Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

The hyper-local news website network issued an internal memo on Friday touting good news to come. On Monday, heads rolled and some offices were shuttered.

Imagine you're sitting at your desk at work on a Friday afternoon. You're shocked to receive an email stating that the company's CEO is resigning, but the chairman sends a reassuring follow-up email stating that some positive retooling is coming.

Then, on Monday, you and a lot of the other people in your office are laid off—with no severance pay.

It sounds outlandish, but that's exactly what happened to employees at Daily Voice, a network of hyper-local news websites in the Northeastern United States. According to Gawker, employees were told Monday the company would shutter 11 bureaus in Massachusetts. Many of the most experienced employees in its Connecticut and New York offices received layoff notices. Those sites will continue running with smaller staffs....

The banking giant announced 11,000 layoffs, doing so in a remarkably convoluted press release that the media can have their way with. Communicators weigh in.

...In a remarkably convoluted press release on Wednesday, the banking giant announced it would lay off 11,000 employees. Several communication professionals say the press release is so bad it insults employees and gives the media carte blanche to interpret the news as it wishes.

“This is textbook of the old way of writing a press release,” said Jim Ylisela, a veteran journalist and communications consultant. “It is so perfectly bad, from start to finish.”

Here’s a look at what went wrong—and what you can do to avoid such mistakes....

[PR fail: BS, bafflegab and insensitivity. How NOT to announce 11,000 employee layoffs. ~ ]