Instant Sauce: 10 Reasons To Have That Conference

We've covered a lot of ground here at the Sauce about the "AIG Effect" and the industry. In that vein, Bob Phibbs' "10 reasons to have that conference with a professional speaker" has more good reasons to move forward with your conference.

Here's an excerpt:

1) Community. A conference is the one place the people who “get it” are able to come together and do a better job. The very power of a meeting comes from the community that forms for those couple days.

2) Competition. The old mantra you get 80% of your business from 20% of your customers is still true. Those 20% are looking for how to do better – these are the people who attend conferences. When you don’t listen to that need, you are cutting them off to fight for themselves. If you are a vendor, it is only a matter of time until they look for someone else who gives them the inspiration and training from a competitor. If you are an association, it makes them question what they get from being members.

Read the rest at his blog, here.

More Layoffs Announced at Kansas City Star

Another note in our continuous coverage of the changing paradigm of the news media....this time it is the hometown paper of Bernays Sauce, The Kansas City Star.

excerpt:

The Kansas City Star expects to cut its workforce by another 15 percent, or about 150 positions, publisher Mark Zieman told employees in a memo this morning.

The cuts are in line with overall reductions at The Star’s parent company, The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento, Calif., which announced plans today to reduce its overall workforce by the same percentage, or 1,600 full-time equivalent employees.

McClatchy, which owns 30 daily newspapers, said that the reductions will begin by the end of this month and that it expects to incur $30 million in severance costs.

“We have been transitioning steadily from a traditional newspaper company to a hybrid print and online, news and advertising company for some time,” McClatchy Chairman and Chief Executive Gary Pruitt said in McClatchy’s announcement. “The effects of the current national economic downturn make it essential that we move even faster to realign our workforce and make our operations even more efficient.

“We previously discussed a plan to reach a targeted level of cost savings, but given the worsening economy, we must do more. I’m sorry we have to take these actions, but we believe they are necessary.”

[...]

“Like all other companies and industries, we are making dramatic changes to survive this recession and come out safe and profitable on the other side,” he wrote.

The Sauce
Unfortunately, this is not the first layoff the Star has announced in the past year. You'll note that Star parent company McClatchy is seeking a way to make money as both a print and online concern--or "hybrid" as they call it. That's probably the best transitional strategy a news organization can make at this point, but it still remains to be seen how online content can be monetized enough to support adequate newsgathering efforts.

Your thoughts are welcome in the comments section.

Octomom's Latest PR Person Quits: "She's Nuts"

Looks like the "Octomom" has lost another public relations person. She lost her first one after death threats were issued. This one, Victor Munoz, says that she's "nuts."

"Nadya got real greedy. This woman is nuts," he continued. "This I can say: what ultimately destroyed the business arrangement was personal reasons."

The Sauce
And Munoz isn't even a licensed psychiatrist.

P.S.
Don't get me started about "personal reasons."

The Hemorrhaging Continues...More Conferences Canceled

In keeping with our reports on the "AIG Effect", we see two more prominent national annual conferences have thrown in the towel, citing the economy. This one is a twofer, though, as it also ties into another focus of this blog, the fitful death of newspapers/print publications...

Excerpted:

Two annual meetings in the publishing industry have been canceled for 2009, both casualties of the economic recession.

The American Society of Newspaper Editors announced that it is canceling its 2009 annual meeting just two months before the convention was to take place, April 26-29 in Chicago. Plans were well under way, but officials decided to cancel it because of low attendance projections and the stress of the economy on members. With the newspaper industry struggling, ASNE leaders concluded that the challenges editors face at their newspapers demand their full attention, said Charlotte Hall, president at ASNE, in a press release. Also, said Hall, attendance would have been significantly lower than normal. The convention typically attracts between 400 and 500 attendees.

This is the first time since 1945 that ASNE has canceled its annual convention.

“This is a uniquely stressful period in our business as we face both structural change and deep recession,” stated Hall. Even though the learning opportunities at the convention would have been valuable, the greatest priority is leading our own newsrooms as we shape the future of the business,” Hall stated.

The board of directors will meet electronically to handle association business that would have otherwise occurred at the meeting. One piece of business is a vote to change the bylaws and drop “paper” from its name to expand its membership to include editors of online-only news Web sites. “We intend to press on with our transformation of ASNE to ensure its relevance in the digital age,” Hall said.
[...]

For many of the same reasons, the Magazine Publishers of America canceled its annual convention, the American Magazine Conference. The conference was scheduled for October 18-20 in Boca Raton, Fla.

“The cancellation of this year’s AMC is in response to the difficult economic climate facing all businesses, including the magazine industry,” said Nina Link, president and CEO at MPA in a press release. “We recognize that this year our members are looking at a variety of ways to achieve savings, which would include curtailing certain discretionary travel and hotel expenses.” They hope to resume the AMC next year in Chicago.

The Sauce
This is far, far from over. I hate to use a hackneyed phrase like "perfect storm," but this situation truly is.

Take a look: the events and travel industry is suffering from bad press because of bad actors like AIG. Simultaneously, in an almost perverse twist of fate the print media is being ground under the heel of Internet news.

Is the death knell of print pubs a Thermidorian reaction to the hegemony of corporate media? Or is it mostly the depressed economy coupled with the rise of the Internet as a credible means of delivering news?

Or is it something else? I don't know. But I do think we ain't seen nothing yet.

Another Venerable Publication Dies

The venerable trade publication RCR Wireless News today joins the list of publications wiped out by a changing news paradigm and a disastrous economic downturn.

From their announcement:

RCR Wireless News has suspended publication of its print and online products immediately and is closing operations. Unfortunately, the market for RCR's products has been hit particularly hard by the global financial meltdown.

"RCR Wireless News was passionately run by first-class people and it pains us to make this move but the economy gives us no other choice," said Crain Communications Chairman Keith E. Crain.

The Sauce

It is becoming accepted wisdom that print media is decreasing and may eventually fall victim to the Internet. Even so, until a serious, effective and accepted method of monetizing online news content is adopted, these dominoes will continue to fall.

Skitter or Twittle? Skittles Uses Twitter As Website

UPDATE: The Experiment has ended.

Twitter the rainbow.

Skittles.com is no longer a typical website, but instead a Twitter Search result page.

Here's what you get when you go there, a Wikipedia entry with a demo ask (your birthday):



If you register and move on from there, you get to the Skitter or Twittle or whatever you want to call it page:




The Sauce

Clever gimmick, but their Twitter feed is rife with nasty language, spam, racial slurs, inanity and other mob stupidity. It doesn't make me want to "taste the rainbow," it's just annoying. Of course, I'm not a huge fan of Twitter anyway. (Apparently neither is Jon Stewart.)

Or Skittles, it would seem. Nice experiment, Skittles, but what good did it do your brand?

The comments section is open for your Skittular enjoyment.

AIG Gets New Money... Need a Giant Shamwow to Soak Up Bad Press

As our recent postings have discussed, insurance behemoth AIG has been accepting unprecedented amounts of government bailout cash...and they used it in indiscreet and boneheaded (read PR-unwise) ways.

The latest is they are getting tons more government assistance. Hopefully the execs will be more judicious this time.

Perhaps they'll buy a giant Shamwow to clean up their soggy image. Apparently that's about all that can do it at this point.