Nothing guarantees Web video viral success like a carefully worded press release. So look out for Comedy.com, people. Because — hey now, hey now, cut it out — founder and CEO Dean Valentine, the former president of defunct on-air laffs network UPN, has certainly got himself one of those. Wonka. Wonka. Wonka. Here's a zany video.
Who needs journalists, really? That's what Business Wire argues. Warren Buffett, the billionaire CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, picked up Business Wire in 2006. He claims not to be tech-savvy, but this investment suggests otherwise. Press releases distributed by Business Wire are picked up directly by services like Google News and Techmeme. As a source, Business Wire ranks 32nd on Techmeme's list — not a bad performance. Buffett also owns a large stake in the Washington Post Co. But if that goes bust thanks to the advent of online media, it seems like Buffett picked himself a nice hedge.
"Researchers at Microsoft fired up their machines and showed me something that I can't tell you about until February 27th," brags tech industry PR tool Robert Scoble about his latest inclusion in a standard product pre-briefing tour. Something so powerful that he cried. "Why torment you with a post like this?" he torments us. "Because it's my way of making sure that stuff that really is extraordinary gets paid attention to." Unsolicited advice, Robby: If you have an embargoed piece of information, don't talk about it until you can talk about it. You're not building buzz, you're killing it in advance by sending people's imaginations soaring in the wrong directions. On February 27 — or probably the 26th in the New York Times — they'll be wrenched back to earth.
Tesla Motors delivered its first production all-electric car on Friday afternoon to company chairman Elon Musk (not pictured, but you know he's pumping his fists like that this very second.) In true Tesla form, the car arrived too late for a planned press event, screwing up the company's New York Times coverage. Helpful hint, guys: Next time schedule these things for Tuesday morning instead of Friday afternoons. You'll get much more media play that way, without relying on wannabe Car & Driver writers like me to carry the flag.
"Bridge officials set to slam brakes on FasTrak cheats," a San Francisco Chronicle headline warns. But the article smells like a PR campaign to convince drivers who zip through the gateless toll booths without a pass that something very, very bad is about to happen to them. "FasTrak cheats could face late-night visits from folks who would boot their cars or tow them away." That's presuming FasTrak bureaucrats can get new legislation passed. Translation: The electronic toll-collection technology doesn't work as it was supposed to, and they can't fix it. FasTrak officials told the Chron they're trying to get California's state Franchise Tax Board to use its legal clout to collect unpaid bridge tolls for them. For that, I'm sure the Paultards would put FasTrak up against the wall right after the Federal Reserve System.
The party line on LinkedIn's competition with Facebook is that the two sites serve different markets, and LinkedIn has nothing to worry about from the rise of Facebook's popularity among Silicon Valley professionals. LinkedIn's professional focus makes it a favorite of recruiters. Except, that is, for LinkedIn's recruiters, who have been placing job ads, like the one above, for engineers on Facebook. LinkedIn's HR department, meet LinkedIn's PR department. You might want to have some words with each other.
Did Plaxo exploit blogger Robert Scoble by cajoling him into breaking Facebook's terms of service to test a new feature, temporarily getting his account suspended? Plaxo executive John McCrea would prefer you didn't think so. "Biggest regret? A lot of folks saying/thinking we took advantage of you. Bummer," McCrea Twittered. Note that McCrea didn't say he regretted actually taking advantage of Scoble.
What, did you think laid-off newspaper vets would become bloggers? The Bay Guardian lists a half-dozen senior editors, bureau chiefs and reporters who've escaped the crumbling newspaper economy by becoming publicists for Governor Schwarzenegger and various high-powered firms. The Guardian worries these pros will use their inside knowledge of the news biz to deflect bad coverage from their clients. I disagree: Public relations plays an important role in telling stories accurately and providing journalists with timely, helpful and correct information. (How's that for spin control? Send any mid-six-figure job offers to paul@valleywag.com.)
Brad Garlinghouse, the controversial Yahoo executive who won fame by accusing management of spreading investments around like a "thin layer of ... peanut butter", has a sister, Meg, who also works at the company. Who got whom the job at Yahoo is a matter of testy debate. What's undebatable: the brother-and-sister duo practically own Yodel Anecdotal, the company blog, this month. Three full posts are devoted to their glories.
The Daily Mirror reports on a factory worker from Yorks whose £27,000 Vodafone bill whups those run up by entrepreneur Joi Ito and Wired editor Chris Anderson. "Ian Simpson, 29, was sent the bill for four weeks' service after wiring his mobile up to a laptop to download TV shows - and only then found out his £41.50-a-month [Vodafone Anytime 800] deal didn't include unlimited web use."
(Photo by Daily Mirror)
FedEx was hit with a $319 million tax bill over the job classification of FedEx ground employees. A number of lawsuits have been filed by FedEx ground drivers who believed the company was responsible for their taxes; FedEx maintained that they were independent contractors. That's not the interesting part, though. FedEx, in a tried and true public relations move, "took out the trash" and released the bad news late Friday on a holiday weekend. The earliest story we could find on the IRS charge was released at 6:34 pm Eastern, well beyond when most people were reading news stories. Very clever, FedEx. (Photo by Brosner)
Rackspace's Web-hosting operation says that the increase in online shopping this month will increase "pressure" on websites. "The slightest delay in navigating a website could cause a customer to make a purchase at a competing site," says Rackspace. Yes, that could be an inconvenience. Sort of like Rackspace's pricey servers going offline again and again. [Web Host Industry News]
Golly, Dr. Schmidt! I know you're busy being the CEO of Google, but your chief Internet evangelist, Vint Cerf, promised me that no matter where you were in the world, you would be ready within an hour to provide an official statement to any journalist who asked for one. And I believed him, because he invented the Internet. And why couldn't you? I mean, you took the lead in promoting the Java language at Sun Microsystems. You were the CEO of Novell, and everyone said that company was going to die, but here it is, still limping along! And you made all those great decisions at Google, even though no one there can quite pin down for me what they were. Why, gosh, you're even donating a transit hub to the folks on Nantucket! Is there nothing you can't do?
Like thousands of people around the world right now, Mark Jackson is peeved at eBay about some purchase gone sour. A Nintendo DS Lite, to be precise. Jackson was so peeved that he sent an email to several U.K. press outlets, copying eBay and demanding a response. This is only notable because Jackson is a high-ranking executive at Hill and Knowlton. And eBay does business with Hill and Knowlton all around the world — but substantially cut its budget in the last month. Here's Jackson's screed — and more about its curious timing.
Just when things turn bleak for Second Life maker Linden Lab — CTO Cory Ondrejka recently "left" the company — CEO Philip Rosedale manages to pull a fluff piece out of the BBC. He's previously denied he has anything to do with timing these media wet kisses, but we're skeptical. Perhaps it's his boyish charm and ability to spin numbers — or the fact that these media outlets are easily impressed by the whizzes and bangs of virtual worlds.
A breakdown of my inbox after having my first major tech piece in the NYT:
