I have been following with interest the Malibu City Council’s decision to retain public relations counsel. Since I have been the head of my own national PR agency for nearly 30 years, I decided to weigh in. Here’s a little PR 101.
Malibu possesses an incredible reputation throughout the world, so in my opinion spending money on “branding” PR is a waste of taxpayers’ money. But as I understand it, Ms. Shaw was hired to help Malibu deflect negative publicity locally from various reporters. How often does that happen? Is it worth the money? Usually assignments like that are in the realm of crisis management, which takes specialized training. For the few times a year that we are lambasted in the press, I could put the whole council through rigorous media training for a whole lot less and make you all media ready to deflect negative publicity.
I don’t know Ms. Shaw, but the council should take into account more than just experience. Is she a member in good standing of Public Relations Society of America and its Los Angeles chapter? I don’t recall seeing her at meetings. Does she call herself a crisis management expert? Does she subscribe to online media databases that cost a PR agency thousands of dollars a year to stay on top of media and their quirks? Probably not. Is she accredited in public relations? I doubt it.
At $5,000 a month, the council could have retained an experienced local agency which would be thrilled to get that kind of money, and there would be a team working on the account with professional resources, not just a solo practitioner. And why did the job not go out for bid? Most other cities in the country are required to do so by law when they are spending $5,000 or more for services. Has the council approved a PR plan? If so, let’s all take a look at it before contracts are signed.
Susan Tellem