant a business feature? (The piece was written by the same reporter who broke the company’s incendiary blog relations strategy.)

One of the retailer’s many detractors apparently slipped the story idea to The Times reporter. As a result, the piece had somewhat of a subversive taint, as if hiring a PR professional was analogous to retaining Tony Pellicano (pictured). Ironically, the organization that fed The Times the story is knee deep in the use of public relations tactics to advance its cause. Why isn’t this news?

PR Wal-Mart
journalism public relations

This niche blog doesn’t have the viral advocacy clout of BuzzMachine, nor does its owner have any financial stake in this matter.

Nevertheless, my e-mail spam filter can’t seem to thwart the stock-pumping “news” that infects my desktop on a daily basis. So I thought I’d revisit the item posted last week on the complicity of certain paid wire services in this insidious scheme. Here it is again followed by comments from one of The Flack’s readers, an investor relations pro:

Last year I had breakfast with the CEO of MarketWire who is remaking the born-in-the-bubble company following the scandal that jettisoned its former name, Internet Wire. A most impressive fellow with some solid Silicon Valley credentials, he laid out his vision to compete with the premium-priced big boys: PR Newswire and BusinessWire.

This morning, my thoughts again turned to MarketWire, but in a more jaded context. I received two unidentified e-mail spams, both touting penny stocks. One read:

From: Duane Padilla [SinappropriateEllis@air-wans.com]
To: Wooters
Subject: Albert, some andesine

The text of the other opened with this literary flourish:

immersion bunker the to constructive, an
likewise,. impeccably
of weakly aside from, is and!!! jeez,
desire the illustration abject,!

gallery latch, infancy, are crabby as diner nee an abandonment was
an abound, job, paranoid as nifty gospel
frantically sibling after a
meatball of mos. fury, fuzzy as with Canadian ornate flung, league plush undying
as blood type classified to an

twin bed as skeptic the dour by was
riding the of as inessential ardor on
terms modernization joystick

The first continued with:

PEOPLELINE INC (PLLN)
THIS STOCK IS EXTREMELY UNDERVALUED
PLLN.PK is our HOTPICK, It is a must watch!
HUGE NEWS released MUST READ NOW
VANCOUVER, BC — (MARKET WIRE) — March 7, 2006 — Peopleline Inc., (Other OTC: (PLLN.PK News) announced today the introduction of the Peopleline Business Brand…blah…blah..blah. 

The scheme was simple: purchase a release on Market Wire, then blast out an e-mail spam touting the release in an annoying (and illegal?) effort to pump up the stock. Needless to say, I was appalled that Market Wire, with such an astute CEO, would be an unwitting accomplice to this scheme, especially after what its predecessor company had been through.

I guess the intense competition in the paid wire service space makes it OK for VC firms funding this company (and others?) to trade ethics for profit. I just wonder what the SEC would say.

The IR pro had this to say:

“Read your Spamwire piece. In addition to the scheme you identified, there’s more to it. Market Wire issues news releases that appear to tout stock, investment newsletters and the like. The best part? Market Wire doesn’t post the releases in the chronological recap of releases b/c they don’t want journalists, investment professionals and potential customers to easily see the content. Surely [Market Wire CEO] Jim McGovern knows this but they need the copy b/c it generates the dollars. 

Go to Market Wire’s site, view chronological releases (aka recent news) and view the headlines and compare those headlines to their Yahoo Finance page (usually in the morning). If you scroll through, you’ll see headlines about stock newsletters/picks, etc. A few samples from Monday:
One, Two, Three
Yes, ethical lapses…anything for the VC firms.”

Now will my spam stop?

PR media SEC public relations penny stocks wire service spam

Anyone who has sat through or conducted a media training session, wherein prospective newsmakers are put through the motions of a media interview, has invariably heard the axiom: “Nothing is ever off the record.”

There are valid reasons for this. Reporter often misconstrue the meaning of the term, ending up instead spilling the beans (albeit without attribution). If the off-the-record news is sufficiently tantalizing, the reporter may even be compelled to report it or risk compromising his or her editorial integrity.

Flash forward to the present. You’re one of the handful of reporters invited yesterday to chat, drink ice tea, take a private tour of the White House with a sitting President — all off the record. The President drawls on about the pressure he’s under seeking sympathy and empathy from you and your usually jaded gaggle of hand-selected colleagues. He then tells the group that the next morning he will announce that his vaunted Chief of Staff will resign . Huh?!

Now perhaps it is easier to understand The New York Times’s decision to not participate in this relationship-building, but potentially compromising exercise.

PR journalism politics public relations Andrew Card