Holtz Communications + Technology

What risk do you run when you’re snarky to a colleague? In the case of Ragan Communications’ David Murray, the answer is subtle ridicule. What’s more, the target of the snarkiness isn’t the source of the ridicule. Instead, it’s being driven by the PR blogging community at large. Here’s the story:

In the current issue of Ragan’s Journal of Employee Communications Management (JECM), Murray questions the…

When you write books, you often find reviews written by everyone from newspaper columnists to full-time book critics to bloggers. Blogger reviews are the most meaningful to me—along with reader reviews posted to Amazon and B&N. But it’s particularly gratifying to get a good review from someone you already respect, even if you don’t know them.

That was the case today as I was reviewing my…

Strumpette is back, sad to say. I even read the latest post comparing PR people to aging German prostitutes. Reading Strumpette is kinda like slowing down to look at a ghastly car wreck. I must resist.

Fortunately, a dose of reality comes from the female PR blog, Flackette, who refers to the faux Amanda Chapel as a “PRostitute.” (Good one.) Flackette’s general take on…

Regardless of the other communication disciplines I have practiced—media relations, financial communications, corporate PR, the list goes on—I have always maintained employee communications as part of my portfolio. I believe deeply in the power of effective internal communications. The Globe and Mail made a point yesterday of reporting a Watson Wyatt Worldwide study that linked employee communications to bottom-line performance:

Shareholder returns for…

I know, you get invited to these surveys all the time. Another grad student working on a thesis or dissertation tosses a survey up onto the web and asks for as many PR pros as possible to participate.

I have another one for you. This one comes from Leika Lewis, who’s pursuing her master’s at American University in DC. She attended the…

I have stayed away from the Strumpette fray. It struck me as a lose-lose proposition. Applaud Amanda Chapel (whoever he or she may really be) for injecting a bit of fun into the sometimes strident and self-important PR blogosphere and get flogged for endorsing an effort that drags PR back into the gutter from which we’ve been trying so hard to…