Communications & New Media March 2021 I Vol. 35 No. 2 INSIDE The BIDEN ADMIN’S FOOD & NUTRITION policy agenda FOOD BRAND SUSTAINABILITY AND GROWTH THE the importance of embargoes Food PR during a crisis TACTICS FOR EARNED AND OWNED MEDIA FOOD How COVID-19 HAS changed consumer food experiences COMMUNICATIONS IN A POST-COVID WORLD COVID & the fulfillment paradox PR trends FOR ‘21 PROFILES OF FOOD & BEVERAGE pr firms ISSUE PR strategies for the COVID-19 WELLNESS revolution BIG TECH’S role in NEWSPAPERS’ DEMISE March 2021 | www.odwyerpr.com Vol. 35, No. 2 MARCH 2021 EDITORIAL PANDEMIC PLATES START A REVOLUTION How COVID-19 changed food 6 14 consumption—and how that will GOOGLE, FACEBOOK SPUR affect brand communications. NEWSPAPERS’ DEMISE FIVE PR TRENDS TO 22 The tech giants are the main forces 8 WATCH IN 2021 behind the collapse of the U.S. Planning for the unpredictable newspaper industry, a report says. 15 can serve as a guide for success in the year ahead. FEW SUBSCRIBERS READ THE NEWS THEY PAY FOR FOOD PR DURING A Many digital subscribers are “zom- STATE OF CRISIS bie” readers who don’t read the news. 8 Three crises at once show why 16 PR pros are positioned to help SOME BUSINESSES HIKED brands tell a sustainability story. PANDEMIC AD SPENDS 32 Despite the effects of COVID-19, GET COMFORTABLE WWW.ODWYERPR.COM many small businesses increased 9 WITH EMBARGOS Daily, up-to-the-minute PR news their spending on advertising. Press releases are important, but 17 embargos can add even more COMPANIES TAKE BIG value to coverage. HIT FROM COVID MOVING PAST EARNED Over 40 percent of businesses 9 MEDIA VS. OWNED surveyed by FTI said they have seen Establishing a media mix that productivity drop. 18 avoids the press runs its own set of risks. COVID-19’S LESSONS ABOUT ‘FULFILLMENT’ PEOPLE IN PR Negotiating new food systems 10 during that pandemic taught us some unexpected things. 19 HOW COVID CHANGED PROFILES OF FOOD & FOOD EXPERIENCES BEVERAGE PR FIRMS Food brands adapt and survive 22 as the pandemic transforms the 11 traditional dining experience. RANKINGS OF FOOD & EDITORIAL CALENDAR 2021 BEVERAGE PR FIRMS January: Crisis Comms. / Buyer’s Guide THE NEW FOOD POLICY 32 FRONTIER WASHINGTON REPORT March: Food & Beverage How the new administration’s policies have established new 12 May: PR Firm Rankings business expectations. 36 June: Sports & Entertainment BRANDS REQUIRE TRUST COLUMNS July: Travel, Tourism & International PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TO SUSTAIN GROWTH Fraser Seitel August: Financial, I.R. & Prof Services Cultivating trust is a necessary 34 13 October: Healthcare & Medical step toward meeting consumer GUEST COLUMN expectations. 35 Robert L. Dilenschneider November: Technology & Social Media ADVERTISERS 5W Public Relations ............................................................................... 3 Padilla / Foodminds ....................................................................... 20, 21 Fineman PR ........................................................................................... 7 Pollock Communications ........................................................................ 5 ICR ............................................................................... Inside front cover Porter Novelli ......................................................................... Back cover 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 Should Facebook, Google pay for news content? or years, a debate has been raging regarding the role Big Tech companies like Facebook and Google play in the newspaper industry’s decline and what responsibility these platforms EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Fhave in ensuring journalism’s survival in the digital age. Kevin McCauley The U.S. newspaper sector in 2021 is effectively on life support, with more than a decade of [email protected] newsroom closures and layoffs as a result of disappearing advertising revenues now hastened by the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. A January Challenger, Gray & Christmas PUBLISHER study found that U.S. newsrooms shed a record 16,000 jobs in 2020, a gain of nearly 200 percent John O’Dwyer from the year prior. In the last year alone, more than 300 U.S. newspapers shuttered, according [email protected] to a Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill report. As a result, “news deserts” have spread across the U.S., leaving more than 1,800 communities around the country without access to local reporting. SENIOR EDITOR Many cite the practices and market dominance of tech behemoths Facebook and Google for Jon Gingerich the news industry’s endangered status, platforms that thrive by sharing the content created by [email protected] local news organizations while sharing none of the ad revenue resulting from the clicks that ASSOCIATE EDITOR content generates. Now, in the wake of a recent legislative stare-down between Big Tech and Steve Barnes Australian lawmakers, a debate has arisen regarding whether these companies should begin [email protected] effectively subsiding news coverage in the U.S. In case you didn’t know: Australia’s Parliament in February passed a controversial media bar- CONTRIBUTING EDITORS gaining law that forces the dominant tech companies like Google and Facebook to negotiate Fraser Seitel with Australian news publishers and compensate them for the content shared by its users on Richard Goldstein their platforms. Supporters say the move lends much-needed aid to Australia’s embattled news industry, where EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS smaller, local media outlets have been unable to compete in a digital media ecosystem where & RESEARCH Google, Facebook and other tech platforms have used their market dominance to essentially Jane Landers siphon news organizations’ web traffic and digital advertising revenues by linking to the content Melissa Webell those third-party publishers create. Big Tech’s monopolistic power, they argue, has essentially rendered them information gatekeepers with the power to lock local newsrooms out of the advertising marketplace, crippling these outlets’ ability to deliver the trustworthy investigative Advertising Sales: John O’Dwyer journalism that’s critical to any democracy. [email protected] Critics say the law unfairly penalizes Google and Facebook, sites that constantly direct mas- sive amounts of reader traffic to news outlets’ websites, which allows these publishers to widen their audiences, sell more subscriptions and boost ad revenues. The law also mandates tech O’Dwyer’s is published seven times a year platforms to independently bargain with publishers individually for licensing agreements, re- for $60.00 ($7.00 a single issue) by the quiring binding arbitration in cases where an agreement isn’t met, a process they say unfairly J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc. favors publishers. 271 Madison Ave., #600 Facebook initially responded to the law’s passage by saying it would block Australian us- New York, NY 10016. ers from accessing Australian news items on its platform, but quickly reversed that decision. (212) 679-2471 Fax: (212) 683-2750. Google, meanwhile, acquiesced and unveiled a plan to begin arraigning ad-sharing deals with © Copyright 2021 J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc. publishers, including a multi-year partnership with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. But argu- ably, the most significant development has been the global repercussions this precedent sets, as OTHER PUBLICATIONS: other countries now consider following the Australian government’s lead and adopting similar legislation that could allow local publishers to collectively bargain with Big Tech over the news www.odwyerpr.com content that’s distributed across their platforms. Breaking news, commentary, useful data- These efforts have been gaining strength in the United States, where lawmakers for several bases and more. years have wrangled over whether Facebook and Google stifle competition in the digital econ- O’Dwyer’s Newsletter omy. A forthcoming series of House Judiciary Committee hearings to begin in March will see A six-page weekly with general PR news, lawmakers debate proposals to update U.S. antitrust laws in response to Big Tech’s immense media appointments and placement market power. Several U.S. lawmakers are also at work drafting legislation that emulates the opportunities. Australian plan in many ways. Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), chairman of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, is reintroducing a 2019 bipartisan bill, the Journalism Competition and Protec- O’Dwyer’s Directory of PR Firms tion Act, which would give news publishers a safe harbor from antitrust laws and allow them to Listings of more than 1,250 PR firms throughout the U.S. and abroad. negotiate with Big Tech companies on payment for news content. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) are expected to introduce a similar bill in the Senate. O’Dwyer’s PR Buyer’s Guide David Chavern, President and CEO of newspaper trade group the News Media Alliance, told Products and services for the PR industry O’Dwyer’s that his organization was “very supportive” of the Australian bargaining law’s pas- in 50 categories. sage, likening in to the creation of music licensing in the late nineteenth century,