How corporations are bypassing journalists

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson of The Financial Times writes about how corporations such as Chevron are using different tactics to get their messages out to the public and to bypass journalists.

Edgecliffe-Johnson writes, “The pressures on news outlets to become multimedia, interactive, 24-hour engagement machines mean editors have become increasingly receptive to what PRs are pitching. A hungry media swallows it up. And with institutions more wary than ever of unpredictable journalists, executives are now more inclined to share their thoughts in smoothly styled social media postings than by inviting in a reporter.

“Sir Richard Branson, for example, says he used to talk first to newspapers to get messages out about his business or his philanthropy. But now Virgin’s one-man brand has more than 1.5 million Facebook likes, 4.4 million Twitter followers and an unrivalled 6.3 million people following him on LinkedIn. ‘Now we’ve got a way of reaching people who read what we say and we don’t have to rely on the Daily Mail,’ he observes.

“CEOs are finding that their unfiltered social media content is often picked up by the traditional media it has circumvented, PR Week’s Barrett notes. So when General Motors’ new leader, Mary Barra, was going before Congress to explain how the carmaker had ignored warnings about the role of a faulty ignition switch in fatal car crashes, she recorded an emotive YouTube video explaining how ‘as a member of the GM family and as a mom with a family of my own, this really hits home for me’. The New York Times was among those that embedded her sombre-toned performance in its online story.

“Few have succeeded in making the news as well as Apple. This month, as it unveiled the iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch in Cupertino, California, thousands of journalists live-blogged every detail of the carefully scripted event. But the company also ran its own live blog, a feed of perfectly lit images of the devices, shareable quotes from executives, retweeted endorsements from celebrities including Diddy and Katy Perry and a gushing running commentary (‘So far, so amazing’). The front rows of the hall were reserved for Apple employees and guests, who provided periodic ovations for the media cameras behind them.”

Read more here.