Categories: OLD Media Moves

The late Friday afternoon news release

Conde Nast Portfolio blogger Jack Flack marvels at the beauty of a late Friday afternoon news release in his latest post.

Flack wrote, “Starting around lunchtime on Fridays, Jack Flack always keeps his head low and his eyes open.

Jack Flack “Why?

“Because that’s the traditional release period for bad news from commercial enterprises. Every flack knows that Friday afternoon is the black hole of the business-news weekly calendar. And even though the emergence of the web has filled that hole a bit, companies can still minimize the negative coverage by holding their damaging news to just before the weekend.

“So this afternoon’s joint announcement from crib-maker Simplicity for Children and the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission caught Jack’s attention. After all, it’s one thing to game the timing of your announcement when you’re closing a plant or firing your CFO for stealing. But it’s another when you know you’ve got a potentially dangerous product in the marketplace.”

Read more here. And here’s a reminder about the Talking Biz News contest to name the person behind Jack Flack.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.