Media - Mahony Partners

Feb

2012

Defending Goldman Sachs: The 5 reasons its PR has triumphed under Lucas van Praag

Advertising, Crisis, Financial Services, Media

Lucas van Praag, the longtime communications chief at Goldman Sachs, is stepping down. To those of us in the PR trade, this news yesterday was much more significant than Facebook's IPO filing and the legion of twentysomething millionaires it will spawn. Van Praag has done a brilliant job of defending Goldman and handling the outsized egos that walk its halls. Goldman is smart, arrogant, highly successful and envied – qualities that make it a PR challenge, every day. No one has handled it better. (Disclosure: I’ve known Lucas for a long time, and sought his help whe... Read More

Feb

2012

The water keeps rising around James Murdoch

Crisis, Media

Attorneys for News Corporation investigating the phone-hacking scandal at the now-defunct UK tabloid News of the World revealed today that emails warning of widespread hacking were deleted from James Murdoch's computer. The New York Times reports: "Rupert Murdoch’s son Read More

Jan

2012

Whew – another News Corp scandal averted

Media

The folks at The Wall Street Journal and its parent News Corporation must be heaving a sigh of relief after the UK's newspaper-circulation auditor found "no clear evidence" of noncompliance in an unusual deal that inflated the subscription figures for The Wall Street Journal Europe. The statement by the Audit Bureau of Circulation is remarkable for its brevity (just 157 words), and it provides no accompanying detail regarding the scope or findings of its inquiry. Roy Greenslade of The Guardian ass... Read More

Dec

2011

Firing the CEO, Part 5: Glocer out at Thomson Reuters

Financial Services, Media

Tom Glocer today became the latest CEO to be fired, in a year that has seen a score of corporate chiefs get the boot. Glocer, who has led Thomson Reuters since 2001, lost the confidence of the Thomson family, the company’s largest shareholder. Although billed as a retirement, it’s clear that Glocer was forced out after the Thomson family grew impatient with the slow pace of the company’s turnaround. Glocer will be replaced by the COO, Jim Smith,... Read More

Sep

2011

Update: How to communicate a CEO firing

Media, Taking & Managing Risk

In a recent post on Yahoo's firing of Carol Bartz, I noted that the manner in which the Yahoo board handled it could make it easy for Bartz to offer her point of view in the media. So it comes as little surprise that Fortune today posted a lively interview with Bartz, explitives included. It looks like this story will prove entertaining for a little while yet. Read More

Aug

2011

Two interesting innovations in magazine publishing

Media, Uncategorized

There were two interesting items in the New York Times yesterday on innovations in magazine publishing. The first, by David Carr, looks at Lucky Peach, a new food-centered magazine started by chef David Chang that's rich in content and texture. At 174 pages and printed on heavy matte paper, it turns magazine convention on its head but has found a fiercely loyal following. At the other end of the spectrum, the Times reported on the new iPad Read More