The OC Weekly’s analysis of the OC Register’s failure to fulfill its mission to grow its business through the revitalization of print media shows that – much as everyone suspected – the new owners were looking at the changing media landscape through rose-colored glasses, at best, or even blinders. It is a blow-by-blow description of poorly planned initiatives, overly optimistic projections and poor management.

It also shows that even as the publisher, Aaron Kushner, was publicly praising the prospects of print, he was dealing with the realities of today’s lousy newspaper economics touting the values of the property and the promotional opportunities of tying content to advertising in closed-door meetings with investors and advertisers.

Among the insights, writer Gustavo Arellano describes a PowerPoint presentation to investors in which Kushner “mentioned little about journalism. Instead, his spiel focused on real estate: he planned to sell the Register‘s offices and land around it, with a slide showing it would bring in $81 million by the beginning of 2015 to pay down $47.1 million in debt and ‘preferred equity’ to investors.”

We have seen this elsewhere. For instance, the Sacramento Union sold largely because of its downtown Sacramento location. The developer kept it running for a few years per the purchase agreement, but as soon as that obligation ended, he folded the paper and developed the land on which it sat.

Not surprisingly, Kushner also shifted to a pay-for-play model that is increasingly seen in smaller and some larger newspapers – from advertorials to outright pay for an ad get a favorable story approach. As described by the OC Weekly:

“…Kushner upset the newsroom when he announced during a staff meeting that he didn’t believe in the old journalism adage of afflicting the comfortable, part of his philosophy of focusing on positive news and community building. The following month, Kushner debuted weekly sections devoted to covering Chapman University, UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton that were funded wholly by the colleges and featured puff pieces penned by Register staff.

“According to one reporter, ‘That’s when a lot of us realized that we had been sold a pile of shit.’”

For journalists, perhaps the most telling details are Kushner’s surprising lack of transparency. Journalists are trained to sift? through double talk and spin. That he thought he could get away with this lack of candor with his staff is indicative of his lack of experience in journalism. Among the gems:

“Everyone says our strategy has failed,” Kushner told his disbelieving writers. “Perhaps they should be saying that our strategy has not succeeded?”

It’s the goal of every successful marketer, and many claim to have made an art of it on YouTube and other video sharing services. Jukin Media, for instance, has based a whole business on figuring out what will go viral and monetizing it. PR professionals are always looking for ways to go viral – including grinding up iPhones in blenders that became such a sensation marketers paid a premium to have their products pulsed and pulverized.

What clients often don’t understand is that it’s often the unusual that makes a video, story or concept go viral. That was the case with this story about adulterated cocaine that we first distributed to the media in 2011. Dealers were adding levamisole, a veterinary medication for deworming livestock, to cocaine to dilute, or “cut,” it so that they could make more money selling the illicit drug. Law enforcement estimated up to 70% of the cocaine in the U.S. had levamisole in it.

Noah Craft, MD, PhD, a researcher at LA BioMed and chief medical officer at Logical Images, reported on six cases of patients with rotting flesh on their ears, nose, cheeks and other parts of their body. Normally, six cases wouldn’t be enough to generate much news. But this was “flesh-eating cocaine,” a concept that was irresistible to both media and consumers.

The story spread through the media and, within weeks, Los Angeles County health officials held a press conference to warn cocaine users of the health risks. That story continues to make news more than three years later. You can see the latest installment here.

The good news about the viral nature of this relatively small report is that cocaine users around the world have had the opportunity to learn of the new risks associated with their habit. We do a lot of work with healthcare providers and researchers, and this is one of the most satisfying aspects of the job – knowing that sharing important discoveries and information can improve people’s lives and health.

Our friend, the Washington Post’s Paul Farhi, is one of the nation’s best media reporters. Today, he has a great story about the Post’s rival, the New York Times, hiring an intern who had been an Obama speech writer. Paul covers it in a very even-handed fashion.

There was a time when such political affiliations would have ruled out a job in journalism, much less one covering politics. As Paul points out, those times have changed with the likes of Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos.

But the GOP criticism of this intern’s story – whether it’s deserved or not – has more traction because of the intern’s past Democratic ties. As journalists always love to quote pundits saying, it’s the appearance of impropriety that causes a loss of credibility for the Times.

We should also say: We’re surprised to see an intern covering a major political story for the NY Times. Less than a decade ago, the intern would have been grabbing quotes for the veteran political reporter who would be writing the story.

Our friend, Bill Boyarsky, has an interesting look at how neighborhood groups are wringing concessions from developers by getting contributions to their associations in exchange for the neighbors supporting the developers’ projects. Building almost anything in California is difficult, and it’s no surprise the developers would view these contributions as the “cost of doing business,” which is, of course, passed along to consumers. Moreover, Bill asks about the lack of transparency in these agreements.

Spin control — an attempt to give a bias to news coverage, especially of a political candidate or event. -Dictionary.com

Too often, we hear clients suggest that we should “spin” something. We, instead, discuss how to explain something because spin has lost its spin. Today’s consumers are much too savvy to be spun, and today’s communication network offers up too much commentary to get away with spinning.

As evidence of this, see today’s Michael Hiltzik column in the LA Times about the spin on why the Board of Directors at American Apparel didn’t move more quickly to oust the Los Angeles company’s founder, chairman and CEO, Dov Charney. Hiltzik wrote:

“For years leading up to its unceremonious firing of Charney this week, the company’s board looked the other way and made transparent excuses for his unprofessional and allegedly unlawful personal conduct. After this week’s sacking, the board’s newly-appointed co-chairman, Allan Mayer, defended its years of inaction by telling Times reporters: “A board can’t make decisions on the basis of rumors and stories in newspapers.” 

“Mayer is a PR man by trade (co-author, with Michael Sitrick, of “Spin: How to Turn the Power of the Press to Your Advantage”), so a proper default assumption is that he’s hiding something in those words.

“But they’re preposterous on their face. Charney has been repeatedly accused of sexual improprieties by so many former employees and others in court papers and official proceedings that the board had ample cause to take them seriously long before now.”

Columnists and commentators abound in today’s media and on the blogosphere. Each has a very strong BS meter that untrue or even half-true spin can set off. Moreover, rivals, competitors or a company’s own employees are quick to point out when statements seek to mislead or lie.

So what to do in a case like this? The best approach is a good defense: Avoid the problem in the first place. Good PR people – or any advisers – look around the corner and tell you what’s likely to happen if you continue to support a company president who engages in inappropriate and/or illegal behavior. That way you avoid the crisis in the first place.

Once the crisis hits, the best approach varies, depending on the circumstances and what the lawyers say about the pending liabilities. But all agree that the best approach is to quickly and surgically solve the problem to minimize the fallout. Clearly, spin that sets off BS meters and spurs further commentary and stories about the crisis prevents the quick and surgical resolution.

For many Angelenos, the rapidly rising equity in their home is their retirement plan, so housing prices are always a great source of interest. Add to that the stories of celebrities who can pour millions into a mansion, and you have a recipe for a bestseller. At least, that’s the idea at the LA Times, which announced today that it’s expanding its “Hot Properties” column to track celebrity home sales and purchases. Yes, we know the news purists will be distressed to see further devaluing of the worth of news. And yes, these resources could probably be better deployed on covering government, crime, corruption – you name it. But we have to admit we’ll be reading. It’s one of our Sunday morning guilty pleasures.

We would have to put ourselves in the category of the nostalgic NYU academic Clay Shirkey faulted here for hoping the OC Register’s big commitment to print would work. We knew the economics probably didn’t work. After crawling under our car for the third day in a row to fish our paper out, we know the logistics of print no longer work. The iPad is so much easier – but somehow less satisfying. It’s sad to see this grand experiment hit a wall – or maybe it’s just a stumble? We prefer to be optimistic, even if it’s unrealistic.

The NY Times Maureen Dowd decided to try out some marijuana edibles in Colorado, now that weed is legal there. What followed was more than a bit disturbing for her and a great yarn for the Times. So now she’s being taken to task for being so silly to sample edibles alone and to fail to educate herself first about the potential impact.

As any storyteller can tell you: If she’d had an easy go of it, she wouldn’t have much of a story. You have to have some drama to make for a good tale. And this was an entertaining read. Moreover, she’s like most recreational users. They probably don’t do their homework either, so they likely would make the same mistake. So lighten up critics. Journalists have been serving as guinea pigs for generations, and we’re all smarter for it.

As an aside, we have some friends who are vets in Southern California, where edibles are a hot-selling item at any medical marijuana dispensary. They tell us pets are some of the biggest victims of these treats, gobbling them up and then taking their own little mind-bending excursions, which can be life-threatening, especially if the treat is chocolate, a toxin for dogs. Children are vulnerable too, of course. But parents undoubtedly will be extraordinarily careful in how they store their edibles, while pet owners without children may not.