And now, a story that practically tells itself...

The following ran in today's New York Times. It's the tale of a response from Target, the giant retailer, to blogger Amy Jussel of Shaping Youth, who had called to complain about a Target advertisement. You have to read it to believe it.

Target offered an e-mail response:

“Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets,” a public relations person wrote to ShapingYouth.

“This practice,” the public relations person added, “is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest,” as Target refers to its shoppers.

I just read a report in The Wall Street Journal that Chrysler's top spokesman is resigning, and it struck me that this is a pretty odd subject for a news story.

The piece focuses on the resignation of Jason Vines, VP of Communications, who reported to CEO Robert Nardelli, who joined Chrysler when the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management bought Chrysler. The Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter," writes:

A former stand-up comedian with a flare for showmanship, Mr. Vines clashed with a more tight-lipped approach to media relations advocated by Mr. Nardelli and Cerberus, they said. He had been pushing Mr. Nardelli and Vice Chairman Jim Press, who was recruited from Toyota Motor Corp., to speak to the media about Chrysler's turnaround efforts, but Mr. Nardelli opposed him, they said.

I've just posted Episode 20 of our talking communications with farrell kramer podcast.

My guest is PR practitioner Linda VandeVrede, who has just come out with the second edition of her book, Press Releases Are Not a PR Strategy.

VandeVrede discusses some misconceptions about what PR is and how it should be handled as well as pointing out the right way to bring PR into an organization. It is an interesting interview, particularly for anyone considering the adoption of a PR strategy.