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Carta PR Crisis, New Reporters' Positions, And More

Carta PR Crisis, New Reporters' Positions, And More

Check out the first PR industry recap of 2024!

MA Family
January 19, 2024

Issue #8, January 2024

Hey-hey! Welcome back to Comms Rundown, MA Family’s newsletter on PR and communications.

It's the first edition of 2024, and as people make New Year resolutions, we also want to make ours: the Comms Rundown will remain a valuable resource for PR professionals across the globe.

Let's get it started and check together if we keep our resolution!

Blitz 🎯

Cheddar relaunches its Business news — stay tuned for more details!
Axios turned 7 years old — the publication reached more than 3 million subscribers, grew to be 500+ Axions, expanded into 30 local cities, and launched 20+ national newsletters.
The Information unveiled a redesign of their site and a new logo — the team redesigned more than 200 pages to make it easier to find and read all the content.

Carta Crisis Case 🆕

The year has just started, and we already have a case study in crisis communications involving Carta, a startup for cap tables used by virtually all startups in the US.

What happened: A startup founder accused Carta of using private information from its equity management software to generate business for its stock brokerage arm without the startup's consent.

What the company did: The CEO countered the accusations, claiming that the founder was merely seeking attention and follower growth.

Carta has a PR crisis after PR crisis, and every time it's a CEO own making.
You remember how a few months ago Carta CEO reached out to everyone telling them not to believe bad press written about Carta? People didn't know there was bad press until they read that from the CEO.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— Ihar Mahaniok (@mahaniok)
2:47 PM • Jan 7, 2024

What the company was supposed to do:

Next steps for Carta:
1) Immediately pivot to the future. Focus on future changes and commitments. There’s no win scenario in focusing on the past, and those facts are not in your favor. Briefly and truthfully explain what happened and move on to why it won’t happen again
2) If… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— Lulu Cheng Meservey (@lulumeservey)
5:46 PM • Jan 7, 2024

The reaction from the community:

Carta CEO self-immolating in front of all of us is exhibit 1,946 of why PR/Comms is criminally underrated in business, if for nothing else than to keep CEOs from doing ridiculous, self-destructive things when they are emotional
— BuccoCapital Guy (@buccocapital)
5:50 PM • Jan 7, 2024

Sometimes you see a company trying to counterpunch against criticism or attack like Dave Portnoy, but they are not Dave Portnoy and can’t pull it off
Going direct is the right instinct but don’t try this at home unless you have a strong case and know what you’re doing
— Lulu Cheng Meservey (@lulumeservey)
4:27 AM • Jan 7, 2024

Who's where? 👀

Matt Rosoff, the former editorial director of technology and climate coverage at CNBC, joins TechCrunch as a Global Managing Editor.
Jason Del Rey joins Fortune as a correspondent on their tech reporting team — he’ll be back to covering Amazon & e-commerce, as well as other crucial storylines & companies across the tech industry.
Dan Hirschhorn was named Editor in Chief of Quartz.
Abe Brown rejoined The Information as the editor of its Weekend magazine section.
Samantha Stokes started to write about AI for Business Insider, with a focus on early-stage startups and the investors who fund them. (But, she’ll continue to write stories about VC culture and the intersection of wellness + tech!).
Amanda Florian joined MorningBrew’s IT section — she’ll be covering all things: cybersec, hackers, data breaches, gen AI, and more.
Liam Kelly, former Decrypt’s correspondent, joined DL News — he’ll continue to cover the ins and outs of DeFi, markets, and what looks like an interesting policy slate for crypto in 2024.
Jeff Roberts became Fortune’s new finance editor, who will oversee stories that track the intersection of money and power. His focus will include how tech—notably crypto and AI—is changing finance.

Heads-up 🔜

It's time to pitch your clients for the events—the speakers for the H1 2024 events have already started being announced!

Introducing the initial lineup of speakers for the Tech.eu Summit London 2024!

Join the Tech.eu Summit London 2024, a global gathering of tech leaders and startups. Explore AI, Healthtech, Climate Tech, Fintech, and more. Book now!

tech.eu/2024/01/18/introducing-the-initial-lineup-of-speakers-for-the-tech-eu-summit-london-2024

Mood of the month 🧐

My whole feed is journalists announcing new positions. It makes me hopeful for a brighter year in media. ✨
— Melia Russell (@meliarobin)
2:52 PM • Jan 3, 2024

After the US SEC approved Bitcoin ETFs:

great news everyone. according to my inbox, everyone that has ever googled the word 'bitcoin' is now available for comment
— Casey Wagner (@caseywagnerr)
6:40 PM • Jan 11, 2024

Workbook 📝

Let’s take the beginning of the year as the opportunity to recap the most useful articles we shared!

The PR Flywheel: What It Can And Can’t Do For Your Business

People often think that PR and communications alone can help them achieve their goals and end up surprised when it doesn’t move the needle as much as they wanted. In fact, it’s a bit more complicated. PR is only a part of the virtuous circle.

www.ma.family/blog/the-pr-flywheel

All the Terms You Need to Know in PR

Just like any other industry, PR has its own jargon that can be a bit confusing. But worry not! We've put together this guide to give you insights into all those fancy PR definitions. Whether you're new to the field or just need a refresher, this resource will help you wrap your head around the key terms and concepts used in PR.

www.ma.family/blog/ma-family-pr-glossary

MA Family Presents The State of Media 2023

We’re excited to release The State of Media 2023 Report capturing the current industry trends and challenges journalists face. This is an update to our previous report published in 2020.

www.ma.family/blog/ma-family-presents-the-state-of-media-2023-report

How To Interact With Reporters At Industry Events

With major tech events like WebSummit, Slush, Sifted Summit, and others just around the corner this fall, let's dive into strategies that will help you make the most of these opportunities and understand how to effectively leverage them to advance your PR goals!

www.ma.family/blog/how-to-interact-with-reporters-at-industry-events

5 Tips To Land Top-Tier Media Coverage

To uncover the reporters’ criteria for making decisions on whether to cover the story or not and share with you the practices that really work, we interviewed a Senior Writer of one of the most powerful American tech magazines. Then we combined his answers in a short guide aimed to help PR people pitch the journalists in the most effective way possible and increase the chances of their stories to be published in T-1 media outlets.

www.ma.family/blog/5-tips-to-land-top-tier-media-coverage

The Secrets To Getting A Guest Article Published

Well-constructed and thought-out bylined articles may be the most impressive and authoritative way to establish credibility with your target audience, contributing to your reputation and allowing you to share your insights. They allow you to stand out from your competitors and, if picked up by a major publication - or “tier one” as they’re often called - will get your name in lights and put you on a pedestal in your field. But there are several rules you need to follow when writing OpEds and pitching them to the media, especially tier-one publications.

www.ma.family/blog/the-secrets-to-getting-a-guest-article-published

Thank you for joining us for the eighth edition of our newsletter on communication and PR!

If you don't feel like this is something relevant for you, you can always unsubscribe below — otherwise, see you in February 🙌

Aleksandra from MA Family