By Shahar Silbershatz for PRNews How much damage can a corporate crisis do? Quite a lot, it turns out. In 2018, The Economist looked at eight of the most notable crises from this century and found that the companies involved were worth, on average, 30% less today than they would have been had the crisis in question […]
By Rehan Mirza, The Journalist’s Resource Last month, a robocall impersonating U.S. President Joe Biden went out to New Hampshire voters, advising them not to vote in the state’s presidential primary election. The voice, generated by artificial intelligence, sounded quite real. “Save your vote for the November election,” the voice stated, falsely asserting that a vote in […]
By Eric Rose for PRNews This recent headline would make any crisis communicator cringe: “Amazon’s plans to advance its interests in California laid bare in leaked memo.” The story, which unfolded through a leaked internal memo, shed light on Amazon’s growth strategy in the Southern California region and its 2024 internal community outreach plans. As the […]
It’s Time to Curtail “Horse Race” Coverage of Elections: What You Can Do Introduction by Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications Dear Valued Readers, In our continuous effort to enrich your understanding of the ever-evolving landscape of crisis communications, we bring to your attention a significant piece published by the prestigious Harvard Kennedy School and the Shorenstein […]
From Joan Donovan and Sarah Parker, writing for The Conversation… “You have blood on your hands.” “I’m sorry for everything you have all been through.” These quotes, the first from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaking to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and the second from Zuckerberg to families of victims of online child abuse in the […]
From our friend and colleague in Australia, Tony Jaques… Who should speak in a crisis? That deceptively simple question can help determine whether an organisation’s reputation is enhanced or irreparably damaged when things go wrong. And behind that question are two common errors in crisis management. The first error is the idea that “speaking with one voice” […]
Is COVID-19 still a pandemic? Is it over? Should we call it something else? In his latest article, Dr. Peter Sandman delves into the ongoing narrative of the COVID-19 pandemic, providing a critical lens through which communicators can navigate the complex landscape of public perception and complacency. As we stand at the crossroads of public […]
By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications In 1989, I opened Hennes Communications, not realizing the profound impact a select few would have on my life and career. Among these guiding stars was Richard Levick – not just as mentor and friend, but a visionary in crisis communications. Richard was a force of nature in our field, […]
By Richard Levick Speaking with journalists, shareholders, customers and stakeholders is easy when the going is good. As the old saying goes, “We are all capitalists on the way up but socialists on the way down.” But when things turn bad, communications suddenly become much more challenging. As another old saying goes, “The gods of […]
From Emma Goldberg, writing for The New York Times… After reading the details of Hamas’s attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, Brad Karp, who runs the law firm Paul, Weiss, sat at his computer and wrote a memo to his roughly 2,000 employees. He didn’t ask the firm’s spokesman to draft it; he channeled his […]