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The Cycle

For both journalists and communicators, the news cycle never ends. At The Cycle, PRWeek's editorial team offers commentary and viewpoints on how the latest marketing, business, political, and cultural news impact the PR industry.


Groups may get more time to reach consumers about digital TV switchYesterday

Last August, PRWeek reported on a number of nonprofit and media organizations, corporations, and federal agencies conducting consumer education campaigns to prepare the public for the February 17 switch to digital TV.

Since then, the conversion effort has been plagued by a coupon program derided as inadequate by critics. The Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team on January 8 called on Congress to consider pushing back the switch date, as the Consumer Union did on January 7. An aide to US Rep Edward Markey (D-MA) said this week that moving the date back “may be a wise choice.”

“I think this is a terribly complicate

Kudos, Burger King, kudosYesterday

For this.

(Via M Booth)

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Logitech layoff’s impact on comms unclearYesterday

Logitech announced earlier this week that it would cutback 15% of its salaried staff.  When asked whether the cutbacks would impact Logitech’s communications department or agency relations, Nancy Morrision, VP of corporate communications at Logitech, told PRWeek “our restructuring plan has not been finalized. We don’t have any information to disclose on how it will impact our employees or our agency relationships.” She added, Logitech mostly conducts its PR in-house. The company does not retain an AOR, but works with small agencies on a project basis.

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Pharma industry prepares for healthcare changesYesterday

The pharmaceutical industry has been preparing for the big healthcare changes that will be ushered in with the Obama Administration, reports The Washington Post.

Once recognized as a Republican-dominated industry, the industry has shifted its attention, and funding, toward the Democratic Party this year as one way “to burnish its image and align itself rhetorically with the health reform goals …”

Other image enhancers? A million-dollar advertising blitz “promoting Obama-style health coverage” is kicking off today, the industry’s trade organization introduced self-imposed marketing restrictions that went into effect this month, and pharma companies will follow stricter advertising policies, beginning in March.

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Reports on the borderJanuary 7

According to The New York Times, foreign correspondents in Israel trying to cover the latest conflict have not received permission to cross the border into Gaza, which inhibits attempts to report accurately. The cause? A two-month-old Israeli ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza. The Times attributes part of the reasoning to Israel’s desire to “control the message.”

Like all wars, this one is partly about public relations. But unlike any war in Israel’s history, in this one the government is seeking to entirely control the message and narrative for reasons both of politics and military strategy.

The ban is a result of the media’s effect on Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah, a former Israeli army spokesperson told the Times. Apparently, reporters on and off the battlefields in Lebanon got in the way of military operations.

Much of the outcry from the ban is related to foreign media relying on local Palestinian news from Gaza. To contribute to the message filling international airwaves, the Times reports that Israeli political and military commentators and private groups, “financed mostly by Americans,” are helping guide the press around Israel.

One of these groups is the Israel-based nonprofit organ