While heading up to my three times a week 6:00 AM basketball game at the YMCA yesterday, I couldn’t help but laugh again at one of PRWeek’s cover stories.

The headline screams “Countrywide initiates effort to counter critics.” For those with their head in the sand and don’t know there is a mortgage crisis, Countrywide Financial is one of many beleaguered mortgage lenders. They recently announced with great fanfare the hiring of Burson Marsteller and a new campaign dubbed “Protect Our Home” to ferociously defend it self from it legion of critics.

Well it seems to me based on what I’m reading and hearing, Countrywide, and BM by extension, are going to have a hard time “protecting their home.”

Remember the legend of Hans Brinker? It’s the story of the little Dutch boy who sticks his finger in the dike to prevent it from leaking. BM is the little Dutch boy and Countrywide is the dike. If I’m BM, I’m thinking what do I have to do to help Countrywide survive. Hell with the critics.

There are to many issues swirling around Countrywide and that’s why their survivability is being called into question. These include class action suits, federal regulators being urged to investigate stock trading by Countrywide Financial Inc. chief executive Angelo Mozilo, the precipitous drop of Countrywide’s mortgage lending from a year earlier and Countrywide announcing its intention to eliminate 10,000-12,000 jobs.

BTW, the layoffs are a complete reversal of what the company had been saying just a month or two ago when CEO Angelo Mozilo could hardly contain his enthusiasm about poaching top mortgage brokers from busted outfits like American Home Mortgage and New Century.

BM is going to fail. Not because they’re not qualified to handle such a mess, they are. But because Countrywide’s ability to maintain operations depends on Wall Street funding that can dry up in an instant.

Not only that, I also predict that within the next year we’re also going to see Countrywide folded into Bank of America.

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This past weekend my wife and I spent some quiet time at our second home in upstate New York. Two and a half hours from New York City, year round mountain views and total privacy. We cannot see or hear our neighbors and they cannot see or hear us. Just the way we like it.

Anyway, I happened to bring some reading material with me including the July 23rd PRWeek to catch up on some industry news. And you know what? Talk about publishing industry rubbish. What was PRWeek’s editorial board thinking when they published Ed Moed’s Op-ed on “Staffing pyramid impedes service?” Did anybody at PRWeek read the piece before printing it?

The premise of the piece is that PR firms get more bang for the buck and clients receive the strategic counsel they are “screaming” for by inverting the staffing pyramid and having mid to entry-level employees participate in the strategic direction of communications programs, thereby producing real ROI and lowering staff attrition rates.

Bullshit. You don’t need to stand a pyramid on its head. What Moed’s firm and other PR firms need to do first is create a corporate culture that thinks outside the box, pushes the envelope and generates new ideas and suggestions from employees no matter where they are on the totem pole. And then they need to get rid of the deadwood that currently exists among staff and replace them with really smart people. Look, if you’re not smarter than me, you’re not good enough to work at BlinnPR. Period. Also, for Christ’s sake pay top dollar for talent. And lastly, avoid the comical bait and switch during the pitching process. It’s an insult to the prospect/client. Top-flight advice from senior level practitioners should be a 365/24/7 amenity for CMOs and/or VP of Communications. No questions asked.

Follow my advice and you won’t have the high turnover rates Moed speaks of or disgruntled clients asking us how BlinnPR can do better.

Anyway, I have other issues with the Op-ed, like the numerous statements Moed made that were not backed up with supporting statistics. But I guess that is what an Op-ed is all about, opinions not facts.

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On the front page of this week’s PRWeek there is an article about how Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, through a joint venture with Tsinghua University in Beijing, has indirectly helped counsel government ministries and companies in China on communicating with various worldwide audiences about its recent spate of manufacturing debacles and product recalls.

How effective is the counseling when the former head of China’s top food and drug safety agency was sentenced to death this past May after pleading guilty to corruption and accepting bribes?

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According to Michelle Malkin, Bilal Hussein, an AP photographer in Iraq assisted terrorists against coalition forces.

Back on April 12, Mr. Hussein was captured by coalition forces in an apartment with insurgents and a cache of weapons.

It wasn’t until this past Sunday, September 17, the Associated Press finally acknowledged that Hussein was being detained.

Whether you’re against the war or for it, it should not take the Associated Press four months to admit one of their journalists got caught with an alleged al Qaeda leader and test positive for bomb-making materials.

Is it not our responsibility as PR professionals to effectively counsel our clients, in this case corporate management, to get bad news out as quickly as possible and go from there? It should not come as surprise, but the media does treat the media differently.

Either way, the Associated Press’s communication department gets devil horns for the way they handled this situation.

Agree, disagree? Feel free to call or email with your comments.

Cheers,
Steven

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