The changed PR-journalist equation
Last week my former Associated Press client Tori Ekstrand invited me to speak at the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After a two–hour snow delay in New York, I finally found my way to the Freedom Forum Center on campus where Tori, now an assistant […]
Frankie Flack: How did I get this terrible pitch?
A few weeks ago I used this column to complain about how marketing fundamentals were invading the public relations field and eroding media relations basics. New tools for a new era of engagement has had a sweeping impact on the public relations field. While I firmly believe that this new way of thinking has been […]
Why business journalism is like sports writing
Dana Blankenhorn muses on TheStreet.com about the business journalism profession and what it means to the public. Blankenhorn writes, “As a journalist, I make calls on companies all the time. As a fan of journalism, I get a kick out of recent posts by the TheStreet’s Rocco Pendola: His demanding the firings of business titans […]
CNBC needs to call a truce
Debbie Baratz of ValueWalk.com writes that business news network CNBC needs to stop telling its on-air guests that they can’t talk to anyone else. Baratz writes, “A reporter’s source is either likely to speak to a few different media outlets and at times, the same quotes are repeated thanks to digital media (see above quotes). […]
Banning telecommuting at Yahoo! and women CEOs
When Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer banned working from home at the company, everyone from working moms to Richard Branson piled on saying the decision was a terrible one. The resulting debate and coverage from news organizations around the country makes for interesting reading. It seems that nearly everyone has an opinion on the matter, […]
It’s all beer and games
I’ve been a fan of Adam Davidson of NPR’s Planet Money for a long time. His work is smart and I always enjoy reading his column in the New York Times magazine. And this week’s column is no exception. It’s all about how Justice Department economists are using game theory to contest Anheuser-Busch InBev’s purchase […]
Be like Bieber: Never ever say never. Ever
A recent item on Talking Biz News featured an anonymous former investment banker saying that “markets never move in response to a rating agency change….Never. Ever.” The ex-banker went on to intimate that you could spot a clueless business journalist if he or she ascribes a market move to a rating agency change. Well, maybe […]
Private equity coming back, or not?
There were two stories in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday about the state of the private equity industry. The problem is that the two stories seemed to contradict each other. First, there was the piece in Ahead of the Tape: What seems likely, though, is that there will be plenty more deals if current, […]
SAC set to pay out billions
After an insider trading case, SAC Capital is set to shell out cash to investors looking to exit the troubled hedge fund run by Steven Cohen. Here’s the story from the Wall Street Journal. Clients of SAC Capital Advisors LP moved to pull $1.7 billion from the hedge-fund firm, or roughly a quarter of outside […]
Investors set to fight Dell
One of Dell’s largest shareholders, T. Rowe Price, has decided its investment in the computer maker is worth more than what its founder and private equity backers have offered. The Wall Street Journal had this story. T. Rowe Price Group Inc., one of Dell Inc.’s largest investors, said Tuesday it won’t support Michael Dell‘s proposal to take the computer […]
