By Carl Carter, APR Forget the headlines about meetings with Russians for a moment. Let’s set aside the question of whether any of the stuff about conflicts of interest have any merit. Instead, I’m going to argue that in terms of its danger to a politician, a corporation or any other institution, looking guilty is […]
BirminghamWatch steps into the breach: Veteran journalists provide in-depth local coverage for the city
By Carl Carter, APR When I arrived at The Birmingham News with a newly minted journalism degree in the mid ‘70s, one of the first people I got to know was Carol Nunnelley, then covering City Hall. We and dozens of others worked hard on a newspaper that went through four editions a day. There […]
Sometimes, the worst thing you can do is believe what you see right in front of you
In 1982, futurist John Naisbitt was about the biggest star in the world of business publishing. His book, Megatrends, provided a startling look at the big forces on the horizon. As time passed and we looked back, we could see that his projections were startling in their accuracy — especially considering that he wrote the […]
Things companies say when they’re dying
By Carl Carter, APR “We’re already doing that.” “Our market is different.” “We can charge higher prices because we’re better.” These are some of the things I hear from a company that is either in decline or headed for a fall. I’ve had an up-close view of several of them. Some were in declining industries. […]
You want publicity? If you don’t know these things, you’re screwed.
By Carl Carter, APR You’ve seen the numbers on the decline in the number of working journalists in our nation’s newspapers. I’ve been writing about them for a decade. Now, I’m going to tell you some of the stuff behind the numbers. I’m a public relations professional and a media relations specialist. (No, those aren’t […]
How to post about politics — without making people mad
“I’m taking a break from Facebook. I just can’t handle the negativity.” I’ve seen more posts like that in the past two weeks than in the last year, and it’s easy to see why. Many of the political posts are coming from a different direction than they were until the election. It’s the nature of things. […]
PR lessons from the new administration’s first week
By Carl Carter, APR You may have noticed we’ve had a few busy news days. And among other things, we seem to have a war of sorts going on between our new president and the nation’s mainstream media. The charges and counter-charges of lying are flying thick and fast. I can’t fix the nation or […]
Want to sell more stuff? Screw content: Tell a great story
By Carl Carter, APR One of the scariest things I ever saw was Birmingham News city editor Clarke Stallworth behind the horseshoe-shaped city desk. He was a big, loud, white-haired guy who sometimes came back sweaty from a noontime racquetball game. Long before I met him, he was a legend. I was a rookie, fresh […]
Want to be better informed? Choose your news media carefully. Here’s how.
By Carl Carter, APR “Hotels in Birmingham were jammed to capacity.” It was a simple, natural part of the coverage of one of the biggest stories we covered in my decade as a reporter for The Birmingham News: Bear Bryant had died. We stopped the presses, called in the distribution trucks, and put every warm […]
No, the mainstream media aren’t lying. And you need them more than you think.
By Carl Carter, APR For years, I have lived and preached that the one non-negotiable principle for those of us engaged on communications must be to tell the truth. Because once you begin telling lies, people will find out and quit believing you. We have a lot of terms for this. The old stodgy one […]
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