WebProNews

Tag: press

  • Jay Carney Is Amazon’s New VP of Corporate Affairs

    Former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has spent the last year as a contributor to CNN, but now he’s stepping back into the realm of PR.

    Politico reports that Amazon has tapped Carney to be the new Senior Vice President for Worldwide Corporate Affairs. It’s a new position – one that will put the company’s public relations and public policy divisions under one umbrella.

    From Politico:

    [Current VP of Public Policy] Paul Misener and PR chief Craig Berman will now report to Carney, who in turn will report directly to CEO Jeff Bezos. Carney will give up his post-White House perch as a senior political analyst on CNN to focus full time on Amazon.

    Carney served as Press Secretary for the Obama administration from February 11, 2011, to June 20, 2014. He replaced Robert Gibbs and was succeeded by Josh Earnest. Before heading to the White House, Carney was the Washington Bureau Chief for Time magazine.

    Image via Jay Carney, Twitter

  • Lyft Has Best Week Ever After Uber’s Run of Bad PR

    Uber hasn’t had a good few months, PR wise – and the past couple of weeks have been brutal. When one of your executives says that the company should start digging up dirt on journalists who criticize the company, well, it’s bound to generate some bad press.

    And then when one of your execs actually does breach privacy and access a journo’s history, well, things are bound to get worse.

    Big-mouthed investors don’t really help, either.

    You would imagine that if anyone would benefit from Uber’s bad PR, it would be rival on-demand car service Lyft. And you would be right, according to the company.

    A rep recently confirmed to Mashable that the past week was the company’s best yet.

    “A rep for the company says last week was the biggest week yet for the company. The rep declined to go into specifics, but said ‘percentage-wise’ it was the ride-share company’s biggest boost yet,” reports Mashable.

    Lyft has also just introduced an initiative called “Driver Destination’, which is pretty much a shoot-off of Lyft Line (the carpooling service), but with a focus on the driver’s side of the equation.

    Here’s how it works, according to Lyft:

    Nearly 80% of commuters currently drive to work alone. With the latest evolution of Lyft Line, now these drivers can easily turn their daily solo drives into shared rides. Here’s how it works: when drivers enter a destination into the Lyft app, they will only receive ride requests from Lyft Line passengers going the same way, with minimal detours. Drivers can earn even more every week by starting to pick up rides while heading to and from work – some of the busiest times of day. By enabling Lyft Line with Driver Destination to and from work every day, you could earn up to $400 per month – enough to cover a car payment – and connect with interesting people who live and work nearby.

    As long as Uber continues to receive bad press, Lyft only stands to benefit. That is, of course, until Lyft drivers start attacking people with hammers.

  • Uber Exec Under Fire for Using ‘God View’ to Track Journalist

    In the wake of an Uber VP’s comments about possibly digging up user data and using it against critical journalists and the absolute crapstorm that followed, Uber says that it is investigating its top NYC exec for privacy violations.

    According to BuzzFeed, Uber New York General Manager used Uber’s internal ability to watch over all Uber activity, referred to as “God View”, to track the location of one of their writers. And apparently, he revealed this to her in the creepiest of ways.

    From BuzzFeed:

    Tracking customers is easy using an internal company tool called “God View,” two former Uber employees told BuzzFeed News. They said God View, which shows the location of Uber vehicles and customers who have requested a car, was widely available to corporate employees. Drivers, who operate as contractors, do not have access to God View.

    Early this November, one of the reporters of this story, Johana Bhuiyan, arrived to Uber’s New York headquarters in Long Island City for an interview with Josh Mohrer, the general manager of Uber New York. Stepping out of her vehicle — an Uber car — she found Mohrer waiting for her. “There you are,” he said, holding his iPhone and gesturing at it. “I was tracking you.”

    And according to Bhuiyan, this wasn’t the first time that Mohrer had accessed her user data without permission. Apparently, a couple months ago, Mohrer emailed Bhuiyan a copy of her Uber trip logs.

    These allegations come merely hours after a report emerged suggesting that an Uber VP named Emil Michael had proposed that Uber could, in theory, dig up dirt on critical journalists and use that to fight back against bad press. He specifically railed against PandoDaily editor Sarah Lacy, who published a piece critical of Uber back in October.

    Uber was quick to distance the company from Michael’s remarks, saying that they “have not, do not and will not investigate journalists. Those remarks have no basis in the reality of our approach.”

    Uber CEO Travis Kalanick issued a 13-part Twitter response late Tuesday.


    And Uber did something it hasn’t done before – disclose information about its privacy policy.

    “Uber has a strict policy prohibiting all employees at every level from accessing a rider or driver’s data. The only exception to this policy is for a limited set of legitimate business purposes. Our policy has been communicated to all employees and contractors,” said the company.

    Tracking a journalist on her way to conduct an interview at your headquarters likely fails to fall under “a limited set of legitimate business purposes”.

    “Uber’s business depends on the trust of the riders and drivers that use our technology and platform. The trip history of our riders is confidential information, and Uber protects this data from internal and external unauthorized access. As the company continues to grow, we will continue to be transparent about our policy and ensure that it is properly understood by our employees,” the company continued.

    With every new allegation, that trust is quickly eroding. This whole mess has spawned a #DeleteUber Twitter campaign, which has been growing steadily for the past 72 hours.

    Image via Uber, Facebook

  • George Zimmerman Rescues Family; They Refuse Press

    Ever since his acquittal in the murder/manslaughter trial that held the nations attention for weeks, George Zimmerman has been in hiding. While there are a considerable number of people who think Zimmerman acted in a defensible manner, and are happy that he was acquitted, there are just as many, perhaps even more, who disagree vehemently with the “not guilty” verdict returned by an all-female, mostly white, jury in Florida. And some of those people just may wish George Zimmerman ill will.

    So Zimmerman has not shown his face for a while. Except for last Thursday. That was when Zimmerman and another man stopped to help a family trapped inside a blue Ford Explorer SUV that had rolled over after traveling off the highway in Sanford, Florida.

    USA Today reports that family was Dana and Mark Gerstle and their two children. And Mark Gerstle had agreed to appear at press conference to tell reporters what had happened and how Zimmerman had helped his family.

    Zimmerman’s attorneys say they set up the press conference to allow the family to tell their tale and move on. It seems the family has been hounded by reporters ever since the incident. Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara said, “The family called because they wanted to address the media. I knew that if we did it in an organized way, it would help them get back to a normal life.”

    “I told them if you address the media, you can give them the story they need and move on,” another spokesman said. “We were doing it to help them out because they are going to be harassed until someone gets their story.”

    But today, before the press conference was set to begin, Mark Gerstle contacted the Zimmerman camp agin. He was backing out of the press conference.

    “They called today and said they were more worried about blow back from saying anything that would be favorable to George, and decided they did not want to do any media,” O’Mara said.

    The family said reporters had been camped out outside their home. They could not be reached for further comment.

  • Facebook Is “Building” Something, Will Unveil It Next Week

    Facebook isn’t at CES, which is taking place right now (neither is Apple, Amazon, or Google for that matter). But that doesn’t mean that the company doesn’t have a big announcement in the works.

    We, like most tech press, just received an invite to a special Facebook media event less than one week from today. The event will take place on January 15th and 10am PT.

    The invite simple reads “Come and see what we’re building,” and provides no other clues for what Facebook has in the pipeline.

    Facebook is holding the event at their Menlo Park HQ, which isn’t exactly odd but is a bit out of the ordinary – at least when you consider what’s gone on recently. Facebook hasn’t had a big announcement from their HQ is a good while.

    The timing of the event (and the invite) can’t be overlooked. As companies showcasing products at CES bask in the temporary spotlight, Facebook perhaps wants to steal some of the attention.

    Of course, we’ll let you know when we know anything.

  • Sweden Looks To Spark Curiosity With “Democratic” Twitter Account

    Sweden Looks To Spark Curiosity With “Democratic” Twitter Account

    In what is being called the “world’s most democratic Twitter account,” Swedish citizens are given the opportunity to run the country’s PR for an entire week through @Sweden.

    The project is dubbed Curators of Sweden, and in just about a month of existence has more than doubled the country’s official Twitter presence.

    Here’s how it works. Every week, a new Swedish citizen take the wheel of @Sweden, the official Twitter account of the country’s tourism initiative. During that week, the average, everyday citizen gets to converse with other Twitter users and share their thoughts on the country. They also have the opportunity to share photos and tidbits about their favorite places to go and things to do where they live.

    The idea with Curators of Sweden is that each curator will share both their own and relevant third party’s thoughts, stories, information and other content that is somehow linked to Sweden. The idea is that the curators, through their tweets, create interest and arouse curiosity for Sweden and the wide range the country has to offer. The expectation is that the curators will paint a picture of Sweden, different to that usually obtained through traditional media.

    The project, an initiative of the National Board for the Promotion of Sweden (VisitSweden), is basically looking to market travel with the human element. Ask anyone who specializes in social media marketing – they will tell you that the more personal and human-like you can make your company’s social media accounts, the better. Sweden hopes that by giving people the chance to see the country through vastly different sets of eyes, they will inspire curiosity.

    The initiative started on December 10th, and the first “Curator” was a writer and editor named Jack Werner. Since then there have been 5 other faces of Sweden, ranging from an advertising exec to an organic sheep farmer. The current voice of Sweden’s Twitter account in Hanna, who describes herself as an “average lesbian truck-driver.”

    @sweden
    @sweden / Hanna    I promise you: this weekend I’ll make sure to take you on a trip round Uppsala, but right now it’s too darn dark to take decent photos. 1 hour ago via Tweetbot for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    @sweden
    @sweden / Hanna    As being a Swede, I know I’m supposed to like snow (“if you don’t like it, move whydontcha?”), but really, I don’t. 6 hours ago via Tweetbot for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    As you can see, the content of the account is pretty personal. The Swedes who run the account appear to face little to no censorship, as not all of the tweets coming from @Sweden praise the country and not all of the tweets would be considered “PC.”

    Former tweeter Hasan Ramic tweeted that “the current Swedish welfare system is a bad joke compared to what it once was” and current tweeter Hanna had this to say regarding a certain archaic medical practice that’s still alive in her country:

    @sweden
    @sweden / Hanna    @ElinDalstl I do. I think it’s a disgrace that a civilized country is still doing that. #myownopinion 1 hour ago via Tweetbot for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

    So the @Sweden Twitter account feels like a mishmash of personal reflections, public declarations, and tourism promotion. And I guess that’s what the folks at VisitSweden want.

  • What Groupon Won’t Talk About

    Groupon Founder and CEO Andrew Mason wrote a post on the company’s official blog about the things Groupon will not be transparent about. 

    "As press interest in Groupon has grown, I’ve found myself increasingly uttering two words that have always annoyed me: ‘no comment,’" says Mason. "We like to be as transparent with our customers as possible, but, just as people don’t walk around naked, there are some things that we as a company don’t talk about (for obvious reasons)."

    "While we’ll clam up when asked about…business-y stuff, we’ll always be straight forward about things that affect the experience we’re creating for customers and merchants," he says. 

    Groupon Founder and CEO Andrew Mason: No CommentSo what will Groupon not talk about? Plans related to capital-raisng, IPOs, pre-announcements of new products, the competition (which is growing rapidly), statements on core business metrics, margins, profitability, projections about revenue, growth rates, and other financials, and strategic transactions/partnerships with other companies. 

    In other words, we’re going to have to work harder to get any of that stuff.

    Back when all the rumors of a possible acquisition by Google were going around, Groupon simply told us,  "One day, we will have to choose to stay private, go public, or sell. We want to continue to build a great company exactly the same way we’re building it today. Recently there has been a lot of press about these exciting possibilities, but currently there is nothing new to report."  

    In December, Mason told Charlie Rose Groupon was adding about 30 cities a month, had 40 million subscribers, and just added 3 million subscribers the previous week.  While these numbers have no doubt grown significantly since then, it does show that Mason may open up a little bit from time to time. 

    Just within the past week, Groupon launched in the United Arab Emirates, and GaoPeng (the Chinese Groupon) made its debut. 

  • BusinessWire to Give Businesses More Ways to Increase Press Coverage

    BusinessWire, the popular newswire service, is set to launch some new services for businesses and organizations next month. These are the NewsHQ online newsroom and the InvestorHQ investor center.

    BusinessWire says these microsites were developed specifically to help corporate communicators and investor relations officers house and maintain information for journalists, bloggers, investors, consumers, analysts, key influencers, etc.

    BusinessWire - Giving organizations new resources"There are many benefits to employing these content management solutions," explains BusinessWire VP of Web Communications, Ibrey Woodall. "One of the main reasons the online newsroom came into existence was because public relations representatives were having a hard time getting cooperation from their technical, or IT department, when they needed a press release posted quickly. Investor relations officers also needed a means by which they could get the most recent financial news and data to their company’s investors and analysts."

    "So, control was an initiating factor for this technological evolution," she adds. "Communicators needed to be able to post and organize content in a timely manner. They needed to be able to get their message on their website, and delivered directly to those who were interested in their organization."

    Getting press coverage can mean a great deal of gaining traffic and overall exposure for your business. Providing the givers of press (journalists, bloggers, and even everyday consumers via social media) with as many resources for finding information as possible, will only increase the likelihood of coverage. Businesses may find  these new services from Business Wire quite helpful.

    It also helps that the services come with some basic SEO features, which should further increase visibility.