Tuesday October 8, 2024

Time To Rebuild

 The Boeing 737 Max has been recertified to fly again.  Now, the company can start the slow and years-long process of rebuilding credibility with airlines and their customers.  The deaths of 346 people on two planes due to a faulty sensor and software was a profound blow.  The system of checks and rechecks failed both […]

Time For PR

The Supreme Court’s decision yesterday to strike down mandatory payments to public employee unions was a blow to the unions, which depend on a consistent flow of money to survive.  The leaders must now persuade public servants to join their ranks and fight for better wages and benefits.  It is a time for PR — […]

Time For A Change

One of the most robust electronics markets has stalled in its growth.  Manufacturers from Apple to lesser known Chinese brands were selling smart phones by the tens of millions with huge jumps each quarter in shipments.  Now that has stopped.  The market is flat.  Everyone who wanted a smart phone has one.  Growth has turned […]

Time To Give Up?

Book stores were among the first businesses to be affected by the internet and it hasn’t changed.  Try as they might, bookstore chains haven’t found the key to unlock increasing sales.  The public has found other means, such as Amazon, to buy books.  This raises the question of whether it is time for the mass […]

Past Time

It is past time for US debit and credit card issuers to convert to chip and pin technology.   which is the way Europeans pay for purchases.  Why did it take so long?  US issuers thought their cards were secure enough from hackers.  Tens of millions of stolen card information have proven them wrong.  Since […]

About Time

A major drug store chain has announced that it will stop selling cigarettes.  CVS is taking a $2 billion annual revenue hit to get out of the business of “cancer sticks.”  It is a great example of PR — doing the right thing even though it costs.  Give credit to the company that it finally […]

The Medium For Our Time?

Global smart phone shipments have reached a billion, according to research firm IDC.  That is a significant fraction of the world’s population.  It makes smart phones as common as PC’s or any other computer-based medium.  From the point of view of communicators, smart phone capabilities make them the medium of choice and perhaps the medium […]

Time To Cut Losses?

When is it time to cut losses and bow to what seems inevitable?  This is an issue facing Time Warner cable in its face-off with CBS.  Time Warner has dropped CBS from its transmission in a dispute over fees.  Angry householders have levelled a class action suit against Time Warner and others are abandoning cable […]

This Time Is Different

This is amusing and acrid advice to a wealthy man who has purchased a publication.  In this case, the magazine is New Republic and the owner is Chris Hughes.  Whether you agree with the writer’s view or not, there is in the opinion piece a cautionary note for PR practitioners.  That counsel:  Avoid saying, “This time […]

A Time For Caution

When a company wins a major victory in the courts, there is a desire to press advantage.  Sometimes, however, one should be careful about moving too quickly.  This appears to be one of them.  A Federal judge handed Amazon.com a major victory in the pricing of e-books last week, and Amazon could move to squeeze […]