Feb

23

Spinning the news in a terrible economy

Posted by Dan

February 23, 2009 |

In my job as a trade-magazine editor, I work with many public-relations professionals. Some are quite good at what they do. Others call and e-mail me so often that I want to shoot myself whenever I see their names on my caller ID or in my inbox.

I’ve noticed, though, that as the recession continues, many of my familiar public-relations folks have disappeared. It’s a tough time for anyone working in PR. Companies looking to slash their budgets tend to drop their PR staff early in the process.

There are arguments on either side on whether that’s prudent or foolish. Me? I’m not so sure. I do know, though, that in these rough economic times it requires a deft touch to put a positive spin on company news.

My publisher asked me this morning to write a brief press release touting the fact that our magazine is now coming out in a bi-monthly format. Problem is, the reason we’re going from a monthly edition to a bi-monthly one is because we’re not getting enough advertising to support a monthly magazine.

How to spin it? I don’t know how skilled I was, but I focused on the fact that we’re boosting our Web content and devoting more space in our magazine to features, profiles and columns instead of news briefs and the like.

Is that putting a happy face on a bad situation? Probably. I feel for all those remaining PR pros trying to do the same thing every day. It’s not easy.


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