What's the difference between publicity stunts and PR? One is focussed on looks and cosmetics, the other is focussed on substance and reputation, I argue in this post.
Did the Jakarta Post malign the PR profession?
Was Naomi Osaka professional in not wanting to take press conferences?
As someone who trains the C-Suite on Media Handling Skills, what we in the PR profession sometimes shorten to Media Training, I can empathise with Naomi Osaka for not wanting to speak with journalists after her matches. At the same time I cannot but help wonder if Osaka was professional in citing mental health as... Continue Reading →
Adding a role at The Palm Scribe
Recently I added another role to my LinkedIn account and have since been getting lots of well wishes but also a number of concerned questions on whether I had stopped working at Maverick to become advisor at The Palm Scribe. So here's a note of explanation to the concerned and the curious. The first thing... Continue Reading →
Alexis: right decision for the wrong reasons
Alexis almost certainly has prostitution as one of its services and Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan is right to close it down if morality is his kind of thing. But shutting it down based on press reports rather than on hard evidence is worrying, as it sets a bad precedence of executive action based on suspicion.... Continue Reading →
Did Jokowi also call for Pribumi privileges?
This is what I wrote in the Maverick blog today Did Jokowi say the P word as reported by CNN? These are sensitive times. Since newly installed Jakarta Governor made his Protect Pribumis speech at his inauguration the P word has gained new political impetus. One thing about the internet is that what is old... Continue Reading →
More than just business
We read the news every day but how much do we know about the editors behind the news? What informs their thinking and decisions? At Maverick we decided to find out about this important group of people the good old-fashioned way, by actually talking to them. Here, published in Maverick's blog, we talk to Arif... Continue Reading →
Finally put to rest – The Jakarta Globe (printed version)
In the end, it was a mercy killing. The Jakarta Globe, that was born on November 12, 2008 amid doubts by some and optimism by others grew to be a healthy paper. But its health began to decline when its owners realised that a daily was too much a sinkhole for investment that they could not or... Continue Reading →
RIP Jakarta Globe (Printed Version) 2008-2015
The Jakarta Globe has been interesting to watch since its birth in 2008, beginning with an idealism to start a quality newspaper against a trend of dropping readership in printed dailies. Unspun was skeptical of the paper's success from the start, a view that won him few friends in the startup paper then. But Unspun began to have... Continue Reading →
JIS and all those unasked questions
Last Thursday Unspun attended the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club's discussion on child abuse, where Jakarta International School headmaster Tim Carr volunteered to be a speaker. The other speakers were Seto Mulyadi from the National Commission on Child Protection and Child Protction Commission Secretary-general Elfrida. Unspun was at the discussion until about the end when he... Continue Reading →
Walking the walk with a home-away-from-home for journalists
We Public Relations professionals often preach to our clients that they should take care of their key stakeholders. We talk the talk but how many of use walk the walk? Even in this digital age that has seen the rise of social media and the decline of traditional media, the latter is still important, establishing... Continue Reading →
Jilbab Hitam and Waiting for Godot
Regular readers of Unspun will know that this blog takes interest in journalistic developments in Indonesia and elsewhere. The interest comes from Unspun having been a journalist for many years before he "sublimated" into a communications consultant. Readers will know from the two previous posts that Unspun found the Jilbab Hitam issue fascinating since it involves... Continue Reading →
Jilbab Hitam Unveiled?
It appears that the identity of Jilbab Hitam, the nom de plume of a putative ex-Tempo reporter who caused an uproar in the Indonesian online and journalism communities when he accused Tempo and its editors of trying to shake down Mandiri in a posting in Kompasiana.com. That posting has been taken down long ago but... Continue Reading →
Unspun 