tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41524834685129159622024-02-07T01:28:27.947-05:00New Harbor Group BlogNew Harbor Group is a full-service marketing communications agency located in Providence, Rhode Island.New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-59931661707310759682017-09-25T13:11:00.001-04:002017-09-25T13:14:59.759-04:00Pitching Your Story<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the things that sets our firm apart in a world of <a href="http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Spam--Spam--Spam--Spam-.html?soid=1101492782542&aid=upimYhzj_mY">canned
spam</a> is our ability to place <a href="https://www.nharbor.com/blog/">good
stories about our clients doing great things</a> in third-party publications
(digital publications, TV, newspapers, etc.).
These individual successes are usually driven by an effective “pitch” to
a journalist, or an editor, like the one below, which produced a quality story
about a local Boy Scout in charge of feeding thousands of people over the summer.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.valleybreeze.com/2017-08-23/observer-smithfield-west/order-scituate-man-feeds-thousands-camp-yawgoog#.WckTctG1vIW"><b>Order
up! Scituate man feeds thousands at Camp Yawgoog</b></a><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The elements of a successful pitch are all here, and we’ve
annotated them. Take a look and think
about your good news – and the heroes in your organization - and how those
stories would be best presented in order to grab the (increasingly limited)
attention of a reporter or blogger.</div>
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Here’s the pitch:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Subj:
10,000 Hamburgers, 1,200 Meat Loaves</i><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Hi Ethan -- – Hope you’re enjoying the
summer. I’ve got a good story idea, with a local (1) hero (2), for you
down at Rhode Island’s own (1) Camp Yawgoog, the second oldest Scout camp in
the country, now in its 102<sup>nd</sup> season (3).<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>As it has for over a century (3), Camp <span class="m-1185091808083692587m6594350864701480587m-4665644285379451972gmail-m6543232182172361260gmail-m6595675292272179722gmail-m-7634570466877795540gmail-il">Yawgoog</span>
is hosting Boy Scouts from all over the Northeast, and as far away as Florida
(1)(4), this summer. This year more than 6,400 Scouts (3) will stay at <span class="m-1185091808083692587m6594350864701480587m-4665644285379451972gmail-m6543232182172361260gmail-m6595675292272179722gmail-m-7634570466877795540gmail-il">Yawgoog</span>
from late June through August. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>While the Scouts are there, over 200
counselors (3) on staff will teach classes in 40 merit badges (3)(5) including
robotics, medicine, camping, small boat sailing, fishing, lifesaving and first
aid. Courses are also offered to adult leaders who would like to improve
their skills in technology, basic leadership, CPR and more (5).
More than 200 Scouts (3) learn how to swim in Yawgoog Pond and over 250
boys will earn the Mile Swim Award (5).<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<b><i><br />During those eight weeks, they will consume more than 200,000 meals, which include (among other ingredients) 10,000+ gallons of milk, 25,000+ slices of pizza, almost 70,000 eggs, 41,440 meatballs, 40,960 apples and over 1,200 meatloaves (3!!). <br /><br />Amazingly, the leadership for all of this is provided by Jon DiLuglio, a 20 year-old URI student (2)(4) from Scituate (1).</i></b><br />
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<b><i><br /></i></b>
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<i>Outside of meal times, Scouts work toward
their cooking merit badge, learning about food safety, menu planning, and food
shopping and preparation. Camp <span class="m-1185091808083692587m6594350864701480587m-4665644285379451972gmail-m6543232182172361260gmail-m6595675292272179722gmail-m-7634570466877795540gmail-il">Yawgoog</span>’s
three dining halls are central to the Scout’s week at Camp. (4)<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>It would be great to have one of your
journalists visit and do a story about one of Rhode Island’s legendary places,
and I know your readers would really enjoy it (6).<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>If you would be interested in visiting or
learning more, please let me know.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Thanks,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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The Notes:</div>
<ol>
<li>For a pitch to a geography-based media outlet (as opposed to interest-based, etc.), highlighting a town, a region or a state is important. It helps answer the question “Why would my readers/viewers be interested in this?” </li>
<li>An old publisher of mine used to say “Names make news!” So do heroes, and 20-year old college students doing very big jobs.</li>
<li>Noteworthy numbers make news too – particularly big ones, or…</li>
<li>…Facts that are surprising in a “man bites dog” kind of way.</li>
<li>The Boy Scouts are a great organization, which teaches its members an awful lot of things. Letting the reporter know about all the activities at camp gave the pitch a “Plan B” – if for some reason the original story didn’t work out, there’s still plenty of other things to cover, and write about.</li>
<li>It’s important to close by summarizing the pitch, and asking specifically what you would like them to do.</li>
</ol>
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In today’s dynamic media climate developing a successful
pitch can be challenging. That’s why incorporating all of the elements above is
critical to securing quality stories, and more of them. Knowing our clients,
the media landscape and how to mine the interesting news nugget is how we
deliver the “good news.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-6415953539944004532016-09-29T09:36:00.001-04:002016-09-29T12:57:16.657-04:00The Best Defense…When people ask what we do, I say “We do two things – offense and defense.” On offense, we tell our clients’ stories consistently and effectively to the people who need to hear it. On defense, we help to manage and overcome a crisis by… consistently and effectively telling our clients’ story to the people who need to hear it.<br />
<br />
“The best defense is a good offense” is a well-worn phrase, and just as true in communications as it is in sports. The longer, and more effectively, an organization has been delivering their message and defining itself on offense the better it will fare on defense. That’s especially true when an unexpected crisis hits from out of nowhere. However, there are other things that you can do – today – to be prepared to protect your business and your reputation. <br />
<br />
Here’s a quick checklist of the obvious, and the not-so-obvious:<br />
<br />
Put a Plan in Writing<br />
<ul>
<li>It is true that “No plan survives the first encounter with the enemy”, but you can anticipate likely scenarios, and have a plan for what we call the ‘First 25%.’</li>
<li>Identify key leaders in the organization who should be on the Crisis Team.</li>
<li>Make sure the plan is updated regularly and you know where to find it if a crisis develops. </li>
</ul>
<br />
Know Your Crisis Team – and Where To Find Them!<br />
<ul>
<li>Plan and assign crisis roles ahead of time. The Crisis Team doesn’t need to include everyone at the organization, but if it only includes the CEO and his/her assistant, you’re off to a bad start.</li>
<li>Get 24 hour phone numbers and e-mail addresses for all key people – and their key people, including admins and assistants, then conduct periodic tests. You’ll be surprised what you find when you dial the numbers. Note – a crisis isn’t the best time to learn that the cell phone for the guy with all the passwords doesn’t work at his cabin deep in the woods of Maine (true story).</li>
</ul>
Prepare a one-pager with key facts about your organization. Be sure to include:<br />
<ul>
<li>What you do and who you are (your elevator speech)</li>
<li>How long have you been in business?</li>
<li>How many people work with you?</li>
<li>Highlight community involvement, philanthropy, achievements, awards, recognition – these all provide important context and help answer the question “Who are you?” more fully.</li>
<li>Make certain the info matches the website</li>
<li>Make it available in print and PDF</li>
</ul>
Know What You’re Saying About Yourself<br />
<ul>
<li>Keep your web site up to date, since <u>it’s the first place people will go to learn about you</u>. Check and update the site on a regular schedule. Make sure someone on the Crisis Team can update the site quickly and effectively. </li>
</ul>
Stake out your on-line real estate<br />
<ul>
<li>It’s a good idea to reserve your URLs, and a reasonable number of others that could be misspellings, typos close to your name and derogatory variations of your name.</li>
<li>If you haven’t done so already, establish a presence on social media. Post some content and cultivate “Followers” or “Friends”. Social media can prove to be an extremely valuable unfiltered platform for you to reach key audiences when a crisis occurs. The more robust and current you can make it ahead of time, the better off you’ll be.</li>
</ul>
What are other people saying about you?<br />
<ul>
<li>Check your search engine results - It’s the second place people will go.</li>
<li>Compile recent media coverage, be ready to highlight the good news and have clear, credible context for the not-so-good.</li>
</ul>
Know what’s on the public record<br />
<ul>
<li>Have you been sued? Be ready to talk about the losses, but even opponents’ filings in cases that you won can be harmful if not addressed.</li>
<li>Are your regulatory filings up to date? Have clear, candid answers for any questions that may be raised by any sanctions you may have faced.</li>
</ul>
Reminder: Sloppy paperwork can be damaging<br />
<ul>
<li>Incomplete, inaccurate, contradictory or out of date paperwork, particularly those that are public can be a problem.</li>
<li>Also – always think twice before hitting send on that e-mail. The most innocent message may be a problem out of context. </li>
</ul>
And finally – play offense<br />
<b>The Key Elements of Offense</b>:<br />
The Goals<br />
<ul>
<li>Define yourself on your own terms.</li>
<li>Tell your story to the people who need to hear it.</li>
</ul>
The Four Pillars of Offense … and Defense<br />
<ul>
<li>Who is your <u>audience</u>? </li>
<ul>
<li>Who needs to hear your message? Who do you want to influence?</li>
</ul>
<li>What is your <u>message</u>?</li>
<ul>
<li>If you can’t say it in 10-15 seconds it probably needs some work. And remember – it’s not what you do, it’s who you are.</li>
</ul>
<li>What information, or <u>conten</u>t, supports that message?</li>
<ul>
<li>What stories or nuggets of information help tell your story? </li>
</ul>
<li>How do you <u>distribute</u> your content and deliver your message?</li>
<ul>
<li>In this day in age, you need a multi-faceted approach. Word of mouth or a random newspaper ad can’t get it done today. </li>
</ul>
</ul>
There’s a lot more to being prepared for a crisis – but this list is a good place to start.<br />
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New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-14837764320583554172016-05-02T11:49:00.004-04:002016-05-09T11:23:45.424-04:00The Day After The Big Story“Content” is the big communications buzz word these days. And while a lot of the “content” that’s out there is actually spam (more on that next month) in many ways, the best content is still third-party content – which in our case is news coverage of the great work our clients are doing.<br />
<br />
News coverage is the best content because it has the benefit of someone else telling your story. But not all third-party content is created equal. While some coverage is almost always better than no coverage, the more widely viewed and more respected the outlet, the more valuable the content. Another important factor – is the content/coverage in a publication being seen by the audience you’re trying to reach?<br />
<br />
Recently, we hit the bull’s eye in <i>The New York Times</i> with a story about the success of our client the <a href="http://www.quonset.com/" target="_blank">Quonset Business Park</a>. A former Navy base on Narragansett Bay, Quonset was widely perceived to be underperforming for years until hitting its stride in the last decade. Today, it is the region’s premiere business park and the leading engine of job creation and economic growth in Rhode Island.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://nyti.ms/26L5ctT" target="_blank"><i>The Times</i> story “<i>Quonset Makes a Name for Itself in Business</i>” captured Quonset’s success well</a>. Even better, the Business section of <i>The Times</i> is the ideal place to reach one of Quonset’s key audiences – business decision makers who are looking for a place to start or expand their business.<br />
<br />
Once the sun rose on the day after <i>The Times</i> story, though, came the obvious question – what next? At our firm, getting good media coverage for our clients is only the beginning of the process. From there, we go on to amplify the story and work to get it in front of as many people as we can. We do this by making it available on as many platforms as possible, some of which we publish ourselves on behalf of our clients.<br />
<br />
Here are just a few examples:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The first, most basic place to begin amplifying a story like this one is on your website. <a href="http://www.quonset.com/news/quonset-news/new-york-times-quonset-makes-a-new-name-for-itself-in-business/" target="_blank">Here’s <i>The Times</i> story on the Quonset website</a>. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Next – social media. If you go to the <a href="http://bit.ly/1SIFM6A" target="_blank">Quonset Twitter feed</a> you’ll see numerous tweets, starting on March 15, mentioning key points in <i>The Times</i> story, and linking back to the story for those who want to read it. You’ll see Quonset re-tweeting other mentions of the story, as well. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/QuonsetRI" target="_blank">Check out the Quonset Facebook page</a>. You’ll see similar mentions. Also – we took advantage of the heightened interest to invest in boosted posted posts on the platform – where we paid a few hundred dollars to reach a larger, targeted audience. This, in turn, resulted in a jump in Facebook followers for Quonset. (Nothing succeeds like success.)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/24uddkU" target="_blank">Quonset’s e-mail newsletter is an important communications tool for the Business Park</a>. Whenever we review the data from each edition we not only marvel at the quantity (the strong “open rate”) but also the quality (the list of individuals who are actually reading it – basically a list of key decision-makers and opinion leaders in Rhode Island) of its readership.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>That’s why <a href="http://conta.cc/1Ob99wu" target="_blank">we made sure that our thousands of readers knew about <i>The Times</i> articles the same morning it was published on-line via this edition of <i>Quonset Points</i></a>. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Coverage of coverage is another way to amplify stories like the one in <i>The Time</i>s. For instance, both Ted Nesi and Ian Donnis, two of Rhode Island’s most respected journalists, mentioned the story in their widely read weekly columns “<a href="http://wpri.com/2016/03/19/ted-nesis-saturday-morning-post-march-19/" target="_blank">Nesi’s Notes</a>” and “<a href="http://ripr.org/post/tgif-21-things-know-about-rhode-island-politics-media-14" target="_blank">TGIF: 21 Things To Know About Rhode Island Politics & Media</a>”. Both linked back to the story.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>We amplified the coverage of the coverage on Quonset social media.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://twitter.com/QuonsetRI/status/711349021323833344" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="https://twitter.com/QuonsetRI/status/711349021323833344" border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdw0KDlE-kmaLlO_0gCtWGsoBd7j2RVu1cxTPyrs-XxHSiw0bQ1Z3ah6wT9MFogpS5GLML8xcpEQxs_D-Iaa9KLln8yf7N9YQw9BwqtIWiS9jFomopIEvYvthZGv63vPePLjk0v0RUvo4/s400/Quonset1.png" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://twitter.com/QuonsetRI/status/711206054613286912" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="https://twitter.com/QuonsetRI/status/711206054613286912" border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-qYLuqLFpQ2175K6WljmctbCwgKtT-JQdgyJwiT848zy-wkn_yHUGDnazKTdvVfQeSWPecC2dH4cI1ErXg61iS3o0XbiVt-OxZicNswjlie-J2DILR-784YKCBELSRJrg3yxVoR7wChM/s400/Quonset2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>Finally, there are “speeches about coverage”. Quonset’s success is due in large measure to the support of elected officials at all levels. <a href="http://bit.ly/1NiBuWQ" target="_blank">Here, State Rep. Bob Craven rises on the floor of the Rhode Island House of Representatives to talk about <i>The Times story</i>, and deliver Quonset’s message of success and economic growth</a>.</li>
</ul>
<br />
Bottom line: For us and our clients, what happens in the days after good media coverage is at least as important as what happens in the days before.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://twitter.com/QuonsetRI/status/711349021323833344" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://twitter.com/QuonsetRI/status/711349021323833344" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"> </a></div>
New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-26058565717497454112016-01-12T14:31:00.001-05:002016-01-12T15:15:50.253-05:00Can You Believe That Poll?The most compelling action in the 2016 Presidential campaign (before any actual votes have been cast) is on the Republican side. Most polling seems to reflect the same trends – i.e., Donald Trump leads with a plurality of support among Republicans, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, with the “establishment” candidates flailing.<br />
<br />
But on the key question of who will actually win, it’s anybody’s guess. Why? First, polls are only a “snap shot in time.” Pollsters say this all the time, partly out of self-preservation, but it’s also true. Things can change quickly in campaigns, and intervening events can make a poll completed on Monday largely outdated by Friday.<br />
<br />
In Iowa, where Cruz and Trump are competitive in the February 1 contest, it’s proving difficult to predict a winner ahead of time. I’d bet on Cruz, because I suspect his Get Out the Vote (“GOTV”) effort, crucial in getting supporters to the polls in the state’s quirky caucus system, is better. Like Ben Carson, Trump is likely to learn that winning campaigns are a lot harder than they look, and that a presidential campaign is a tough place to start your political career.<br />
<br />
The much more important consideration in determining the “accuracy” of a poll, however, is the methodology used to conduct it. This can largely be broken down into two big questions –<br />
1) Who are you asking, and;<br />
2) How are you collecting the data?<br />
<br />
Here’s how that plays out in Iowa. The best way to answer the question “Who will win?” –which is really “Who would win if the election were today?” – is for a human being to ask a person likely to vote in the caucus who they plan to vote for. Both of these elements – a live interviewer and targeting a likely voter – are crucial. Anything less than this is the first step on a quickly descending staircase of credibility and value.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, polls conducted like this are hard to find because they are so expensive. Why?<br />
• You need to have a thoughtful way to determine who, really, is likely to vote;<br />
• It takes time and real expertise to draft a sound, useful questionnaire;<br />
• In conducting the poll, you need good callers who understand the questions and ask them the right way;<br />
• You need callers who can be trained to pronounce candidate names and place names correctly;<br />
• Polls that dig deep seeking more information, usually conducted by candidates, are long, and it’s difficult to keep participants engaged all the way through to the end;<br />
• It’s harder to find voters in the era of the cell phone, and to determine a valid mix of cell phone and landline numbers;<br />
• It takes time and expertise to interpret the data, weighing it to reflect voter demographics in the area.<br />
<br />
Since few public polls approach this standard, they all should be greeted with healthy skepticism. Media outlets used to do them with the necessary rigor, but few can afford it anymore, with some national exceptions (NY Times, CBS, etc.). Local media outlets are, for the most part, unwilling to spend the money it takes to get really good data, which is important to remember as we approach November. Instead, they usually settle for online polls or automated telephone polls. (I think <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidPreston_/status/636568476648345602/photo/1" target="_blank">my dog Buster</a> responded to one of those the other day.) What you end up with is very cheap data that barely passes the accuracy laugh test – but is sometimes reported by the media with a straight face. Meanwhile, the best information is usually found in the hands of well-funded candidates, is jealously guarded like the precious commodity that it is.<br />
<br />
All of this may help explain the post-Iowa GOP landscape in a few weeks if/when the results from the caucuses do not reflect the “results” of the “national polls” published over the last few months.New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-84685573858845021212015-12-11T11:57:00.001-05:002015-12-11T11:57:46.622-05:00The Last Days of RISDICFriday, January 1, marks the 25th anniversary of the beginning of Rhode Island’s credit union crisis. I recently came across an article I wrote on the 10th anniversary of the closure, published in the December 2000 edition of Rhode Island Monthly magazine. It’s an interesting look back at a dramatic time in our state’s history, and it is posted below.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Where Were You When They Closed the Banks?</b></div>
<br />
<i>The memories may seem fresh, but the banking crisis exploded ten years ago next month. One insider reveals the surprising countdown to the worst financial crisis in the state’s recent history.</i><br />
<br />
<b>By David Preston</b><br />
<br />
By 2 a.m., most of the New Year’s Eve revelers were gone. First Night was over, Kennedy Plaza was empty, and the city was cold and quiet on the first morning of 1991. High above the Plaza, Sheldon Whitehouse and an associate at the big downtown law firm Hinckley, Allen, Snyder and Comen were well on their way to pulling an all-nighter, gathering reams of documents incoming Governor Bruce Sundlun would need later that day.<br />
<br />
It hadn’t been much of a New Year’s Eve or for that matter much of a holiday season for any of the Sundlun team, least of all Whitehouse. Since leaving his job as assistant attorney general in early December to come work with us on the transition team, he’d had a front-row seat for the rapid disintegration of financial institutions insured by Rhode Island Share and Deposit Indemnity Corporation (RISDIC). Now, on the last day of the year, the dike had collapsed and a financial tidal wave that had been building for two months was about to come crashing ashore. On his first official day as governor, Sundlun was declaring a legal bank holiday. It’s a phrase that always seems ironic – there was certainly nothing festive about what was about to unfold. In less than twenty-four hours, we knew Sundlun would padlock shut forty-five banks and credit unions.<br />
<br />
For the members of the Sundlun team, the autumn of 1990 had been euphoric, a sweet victory after four years of hard work and bitter disappointment. Some had endured the thrashing Governor Edward DiPrete inflicted on Sundlun in 1986, when DiPrete won the election with 65 percent of the vote. Two years later I joined the Sundlun Team as policy adviser for what started out as another sacrificial offering to the campaign gods. On the June day in 1988 that I signed on, a published poll showed Sundlun trailing DiPrete almost three to one. But after a string of bad news for DiPrete it was suddenly a competitive race. In the end, though, despite $2 million of Sundlun’s personal money, we lost a heartbreaker, 51 percent of the vote to 49 percent. It was a tough loss, and I never saw Sundlun more disappointed than he was that election night.<br />
<br />
In 1990, with DiPrete weakened, other Democrats smelled blood in the water and decided to run. A four-man race shrank to three when former Lieutenant Governor Richard Licht bailed out, leaving Providence Mayor Joseph R. Paolino, Jr., Warwick Mayor Frank Flaherty, and Sundlun.<br /><br />As Sundlun’s deputy campaign manager, I sensed it was going to be a tough primary campaign and it was. Paolino jumped out to an early lead, while the Sundlun campaign floundered. Flaherty, less known statewide, was a distant third at the time. In late June, Paolino won the endorsement of the Democratic State Committee, which had been only too glad to have Sundlun carry their water in two previously hopeless efforts. But the same week, Brian Lunde and George Burger, two savvy Washington campaign operatives, arrived in town, and that changed everything. They redefined the direction of our campaign, enforced structure in our staff, crafted a clear and compelling message presenting Sundlun as the outsider – and then persuaded him to part with almost $2 million more than the $1 million he’d already committed to spend.<br /><br />Having anted up, Sundlun became more focused. In September, the primary was ours: the general election in November, an anti-climax. The vaunted DiPrete campaign machine of the previous three elections was no more, and Sundlun racked up a 74-26 win, powered by another million dollars, and a corps of dedicated volunteers who took to heart the Sundlun message that he was an ‘independent businessman, not a professional politician.’ <br /><br />Sundlun liked meetings – but short ones – and as the campaign staff became the transition team, half a dozen of us would meet every day around 5:30 p.m. The meetings in the office at Sundlun’s Providence home at 320 South Main Street included the usual suspects: me, Whitehouse, key transition staffer Brian Gallogly, chief of staff-to-be Ed Wood, Patti Goldstein, and Cumberland State Senator David Cruise, one of a handful of elected officials who’d supported Sundlun in the primary, and a future chief of staff. Later, Barbara Cottam, who’d worked for Paolino at Providence City Hall and was Sundlun’s choice as press secretary, joined the group, and depending on who was in town that week, Lunde or Burger as well. It was a chance to catch up, make sure nothing fell through the cracks, and prep all of us for the next day.<br /><br />The campaign mantra had been simple: a higher standard of political ethics and better fiscal management. From the beginning, we thought the biggest problem facing our new administration would be the budget deficit. Sundlun had promised to restore the sales tax to 6 percent after DiPrete had raised it to 7 percent six months earlier. To do that would require $34 million in cuts, not at all that much in a budget of $1.3 billion. But the deficit had ballooned over the course of the year, and ultimately as much as $260 million would have to be slashed just to bring the budget into balance, never mind keep Sundlun’s promise to cut taxes. By inauguration day, there was no disputing that Rhode Island faced an enormous deficit – percentage wise, the largest in the nation. The looming deficit colored every policy decision we made during the transition, and while we disputed its magnitude with the outgoing administration, RISDIC began to crumble.<br /><br />The collapse of Heritage Loan and Investment Company, and subsequently RISDIC, is now part of Rhode Island legend. The Federal Hill institution was taken over by RISDIC in October 1990 when examiners found its book to be almost incomprehensible. A few weeks later, Joseph Mollicone, Jr., president and controlling shareholder of the bank, disappeared and ultimately turned into a fugitive as it became clear that more than $13 million in bank funds had also disappeared.<br /><br />RISDIC made good on Heritage deposits. But depositors at other RISDIC institutions, led by insiders – members of the banks’ boards of directors and upper management – were worried that the agency would not be able to cover their deposits if the need arose. Thus began a series of what Whitehouse called “silent” runs, large-scale withdrawals by these insiders and others that gained momentum in early December and made the ultimate problem much worse.<br /><br />Every afternoon now, Whitehouse arrived at our meetings at South Main Street from his vigil at the Department of Business Regulation (DBR). His updates of the banks’ dwindling liquidity grew increasingly alarming. Initially he told us, “I don’t know how they’re going to make it.”<br /><br />Soon, though, that became, “They’re not going to make it.”<br /><br />Shortly before Christmas, he was predicting that they might not even survive the next day. At first we figured that Whitehouse – the new kid on the team and not part of our original campaign group – was overreacting. Soon, we found out he was right. It was the morning of December 19, the Wednesday before Christmas. L. William Seidman, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and former Iowa Senator Roger Jepsen, then chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, arrived from Washington with a small army of regulators and examiners for a meeting at the State House. The DiPrete and Sundlun teams listened as Seidman delivered a two-part message: First, we’ve taken a look at these institutions and it’s really bad. Second, we can’t help you. Seidman suggested they seek what he called private capital to solve the problem. “There’s only one person in this town with that kind of money,” Sundlun said, and set up a meeting for that very day at 4 p.m. with Terry Murray, head of Fleet Bank.<br /><br /><br />The meeting that followed was cordial, but ultimately unsuccessful. Murray gave the same answer Seidman had given: sorry, we can’t help.<br /><br />It was over for RISDIC.<br /><br />Next day, Whitehouse began camping out in a conference room at the DBR, the agency responsible for examining and supervising the RISDIC-insured institutions. Federal officials joined them as well. The Treasury Department, even the White House, was involved now, concerned that a bank failure in Rhode Island could spread a panic that might topple other institutions weakened by the Northeast’s faltering economy. For Whitehouse, the immediate task was to determine just how bad it was. Meanwhile, RISDIC officials tried desperately to limp to January 1, so Sundlun could provide the necessary leadership.<br /><br />We continued to hope for the best, that the feds would show some flexibility. On one hand, they were urging us not to do anything to incite a panic. On the other hand, they steadfastly refused to consider insuring three institutions we believed were healthy: Union Deposit Loan and Investment Bank, Chariho-Exeter Credit Union, and East Providence Credit Union. That refusal made it clear that whatever happened with RISDIC, we were on our own. Not only was there no federal money in the offing, but regulators were also completely unwilling to assume any risk.<br /><br />Shortly after noon on December 31, the phone rang in the DBR conference room. Whitehouse picked it up. “A RISDIC attorney was on the other end,” he remembers. “He said, ‘I’m calling to let you know that the board is meeting and we have voted to put RISDIC into conservatorship. We’re sending documents to you and the governor (Sundlun) reflecting what we’ve done.’”<br /><br />Now we knew how the end would come.<br /><br />Whitehouse hung up and redialed. “RISDIC just pulled the plug,” he told Sundlun, “and voted to put themselves into conservatorship.”<br /><br />“What the hell does that mean?” Sundlun asked.<br /><br />“It means we own them now.”<br /><br />Around four that afternoon, I was at the transition office at One State Street finishing up the writing of the next day’s inaugural address when I got a call from State Senator David Cruise. “The governor wants you to come down to the meeting a little early today,” he said.<br /><br />I headed down the hill toward South Main Street. When I arrived, Whitehouse, who’d been huddled with Sundlun, showed me the RISDIC letter. “Conservatorship” looked an awful lot like “receivership,” legal-speak for what happens when bankrupt companies are taken over by the government.<br /><br />“So this is how it happens,” I remember thinking. But how to deal with the mess in the short term? Eventually, we expected that the state government would establish something like the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) to sort through the rubble of the former credit unions. The RTC had been the feds’ creation in the aftermath of the meltdown of the country’s savings and loan industry. It had taken over and managed the assets of the S&Ls and paid off depositors, with the government making up the difference. To try to close the gap, it sold the assets of the old institutions for the best possible price. Ultimately, the successful Depositors Economic Protection Corporation (DEPCO), conceived and announced the following weekend, would become Rhode Island’s own version of the RTC.<br /><br />But that was days – or weeks – away, or so we thought. The question now, as the sun set on 1990, was what to do with these credit unions that no longer had deposit insurance, as the law required. Many of them were in pitiful financial shape, tapped out on their lines of credit, some with only pennies per depositor left on-hand.<br /><br />We had three options to thrash out, none of them appealing. First, assume responsibility for all the credit unions with the full faith and credit of the state. This would allow business to continue as usual on January 2. But no one knew how big that hole was that taxpayers would have to fill. (Ultimately, it would turn out to be $333 million of the $1.7 billion in total deposits that were paid back). And no one, least of all Sundlun, was ready to take such a big leap off a cliff in the dark. With the budget deficit as a backdrop, full faith and credit was out.<br /><br />A second option was receivership, which meant that a court-appointed receiver would take over the assets of the institutions. Depositors would file claims against the receiver, and as the assets of the credit unions were sold, they would get some money. Given the depressed state of the economy, though, this was an awful option. I cringed, thinking of my parents nearing their sixties and forced to extract what remained of their life savings from the receivership that was once Columbian Credit Union. The obvious flaws in the receivership approach led us to kill that idea, which was probably the second worst possible choice.<br /><br />The only one that was even worse was to allow several dozen virtually bankrupt banks and credit unions to open for business on January 2 without insurance. Any available money would be gone in minutes – maybe seconds. The resulting runs would have been a clear danger to public safety, particularly for the desperate thousands waiting outside in lines, watching their breath evaporate in the cold air, just as their savings had done.<br /><br />We all knew that without full faith and credit, opening the day after New Year’s was not an option. So with surprising speed, the group decided to close the banks. Sundlun, quiet until now, nodded grimly. Everyone else, surprised at the quick consensus in favor of such a drastic action, fell silent. “Then that’s it,” Sundlun said. It was not a question. More silence. Then, the 5:30 p.m. fireworks from First Night exploded with a roar that reverberated down South Main Street and rattled the windows. It seemed to signal both the end and a beginning.<br /><br />Whitehouse got on the phone and started making calls, tending to millions of details that needed to be handled before heading over to Hinckley, Allen, Snyder, and Comen. I trudged back to the transition office and wrote a brief new paragraph for the inaugural address alluding to the “problem.” Then I looked up a copy of Franklin Roosevelt’s speech to the nation after he declared a bank holiday in 1933 following panicky wide-scale bank runs. From that, I drafted a statement for the governor to give the following day. Toward the end of the draft remarks, seeking to strike an FDR-like tone, I wrote for Sundlun the line, “I am confident” that the crisis will be resolved quickly, and handed the pages to the governor.<br /><br />In the entire three-page, double-spaced text, Sundlun made only one change. He crossed out the words “I am confident” and penciled in the more tentative “I hope.” <br />New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-31996256698064665842015-03-30T09:35:00.001-04:002015-03-30T09:36:21.334-04:00Interns<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]-->Back in the mists of time, when I was the director of one of
the state’s political parties, I used to joke that with ten good interns, you
could probably run many of the smaller countries out there (San Marino,
Andorra, Liechtenstein, etc.). I’m a big believer in internships here at New
Harbor, and we regularly provide these kinds of opportunities – both paid and
for college credit. <br />
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<br />
For any organization, the main thing to know about internships is this: If you
take just a few minutes a day to plan an intern’s work, the benefits for the
intern can be enormous. I usually tell interns that while they may have to go
on the occasional coffee run or make copies now and then, my goal is for them
to be able to walk away with something tangible for their portfolio – something
they can point to at a future interview and say, “I did this.” </div>
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This <a href="https://www.riscpa.org/files/2012%20Survey%20of%20R.I.%20Gen%20Assy.%20Campaign%20Finances.pdf">summary
of legislative campaign finances</a> and a <a href="https://www.riscpa.org/files/Survey%20of%20RI%20Business%20in%202012%20Campaign.pdf">survey
of the Rhode Island business community’s campaign contributions</a> are two
good examples of New Harbor intern projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The interns who worked on them even got some <a href="http://wpri.com/blog/2014/06/07/the-saturday-morning-post-quick-hits-on-politics-more-in-ri-120/">ink
in one of Rhode Island’s most widely read political and policy blogs</a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- see #7.<br />
<br />
On the intern’s end, here’s the short list of what I need: a professional
demeanor (including wardrobe), can-do/I-can-figure-it-out approach (tempered by
good judgment), and a minimum of ten regularly scheduled hours per week. A
regular schedule is the key to the whole package, because it helps us plan the
work, which allows the interns to put together their portfolio piece. And
finally, we generally get many more inquiries than we can accommodate, so
misspellings or mistakes on the resume or cover letter result in automatic
disqualification. <br />
<br />
Oh, and there’s a happy ending. Timing is crucial, but from time to time over
the years, we’ve hired interns here at New Harbor and made them full-time
members of our team. I expect we’ll be doing more of that in the future.</div>
New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-86632154103832725532015-02-09T16:44:00.000-05:002015-02-09T17:01:59.962-05:00Delete Me<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the New Harbor playbook, <a href="http://nharbor.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-on-line-e-newsletter-you-cant-live.html" target="_blank">the e-mail newsletter is the indispensable tool for reaching a targeted audience in a meaningful, effective way</a>. We’re on the receiving end of a lot of e-newsletters, too - some good, some not. But it’s amazing to us how often the most important element of the total e-news package is overlooked and misused. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> That piece? The subject line. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Check out some of the subject lines (with the senders’ names changed to “Acme” or “Jones” to protect the guilty) in e-mail newsletters we’ve received, just in the last week: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> • Acme Newsletter for February 4, 2015 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> • Your February Acme Newsletter </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> • Acme Newsletter February 2015 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> • News from Acme </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> •</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Acme February Newsletter </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> • Acme News </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> • News from the Office of Politician Jones </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We’re not making this up. So here’s the point: It’s a shame for someone to go through the effort of creating and distributing an e-newsletter, only to have a subject line that basically screams “Delete Me: I’m another boring, cookie-cutter e-mail newsletter. ” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The subject line (working in tandem with the sender field) is the most important piece of the package, because if it gets lost and recipients don’t open it, what have you gained? The sender field can really help here. For example, if the sender is “Acme” or “Politician Mary Jones,” say it there. That will free up the subject line to tell your readers what it’s about, not who it’s from – since the sender line already tells us that. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So give your subject lines some serious thought, because they’ll make or break your e-news. And experiment a little. Sometimes, we’ll do two or three different subject lines when sending out the New Harbor e-news, just to see what works as an opener, and what doesn’t. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One tactic that can work well is to use a quotation from the newsletter that might be especially relevant or interesting to your audience. Feel free to hint at the content inside, without giving everything away, so that readers are likely to click on the email to find out more. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ask yourself: What would make you want to read this email? Chances are “Acme Newsletter February” would not be as compelling as, well, almost anything else. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Bottom line: don’t let the time and effort involved in putting together an e-mail newsletter campaign be wasted by a saddling it with a boring, generic subject line.
</span>New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-91994875309408827972014-12-29T11:54:00.001-05:002015-01-06T09:33:10.470-05:00What is Your Message?<div>
We are all barraged with thousands of bits of information every day. Attention spans are notoriously short and everyone’s brain is working hard to sift through the noise. This reality makes a clear, effective message essential if your organization wants to be heard – and understood.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
A clear message does two important things:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>An effective message gives your audiences an overall structure, or framework, to understand what your organization does and/or its goals;</li>
<li>An effective message gives your messengers (employees, board, etc.) a structure to tell people what you do, and to be heard and understood.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
With the structure of a clear message in place, the facts and figures and stories you tell about your organization will serve to support and reinforce that message, helping people to understand who you are and what you do.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
The lack of a clear, understandable message can be dangerous for your organization. Without a message, it is nearly impossible to describe your organization effectively, or to be understood. And without this fundamental understanding you will likely miss countless opportunities. Even worse, others - including competitors - can take the disjointed parts and define you on their terms, instead of on your own. Reporters, too, may be left to piece together the parts of your story on their own, defining you to fit their needs or confirm their preconceived notions.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Here’s an example of a bad, unfocused message, and a good, strong one. You’ll know who the company is after you read the good message. You’ll also realize how awful the first message is after you recognize the company - and probably have a rueful smile when you think about how often people describe their organization using something like Message #1.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Message #1</b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>We were founded by a visionary who started a movie company, then we got into television and amusement parks – which we still do – but now we own a TV network with three channels - one for kids, one for sports and one for general audiences. We also sell books and toys based on the characters from our movies and we even run a cruise line.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b>Message #2</b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>We use stories and characters – like Mickey Mouse - to entertain, to teach lessons and to give people and families fun things to do.</li>
</ul>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Clearly explaining your organization in a sentence or two is crucial to being known and understood on your terms. Your key message is what you want your audience to “take away” from their interaction with your organization. A clear understanding of your organization comes through the prism of a good, strong message.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Effective messaging also provides you and your team with a structure, or framework, to communicate with all your audiences: customers, potential customers, the press, investors, donors, partners and employees. It provides a framework for all of your communications: marketing materials, speeches and presentations, web site and social media content, news releases and op eds, and just about everything else.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Finally, it’s important to realize that your message and your mission statement are not the same thing. Most mission statements are vague, laden with jargon and buzzwords glued together and watered down by a committee. These statements avoid doing what a message needs to do – prioritize what is important for people to know about your organization.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
With a strong message in place, an organization is well-positioned to tell their story, and have it understood. From there, the work of creating a 21st Century communications distribution network to effectively deliver your message to your key audiences can begin.</div>
New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-12684074534369006392014-11-19T16:07:00.003-05:002014-12-15T15:47:31.850-05:00The 2014 ElectionsThe gap between the electorate in a presidential year
election and a non-presidential year continues to widen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This year, in both Rhode Island and the
country, <a href="http://bit.ly/1t1MoQV">the electorate was significantly
older, whiter and more affluent than the voting population as a whole</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://cnn.it/1utOBtB">This is a
reality that benefits Republicans</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In addition to the fact that this was the lowest turnout in 72 years,
here are two more numbers that jumped out at me: Only 13% (or one out of eight)
18-29 year-olds voted this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Meanwhile, 68% of voters were 45 or older.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contrast that with 2012, when 53% of voters
were 45 or older.<br />
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<br />
This new reality creates wide two-year swings in what the
electorate says it “wants,” since the electorate in Presidential years is so
much different than in the “off-years.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br />
At first glance, the fact that Democrats swept all the
statewide and federal races in Rhode Island would seem to indicate that the
state was immune to the national trend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But in suburban and rural General Assembly “swing districts,”
Republicans enjoyed some success, defeating an incumbent state senator and
knocking off six House incumbents, a rarity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Outside the urban core, Rhode Island bore a much closer resemblance to
the country as a whole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The trick for
R.I. Republicans now will be to prepare when the pendulum swings back to a much
less friendly “Presidential” electorate, which is coming their way in two
years.</div>
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<br />
They know who you are – and they are going to ring your
doorbell, call your phone and even stalk you on the Internet (particularly
Facebook) until you give them a reason to stop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><a href="http://nyti.ms/1tYW3gG">This was the year that the marriage
between the “Big Data” tools of the two Obama presidential campaigns and plain
old-fashioned door knocking by volunteers was consummated at the local level. </a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br />
Voters would be amazed (and maybe a little concerned) to
learn what campaigns, even at a town council and school committee level, know
about them, and how that information can now be sliced and diced in an effort
to persuade them as individuals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why did
that ad for so-and-so seem to appear for weeks on every web page you went
to?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because when you visited the
campaign website, they dropped a cookie in your browser that “followed” you
around the Internet, and showed you the ad everywhere you went.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ad was probably targeted at you based on
the pile of other information they had about you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br />
In local campaigns it used to be enough to ring doorbells
and send a few well-done pieces of direct mail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By 2016 that will no longer be true – the candidate without a robust,
smart, data-based on-line effort will be at a distinct disadvantage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The good news for candidates is that it’s
much more affordable than newspaper advertising, the now fading staple of local
campaigns from the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hard part -
especially for local campaigns - will be to find someone who can manage the
on-line effort, knows what they’re doing, and can do it consistently. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even in this new age of technology, it
still won’t work without those<a href="http://bit.ly/1pWK4ir"> committed volunteers</a>!</div>
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<br />
Those annoying robo-calls you got on your phone throughout
the course of the campaign were not what you probably thought they were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While they may sound like a cheap poll,
they’re really not, since a poll conducted in that way has little value to a
campaign as a measure of voter sentiment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In reality, the calls are a cheap (pennies per call) way to get even
more information out of you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this
case, the sponsor of the call is trying to find out if you’re willing to
identify yourself as a supporter, an opponent or still undecided.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want to the calls to stop, say you are
“opposed” – the campaign will stop calling, since they don’t want to do anything that
will encourage you to go to the polls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The worst thing you can do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Say
you are undecided, or hang up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’ll
just keep calling.</div>
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<br />
Speaking of polling - <a href="http://bit.ly/1t1MGqK">continuing
a trend I first noted in 2010</a>, for all practical purposes, it is now prohibitively
expensive to get accurate polling data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Campaigns do what they can because they have to, but any other poll, even
from credible news sources, must be taken not with a grain, but with a mountain
of salt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s simply too hard and too
expensive to get enough people to spend the 10-20 minutes per voter it takes to
get a reasonably accurate gauge of voter sentiment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soon, only the best funded campaigns (or their
related “Independent Expenditure” allies) will be able to afford truly accurate
data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pollster who can figure out
how to get accurate data in a world increasingly populated by cell-phone owners
with limited attention spans will be much in demand.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Thanks in large measure to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus.html">the <i>Citizens
United</i> decision</a>, arguably the worst Supreme Court decision of my
lifetime, campaign finance is now officially a sewer. You can’t blame
candidates and interests for doing what they must under the new rules to win,
but the public is poorly served by a system that practically requires a
candidate to have at least one (largely unregulated, often secretive) SuperPAC
in their corner to make “<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/17/politics/twitter-republicans-outside-groups/index.html">Independent</a>”
Expenditures. Meanwhile, however, expect this behavior to continue until
voters impose some kind of penalty on candidates. Although maybe there’s
a connection between the low turnout and obscene amounts of money flying
around.</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
---------------------------------------</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
That said, <a href="http://nyti.ms/1ncQbcg">a ton of money does not necessarily buy success</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Further, you don’t need to have the “most”
money, you just need to have “enough.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
----------------------------------------------------</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
A few years ago, I noted that <a href="http://nharbor.blogspot.com/2010/09/lessons-from-tuesdays-elections.html">competent,
professional campaign staff had become essential for candidates</a> (#5), a
trend that has accelerated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two
interesting things have happened since:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, relative to the resources available for down ballot statewide
candidates (Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General and Treasurer) in
Rhode Island, these campaign professionals have become more expensive, and in
many cases, prohibitively so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are
few bargains to be had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile, and more
important, as party primaries have increasingly become an exercise in appealing
to a party’s base, partisan campaign professionals (there are no other kind) who
win primaries have become less adept at pivoting towards general election
voters who are persuaded by a more centrist message, and more likely to be
turned off by partisan code words and talking points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Candidates, beware.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
-------------------------------</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Only eight more years before Rhode Island is likely down to
one statewide U.S. House seat.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
------------------------------</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
The 2016 Presidential campaign will start before the snow
melts.</div>
New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-52749379146693573872014-06-12T10:14:00.005-04:002014-06-12T10:18:45.277-04:00Father's Day<i>A few years ago my cousin Kevin published this piece about his father, who was my father’s oldest brother. It is a fitting tribute. </i><br />
<br />
<b>Father’s generation created better world</b><br />
By Kevin D. Preston<br />
<br />
He was the eldest son of seven children of an immigrant family. Born to a sickly father and a mother who lived a long life and worked every day of it, he inherited his father’s health, and his mother’s determination.<br />
<br />
He began working at the age of 9 and quit school at the age of 15 to help put bread on the table of his family during the depression. A soldier at 21, across the beach at Omaha at 24, married at 26, the father of three by age 30.<br />
<br />
He was a high school dropout who was determined not only to support his family, but to ensure that his children would have a better start than he did. He had only two things going for him, an unlimited determination to work, and an uncanny ability to fix things.<br />
<br />
For more than half a century he worked in mills and factories at home and overseas, fixing warplanes, machinery, jewelry and antiques as well as the toys of his children and grandchildren.<br />
<br />
But he has always been far more than just a workhorse. He knew that beyond the everyday struggle for survival there were larger issues which affected the quality of the world he and his family would live in.<br />
<br />
By reasoning more simple yet more powerful than that of his college educated children, he knew that his country must support programs to reduce poverty, because he knew what it was to be poor. He knew that discrimination was wrong because as a French-Canadian, and as a Catholic, he knew of the crippling effects of bigotry on both the victim, and the bigot.<br />
<br />
And despite the fact that out of devotion to his church he sent his children to parochial schools, he always supported the proper funding of public schools, because having been deprived of a proper education, he knew its value.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Out of the Depression </i></div>
<br />
Although special to me, my father’s story is typical of that of many of his contemporaries. His was the generation that as children saw and felt the devastation wrought by the Great Depression. His was the generation that as young adults fought and beat Hitler and all he represented. His was the generation that built the greatest economic power the world had ever seen. His was the first generation in history to choose to share their newfound material success with the poor and their long cherished political rights with minority groups which had long been excluded from their enjoyment.<br />
<br />
It has become the fashion among my generation to denigrate the condition of the world which we are inheriting; to focus on problems which remain rather than on progress already made.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>True Test</i> </div>
<br />
But the final measure of any generation is whether they leave the world better than they found it. And by that measure my father’s generation has been exceptional.<br />
<br />
The simple fact is that the sons of my father’s generation are, on average, richer, healthier, better educated and will live longer than their fathers.<br />
<br />
They eat better foods and work shorter hours.<br />
<br />
More of them have the right to vote and to stand for public office. Unlike many of their fathers when at similar age, the sons can, for the most part, travel across this country, eat in restaurants, sleep in hotels, rent apartments, marry, play golf and do pretty much what they want regardless of their race or religion.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Inspiration </i></div>
<br />
It is by any standard an impressive list of accomplishments.<br />
<br />
As a 10-year old boy in 1961, I watched on television the handing over of the reins of power from my grandfather’s generation to my father’s.<br />
<br />
In his inaugural address 30 years ago President Kennedy said that “… the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war and disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.”<br />
<br />
I knew even then that he was talking about millions of fathers, but in the eyes of this 10-year-old boy, my own father became my measure of what that generation was, and was to become.<i> </i><br />
<br />
Thanks Dad, and happy Father’s Day.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Kevin D. Preston of Attleboro is an attorney.
</i>New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-71430748946711780342014-06-02T10:57:00.000-04:002014-06-04T16:57:20.039-04:00The On-Line E-Newsletter: You Can’t Live Without It <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]-->A respected non-profit recently sent out an RFP for a firm to create a newsletter for the organization. Although we rarely respond to RFPs at New Harbor Group, we strongly believe that having a newsletter is a good thing. Every organization should have some way to tell its story and update its key audience on a regular basis.<br />
<br />
But here’s the problem: This particular group asked for proposals for putting together a print newsletter. Bad idea. If you don’t have a newsletter, and you’re thinking about starting one, here’s why an on-line edition is absolutely the only way to go: <br />
<ul>
<li>Why pay for printing and postage? Who does that anymore? It’s simply a waste of money.</li>
<li>Keep it fresh. The on-line version won’t get stale waiting for that “one last story” to be submitted, then getting printed and then sitting around in the bulk mail trays at the post office.</li>
<li>Get (really valuable) information. An on-line version will give you data about your audiences – who opened the e-mail announcing the latest edition, <b><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://bit.ly/6mNHqx" target="_blank">and who hit “delete”</a></span></b>; what stories are popular, and which ones aren’t. With a print newsletter, recipients may read it, or they may toss it – you’ll never know.</li>
<li>And speaking of data, your advertisers will be thrilled to know how many people visited their website – and perhaps even hired them or bought their product because someone clicked on their ad in your e-newsletter.</li>
<li>Keep the conversation going with social media. With your on-line newsletter you can actually engage with your audiences, either in the comment section, or even better – with social media. Your on-line e-newsletter is a great way to drive your readers to your social media pages (and your website itself), communicating with your audiences and finding out what they’re really thinking about you.</li>
<li>Also - it’s “green”.</li>
</ul>
Amazingly, the main objection to an on-line newsletter is usually this: Somewhere out there exists a mythical, 90-year old person who doesn’t have e-mail or use the Internet. Needless to say, I’m dubious. After all, we live in a world where 84% of Baby Boomers – who are now well into their 60s – say that the Internet is an essential, like bread and milk in a Rhode Island snowstorm. I’ve never met this person who isn’t on-line, or learned their name, but this person is the reason why people tell me they can’t possibly put their newsletter on-line.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, if you’re in print and thinking about the transition to an on-line e-news, I have a solution for the “90-Year-Old Person Who Doesn’t Use the Internet” problem which works like a charm. I’d be glad to share it.<br />
<br />
Our client the <b><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.riscpa.org/" target="_blank">Rhode Island Society of CPAs</a></span></b> has a very successful <b><a href="http://bit.ly/bgujvM" target="_blank">on-line newsletter called “What Counts.”</a></b> Not only does the Society enjoy all the benefits of an on-line newsletter I described above, they also defray nearly the complete cost of the publication with advertising, which you can see at the bottom of this – and every - page <b><a href="http://bit.ly/bgujvM" target="_blank">when you click here</a></b>.<br />
<br />
And yes, we are prepared for that “person who is not on-line.” If that person calls the Society they will print <b><a href="http://what-counts.org/images/PDF/RISCPA_What_Counts_PDF_May_2014.pdf" target="_blank">this version</a></b>, and mail it to him or her. First class.<br />
<br />
If you have an existing print newsletter, you need to be thinking about how to transition to an on-line edition as soon as possible. If you don’t already have a newsletter, and are preparing to start one, the only place you should be publishing is on-line.<br />
<br />
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New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-91233710925440593092014-05-16T15:51:00.004-04:002014-05-16T15:51:41.581-04:00A Silver Lining to the Sterling Saga...<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
New Harbor Group is often asked to help a new client “deal
with a potential problem.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many times, that “potential problem” is
actually a significant problem and it’s time for some crisis management.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>For
those who haven’t been through one, managing a crisis isn’t just about how you
react, but it’s also about how prepared you are for when one strikes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
Hopefully, the next crises you or your company faces won’t be as potentially
devastating as the one encountered by Adam Silver just a few months into his
new job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Silver took over as the
NBA Commissioner earlier this year, he probably never imagined that a member of
his Board of Governors would be caught on tape delivering a racist diatribe (apparently
a regular occurrence by some accounts).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
Silver knew beforehand that the LA Clippers owner, Donald Sterling, may have
been a racist, but once Sterling’s rant hit the airwaves Mr. Silver was thrust
into one of the League’s most serious and potentially damaging public relations
incidents of all time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
How Silver responded to the crisis would not only define his legacy as the
League commissioner, but also impact the reputation of the League for years to
come. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As most know by now, Mr. Silver responded swiftly,
decisively, and effectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only
did he decide to dole out the harshest possible penalty possible, but <a href="http://nharbor.blogspot.com/2012/03/apologize-like-you-mean-it.html" target="_blank">he was quick to offer a sincere apology</a>, <a href="http://www.nba.com/video/channels/nba_tv/2014/04/29/20140429-silver-press-conference.nba/">delivered
a home run of a press conference</a>, and even found himself looking like,
something of a hero.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
What are some of the most important take ways you can learn
from the Commish?
<ol>
<li><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Get
the Facts: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or as many of them as
possible, as quickly as you can. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/donald-sterling-nba-lawyers-audio-recording-042914">Silver’s
first move was to authenticate the tape</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Once he knew it was in fact Sterling’s voice, he knew he had to act.<br /><br />
</li>
<li><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Talk
to Your Partners:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one likes
surprises, most importantly your key stakeholders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of Silver’s best moments in his press
conference was deflecting a question asking if Mr. Sterling could remain an
absentee owner if the Board of Governors didn’t force a sale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Silver’s response: “I fully expect to get
the support I need from the other NBA owners to remove him.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also to his credit, Silver was also in
communication with several players, coaches and former players throughout his
decision making process, likely gauging their reaction to different scenarios. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</li>
<li>Take
Bold Action: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Silver weighed the pros
and cons of taking big or little action, and perhaps even against some legal
advice, <a href="http://www.nba.com/2014/news/04/29/nba-bans-sterling/index.html">he went
big</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether Sterling can be forced
to sell the team or not doesn’t really matter at this point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Silver put his personal stamp of his new
office on it by taking authoritative action.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</li>
<li>
Get
Out There: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just three days after TMZ
released its tape of Mr. Sterling, the Commissioner was holding a press
conference in Manhattan to announce his decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was pertinent as <a href="http://www.cbssports.com/nba/writer/ken-berger/24544958/how-donald-sterlings-past-factors-into-adam-silvers-decision">more
and more stories were already percolating about Mr. Sterling’s racist history</a>,
more celebrities and athletes were urging protests, and the focus on the NBA
playoffs was being seriously diluted. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Candidly,
72 hours is a bit longer than we recommend waiting to respond, but Mr. Silver benefited from the story breaking on a Saturday. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Opting for a Tuesday presser gave his decision
more attention than doing it on Sunday or first thing Monday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The extra 24 hours was a gamble, but it paid
off for him because he took the right action against Mr. Sterling.) <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</li>
<li>Apologize:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After only being on the job for three months,
Mr. Silver could have legitimately claimed <span class="hwc">non-culpability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately, he did not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He apologized for the comments made by Donald
Sterling, expressed a deep sense of sympathy for those hurt by his comments,
and displayed a genuine recognition of the time it will take to rectify this
issue with the fanbase, sponsors and larger basketball community. </span><br /><br /></li>
<li>Hire
the Experts Ahead of Time:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Probably the
most important point of all - don’t wait until the emergency is upon you to
have your crisis communications team in place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/how-a-top-clinton-aide-helped-adam-silver-navigate-the-sterling-saga-20140429">One
of Mr. Silver’s first calls upon hearing about the release of the Sterling
tape, was to his crisis communications consultant who had been counseling the
NBA for years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
When a catastrophe hits,
you want a person in place that knows you and you trust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don’t have time to look for one or
second-guess their advice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You need
someone that can help you navigate the storm and help you defuse the
situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>
</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<br /></div>
New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-51033527648152659632013-11-19T09:35:00.000-05:002013-11-19T09:35:14.606-05:00If today’s media covered the Gettysburg Address…<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>President Lincoln’s Remarks at Cemetery Dedication Disappointing</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
---</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
President’s address, only 3 Minutes Long, Lacked Substance</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
It was the greatest battle ever fought to date on the continent - over 50,000 casualties were suffered. So many of those in attendance at the dedication of the Gettysburg Nations Cemetery yesterday were somewhat taken aback by President Lincoln’s address to the crowd in this small southern Pennsylvania town.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
In a three minute speech that contained only ten sentences, Lincoln offered nothing new in the way of strategy or a plan for winning the war, now approaching its fourth year.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
‘There was no plan offered here today,” said one pundit. “It was just another speech from another politician.”</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
“Somehow, I expected more from him,” he added.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The President’s uninspired performance was judged by some to be a reflection of the Union effort in the battle at Gettysburg earlier this summer, and the Northern campaign as a whole. Despite a major loss of life suffered by Union forces, the battle did not end in a decisive Federal victory. In fact, many experts have severely criticized the Union Commander, Gen. George Meade, for his decision allowing Gen. Robert E. Lee’s crippled Army of Northern Virginia to escape across the Potomac River in the two week period following the battle. Lincoln did not address this issue in his speech.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The battle, culminating the second major Confederate invasion of Northern territory in as many years, was within minutes of becoming a catastrophic Federal defeat at several points.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Some military consultants say Lee’s defeat was due only to the absence of Gen. Thomas E. “Stonewall” Jackson, who died two months before Gettysburg at the Battle of Chancellorsville. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The irony of the circumstances surrounding Jackson’s death was not lost on one expert at yesterday’s ceremony.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
“It wasn’t even Union troops who killed Jackson,” chuckled the observer. “He was accidentally killed by his own men.”</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This fact only reinforces the widespread belief that Northern forces, who have consistently outnumbered Confederate units throughout the war, can only win when Southern troops present them with a “can’t miss” opportunity to do so.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
“Even then, it’s an iffy proposition,” the consultant added.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
With Election Day less than a year away, most political experts saw today’s speech as a way for Lincoln, who only received 39% of the vote in 1860, to galvanize support. Most polls show the President trailing badly, and many Northerners have grown weary of the fight, as this summer’s draft riots in New York City showed.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
“Lincoln’s political prospects are dim, and his lackluster performance today didn’t help him any,” said one Washington-based consultant. “He missed a golden opportunity to crystallize the case for the Union, outline a strategic plan for victory and help his re-election bid.”</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Observers noted yesterday that even after the Federal victory at Vicksburg, touted by Lincoln as “cutting the Confederacy in two,” the South fights on ably and effectively.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Instead, the President offered a speech laden with platitudes about the battle and its fallen heroes. Short on facts and substance, Lincoln made no reference even to the number of Union dead felled at the battle. His awkward gimmick of “four score and seven years ago,” a device he used to note the 87 years which have passed since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, fell flat.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
“The world will little note nor long remember what we say here,” Lincoln said. From the reaction to his speech, the President was right on both counts.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Nov. 20, 1863</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-51030351499026103472013-09-25T13:00:00.000-04:002013-09-25T13:17:05.022-04:00The Patriots Were Ready in a CrisisLoyalty is a two way street. For instance, when a football team signs a player to a 7-year, $40 million contract, with $26.5 million of that guaranteed to the player, the team has a reasonable expectation that the player will not be indicted for first degree murder.<br />
<br />
Aaron Hernandez didn’t keep up his end of the bargain this summer. As a result, the Patriots moved quickly and effectively to sever their relationship with him. Here’s how they got it right:<br />
<br />
<b><u>They Were Decisive</u></b><br />
<br />
It’s rare for pro athletes to pay a price on the field, and in their wallets, for brushes with the law – particularly in the NFL. What usually transpires is an elaborate rationalization of “errors in judgment” “regret", faux-“responsibility”, “let the process play itself out” - or just plain gibberish. <br />
<br />
The Patriots did none of that (although there was an initial stumble by owner Bob Kraft.) Certainly the severity of the charge against Hernandez helped clarify their thinking, but the team didn’t indulge in the usual language of equivocation. They just cut him.<br />
<br />
What makes this even more impressive is that according to media reports, had Hernandez been under contract and unable to play because he was in jail or suspended by the league, the Patriots might have been able to save up to $37 million.<br />
<br />
<u><b>They Understood that a Crisis is not the Right Time to Save Money</b></u><br />
<br />
The Patriots calculated that the damage to the team’s brand was greater than the millions of dollars that it would cost them to cut Hernandez, plus the cost of some free uniform jerseys (see below). Similar to <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2009-02-18/us-airways-after-the-miracle-on-the-hudson" target="_blank">US Airways brilliant handling of its passengers after one of their planes landed in the Hudson a few years ago</a>, the Pats understood the costs and made the (correct) decision to pay them.<b> </b><br />
<br />
<u><b>They Were Prepared</b></u><br />
<br />
The biggest enemy of preparedness is indecision. Since the Patriots had taken the time to think things through and arrive at a decision, they were ready to act without delay when Hernandez was arrested.<br />
<br />
<u><b>It’s a Rule: The Media Needs Someone to “Take Responsibility”</b></u><br />
<br />
The Patriots realized that, and Bill Belichick got the job. "I'm primarily responsible for the people that we bring into the football operation.” Belichick had characteristically left you wondering about the depth of his sincerity, but he had checked the “responsibility” box, and defused the line of questioning. (Conversation for another day: You have to wonder how effective this would be if the Coach didn’t have three Super Bowl rings and a .729 winning percentage in New England.)<br />
<br />
<u><b>They Didn’t Add Fuel to the Fire</b></u><br />
<br />
In this case, the Patriots got a “Twofer”, because nobody can remove fuel from a fire like Bill Belichick (see above). Belichick’s unique ability to <a href="http://nharbor.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-is-your-message.html" target="_blank">stick to his message</a> worked well here. <br />
<br />
<u><b>Nobody Said “No Comment”</b></u><br />
<br />
No comment – the worst possible thing you can say, at least explicitly. In this case, particularly in the immediate aftermath, Belichick effectively delivered the “no comment” message, but in the most effective way –<br />
<ul>
<li>“I think we already addressed that.” </li>
<li>“I don’t have anything further on that.” </li>
<li>“I’m not going to dwell on that.” </li>
<li>“I’ve got to focus on winning for our football team.”</li>
<li>Etc.</li>
</ul>
<br />
The media knew they weren’t going to get anything more out of him, so they stopped asking. And the fire goes out.<br />
<br />
<u><b>They Got a Little Lucky</b></u><br />
<br />
Fortune favors the prepared they say, and in this case, the Patriots preparation yielded a little bit of luck: on the same day Hernandez was arrested and the Patriots cut him, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/what-doma-ruling-means-for-gay-marriage-93416.html" target="_blank">long awaited ruling regarding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)</a>. This helped reduce the intensity of the media spotlight on Hernandez, at least for that crucial day. If the Patriots had been indecisive and not prepared to act in the immediate aftermath of Hernadez’ arrest they would not have benefited from the dilution of the media attention created by the DOMA ruling.<br />
<br />
<u><b>They Thought of Practically Everything</b></u><br />
<br />
Giving yourself enough time to think clearly in a crisis can pay enormous dividends. In this case, the Hernandez arrest was actually more about the Patriot’s brand than anything else – including winning on the field. The Patriots realized quickly that in a region where almost everyone owns a player game jersey it would be damaging to have thousands of people walking around wearing the team jersey of an accused murderer who was no longer on the team.<br />
<br />
They acted quickly to get the Hernandez jerseys off the street by offering a free replacement at the Gillette Stadium gift shop. (At the same time they also no doubt collected an enormous amount of very valuable consumer data about fans passionate enough about the team to drive to Foxboro to get new jerseys.)<br />
<br />
“We know that children love wearing their Patriots jerseys, but may not understand why parents don’t want them wearing their Hernandez jerseys anymore,” Patriots spokesperson Stacey James told the media. “We hope this opportunity to exchange those jerseys at the Patriots ProShop for another player’s jersey will be well-received by parents.”<br />
<br />
<u><b>Post Game</b></u><br />
<br />
In the aftermath of the team’s success in countering the crisis communications challenges raised by the Hernandez case, Coach Belichick would be justified in offering his standard analysis after a Pats win: “I think we executed some things well today. Anything else? Thank you.”New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-28463331616362443072013-04-04T09:30:00.001-04:002013-04-04T14:10:14.504-04:00Is it True?Recently, in a nearby town, a local legend passed away at 92. He was a giant, one of a generation that seemed to produce many such men. They served in World War II and came home to build the thousands of strong communities that made our country what it was in the post-war world. This particular man – a judge – was eulogized in the local paper with a 900-word, 33-paragraph story that included the story of his life, and the praise of people who had known him in different ways at different stages of his life. (I did not know him and we had never met.) He was praised for his legal acumen, his patience with young lawyers, his love of his family and his commitment to service and his community.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
But, like all of us, he was not perfect, and there was one incident, later in his life, that was part of the public record. That day, he had been charged with drunken driving following an auto accident in which it did not appear that anyone was seriously hurt. The case was continued without a finding, and he was given three years' probation.<br />
<br />
Now comes the dilemma for the journalist. Do you include this information in a story about a now-passed leader of the community? And if you do, where do you place it in order to keep it in perspective, and provide your readers with the truth about this man’s life?<br />
<br />
These are some tough questions. Does leaving it out undermine the credibility of the story – and the paper? Does a mention of this incident – almost 20 years ago – unfairly overshadow this man’s life and accomplishments? And if you include the information, where in the story does it go so that it is placed in the proper context?<br />
<br />
Well, the newspaper handled it in a way that, in my opinion, struck just the right balance. They included it in 49 words in the next to last paragraph of the lengthy story. It was an elegant solution –accurate, fair, and based on what I have since come to know about this man – placed in the proper context as a small piece of the true story of his life. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
---------------</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
Meanwhile, the headline over a story in a local newspaper last month about the Internet in Rhode Island stated that “29% of adults don’t use” the Internet here. This seemed noteworthy, until you learn that the national average is … 29%*, something the story failed to mention.<br />
<br />
And while the lead paragraph made a brief, glancing reference to the fact that “Rhode Island ranks high in terms of access speed and coverage” the story never mentioned how high. From there, it moved on to dwell on the less favorable 29% figure.<br />
<br />
So what are those numbers? Well, it turns out that Rhode Island is Number 3 in how widely the Internet is available. That’s pretty good. Further, we are Number 1 – the best in the country – when it comes to the speed of our Internet. That – well – that’s the best!<br />
<br />
Bottom line: failing to including the fact that our “bad” number was at the national average, coupled with the absence of a more precise description of just how highly we rank in terms of access speed and coverage were serious flaws in the story. This, in my view, led to coverage that failed to present an accurate picture of Internet infrastructure, and use, in Rhode Island.<br />
<br />
*Source: The John H. Chafee Center for International Business at Bryant University</div>
<br />New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-81459834688000046132013-04-01T15:00:00.000-04:002013-04-04T14:10:32.651-04:00Sender/Subject Line Hall of “We Could Do Better”<i>February and March 2013 Edition</i><br />
<br />
(Names changed to “Acme” or “Office Holder” to protect the guilty - many of whom we know and have already tried to warn.)<br />
<br />
Before we begin, some background from the New Harbor Blog archives on why your e-mail newsletter is so important:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://nharbor.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-line-e-newsletter-you-cant-live.html" target="_blank">The On-Line E-Newsletter: You Can’t Live Without It</a><br />
<br />
And why your Sender and Subject Line combination is so important:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://nharbor.blogspot.com/2009/11/delete-me.html" target="_blank">Delete Me!</a><br />
<br />
Without any further ado … we present the “winners”:<br />
<br />
<u>Sender -- Subject Line</u><br />
Acme Supply -- March Articles and Featured Products<br />
Acme Supply --March Updates and Events<br />
Acme, Inc. -- Acme, Inc. Volume 2 – Issue 2<br />
Acme, Inc. -- Acme, Inc Volume 2 - Issue 1<br />
RI Office Holder -- News from the RI Office Holder<br />
Acme of Rhode Island -- News from Acme<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">The Acme Group, Inc.-- </span><span style="font-weight: normal;">News from The Acme Group, Inc. </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Acme Financial -- </span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">News from Acme Financial</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Acme & Acme -- Acme & Acme’s Focus Newsletter: Winter 2013 </span></span></span><br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="10"><tbody></tbody></table>
New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-37651956218245800712013-01-23T11:43:00.003-05:002013-02-01T09:21:57.215-05:00Teaching about a Crisis<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in August, when the days were long and warm, Marion Orr from the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University asked if I was interested in teaching a class in Crisis Management and Communications beginning in September. I agreed, and it was a great experience. I’m looking forward to doing it again. The students were thoughtful and engaged, and the weekly preparation for class gave me a chance to make certain that the counsel I was giving clients was the newest – and best – advice I could give.<br />
<br />
On the first day of class, I outlined the semester, my goals for the class, and my approach to crisis communications.<br />
<br />
I happen to share the view that quite often a crisis can present real opportunities to make an organization better over the long term – and for individuals to shine. My goal for the students, then, was to prepare them to be able to contribute, and to distinguish themselves, in a crisis.<br />
<br />
Here are my expanded notes from the rest of that first class, a very basic, initial “How To” when it comes to the communications of managing a crisis.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<b>The Class in a Nutshell</b><br />
<u><br /></u>
<u>Fill the vacuum</u><br />
<ul>
<li>It’s not going away</li>
</ul>
You can decline to comment if you want, but burying your head in the sand with a “no comment” will not make it go away. More likely, it will <a href="http://daily-download.com/dddraft2/" target="_blank">give other people an opening to define and characterize you</a> – almost always a bad idea. At our firm, we usually recommend that a client take the opportunity to safely define themselves quickly, then step back and consider their strategic options.<br />
<ul>
<li>Minimize and mitigate</li>
</ul>
Getting a “good” story out of a crisis, in the immediate term, is an extreme rarity. Usually, you’re stuck with the following options: “bad” and “worse”. The goal, then, is to do your best in the merely “bad” range, then work to get out of the spotlight as quickly as possible.<br />
<br />
<u>Step back and think strategically</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Get perspective – Step back and take a deep breath</li>
</ul>
You may only have minutes to do this, but take the time to do so, because it’s important. It’s amazing how many negative after effects of a crisis are self-inflicted.<br />
<ul>
<li>Who’s the client?</li>
</ul>
When a person has done something wrong at an organization, human beings, being what they are, can sometimes be hard pressed to distinguish between the needs of the individual and the needs of the company. Therefore, it’s important to determine whose interests are to be served. Make sure this is clear in your mind, and in your approach.<br />
<ul>
<li>How does this end?</li>
</ul>
Start addressing a crisis with an end in sight. It makes it easier to get to a better ending, and return to the job of moving the organization forward.<br />
<br />
<u>Make your friends before you need them</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Tell your story</li>
</ul>
Pro-active communications ahead of a crisis will pay enormous dividends when trouble hits. Start today.<br />
<ul>
<li>Carve out your real estate; have a presence; get some followers and talk to them</li>
</ul>
Not on Twitter and Facebook? Get on. Now. And get some followers.<br />
<ul>
<li>Be a good citizen</li>
</ul>
Invite local officials for a tour. Reach out to local reporters for a tour as well. Engage in some strategic philanthropy with the community. Earn a reputation as one of the “good guys.”<br />
<u><br /></u>
<u>Have a plan for the first 25%</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Website up to date; assignments in a crisis; how to find people 24/7</li>
</ul>
There’s a certain “blood in the water” dynamic that the media brings to covering a crisis. If your website is out of date, or incomplete, it gives them an incentive to see what else in the public realm might be out of date, and newsworthy: Your corporate annual reports? Your licenses? Your inspections? Your taxes? Anything in the public realm could be fair game, if a reporter can find it and wants to pursue it.<br />
<br />
Also, take a few minutes to decide who will do what when a crisis strikes, and how you can find them 24/7.<br />
<u><br /></u>
<u>Now is not the time to save money</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Dedicate the resources to succeed – even if you didn't do it before</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2009-02-18/us-airways-after-the-miracle-on-the-hudson" target="_blank">US Airway’s brilliant post-crash handling of its passengers who landed in the Hudson</a> a few years ago is exactly the way to go in a crisis. Follow their example, within reason, and be prepared to spend some money on the resources necessary to weather the storm – even if you didn't follow the advice in the bullet above, and do it before.<br />
<br />
<u>Don’t take communications advice from your lawyers</u><br />
<br />
I’m an attorney, so I know that lawyers have more narrow goals and needs in a crisis than the organization as a whole. Their goals (limiting liability, keeping you out of prison) are very important, but they by no means cover the entire spectrum of what’s required. After all, if you win the case, but lose your reputation, what is the end result? An attorney’s audience includes (perhaps): other (opposing) attorneys, a judge, a jury and regulators. But an organization’s audience is made up of … everybody.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/19/subway-response-footlong-controversy-measurment_n_2511316.html" target="_blank">Subway’s recent, spectacular failure</a> to minimize and mitigate the controversy surrounding the definition of “foot-long” (you have to read this) is a perfect example of why it’s so important to make sure your attorneys stay in their lane.<br />
<br />
<u>The Human touch</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Brand = feelings</li>
<li>Step in the other guys shoes</li>
<li>Remember that feelings, empathy matter</li>
</ul>
Your Mother was right – people are watching... at least at first. So be human. Be empathetic. Leave the litigation and the nitty gritty questions of liability for later, after the spotlight has passed. In most cases you can preserve your brand, your reputation and your business, while effectively defending your legal position.<br />
<br />
<u>Be simple, clear, repetitive – without sounding like it</u><br />
Have a clear message. Find content that reinforces that message. Deliver that content, and that message as long as you have to.<br />
<br />
<u>Defend your credibility at all costs</u><br />
Don’t lie. You’ll be found out – probably within the hour – and your value to the organization as a communicator will be done. If you are a communicator, make certain that your organization is getting you the latest, best, confirmed information as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you may end up unwittingly undermining your credibility. (Also, don’t acknowledge as true information from other sources that you haven’t confirmed.) If you make an honest mistake, clear it up quickly. Failure to do this just gives the story legs.<br />
<br />
<u>Finally</u><br />
Get back to pursuing your mission, and telling your story on your own terms to the people who need to hear it, as quickly as possible.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-20382346085824668942012-11-08T11:30:00.000-05:002012-11-08T12:05:59.420-05:00Thoughts on Tuesday’s ElectionFor Republicans, this election should have been about the economy. In a normal year it would have been awfully difficult for any President, or any incumbent, to get re-elected in this economy. After four years, it should have been nearly impossible to shift blame. But the fact that none of this happened says something fundamental about the GOP in 2012.<br />
<br />
Tuesday was not about the economy. It was not even about whether Pres. Obama’s healthcare law was an overreach by the government and his party. <br />
<br />
Tuesday’s election was about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace" target="_blank">George Wallace</a>. Yes, the Governor’s part of history now, passing away in 1998 (and to be fair, he did express remorse at the end), but the bitter, resentful, angry, self-righteous, anti-immigrant legacy he left to today’s GOP has now consumed the party. On Tuesday, simple math and the “better angels” of America’s nature evoked by Lincoln, combined with the dynamic character of America’s population, finally caught up with the Republicans.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/results/president/exit-polls" target="_blank">Here’s the math</a>: In a country where the percentage of minority voters is now 28% - and rising – <a href="http://wrnipoliticsblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/post-election-wake-up/" target="_blank">the GOPs 40+ year strategy of appealing to white voters</a>, and more specifically white males, has now run its course. Gov. Romney won 59% of white voters, who made up 72% of the electorate. But he lost African-Americans 93-7(!) (13% of the electorate); Hispanics 71-29 (10%, and surging) and Asians 73-27 (3%). These Americans (and other immigrants) hear what is being said about them, either directly or in code. Naturally, they are voting against it.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://nharbor.blogspot.com/2008/11/notes-on-last-tuesday.html" target="_blank">In 2008, following John McCain’s defeat, I wrote this</a> – “Twenty years ago, when Jesse Jackson was winning Democratic presidential primaries, I used to wonder if a Democrat could say what had to be said to win the nomination and still win in November. Walter Mondale and Mike Dukakis confirmed that the answer was "No.” <br />
<br />
The GOP is now in the same ditch, far from the electable mainstream and right where the Democrats were before Bill Clinton pulled them out. <br />
<br />
Another interesting facet of the current state of the GOP is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/opinion/the-real-loser-truth.html?_r=0" target="_blank">the party’s indifferent relationship with facts</a>. Whether it’s an insistence that tax cuts reduce deficits, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/us/politics/2-american-automakers-rebut-claims-by-romney.html" target="_blank">Gov. Romney’s misleading (at best) ad about Jeep</a> moving jobs to China, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml" target="_blank">the attacks</a> on <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadomanis/2012/11/08/nate-silver-jonah-goldberg-and-conservatisms-intellectual-decline/" target="_blank">Nate Silver’s use of statistical models</a> to assess polling data or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSiVhJq4tos" target="_blank">Karl Rove’s meltdown about his home network Fox News bowing to scientific laws of probability and calling Ohio for Obama Tuesday night</a> (<a href="http://daily-download.com/obama-won-karl-roves-night/" target="_blank">and here</a>), the party seems to have adopted Nietzche’s philosophy that “There are no facts, only interpretations." This outlook will only reinforce an existing tendency towards unfounded certainty, making it even easier to blame the voters. This, in turn, will make the transition to something new and electable even harder.<br />
<br />
All of these troublesome traits find their focus on the problem of the so-called “Tea Party”, which will be a vexing one for the GOP to solve. They are a reliable enthusiastic base, but they are not really serious about problem-solving, and their allegiance comes at a very high cost. They forced Sen. McCain (see, Sarah Palin) then Gov. Romney far to the right to win the nomination. For both, there was no coming back to electability.<br />
<br />
The Tea Party has also cost the GOP four U.S. Senate seats. In 2010 it was Nevada and Delaware (“I am not a witch”). In 2012, it was Indiana and Missouri, where two fringe candidates made comments about rape that cost the party seats they should have won. Forfeiting four winnable Senate seats is a high price to pay to secure a base that is never, ever satisfied.<br />
<br />
This is not to say that America is not facing serious problems. While the Obama years have seen a significant reduction in the rate at which spending has increased, we continue to accumulate debt at an unsustainable rate. Further, we have made commitments to entitlement spending that simply can’t be met. In Rhode Island, our state’s economic performance speaks for itself. <br />
<br />
Once, the Republicans had an answer: Ronald Reagan. But Pres. Obama was right when he observed that Reagan could never win today’s GOP nomination. The cheerful, optimistic, neighborly, “give the other guy a hand up and the benefit of the doubt if he genuinely needs it”, pragmatic world-view that personified the Gipper has been swallowed by something much darker.<br />
<br />
People are open to alternatives in 2012, largely because they are uneasy, some even frightened. Things have changed so much from our parents’ day that bedrock ideas – like the notion that hard work and loyalty would bring security and upward mobility – are now called into question.<br />
<br />
This uncertainty, and our self-evident, self-created problems make people open to change. But they’re reluctant to give the reins to strangers who make them vaguely uneasy –a little too rigid, a little too self-certain, a little angry and maybe even a little mean. Given the choice presented on Tuesday, it’s not surprising that many voters decided to overlook the familiar flaws of the status quo, and stick with what they know. That uneasiness, and the resulting outcome, was felt here in Rhode Island, too.<br />
<br />
If they want to win again, the Republicans have a painful path ahead of them. What they’re doing now isn’t working, and will become even less likely to work in the future. Some, egged on by the hosts of their “Entertainment” wing, will demand an even more pure version of what they are today, because that’s where the pundits’ bread is buttered. Many will blame the voters, ignoring the market-based truism that the customer is always right. They’ll argue amongst themselves. But if they want to win, they’ll have to find their own Bill Clinton. They’ll have to change.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Posted by David Preston </b></i>New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-15552167421006572112012-07-19T08:30:00.000-04:002012-07-19T09:36:38.810-04:00What Does That Poll Really Mean?Now’s the season for political “polls,” but what do they really mean – if anything?<br />
<br />
There are two reasons to conduct a poll:<br />
1. To find out information that you need to know.<br />
2. To get some degree of validation for information that you want others to know.<br />
<br />
Reason #1 is the political equivalent of market research. Some may find this idea unsavory because of worries that it could lead to pandering by candidates. Well, maybe. Certainly poll-driven candidates are out there, but I give voters more credit for seeing through them. In reality, it’s crucial for candidates to have good information about what voters care about in order to stay in touch with the electorate’s top priorities. If a candidate wants to talk about apples, but the electorate wants to know about oranges, the campaign’s in trouble. A poll can help a candidate know what voters want to know about – and address those concerns.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, polls with reliable numbers are hard to find and expensive. What makes it hard – and expensive - to conduct a good poll?<br />
• You need good callers who understand the questions and ask them the right way;<br />
• You need callers who can be trained to pronounce candidate names and place names correctly;<br />
• Informative polls are long, and it’s difficult to get people to stay on the line all the way through to the end;<br />
• It’s harder to find voters in the era of the cell phone, which are off-limits to pollsters by law;<br />
• It takes time and a real expertise to draft a sound, useful questionnaire;<br />
• It takes time and expertise to interpret the data, weighing it properly so it’s reflective of area demographics.<br />
<br />
In short, the kind of good data you need for the first kind of poll is expensive and difficult to come by – and becoming even more so.<br />
<br />
Which brings us to the second kind of poll. These tend to be notoriously unscientific and rigged to score points for whoever is releasing it. Your radar should really go up if poll numbers are released by a political party, an organization affiliated with one or a special interest group.<br />
<br />
In reality, all public polls should be greeted with healthy skepticism. Media outlets used to do them with the necessary rigor, but few can afford it anymore, with some national exceptions (NY Times, CBS, etc.). Local media outlets are, for the most part, unwilling to spend the money it takes to get really good data. They usually settle for on-line polls or automated telephone polls. (I think <a href="http://bit.ly/9X814w">my dog Buster</a> responded to one of those the other day.) What you end up with is very cheap data that barely passes the accuracy laugh test – but is reported by the media with a straight face. The best information is usually found in the hands of well-funded candidates, and jealously guarded like the precious commodity that it is.<br />
<br />
If you want to know who’s really up and who’s down, the best indicators are not public polls but the activities of the candidates. If they’re spending precious time and resources campaigning in neighborhoods, towns, counties or states they are expected to win, they’re in trouble. If they’re launching a desperate attack on an opponent, they’re in trouble. But if they’ve kept a consistent message, are counter-attacking from the high ground, and campaigning in areas that are considered a toss-up, they’re looking at good numbers.New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-90912685465634113702012-05-28T19:41:00.001-04:002012-05-28T19:51:12.581-04:00What Could Schilling Have Done?Below is an e-mail interview I recently did regarding the travails of Curt Schilling and his company, 38 Studios. I’d be interested in your comments on my responses.<br />
- DP<br />
<br />
<br />
From: Jeff Derderian [mailto:jeffderderian@hotmail.com] <br />
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2012 11:43 AM<br />
To: <a href="mailto:dpreston@nharbor.com">dpreston@nharbor.com</a><br />
Subject: Schilling Piece-GoLocalProv.Com<br />
<br />
Hey David--<br />
<br />
I hope this note finds you well.<br />
<br />
I write a weekly media piece for GoLocalProv these days and I am doing a piece on Schilling and his lack of media response. We'll look at from PR perspective---what Schilling could have done differently to handle this better. <br />
<br />
I'm wondering if you might be able to answer a few questions for my piece---which will run Tuesday. I'll put it together over the weekend if you have time to get back to me on it.<br />
<br />
Thanks, David.<br />
<br />
Jeff<br />
<br />
Jeff Derderian<br />
Media Writer<br />
-----<br />
<br />
From: David Preston [mailto:dpreston@nharbor.com] <br />
Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2012 12:16 PM<br />
To: 'Jeff Derderian'<br />
Subject: RE: Schilling Piece-GoLocalProv.Com<br />
<br />
Hi Jeff – Good to hear from you. <br />
<br />
These are hard questions to answer since I’m missing some key information: <br />
<ul>
<li>What is this the financial condition of 38 Studios? (Other than “bad”). </li>
<li>What were/are Schilling’s business goals for 38? </li>
<li>Does he know of, or suspect, that there has been any malfeasance involved? (I am an attorney, but before answering this last question, he would probably want to hire our firm as a sub-contractor to his law firm in order to preserve attorney-client privilege. This is something we do quite often in a crisis communications situation.)</li>
</ul>
I should also note that I’m approaching your inquiry as if Schilling, personally, were the client. If my client was an agency of Rhode Island state government, an individual in government, or the theoretical “Citizens of Rhode Island”, my answers to these questions would be very different.<br />
<br />
Communications is not an end in itself - all communication, crisis or not, should support the goals of an organization, and be designed to create a climate where those goals can be achieved. 38 Studios disintegrated so rapidly that there may not have been anything Schilling could have done business-wise. If so, all that is left is to try and protect his reputation.<br />
<br />
If, as it appears, this is a case of protecting his reputation, I’d advise him to be candid and forthright about how things happened, thank and praise his employees, express regret and accept responsibility for his role. Above all, he should avoid bitterness or finger-pointing at all costs.<br />
<br />
The only possible business scenario that works here would have been that some type of private investment was imminent, and 38 Studios just needed a bridge – money, time or both – to realize the new capital. In that scenario, I would advise him to make the case that 38 was on the verge of new capital, and that the state would be positioned to preserve and reap the benefit of their entire investment with just a little more time and/or money.<br />
<br />
The bridge scenario is unlikely, so it’s probably now strictly about his reputation. The bottom line with Schilling’s silence so far is that what Rhode Islanders think about Curt Schilling may not be a priority for him. He also knows that outside of Rhode Island very few people that matter to him will be concerned about this. If this happened in Massachusetts, New York or California he would have to respond much differently.<br />
<br />
<em><strong>Here's a list of questions--and feel free to add any perspective I may be leaving out. </strong></em><br />
<br />
<em>Q: What should have Schilling done immediately---press release? Sit down with all three TV’s? One on one interviews? If so, why? What would that have done? </em><br />
A: In the scenario where funding was imminent, I would recommend that he define his position very quickly with a clear, direct written statement. I would let that stand for about a day, and see what kind of reaction it gets, particularly from decision-makers in government, and in the private capital markets. From there, I would follow up with a day or two of one-on-one interviews - Rhode Island, Boston and nationally - to further press the case for a bridge. Stringing these out over a couple of days would allow him to calibrate his message in response to developments, and allow him to define the conversation by constantly creating “news.” One-on-ones are more conducive to the appearance of a conversation. They also convey a sense that regardless of what is going on around him, Curt Schilling is calm, rational, thoughtful and accessible, i.e., direct and has nothing to hide.<br />
<br />
<em>Q: Allow workers to talk (about) how they tried to make it work, etc.?</em><br />
A: It’s very rare to see the kind of media discipline among employees that seemed to be almost unanimous at Studio 38. (I would caution him, however, against overtly trying to manufacture expressions of support.) At this point, with it likely that only Schilling’s reputation is at stake, the employees could be helpful in defining Schilling as someone who had built a strong, team-oriented culture. Last Friday’s “We Love Curt” sign in the window, regardless of who posted it, reinforces the impression that Schilling is well-regarded by his ex-employees and that he had earned their loyalty.<br />
<br />
<em>Q: Is too late for him to get in front of this? Why – why not?</em><br />
A: From a business perspective, it’s probably over. From the standpoint of preserving his reputation, I’d advise him to do a couple interviews with friendly reporters (probably in Boston or a couple national sports reporters). He should be candid and forthright, thank and praise his employees, express regret and accept responsibility for his role. <br />
<br />
<em>Q: What would you advise him NOT to do?</em><br />
A: No finger-pointing or bitterness. This is unlikely to damage him outside Rhode Island, unless he brings it on himself by appearing to be a self-absorbed, entitled jock who blames everyone but himself, tells lies or denies incontrovertible evidence (see: Roger Clemens, Pete Rose)<br />
<br />
<em>Q: Does this hurt his baseball great image?</em><br />
A: This is an interesting question, because the consensus seems to be that he is “on the bubble” for the Hall of Fame, something that would matter very much to a guy like him. Fortunately for him, most – if not all – of the people who elect players to the Hall are from outside Rhode Island. In order to make sure this doesn’t damage him with Hall voters, the interview regimen I outlined above becomes even more important. If the interviewer is also a Hall of Fame voter, so much the better.<br />
<br />
If he executes the interviews well, they should be enough to prevent this episode from damaging his Hall of Fame prospects - and there are scenarios where it might even help.<br />
<br />
However, his career as a political activist may not be as robust as it once was, and the days of delivering his stump speech about how government should stay out of the private sector are probably over.<br />
<br />
<em>Q: When advising crisis clients who don’t want to talk — what do you tell them and why?</em><br />
A: It is exceedingly rare for silence to be a good option. In almost every instance I tell clients that they have to fill the vacuum and define their position on their own terms, even if it is only with a written statement. Keeping silent is a dangerous choice – it lets other people define you on their terms, which is almost without exception a bad idea. In this case, however, silence doesn’t seem to have done Schilling any meaningful harm – yet. As facts become known, however, silence will become an increasingly risky choice for him.<br />
<br />
<em>Q: If Schilling were to call you—what is the one thing you would tell him?</em><br />
A: I’d ask him how he viewed the viability of the business. If, as I suspect, he told me it was over, I would suggest that he take steps to protect his reputation. The lawyer in me would recommend that his attorneys hire our firm as a subcontractor. We’d set up a couple interviews and we’d put him through some intense media training.<br />
<br />New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-31373846597743682112012-03-12T11:35:00.000-04:002012-03-14T11:29:01.924-04:00Apologize Like You Mean It…Recently, Susan G. Komen for the Cure® faced an avalanche of criticism when they announced their decision to eliminate most of their grants to Planned Parenthood. Within hours, the decision dominated online chatter and social media outlets, making it the lead headline on the network news cable news, and almost every major newspaper and online news-site across the country. Realizing they had made a major misstep, Komen eventually released a statement of “apology,” and revised their decision. <br /><br />Now that the dust has begun to settle, it’s worth taking some time to address Komen’s apology and assess its effectiveness. In my view, <a href="http://ww5.komen.org/KomenNewsArticle.aspx?id=19327354148">the apology</a> was flawed for several different reasons. <br /><br />First and foremost, the apology rang hollow. Why? Because Komen seemed more focused on asking the public to relax and calm down, rather than truly seek forgiveness. As they put it, “We believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect.” They also urged “everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country … to help us move past this issue.”<br /> <br />I understand Komen’s leadership desperately wanted to put the barrage of criticism behind them, but when you make a mistake, part of the learning process means having to hear from those you’ve disappointed. And if you’re an organization that raises millions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of donors, you should be willing to show some patience.<br /><br />Second, Komen tried to deflect their blame as a misunderstanding between why the decision was made and how the public interpreted it. According to the Foundation, the criticism erupted as “a presumption” from the public that the decision was based on politics. Building upon that theme they insisted they did not want their “mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics.”<br /><br />But was it really the public’s fault that their decision became politicized? Surely, they recognized well before issuing the new policy that there would be major political ramifications. If not, you would have to wonder if their policy team was asleep at the wheel, which in itself would warrant an apology.<br /><br />Most importantly, the apology was ineffective because despite using more than 300 words to express their “apology,” not once did Komen “take full responsibility” for the decision, and the fallout that rocked the organization. Within hours of the decision being deemed unacceptable by millions of people who had supported Komen in the past, they should have recognized immediately that they had greatly misjudged the public’s reaction. <br /><br />In my view, taking full responsibility for that misjudgment would have gotten Komen quite a bit farther in repairing the public’s trust. When an individual, a company, or an organization has done something wrong, you can never underestimate how important “taking full responsibility” can be to repairing the relationship between the public and those at fault. Taking responsibility, showing patience, and admitting your flaws in judgment are some of the most important keys to making a genuine, sincere, and effective apology.New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-88310568528076651752012-01-13T14:45:00.003-05:002012-03-14T11:30:03.140-04:00New Name, New Look<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt3qPA6PG2lfBwrsWrGwjhqmL6GhCuUPwTS4zGeID7qms9GGTN4JR3IIJrRbvjClY9OW1u9Ec45l_qA_ul_CJBjJVz7xfPDCxsrkEFUUPOskj48yQ4mppdzpoT76bolZZQAumqXqZXS4k/s1600/VNS.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 87px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt3qPA6PG2lfBwrsWrGwjhqmL6GhCuUPwTS4zGeID7qms9GGTN4JR3IIJrRbvjClY9OW1u9Ec45l_qA_ul_CJBjJVz7xfPDCxsrkEFUUPOskj48yQ4mppdzpoT76bolZZQAumqXqZXS4k/s320/VNS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5719772743401526162" border="0" /></a>When you've been in business for more than 100 years, like the <a href="http://www.visitingnursehc.org/">Visiting Nurse Servic</a><a href="http://www.visitingnursehc.org/">e</a> of Greater Rhode Island, changing your name and look is a very big decision. You have to get it just right, making certain that the change reflects your brand, your mission and - in this case - a long tradition of caring. Getting it right requires thoughtful research, constructive brainstorming, and strategic planning.<br /><br />Yesterday afternoon, in the State House rotunda, the result was unveiled, when the non-profit, home health care provider <a href="http://www.visitingnursehc.org/media/press-release-new-name-visiting-nurse-home-care.pdf">announced it was formally changing its name to Visiting Nurse Home Care.</a><br /><br />The process began last summer, as we helped their team navigate the complex process of the name change and rebranding. We helped outline the challenges inherent in their previous name and zeroed in on what the new name could say to better represent their services. They also wanted to reflect the unique human caring that every member of the VNHC team brings to what can be a challenging task. When it was over, we were confident that the new logo's look and feel was a perfect match for the new name and the 103-year old organization.<br /><br />We want to congratulate Visiting Nurse Home Care on this major milestone, and we look forward to working with them in the months ahead to let people know about their new identity.New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-29282384546723429352011-11-17T13:32:00.001-05:002012-03-14T11:25:21.018-04:00Sometimes Doing Nothing is the Best MoveThere's a sign in my office that says: "Nothing is often a good thing to do and always a good thing to say." The man at the center of the Penn State scandal, former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, might have benefited from that advice earlier this week when he agreed to be interviewed by Bob Costas this past Monday on NBC. <br /><br />Sandusky's performance was a disaster on every count. He did nothing to mitigate the damage to his reputation, or begin the work of balancing the scales of public opinion - two things that should be the primary goals of an interview like this. (Hard to see how that could even be achieved here, given the circumstances.) For good measure, Sandusky acknowledged behavior that created legal openings that any prosecutor in America could drive a truck through. Doing the interview was just a bad idea all around.<br /><br />So why did he even talk to Costas? His communications counsel and attorney certainly advised against it. But Sandusky is not a guy who has heard the word "No" very often in his career, and his status at Penn State created an environment where (tragically) he could get away with anything and talk himself out of everything. The audience in his little world of Happy Valley was always willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, believe everything he said and look the other way.<br /><br />In this regard, Sandusky reminds me of Roger Clemens, who insisted - contrary to a mountain of evidence - that he had not used steroids. Like Clemens, you can almost hear Sandusky overruling his advisors: "I'm Jerry Sandusky. I've been pulling it off for decades. Why should this be any different?" Clemens will stand trial in April for perjury. His first trial ended in a mistrial.New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-37268093043916330582011-07-25T11:26:00.002-04:002011-07-25T11:29:59.151-04:00What a Man<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Eulogy for Governor Bruce Sundlun</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">As delivered by U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sunday, July 24, 2011</span><br /></div><br />What a man. What a life.<br /><br />Bruce Sundlun’s accomplishments -- as a record-breaking athlete, as a resourceful war hero, as a superb lawyer, as a successful business entrepreneur, and as political leader of our state -- would each on their own be significant. You could probably write a book about each. Together, packed all into one energetic life, it makes Bruce Sundlun one of the most accomplished and remarkable men in our state’s history. <br /><br />And that’s not even counting five marriages, four children, three unsuccessful runs for governor, two dead raccoons, and one presidential inaugural parade run without a hitch through deep snow for John Fitzgerald Kennedy. <br /><br />There’s really just no way to fit it all in. <br /><br />Let me step into my role as a Sundlun staffer, and ask you to think just of his brief four years as governor. Hit (on Day One of his administration) by an unprecedented bank failure affecting 300,000 Rhode Islanders, AND by the worst budget deficit in state history, AND by an implosion of the state’s entire worker’s compensation system, AND with the urgent need to restore ethics in government, Bruce was the man for that moment, and swung into his customary decisive action. <br /><br />The budget was promptly and fairly balanced and the whole budget process improved. <br /><br />Inventive solutions to repay the depositors and clean up the RISDIC mess were found and implemented, and those at fault were made to pay -- over a hundred million dollars. <br /><br />His worker’s compensation reform moved the state from an embarrassment to a model, moving what was then the business community’s worst problem completely off the problem list for now going on 20 years. <br /><br />As a problem solver, he had no peer.<br /><br />And that alone would be pretty extraordinary. But there was that ethics gap. So Bruce wrote Executive Order 91-One, the ethics executive order that succeeding governors renewed virtually unchanged. He reformed our Ethics Commission. He changed the way we appoint judges, to reduce the politics. He changed the way we fund elections, with a public finance plan and donor limits. Through an intense storm of legal and political opposition, he opened up the pension records; putting an end forever to backroom special pension bills. He got our State Police nationally accredited. <br /><br />He even cleaned up the Capitol literally!<br /><br />All that was extraordinary -- but still not enough. <br /><br />In the worst economic times the state had seen since the Depression, with a shrinking budget, he decided to extend universal health care to children – and started the program that became Rite Care. Against immense opposition, he built our new airport terminal. He embarked on the Westin Hotel, the Convention Center, and the Providence Place Mall. He finished the Jamestown Bridge and built the Expressway. And even that’s not the end of it. <br /><br />It was an amazing burst of activity. I will bet that almost every Rhode Islander, almost every day, is somehow touched by something Governor Sundlun did. <br /><br />And through it all, he drove his staff crazy. He was irrepressible, impatient, imperial, unscriptable, combative, frustrating, willful, constantly threw caution to the winds, impossible to keep up with – he drove us nuts. <br /><br />And we loved him. <br /><br />We loved him because he was bold and brave, and was warm-hearted and trusting and generous, and because he was willing to throw caution to the winds to do what was right. We loved him because he never once had us make excuses or try to shift the blame. <br /><br />That was not his style. “Never complain; never explain.”<br /><br />We all remember his Bruce-isms:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“Always touch base with those concerned before taking action.” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“How fast would you get it done if the Russians were in South Attleboro?” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“When you’ve won, stop talking, close your briefcase and leave.” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“Message to Garcia.” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“Who, what, where, when; don’t bother me with why.” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The phone calls, at all hours, that began with no “hello” and ended with dial tone. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The road shows known to his staff as “Dome on the Roam”, or more precisely, “Bruce on the Loose.”</span><br /><br />And sometimes just that big foxy grin. <br /><br />We saw that his qualities of friendship and loyalty had an almost physical force; that he had your back even if you made mistakes (no one ever was thrown under the bus); and that he was a better friend the more the chips were down. <br /><br />Politics is full of fair weather friends; Bruce Sundlun was your stormy weather friend. Politics is full of people who take tiny cautious steps with their finger up constantly testing the winds; Bruce stepped boldly down the path he thought was right, even if that meant stepping right in it. <br /><br />People wonder what lives on after they die. Well, Bruce, we do. And every one of us has been changed: made better, and stronger, harder-working and more resourceful, by your vibrant elemental force in our lives. <br /><br />We’ve gone on to be judges and lawyers, to run state and federal agencies, to become Senators and councilmen and Lieutenant Governors, banking leaders and senior partners in national accounting firms, but none of us ever will be more proud of anything than the simple title: “I was a Sundlun staffer.”<br /><br />Soozie and Marjorie, Tracey and Stuart and Peter and Kara: Thank you. Thank you for sharing your husband and father with our state. For those who loved and were changed by him, I thank you. For those who knew and were touched by him, I thank you. And for those who never knew him directly, but whose lives are better today because of what he did, I thank you. <br /><br />As I close, I want to take you back to a scene from that wonderful movie I saw as a kid, “To Kill A Mockingbird.” As you’ll recall, Atticus Finch takes on the courageous but unpopular defense of a black man wrongfully accused of rape. At the end of the trial, Atticus’s daughter Scout -- proper name Jean Louise -- is up in the gallery of the courtroom, with the black townspeople, who aren’t allowed down on the regular courtroom floor. The courtroom empties, but they remain, and slowly stand. As Atticus packs his papers together, closes his bag, and walks out, an elderly man leans down to the little girl and says, “Stand up, Miss Jean Louise. Your father’s passing.” <br /><br />At the end of this service, as Bruce is taken to his gravesite after 91 years of a life well and fully lived, we will all stand up. And rightly so. A governor will be passing.New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4152483468512915962.post-84337592996053442902011-02-02T16:11:00.004-05:002011-02-02T16:22:04.758-05:00You (and Your Business) Can’t Live Without TwitterChris Barrett called me the other day. <a href="http://www.pbn.com/pages/bio_barrett.html">Chris is a reporter at the Providence Business News</a>, and he is just the latest in a steady stream of reporters over the past few years to ask us about something we posted on Twitter. In this case, Chris was referencing a Tweet with news about our client the <a href="https://twitter.com/QuonsetRI">Quonset Development Corporation</a>. (We also manage Twitter accounts for many of our clients.)<br /><br />This is a good thing, since we like to talk to reporters about the great work our clients are doing. Twitter helps us do that, since the <a href="http://twitter.com/NewHarborGroup">New Harbor Twitter</a> account has a large number of reporters following it. Often, it leads to good stories about our clients. And Twitter is an easy way to start the conversation.<br /><br />Over the past four years, Twitter has become a key tool in our effort to tell stories about our clients to the people who need hear them. For us, that includes reporters like Chris Barrett. Twitter also makes it easy to let people know what you’re up to or what’s on your mind.<br /><br />It can provide your employees, or board members or fans and supporters with information about you that they can use to tell your story. It can give customers information they need to know about you. And it can establish you as a thoughtful observer in your particular industry or the passing scene.<br /><br />Sure, some people use Twitter to share earth-shattering news like “I’m standing in line for coffee right now.” But it is also used for far more weighty things as well. There’s a reason why the Egyptian government shut down Twitter, and the entire Internet, in the past week – and before them, the Iranians. It has become a powerful tool – and a dangerous thing for dictators.<br /><br />A tool like this is too powerful for you to ignore any longer. You, and your company, need to be on Twitter if you’re not already there. To find out how easy it is, sign up here: <a href="http://twitter.com/">http://twitter.com/</a><br /><br />Once you’re on, here are a couple short blog entries that can quickly help you make the most of Twitter, including <a href="http://technmarketing.com/web/ten-things-you-must-know-before-using-twitter/">a brief, 10 point orientation</a> followed by these <a href="http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/">50 key points about using Twitter for your business</a>. Or if you’re ready to make a serious commitment to social media, give us a call to learn how we can help make it happen.<br /><br />Questions? <a href="mailto:davidpreston@nharbor.com">Shoot me an e-mail</a> and we can talk.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Posted by David Preston</span>New Harbor Grouphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12353309381901943234noreply@blogger.com1