Communications & New Media Jan. 2021 I Vol. 35 No. 1 SPECIAL ISSUE: CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS Handling crises for local governments • Crisis tips for the tech sector Reputation in a post-Trump world • Crisis in an age of stakeholder engagement PR predictions for 2021 • Calibrating crisis responses in the fake news era CSR and crisis communications • Managing crisis around bankruptcy filings 2021 PR BUYER’S GUIDE PRODUCTS & SERVICES IN MORE THAN 50 CATEGORIES January 2021 | www.odwyerpr.com FOR THE PR INDUSTRY Vol. 35 No. 1 Jan. 2021 EDITORIAL HOW DISINFORMATION HITS CRISIS RESPONSE The post-truth era has rewritten VACCINE SKEPTICS 6 30 the crisis playbook. PRESENT PR OBSTACLE CONSERVATIVE MEDIA Distrust from anti-vaxxers will be a 8 ENTER 2021 DIVIDED big problem in 2021. Once-obscure outlets threaten to PR INDUSTRY GROWTH 32 steal Fox News’ thunder. SLIPPED 6% IN 2020 CRISIS MANAGEMENT: 32 Survey says three-quarters of firms 9 THE FULL SWING saw little or no growth. Managing from preparation to RECAPPING 2020 34 follow-through is essential. The PR world’s 2020 highlights and lowlights, as covered by O’Dwyer’s. OUT OF CRISIS COMES 10 OPPORTUNITY TECH NEEDS TO TAKE Lessons from a challenging year. CRISES SERIOUSLY 36 Will companies like Facebook and DIY REWORKS THE Twitter learn to apologize? 12 MARCOM LANDSCAPE Your clients are always just a click CSR: A NEW FRONTIER 38 away from dropping you. FOR CRISIS COMMS Why firms need to communicate CONTAINING CRISES IN 58 CSR initiatives to stakeholders. 14 AN ENGAGED ERA WWW.ODWYERPR.COM Disinformation makes managing a THE POWER OF TRUST IN 40 crisis much more difficult. Daily, up-to-the-minute PR news TIMES OF CRISIS Trust can be easily lost. Here’s THE ELECTION’S EFFECT ON how to establish and maintain it. 16 CORPORATE REPUTATION How policy shifts may affect the CRISIS PR FOR THE 41 reputation of your brand. PUBLIC SECTOR Best practices to provide comms COMMUNICATING IN AN support to city, local governments. 18 UNCERTAIN TIME Ways that companies can handle a COVID AND LONG-TERM 42 potential government investigation. CARE FACILITIES Hard-hit care facilities are PEOPLE IN PR managing to turn things around. 20 MANAGING CRISIS 43 PROFILES OF CRISIS AROUND A BANKRUPTCY COMMUNICATIONS FIRMS Bankruptcy filings need proactive, integrated comms programs. 22 44 WASHINGTON EDITORIAL CALENDAR 2021 REPORT PREDICTIONS FOR PR January: Crisis Comms. / Buyer’s Guide AGENCIES IN 2021 56 Why 2021 will be big for M&A. 24 COLUMNS March: Food & Beverage 2020: A YEAR THAT COULD PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT May: PR Firm Rankings FOOL NOSTRADAMUS 54 Fraser Seitel 2020’s events prove the need for GUEST COLUMN July: Travel, Tourism & International crisis communications pros. 26 55 Jane Genova August: Financial, I.R. & Prof Services TEN REASONS TO GET A PR AGENCY VALUATION 2021 PR BUYER’S October: Healthcare & Medical When an advisory organization GUIDE November: Technology & Social Media should do your firm’s valuation. 28 58 ADVERTISERS 5W Public Relations ................................................. 3 Gould+Partners ..................................................... 75 Public Communications Inc. .................................. 32 Abernathy MacGregor ............................................. 5 ICR ......................................................................... 35 Reevemark ............................................................ 13 Artisan Production House ..................................... 33 Joele Frank Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher ................ 37 Sachs Media .......................................................... 15 Butler Associates ..................................................... 8 Kekst CNC ............................................................. 39 Sitrick and Company ............................................. 47 Edelman ........................................................... 48-49 LLYC ........................................................................ 7 Sloane & Company ................................................ 31 EIN Presswire ........................................................ 77 MWWPR ................................................................. 23 Solomon McCown & Cence .................................. 21 Finn Partners ......................................................... 29 Peppercomm ......................................................... 27 Stanton .................................................................. 25 Finsbury Glover Hering .......................... Back cover PRCG | Haggerty ........................... Inside front cover The Stevens Group .................................................. 8 FTI Consulting ....................................................... 19 Profile Advisors ...................................................... 17 O’Dwyer’s is published bi-monthly for $60.00 a year ($7.00 for a single issue) by the J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc., 271 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. (212) 679-2471; fax: (212) 683-2750. Periodical postage paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to O’Dwyer’s, 271 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. O’Dwyer’s PR Report ISSN: 1931-8316. Published bi-monthly. EDITORIAL How will the media cover a post-Trump world? iven that we’re coming up on the end of the Trump era, it’s completely reasonable to wonder what effects the incoming administration might have on our newsrooms. To put Git bluntly: what the hell is the press going to talk about once their favorite villain is gone? EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Back in early 2018, less than a year into Trump’s presidency, O’Dwyer’s reported that the tu- Kevin McCauley multuous Trump presidency appeared to be driving a comeback in paid news subscriptions. [email protected] Pundits and columnists began referring to this phenomenon as the “Trump Bump”: Americans dismayed by the specter of a Trump White House were stricken with a newfound urgency to PUBLISHER be informed and politically engaged, resulting in a surge in cable news network viewers, online John O’Dwyer news traffic and, notably, subscriptions at national broadsheet papers, reinvigorating readership [email protected] at flagging publications we’d been told for years had one foot in the grave. Fast-forward three years and this growth hasn’t ebbed. The New York Times in November re- SENIOR EDITOR ported that it now counts seven million subscribers, effectively double the number of paying Jon Gingerich readers the Gray Lady had when Trump assumed office. The Washington Post now boasts al- [email protected] most three million digital subscribers, which accounts for a 50 percent year-over-year growth in the paper’s subscriptions business and more than three times the digital subscribers it had ASSOCIATE EDITOR in 2016. News Corp. flagship the Wall Street Journal topped two million digital subscribers at Steve Barnes the beginning of the year and reported more than 2.35 million digital subscribers in November, [email protected] more than double the 967,000 digital subscribers it claimed in pre-Trump 2016. The conventional wisdom is that a Trump presidency is great for ratings. The press loves a CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Fraser Seitel disaster story—which is to say, we love a disaster story—and boy have the last four years pro- Richard Goldstein vided plenty of material. CNN anchors fill entire newscasts grousing about him, but it isn’t a coincidence that network also just witnessed the most-watched month in its 40 year history to become the number-one network in cable news for November. The fact is, a President that EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS supplies one crisis after another has been a boon for the news media. But alas, all “good” things & RESEARCH come to an end. Trump wasn’t wrong in Sept. when he tweeted that the “fake” media companies Jane Landers are “going to miss me, very badly!!!” Indeed, what are they going to talk about when the crisis Melissa Webell casino shuts down? And most importantly, who’s going to listen? Presumably, subscriptions will slow, clicks will disappear and ad budgets will wither. It’s not Advertising Sales: like the news media industry is in a great position anyway; the success stories above are ex- John O’Dwyer ceptions to the rule. Newsrooms have been on shaky ground for years, lost in a sea of layoffs [email protected] and buyouts as ad revenues continue to be siphoned by platforms like Google and Facebook. According to a June report by the Hussman School of Journalism and Media, more than one in four of our nation’s newspapers—or about 2,155 publications—have disappeared since 2004. O’Dwyer’s is published seven times a year And simultaneously coinciding with Trump’s departure has been the COVID-19 pandemic, for $60.00 ($7.00 a single issue) by the which has only hastened journalism’s demise, as companies in every sector financially impacted J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc. 271 Madison Ave., #600 by the disaster scale back their advertising budgets. The fact is, newsrooms are shuttering at a New York, NY 10016. faster rate than ever, even though the coronavirus crisis has, ironically, driven a spike in TV (212) 679-2471 Fax: (212) 683-2750. viewership and traffic to digital news websites. We’re consuming more news than ever. Many of us simply don’t want—or can’t afford—to pay for it. © Copyright 2021 J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc. So, what will the media do once Public Enemy No. 1 has left the building? How are they going to stave off the viewer fatigue that will inevitably set in once the networks start covering boring OTHER PUBLICATIONS: