Recently, I attended a PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) professional development program that featured a panel of well-known D.C. area assignment editors. The editors ranged from broadcast news, to radio and even the good old Washington Post.
Initially, I did not expect much from the panel, other than comments like “never call me” or “do [...]

Last month, Environics Communications’ Health Sciences Practice and Business Wire co-hosted a media panel discussion with leading health care reporters at top-tier print and broadcast media outlets. More than 50 PR professionals gathered at the National Association for Broadcasters in Washington, D.C., for our first-ever “Coffee and Conversation: An up close and personal discussion with [...]

A few years have passed since I had a go at faddish words that have already worn out their welcome. As we’re communicators, speaking in understandable language is the thing. But using clichés and hackneyed expressions and words may seem like an effective use of language, but, in truth, it grates on the ear. Using [...]

As communications professionals, we are well aware of Awareness Months / Weeks / Days. This rings especially true if you work in health care. Considerable planning is done around these occasions and ultimately our campaigns depend on being seen during these times. Ironically, communications professionals are constantly fighting for awareness of their awareness. So imagine [...]

Did this title grab your attention? Put a fire in your belly? Does it make you want to scroll down to the comments section (immediately below this post) and vehemently voice your displeasure? You could call me names – maybe even ones that start with the letter ‘s’ – or write comments like: “Lorna, the [...]

Oliver’s Twist
Published by Viking Canada
352 pages
Oliver’s Twist, the recently published autobiography by CTV News chief parliamentary correspondent, Craig Oliver, pans an extraordinary professional and personal life. Raised on the remote northern shores of British Columbia by divorced alcoholic parents, Oliver unexpectedly lands a summer job with the local CBC Prince Rupert Radio and the rest [...]

As communicators, we’re accustomed to writing for different audiences in a variety of voices. We’re taught to write “in plain English” or, put another way, in language that an eighth grader would understand. That’s the reading level of the average American – scary, I know, but that’s fodder for another blog post.
But when it comes [...]

My friend in Lagos, Nigeria, broke the news of Whitney Houston’s death to me at 8:16 p.m. EST. I received her message one hour after the Beverly Hills police pronounced Houston dead on February 11, 2012, and only 15 minutes after the Associated Press sent out its first tweet.
What came next was a flood of [...]

As public relations professionals, we like to consider ourselves masters of language. Communication is our bread and butter and the written word is often our choice method of connecting with an audience. From news releases, to speeches, to blog posts, storytelling is among our greatest strengths. But what about story-showing?
I recently watched an interesting TED [...]

I have recently watched with more than casual interest the public relations controversies swirling around News Corporation and, most recently, the Susan G. Komen Foundation. I have former colleagues, now friends, in the top communications jobs at both organizations and have been astonished to hear how similarly the situations evolved. Both scenarios were not dissimilar [...]