Thursday, November 18, 2010

Food for Thought: Today’s News NEVER Dies

By: Beth Kneisler, Account Executive, Leonard & Finco Public Relations, Inc.

While we all know that the media world is changing, you might not realize just how much it has changed. Case in point: the news never dies; it lives on in cyberspace. It used to be that broadcast news was aired and quickly faded away and we’d toss out or recycle our newspapers. Now, thanks to the Internet, news can, and does, resurface years later.

That fact was recently driven home at our office. A man from the New Orleans area contacted one of my co-workers to ask where he could buy “Curly Leaf” spinach. This, of course, struck us as a rather odd question since we don’t have any affiliation with spinach.

The man went on to explain that he had done a web search for Curly Leaf spinach and came across my co-worker’s name on a news release from September 23, 2006. (You may remember a big spinach recall that occurred at that time. L&F worked with “Curly Leaf,” or Savoy spinach, producers and growers, whose spinach was safe to eat, but got lumped in with the type of spinach that was being recalled.) The New Orleans man loves “Curly Leaf” spinach, but hasn’t been able to find it near his home and was making some calls following his Internet search.

While we didn’t know the answer to his question, we did know the right people to call about it and were happy to help him out. The real life lesson here – remember that the news NEVER dies, no matter if it’s good or bad. Obviously if it’s positive news, it’s good that your news resurfaces now and again. But if there is negative news floating around about you or your business, it could come back to haunt you. Be sure you’re continuously monitoring the web to find out what is being said about your business. If there’s a negative post, reach out to the person who posted the information to see if you can resolve the situation or misinformation. Remember, image is everything and it can, and does, make or break companies.

Do you have any examples of how “old” news has resurfaced? Do you have other suggestions on how companies can keep news about themselves positive? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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