By Patrick Skarr, Account Supervisor Thanks to the political calendar, small businesses will once again find themselves in the hot seat and at the center of a feverish debate across our country premised on how we are going to get our economy growing again. Everyday our news broadcasts are filled with a cutthroat messaging war

By Jeanne Atkinson On New Year’s Day 1976, the public relations director of Michigan-based Lake Superior State University (LSSU) and a handful of friends decided to have some fun, PR style, so they created a list of words they believed should be excised from the English language. Thirty-seven years later, the “List of Words Banished

By Tracey Mendrek, Senior Consultant                                                              Driving home during the first snow event of 2012, I pondered two forecasts. Top of mind was the prediction of 2 to 4 inches of snow on one station, 6 to 8 inches on another, and of course, more than 12 inches from the weather forecaster who went to

By Angela Benander, Vice President of Advocacy and Corporate Responsibility “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made” – Otto von Bismarck Since making the switch from national politics to the private sector five years ago, I continue to be surprised by clients and contacts who express their, well, surprise

By Kimberly Cook  Maybe you’ve read David Sedaris’ “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” Maybe you haven’t. That doesn’t really matter (But you should because it’s a great book!)—the book title is just a good jumping-off point for this entry. Me talk pretty one day. Me write good one day. But if you’re in PR, you

By Ezra McCann  Contrary to popular belief, the media is not the enemy of professional athletes. Sports journalists act as a liaison between the sports they cover and the fans who live and die with their teams each season. Fans have become hungry for as much information possible about their favorite teams and players. They

By DeRondal Bevly, Community Outreach Executive Go ahead, no one will know.  I Google myself weekly, sometimes daily if I am bored.  All jokes aside, if you have not done so, hop on Google and run a search query on yourself.  What pops up?  Photos?  Resume?  Quote as a college sophomore from a school newspaper? 

By Patrick Skarr In previous Checkmate entries, my colleagues Tracey Mendrek and Jeanne Atkinson write about having an outcome focus in approaching client relations and being involved in the community, respectively. I want to extend on their remarks to emphasize the importance having a service-before-self approach to building relationships and discuss how this can help

By Jeanne Atkinson, Senior Consultant For two nights in a row last week, I attended community meetings. The first meeting was at my children’s school, to talk about overcrowding issues.  The second meeting was to learn about a major new redevelopment plan for a large parcel of land in my neighborhood. Now, on the surface,

Link: Go Cubs Go! Cubs announce 2012 coaching staff Quirk (bench), Bosio (pitching), McKay (first base) join Sveum