Zeno Group Blog

Here are some articles the Zeno team has been reading from February 10th through February 11th:

• NYTimes.com: Sirius XM Prepares for Possible Bankruptcy
• Marketing Magazine: Twitter to begin charging brands for commercial use
• All Facebook: 13 Sure Fire Strategies for Launching Successful Facebook Applications

For all the millions of dollars he’s earned as a baseball player, Alex Rodriguez is wisely spending some of that money on sound crisis counseling. Just 48 hours after he became the latest name linked to performance enhancing drugs, Rodriguez, undoubtedly acting on the advice of p.r. practitioners, confessed to ESPN’s Peter Gammons.

During baseball’s steroids era, we’ve seen the accused take a variety of stances. There was Mark McGwire’s infamous non-admission admission of guilt in front of Congress in 2005, when the tainted superstar hid behind the phrase “I’m not here to talk about the past,” leaving everyone to assume the worst. McGwire hasn’t been seen or heard from much since, and his candidacy for baseball’s Hall of Fame has received barely a whisper of support.

Then there’s the defiant denial in the face of mounting evidence, most notoriously carried out by Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Here are two men who would have you believe the dog ate their homework, and the more vehemently they deny the compelling case against them, the more disgusted fans become with them. These men now face conviction not only in the court of public opinion, but possibly in the court of law.

What Rodriguez and his handlers have learned is that for those who admit guilt there are opportunities for forgiveness. A year ago, Rodriguez’s Yankee teammate Andy Pettitte was implicated in the use of human growth hormone. While Clemens was busy dishing out implausible denials, Pettitte apologized and has been widely re-accepted by fans.

Forgiveness will not come immediately for Rodriguez, and the steroid issue will always come up in any conversation about his career accomplishments. But with plenty of years ahead he’ll have ample opportunities to reshape his image. Following the counsel to admit guilt was a smart first step in that direction.

It’s been interesting to watch the debate over the stimulus package – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – play out in the media this week. One thing has been made abundantly clear: if you let others define your position, you lose. If not the overall debate, you certainly lose the battle for the media advantage.

While the legislation was being debated in the House, the administration was seemingly more focused on bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle than on convincing the public. While it’s valid to question whether media bias had a role in driving the focus on bipartisanship, at the end of the day, the Obama administration and Democrats on the Hill must take the lead in communicating the advantages of their legislation – and ensure their message reaches the American people.

Based on the flurry of network and cable interviews over the past 24 hours, it appears the administration has realized their error and recalibrated their message, along with their messengers. In an interview on Tuesday, Anderson Cooper asked the president on AC360 whether he’s “lost the message.” President Obama said no. Whether that is or isn’t the case remains to be seen.

Here are some articles the Zeno team has been reading from January 23rd through February 3rd:

• AdAge: Technology No Longer Just Kid Stuff
• SI.com: Super Bowl media center is a pitcher’s park | FanNation
• NPR: Will The Super Bowl Stay ‘Super’?
• New York Times: Advertisers Change Game Plans for Super Bowl
• Mashable.com: 40 of the Best Twitter Brands
• PRNewswer: Did Your Company’s Online Newsroom Kill a Story?

Frankly, I worry about the decline of the newspaper and the related decline in community. When reading a paper cover to cover, you are exposed to not only what you are looking for and want, but to a wide range of topics and issues that may not be part of your google news search terms. Immersing yourself in only the content you are looking for or identify with, erodes shared perspectives and understanding. So, I was interested to learn care of Bob Pickard’s Facebook page about the launch of the Newspaper Project.

According to the project’s blog, “NewspaperProject.org was launched in 2009 by a small group of newspaper executives to support a constructive exchange of information and ideas about the future of newspapers.” While surely part of the future of newspapers in inexorably tied to the financials, let’s also not forget the role newspapers play in shaping the fiber of our communities.