Through many years of working together, first at eBay and then during the failed California governor’s race, Meg Whitman has relied heavily on Henry Gomez for communications advice.

Their close working relationship even earned them the mash-up nickname among those at eBay and elsewhere: Menry.

So when she got the CEO job at Hewlett-Packard, it was a bit of a surprise that Gomez — who has recently been living on the East Coast (see baseball cap above) — helped out a lot, but was not named to the top PR slot at the tech giant.

No longer, it seems, with Gomez being named EVP and Chief Communications Officer at HP today.

It’s a big job, given the hard work that Whitman faces reviving the iconic tech company, which has been beset by strategic and business challenges of all kinds, shapes and sizes in recent years.

While it might be seen as an adjunct to the business, the forward-facing parts of HP are in need of a powerful public relations initiative, which is presumably why Whitman wanted one of her most trusted and longtime staffers in the post.

According to HP, Gomez will become a member of the company’s executive council and report directly to Whitman.

Said HP in its press release, which you can also read below: “Gomez will be responsible for HP’s media and industry analyst relations, executive communications, employee communications, government affairs and global social innovation.”

As in, the voice of Menry is back!

Here’s the release:

HP Names Henry Gomez Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer

PALO ALTO, CA, Jan 10, 2012 – HP today announced that Henry Gomez will join the company as executive vice president and chief communications officer.

Gomez also will become a member of HP’s executive council, reporting to Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer.

In this newly expanded role, Gomez will be responsible for HP’s media and industry analyst relations, executive communications, employee communications, government affairs and global social innovation.

Gomez, 48, comes to HP with 26 years of communications experience. He spent most of the last decade working at eBay, where he served in a variety of roles including senior vice president for Corporate Communications and president of Skype. Gomez played a crucial role in building eBay’s brand during the critical years following the company’s initial public offering.

Prior to joining eBay, Gomez was vice president of Corporate Affairs at HBO in New York. He started his communications career at Hill and Knowlton and has worked on a wide array of public relations and marketing communications challenges in numerous industries.

Most recently, Gomez ran his own consulting business, providing communications counsel to clients such as H&R Block. He was on the leadership team of Whitman’s 2010 campaign for governor of California and has been involved in government and political affairs throughout his career. In 2011, Gomez was appointed to the board of BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. He is a graduate of Boston College.

“Henry is an excellent manager and communications executive,” said Whitman. “People around the world care deeply about HP, and I believe we have an important obligation to clearly explain where we’re headed and why. Henry will work closely with the entire leadership team to make certain customers, partners, employees, and shareholders fully understand our vision and strategy.”

About HP HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com .

The move to beef up communications expertise at the prominent Silicon Valley venture firm continues: Sequoia Capital has hired Andrew Kovacs, a well-regarded senior manager from Google, for a new job to help its portfolio companies with public relations and other related issues, sources said.

Google’s top flack Rachel Whetstone told staff about the move this past week, sources said, which will take place in mid-January.

Kovacs (pictured here, looking very GQ), who has been at the search giant for five years, has most recently headed PR for its apps unit.

His appointment comes after competing firms, including Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins, bolstered talent to the comms areas of their firms, in order to better service the companies they invest in.

This is especially important to early-stage start-ups and their often young entrepreneurs, who usually have little experience with the media or with marketing. But such expertise is increasingly important in the crowded and ever-noisier tech sector, as companies try to rise above the fray.

Sequoia already has a longtime marketing partner, Mark Dempster, to whom Kovacs will be reporting, serving the firm’s companies in the U.S. and Israel. Kovacs will not be working on PR for Sequoia itself.

Some of Sequoia’s better-known start-ups include Dropbox, Tumblr and Eventbrite.

Readers of today’s New York Times got an eyeful of Patrick, the auto-racing driver who has starred in numerous provocative Go Daddy TV spots, in a full-page ad that appeared in the newspaper’s A section. (I snapped the image at right with my iPhone.)

If Go Daddy is looking for a tactic to help it change the subject from its sudden about-face in supporting the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) now before Congress, this probably isn’t it. Having initially supported SOPA — and faced with a sudden exodus of thousands of customers who moved their domain-name registrations to other outfits — Go Daddy suddenly had a change of heart, and issued a statement saying it “no longer supports SOPA.”

Resorting to cheeky ads isn’t exactly going to reduce the outrage people feel against the company. Its CEO, Bob Parson, sparked a smaller controversy when he posted a video of himself killing a wild elephant in Zimbabwe and then letting locals feast on it. A small boycott effort slowed the company’s growth for a few weeks, but ultimately caused little damage.

But 37,000 domains lost in two days, plus all the negative press, can’t help but get some attention. Hence the about-face, and the attempt, cheap as it may be, to try to change the subject. Perhaps another outrageous TV spot during the Super Bowl? One wonders if the group of private equity firms that bought out Go Daddy for $2.25 billion earlier this year — they include KKR, Silver Lake Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures — still think it was a good deal.

All terrible ideas. This is how you do it: You commission a statue of the late Steve Jobs, and you dedicate it during the oh-so-slow week before Christmas.

Boom. So here you go, Graphisoft. I have no idea what you do — the fact that you “ignited the BIM revolution with ArchiCAD®, the industry first BIM software for architects” means nothing to me. I also have no idea if Steve Jobs really did support your company back in 1984 with cash and computers, as your press release states.

But you did supply me with a picture of the statue in front of your Budapest headquarters, and I’m happy to republish it here. And I won’t complain about the quality or the dimensions of the shot. Thanks!

Caryn Marooney (pictured here), the co-founder of one of Silicon Valley’s premier tech communications firms, OutCast Agency, is joining Facebook to lead its tech public relations strategy.

Facebook said Marooney is joining the social networking giant in a newly created position as director of technology communications.

That means she will be in charge of outreach to the technical community, Facebook said, including “our product, platform, infrastructure, and technical recruiting communications–to reach developers, engineers, technology influencers and bloggers who write about our products and technology strategy.”

“Caryn’s experience extends beyond technology communications and I’m delighted that we’ll all have the opportunity to draw on her wisdom and insight,” said Facebook global communications chieftain Elliot Schrage.

Marooney has actually led the Facebook account for OutCast, which she and Margit Wennmachers built and sold to Next Fifteen Communications Group in 2005 for over $10 million.

Marooney said in an interview today that she felt the firm was in good hands with its current team of top managers.

“The opportunity at Facebook was too good to pass up,” she said. “It’s an exciting new challenge.”

Indeed, the social networking giant is preparing to go public within the next year and will need an even stronger PR team for that task.

Marooney follows Wennmachers to a company they served as outside communications advisers. Wennmachers joined the high-profile Andreessen Horowitz venture firm last year to work on marketing strategies with companies in which it invested.

There are many other Fortune 500 CEOs in the same boat, and they certainly have plenty else to do with their time than post Facebook photos from Davos.

But non-Twittering CEOs are likely a dying breed, as transparency and authenticity in corporate communications come into vogue, and the younger generations move up through the ranks.

Google’s entire executive leadership is particularly anti-social for an Internet company, although unlike Page, Eric Schmidt, its CEO of the last 10 years, had the gumption to at least try Twitter and post updates every couple of weeks.

That their bosses decline to participate in what many see as the future of the Web is particularly grating for some young Google employees.

While the company circles around launching its own fully fledged social strategy, many Googlers feel that accountability for “getting social” starts at the top by leaders using the products themselves, rather than outright ignoring them.

Certainly, Page is incredibly private in all sorts of situations, both online and off. Here’s a memorable section from Ken Auletta’s book “Googled”:

“Larry Page is aggressively disdainful of marketing and public relations. In early 2008, Page instructed Google’s public relations department, which consisted of 130 people, that he would only give them a total of eight hours of his time that year for press conferences, speeches or interviews.”

That doesn’t seem like an approach that will go over well now that Page will be CEO of a company of Google’s stature, although perhaps he could save some time by crafting short tweets in lieu of full speeches.

While Page seems to be ignoring the social Web’s existence (he said Thursday he thinks it’s at the “very very early stages,” ceding comment on the topic to his co-founder Sergey Brin), the category has already had a significant competitive effect on Google.

The company says social is not yet negatively impacting its search business, but there are other ways it is creeping in: Through a significant talent drain to companies like Facebook, and a tarnishing of the company’s position as a tech leader.

In a way, part of the reason Page took control seems to be in response to the rise of Facebook, although there are clearly many other factors at play).

That’s because Page has now reinstated himself in a sacred position in Silicon Valley: The founder CEO.

One of the most impactful things the social Web has done is raised a new founder CEO to the tip-top of the tech industry: Mark Zuckerberg.

And, according to sources, the rise of Zuckerberg has been especially hard for Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to watch.

Zuckerberg was also just named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, an honor Page and Brin have never received.

And his company also just arranged a deal to raise money at a $50 billion valuation, making his own stake worth $15 billion, which happens to be the approximate net worth of each Page and Brin.

(As for Zuckerberg’s social media presence, he obviously uses Facebook quite actively, and also has a bare-bones LinkedIn profile and a Twitter account that hasn’t been updated in more than a year. And, like Page, he would not be considered a social butterfly in real life.)

So now Page has returned to presumably make Google innovative again with the passion of a founder. But with 10 years elapsed since he last had the job, he may want to go out and do a little personal market research on this whole social thing.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

Hats off to the creative minds at EMC’s marketing department. Somehow, someone came up with the idea of stuffing a Mini Cooper with dancers. The theme of the day was “record breakers,” so EMC decided to break a world record onstage, with the help of the Pilobolus Dance Theater troupe. One minute EMC President and COO Patrick Gelsinger was speaking, and the next a Mini Cooper rolled on stage surrounded by a few dozen people in white body suits. The idea was to demonstrate “simple and efficient storage.” Right.

An executive from the Guinness Book of World Records was on hand to certify that, yes indeed, they had set a world record, managing to get 26 people into the car, with the doors closed for five seconds. Will it help EMC sell more storage? You be the judge.

BoomTown usually does not get all weepy over the departure of public relations folks at Internet companies, in that cynical I’ve-seen-’em-come-and-I’ve-seen-’em-go kind of way.

But the leaving of Brandee Barker (pictured here) from Facebook most certainly elicited a small single tear of sadness this morning, when she called into All Things Digital Global HQ to say she would no longer be tossing me her patented–and very endearing–hand-in-the-face “no comment” for the powerful social networking site.

After four long and tumultuous years, she leaves the company on Dec. 10.

(In a changing-of-the-guard theme, Barker follows longtime advertising sales exec Mike Murphy, who also recently resigned, out the door.)

In a statement, Facebook said:

“We can confirm Brandee is leaving Facebook to start a communications consulting business focused on early stage tech companies. We are grateful for her dedication and the company has benefited greatly from her contributions. We suspect Brandee’s future clients will also value her talents and experience and we wish her much success with her new venture.”

Indeed, although the geeks always get the credit, Facebook owes an awful lot to Barker, for helping its products and services stand out in a sea of competitors.

For certain, it was not as influential as it is today when Barker got there as its head of PR, just as the start-up was beginning to make itself known.

There were only seven million Facebook members when Barker joined, compared to 500 million today.

Still, the veteran communications exec was quickly aware of its power when 750,000 of those members protested against Facebook’s introduction of the initially controversial news feed.

“I had no idea when I took the job that it would be like that,” said Barker, who was employee No. 120 at Facebook, in an Interview with me this morning.

In fact, it has been like that ever since then, as she has navigated a series of triumphs and just as many mishaps for the company as it grew and grew.

One of her favorite moments, she told me, was the introduction of the Facebook platform at its inaugural F8 developers event several years ago.

“Mark [Zuckerberg] had a real vision and the craziness that followed it was an incredible experience,” said Barker, who was the one largely responsible for introducing the decidedly quirky co-founder and CEO of Facebook to the world.

For the most part, Barker shepherded him well, even as the fire hose of attention increased in media, consumer and regulatory pressure over issues ranging from the controversial founding of Facebook–Barker has a masters from Harvard University in Winklevii crisis management–to privacy snafus and more.

A lot of her ministrations were funny, though, as she remembered: “Another great moment was when I insisted Mark take a suitcase instead of a backpack to his first Davos in 2007, so I went out and bought him one.”

And let us not even get into the flip-flop controversies or when I snarkily called Zuckerberg “toddler CEO” to Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes.”

Barker handled it all with grace and humor.

But as Facebook has grown to more than 1,500 employees and its business has boomed, Barker–who recently returned to the company after having a baby–decided that bigger was not better, at least for her.

“I had a pretty deep evaluation when I was away from the company that what I am good at and what I like is working with early-stage companies and their teams,” said Barker, who will start a communications consultancy. “At this point in my career, that’s what I want to do.”

Barker noted, in fact, that there were a lot of companies started by former early Facebook employees like her that might become clients, although she declined to be more specific.

In the end, another “no comment” for me from Barker!

I don’t mind, because here is my comment, on the record and for attribution: It’s a sad day for Facebook, and I’ll miss Brandee Barker very much.

Speaking of no comment, here is Barker in one of my favorite no comments, from behind a plant at a 2008 Silicon Valley luncheon for the German DLD conference:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101108/brandee-no-comment-barker-finally-comments-pr-honcho-leaving-facebook/feed/ 6 http://allthingsd.com/20101102/google-settles-buzz-suit/ http://allthingsd.com/20101102/google-settles-buzz-suit/#comments Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:21:31 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=51834 In the end Buzz, Google’s ill-starred, privacy-violating social networking service, proved more of a public relations burden than a financial one. The company on Tuesday settled the class action suit brought against it, for its foolish decision to use Buzz to transform our private Gmail address books into public social networks, by agreeing to establish an $8.5 million fund for Internet privacy education and policy.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101102/google-settles-buzz-suit/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100614/outcasts-wennmachers-joins-andreessen-horowitz-as-partner/ http://allthingsd.com/20100614/outcasts-wennmachers-joins-andreessen-horowitz-as-partner/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 02:20:13 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=29474

Margit Wennmachers (pictured here), one of Silicon Valley’s leading public relations and communications execs, is joining Andreessen Horowitz as a partner.

Wennmachers, 45, co-founded OutCast Communications, whose clients include Yahoo (YHOO), Facebook and Andreessen Horowitz.

The move will make her one of a handful of women at high-profile venture outfits.

At Andreessen Horowitz, she’ll focus on bringing marketing expertise to the firm and its portfolio companies, starting in September.

“For me, it’s a chance to build a top-notch VC firm and work with talented entrepreneurs, so what’s not to like?” wrote Wennmachers in an email to BoomTown (who got off a horse in Wyoming to write this).

Andreessen Horowitz has made a big splash since it was created a year ago with $300 million in funding. Its portfolio of high-profile companies includes Skype, RockMelt and Zynga.

Wennmachers got to know both Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz when they hired OutCast to launch their firm last year. Andreessen Horowitz will continue to be an OutCast client.

OutCast was founded 13 years ago by Wennmachers and Caryn Marooney. It was bought by Next Fifteen Communications in 2005, but has been operated independently ever since and will continue to be.

In fact, Marooney will continue to run OutCast, which has more than 80 employees in San Francisco and New York.

Its clients reflect a breadth of Web and other companies–big and small, public and private–also including AdMob, Aliph, Amazon (AMZN), Autodesk (ADSK), Bloom, VMware (VMW), salesforce.com (CRM), Code Advisors, Cisco (CSCO), Zimbra and Netflix (NFLX).

“OutCast is the best in the business. Between VMware, salesforce.com and Facebook, they have an outstanding track record of working with the best companies and making them more valuable,” said Andreessen. “We are thrilled that one of the founders has decided to join our firm. Margit’s experience in building brands will be a big asset to Andreessen Horowitz and our portfolio.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100614/outcasts-wennmachers-joins-andreessen-horowitz-as-partner/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100318/flashback-when-viacom-wanted-to-buy-youtube/ http://allthingsd.com/20100318/flashback-when-viacom-wanted-to-buy-youtube/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:30:33 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=17554 Here are a couple documents the Google public relations team is pointing reporters to as it releases material related to its fight with Viacom: Evidence that Viacom executives were interested in buying YouTube four years ago.

My understanding is that Viacom discussed this internally and made preliminary approaches to YouTube in 2006, but that discussions never got serious, even though Viacom had thrown out a $1 billion price tag. Google (GOOG), of course, ended up buying YouTube for $1.65 billion later that year.

The implication here is that if Viacom (VIA) thought YouTube was worth owning in 2006, it shouldn’t be suing it now. I don’t know if this is relevant in court, but that’s for lawyers and judges to hash out.

Regardless, it’s fun reading, if you’re into this kind of thing. Note the concern among Viacom executives that News Corp. (NWS) would end up owning YouTube instead of them.

SchEx126

SchEx173

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100318/flashback-when-viacom-wanted-to-buy-youtube/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100212/time-warner-loses-its-chief-talker/ http://allthingsd.com/20100212/time-warner-loses-its-chief-talker/#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:13:39 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=16288 Nothing against PR folks (many of whom I like quite a bit!), but I don’t tend to write about them getting new jobs or leaving old ones. This is a rare exception: Ed Adler, who has been the chief public relations guy at Time Warner (TWX) since forever, is stepping down.

No replacement has been named, and if Adler has a new gig, he hasn’t announced it yet.

Adler is the kind of old-school big-media gatekeeper/messenger you see less and less of these days, simply because there’s more flux among old-school big-media companies.

Beyond that, he’s of note among us media types for a couple of reasons:

• He is a long, longtime veteran of what used to be described as the world’s biggest media company. He moved into the top PR slot there in 1997, which means he was there for all of Time Warner’s last couple decades of ups (AOL) and downs (AOL), as well as three CEOs: Gerald Levin, Richard Parsons, and now, Jeff Bewkes.
• He also used to be one of us: Many moons ago, Adler was a reporter at Time magazine, before he wised up and got out.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100212/time-warner-loses-its-chief-talker/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091229/iphone-strains-o2s-london-network/ http://allthingsd.com/20091229/iphone-strains-o2s-london-network/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:30:24 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=31192 AT&T, O2 feels your pain. Like AT&T, the U.K. mobile services provider has seen its network overtaxed by Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, particularly in London, where a massive surge in data traffic has been causing network congestion since summer.

In an interview with the Financial Times, O2 CEO Ronan Dunne said the company has seen an 18-fold increase in data traffic since the beginning of the year, most of it driven by super-smartphones like the iPhone. “Where we haven’t met our own high standards then there’s no question, we apologise to customers for that fact,” Dunne said. “But it would be wrong to say O2 has failed its customers en masse.”

Well, that’s one way of looking at it. The thousands of smartphone users who lost data service just a few days ago might see things a bit differently, though. Anyway, O2–like AT&T in the U.S.–is doing its best to contain the public relations damage arising from such outages. Dunne says the carrier has added an additional 200 mobile base stations in London to help it meet data demand and has been working with its infrastructure suppliers on network tweaks to improve data service.

Wise moves. Best to act quickly and get out ahead of issues like these, which can become PR nightmares very quickly. As AT&T recently learned, network congestion issues make great fodder for the advertising campaigns of rivals. Wouldn’t want Vodafone (VOD) running its own version of Verizon’s (VZ) nasty “There’s a Map for That” commercials, now would we?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091229/iphone-strains-o2s-london-network/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091202/court-dimisses-atts-lawsuit-against-verizon/ http://allthingsd.com/20091202/court-dimisses-atts-lawsuit-against-verizon/#comments Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:45:00 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=30098 Evidently, AT&T has finally realized that the public relations blowback from its complaints about Verizon’s “There’s a Map for That” and “Island of Misfit Toys” commercials is doing more damage to its brand than the ads themselves. This morning, AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) agreed to dismiss a lawsuit over the ads, which AT&T said misled consumers into thinking that the carrier doesn’t offer wireless service in large portions of the country.

The dismissal comes two weeks after a court ruled that while Verizon commercials might be “sneaky,” they were not really deceptive. Seems the “irreparable harm” AT&T claimed to have suffered as a result of the ads wasn’t so irreparable after all.

Both companies declined comment on the matter beyond the dismissals themselves, which are embedded below. Verizon did note, however, that it has begun running a new commercial that features the maps at issue in the suit.

ATT-VerizonDismissal –

dismissal2 –


PREVIOUSLY:

• AT&T Awarded Hug and a Box of Tissues in Verizon Ad Case
• Verizon to AT&T: Do Yourself a Favor and Shut Up
• Frosty’s Winter Litigation Wonderland: AT&T Demands Verizon Pull Holiday iPhone Ads [With Full Complaint]
• Verizon Banishes iPhone to Island of Misfit Toys
• Verizon on AT&T Suit: There’s a Word for That. “Junk.”
• Verizon to iPhone Users: “Want Five Times More 3G Coverage? There’s a Map for That.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091202/court-dimisses-atts-lawsuit-against-verizon/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091117/qotd-214/ http://allthingsd.com/20091117/qotd-214/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:31:32 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=29194 “AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s ‘There’s A Map For That’ advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.”

So begins Verizon’s (VZ) response to AT&T’s (T) complaints about its new ad campaign, and as you can see below, it pulls no punches. For 53 pages–all of them very obviously drafted with publication in mind–the new filing mercilessly thrashes AT&T, proving over and over again that the carrier’s carping over Verizon’s ads has transformed a no-win situation into a horrific PR disaster that only highlights AT&T’s shortcomings.

“In the final analysis, AT&T seeks emergency relief because Verizon’s side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of its own 3G coverage with AT&T’s confirms what the marketplace has been saying for months: AT&T failed to invest adequately in the necessary infrastructure to expand its 3G coverage to support its growth in smartphone business and the usefulness of its service to smartphone users has suffered accordingly. AT&T may not like the message that the ads send, but this Court should reject its efforts to silence the messenger.”

Brutal.

As I said earlier this month, if AT&T’s lawsuit over Verizon’s allegedly misleading “there’s a map for that” wasn’t a public relations mistake to begin with, it will be by the time Verizon gets through. And, indeed, the lawsuit already is a mistake. Below, Verizon’s reply in full:

PREVIOUSLY:

• Frosty’s Winter Litigation Wonderland: AT&T Demands Verizon Pull Holiday iPhone Ads [With Full Complaint]
• Verizon Banishes iPhone to Island of Misfit Toys
• Verizon on AT&T Suit: There’s a Word for That. “Junk.”
• Verizon to iPhone Users: “Want Five Times More 3G Coverage? There’s a Map for That.”

verizonresponse –

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091117/qotd-214/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091113/flying-the-digitally-friendly-skies-gogo-google-and-the-facebook-pr-guy-in-17d/ http://allthingsd.com/20091113/flying-the-digitally-friendly-skies-gogo-google-and-the-facebook-pr-guy-in-17d/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:11:20 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=20597

So, BoomTown–who cannot be unplugged from the matrix for very long without breaking into a cold sweat–was pretty excited to have free Wi-Fi on my Virgin America flight to Washington, D.C., early this morning.

The service from Gogo Inflight Internet is free since earlier this week until Jan. 15, courtesy of Google (GOOG), on Virgin, as well as at 47 airports. It usually costs anywhere from $6 to $13.

Like the search giant, other Web companies–presumably wanting to goose usage and, more to the point, their brands–have also leaped in.

Delta has a promotion with eBay (EBAY) on several hundred planes for a week around Thanksgiving, and Yahoo (YHOO) is footing the bill for anyone using computers or smartphones in Times Square in New York for one year.

Pretty much what the government and big cable and wireless companies should be doing, but let’s not look a digital gift horse in the mouth.

So far on the flight, the Internet has been pretty solid, although video plays even slower than my Comcast (CMCSA) connection at home.

Also, electricity on the flight has been in and out; when it doesn’t work, it pretty much negates Internet use on a long flight.

But more interesting, as most who use the Web in the air seem to feel, is the ability to make a lot of online connections, including with people on the same plane.

While I was no fan of the goofy seat-to-seat connections offered on some airlines, I did get an email from a Facebook public relations guy sitting in the row behind me on the same flight asking if I wanted to meet the social networking site’s DC staff.

Without ever seeing him I now have a meeting on Monday with them, so–apparently–mission accomplished!

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091113/flying-the-digitally-friendly-skies-gogo-google-and-the-facebook-pr-guy-in-17d/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091105/vz-att/ http://allthingsd.com/20091105/vz-att/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:36:51 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=28307

“Verizon is displaying maps of the United States that purport to show each carrier’s ’3G’ coverage. The maps use color to depict the areas of the country in which each carrier has ’3G’ coverage and blank or white space in the areas of the country where ’3G’ coverage is not available. Consumers are interpreting the white or blank space on the maps to mean that AT&T customers who are not in an AT&T ’3G’ coverage area have no wireless coverage whatsoever, and therefore have no ability to use their wireless devices for any purposes in vast areas of the country. This interpretation is not surprising as Verizon, in its own coverage maps, uses white space to inform customers that no coverage of any kind exists. Contrary to the misleading message conveyed by Verizon’s advertisements, AT&T customers can fully use their wireless devices outside of a ’3G’ coverage area and undisputedly have coverage in areas depicted by the white or blank spaces on the maps used in Verizon’s advertisements.”

– Excerpt from AT&T’s complaint against Verizon

If AT&T’s lawsuit over Verizon’s allegedly misleading “there’s a map for that” wasn’t a public relations mistake to begin with, it will be by the time Verizon gets through with it. Responding to the suit today, Verizon (VZ) rep Jeffrey Nelson used it to stoke public perception that AT&T’s (T) network is inferior to Verizon’s.

“This is a junk lawsuit. It has no merit,” Nelson told Adweek. “It’s surprising that rather than defend the ‘blue’ hot spots on their 3G map, our competitor instead focuses on their white spaces. The maps clearly note that the comparisons are of 3G service, and further note that voice and data services are available in other places.”

Way to draw attention away from Verizon’s claim of a superior network coverage, AT&T.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091105/vz-att/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091030/yahoos-yodel-anecdotal-blogger-will-not-be-yodeling-anymore/ http://allthingsd.com/20091030/yahoos-yodel-anecdotal-blogger-will-not-be-yodeling-anymore/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:49:03 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=20090

While Nicki Dugan (pictured here) was not one of the top execs at Yahoo, she certainly is typical of many at the company who stuck with it through many ups and downs.

No longer, according to a memo BoomTown obtained from several sources, since the longtime PR staffer–who has been at Yahoo (YHOO) for almost a decade and who was previously with an outside public relations firm that worked for Yahoo–will leave the company Monday.

Dugan has a high-profile role at Yahoo, running its Yodel Anecdotal corporate blog and penning most of the pieces on it.

It’s not clear from the memo where Dugan is headed, though the memo is full of interesting “moments” she had while at Yahoo and includes some nice historical details (including a scoop I had from Web 1.0 that I had long forgotten).

Here’s the email she sent to colleagues:

From: Nicki Dugan
To: XXX
Cc: Nicki Dugan
Sent: Thu Oct 29 16:35:22 2009
Subject: Fare thee well

Hiya:

After almost exactly 9.5 years, 10 Oktoberfest mugs, 9 founder holiday gifts, 4 cube moves, and 76 daily miles, I’ve decided to hang up my purple badge. Saying goodbye to Yahoo!–and all of you–is no easy task. It’s a rare place that can capture your heart and soul and hang onto it for about a quarter of your life. What’s made Yahoo! so special? I thought I’d rattle off some of my favorite moments:

* Jerry asking me (on my first day) if the PR team really needed another person

* Filo’s all-worldwide “get back to work” Yahoo! Greeting during my first week

* Yahoo! Surfers. Full stop.

* Risking life and limb to cross the street for a meeting when our HQ was on Kifer Road in Santa Clara

* My first earthquake, experienced working on a Saturday in Building D

* When our various business units were called “pods” (communications, communities, commerce, content)

* Our former general counsel propping his cowboy boots up on the conference table during a USA Today interview

* When Jerry and David taught Madeleine Albright how to surf the Web

* When In & Out Burger trucks provided meals during summer picnics

* Launching the world’s first Internet taxi

* When NASDAQ halted YHOO trading after Jim Hu and Kara Swisher caught wind of our Broadcast.com acquisition

* “Sleeping” under my desk the night before Analyst Day 2001 as lawyers and the deal team haggled sentence structure with SBC in our joint release

* When the cow from our lobby attracted Mennonites at NYC’s South Street Seaport

* Terry Semel doing earnings calls in his socks

* Being the stage photographer for Beck at Open Hack Day 2006

* Getting Jerry & David to sumo wrestle in the name of fighting climate change (http://bit.ly/2NIjkO)

* Tom Cruise recreating the Oprah coach moment during his Yahoo! Influentials visit

* Convincing Matt Dillon that our contract trumped his hangover at the Greenest City in America press conference in Times Square

* Flying to Burbank via a NetJet with every C-level Yahoo! executive for the Overture acquisition

* When Sue Decker rode into an all-hands at URLs on a Harley Davidson

* Meeting Al Gore at a private “An Inconvenient Truth” screening with the Yahoo! For Good team

* Breaking the world record for largest simultaneous yodel…and getting ordinary Americans to yodel their hearts out in NYC, SF and Seattle for the Yodel Challenge and Yodel Studio

* Watching mobs of Yahoo! users line up outside Baskin-Robbins stores across the country for free ice cream on our 10th anniversary

* Having Michael Arrington leave the third comment on Yodel Anecdotal when we launched (and a positive one at that!) (http://bit.ly/1Lvzrx)

* The emotional weekend spent at Skadden as we prepared to announce Terry’s resignation

* Learning how to play Faceball at Flickr HQ (http://bit.ly/4mdJ24)

* Getting Blake Jorgensen to pull off the best April Fool’s video… Evar

* Stuffing cotton into Filo’s cheeks for his cinematic debut as Don Corleone in Ari’s tech team video

* Asking Ash to dress in an orange jumpsuit to pick up trash in Filo’s cube (I’ve clearly abused Filo extensively)

* Dressing in black and leaving rubber duckies all over Google’s campus at dawn (10K+ photo views! http://bit.ly/vX8hA)

* Convincing 33 Yahoo! teams to dance with Matt “Where the Hell is Matt?” Harding all over our HQ during the Summer of Microsoft (http://bit.ly/929hT)

* Getting the Food Network to produce a “Dinner: Impossible” episode for Yahoo!’s Search’s anniversary and watching Chef Robert Irvine abuse Tuoc and Raj in the kitchen (http://bit.ly/291zsB)

* Carol’s first all-hands F-bomb

We played hard, worked harder, and drank copious amounts of purple Koolaid. And I’ll probably never quite get it out of my system. Working here through so many of Yahoo!’s phases has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’m so grateful for the memories and friendships built over these many years. I look forward to watching the ‘hoo from afar.

If we don’t connect on Monday for a final farewell, please keep in touch. Employee #370 (adjusted hire), over and out.

–Nicki

Here’s a link to one of my favorite blogs by Dugan, which she referenced above, on dancer Matt Harding, with a video below she did by dragging him to do jigs all over Yahoo:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091030/yahoos-yodel-anecdotal-blogger-will-not-be-yodeling-anymore/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20091015/dueling-skype-sides-hire-big-communications-guns/ http://allthingsd.com/20091015/dueling-skype-sides-hire-big-communications-guns/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:56:28 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=19444

Perhaps the sides in the ever-escalating war over the Skype deal will work out their differences and settle–which is what should and probably will eventually happen after everyone realizes how stupid all this noisy legal wrangling over the Internet telephony giant is.

But that day is decidedly not today, given a pair of recent PR hires by parties involved.

The founders of Skype, via the two tech companies they control, Joost and Joltid, have hired Sitrick & Company, headquartered in Los Angeles, while Index Ventures has tapped Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, based in New York.

Both strategic communications and public relations firms are well known for employing some very sharp elbows and extremely tough talk when it is time for some creative corporate crisis management.

And both are familiar with tech issues, having worked on contentious issues related to companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO), CBS (CBS) online unit CNET, and others.

And there is plenty of bad blood to work with here.

Yesterday, in yet another legal volley, Joost and Joltid filed a motion for preliminary injunction against former Joost CEO Michelangelo Volpi and Index Ventures, where Volpi now works as a partner.

They are asking that he not use knowledge or confidential information he got at the video start-up in current dealings with Skype.

Legal attacks have become the negotiating tool of choice from the founders of Skype, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, who were on the losing side of the $2 billion deal to buy the Internet telephony giant from eBay (EBAY).

Volpi is now a partner at London-based Index, which was one of the smaller players on the winning side of the bid, putting up $75 million.

To complicate things further, the innovative and entrepreneurial pair also own a company called Joltid, which has licensed key technology for Skype to eBay.

Joltid and eBay have already been fighting in court over that agreement, bickering back and forth about whether eBay violated the terms of that deal or not.

Via Joltid, Zennström and Friis also filed suit again against Skype and its owner, eBay, for copyright violations in the U.S.

For good measure, they added the winning buyout group, including Index, Silver Lake Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

And both Joltid and Joost have also sued Volpi personally, as well as Index, making serious allegations about his behavior as Joost CEO.

This kind of mud-slinging could get even worse with the hiring of big PR firms.

Along with Frank and Sitrick, by the way, Silver Lake–which is the big player on the winning side–has hired Edelman’s crisis and issues management team.

Interestingly, several sources said, the various players have also been engaged in settlement talks, even as the lawsuits have piled up.

Coming to some agreement is clearly the best outcome, although it does not appear that the spate of lawsuits has yet derailed the eBay deal with the Silver Lake-led group, which could even close in the next several weeks.

“Everyone should be thinking ahead of the headlights,” said one source. “But right now, it seems to be all about emotions.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091015/dueling-skype-sides-hire-big-communications-guns/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090824/youve-got-to-approve-the-app-steve-dont-be-pigheaded-ow-hey-stop-hitting-me/ http://allthingsd.com/20090824/youve-got-to-approve-the-app-steve-dont-be-pigheaded-ow-hey-stop-hitting-me/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:47:52 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=23568 RealNetworks has submitted to Apple a free application that will bring its $15-a-month Rhapsody subscription music service to anyone with an iPhone or iPod touch and an EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi connection–assuming it’s approved by Apple, which is anything but a sure thing at this point.

Historically, Apple (AAPL) has shunned subscription music services, and fearing they might compete for dollars best spent on iTunes, made it impossible for them to interoperate with the iPod. A few months back, Apple would have likely done the same with Rhapsody, if only to tweak Real Networks (RNWK) CEO Rob Glaser, who infamously disparaged CEO Steve Jobs for his “pigheadedness” at the Digital Living Conference in 2005.

But things are a bit different today. With the Federal Communications Commission’s inquiry into Apple’s rejection continuing consideration of Google Voice for iPhone still fresh in its mind and the outcome of that inquiry still undetermined, Apple might be a bit more inclined to allow Rhapsody into the App Store. It certainly can’t withhold it by claiming it replaces core iPhone functions, as it did with the Google (GOOG) app.

And so we find Apple in a uniquely uncomfortable spot: Accept into the App Store an on-demand streaming music application that will compete for the attention of iTunes users or reject it and suffer further unwanted scrutiny by the FCC, not to mention a nasty public relations nightmare.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090824/youve-got-to-approve-the-app-steve-dont-be-pigheaded-ow-hey-stop-hitting-me/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20090824/youve-got-to-approve-the-app-steve-dont-be-pigheaded-ow-hey-stop-hitting-me-2/ http://allthingsd.com/20090824/youve-got-to-approve-the-app-steve-dont-be-pigheaded-ow-hey-stop-hitting-me-2/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:47:52 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=23568 RealNetworks has submitted to Apple a free application that will bring its $15-a-month Rhapsody subscription music service to anyone with an iPhone or iPod touch and an EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi connection–assuming it’s approved by Apple, which is anything but a sure thing at this point.

Historically, Apple (AAPL) has shunned subscription music services, and fearing they might compete for dollars best spent on iTunes, made it impossible for them to interoperate with the iPod. A few months back, Apple would have likely done the same with Rhapsody, if only to tweak Real Networks (RNWK) CEO Rob Glaser, who infamously disparaged CEO Steve Jobs for his “pigheadedness” at the Digital Living Conference in 2005.

But things are a bit different today. With the Federal Communications Commission’s inquiry into Apple’s rejection continuing consideration of Google Voice for iPhone still fresh in its mind and the outcome of that inquiry still undetermined, Apple might be a bit more inclined to allow Rhapsody into the App Store. It certainly can’t withhold it by claiming it replaces core iPhone functions, as it did with the Google (GOOG) app.

And so we find Apple in a uniquely uncomfortable spot: Accept into the App Store an on-demand streaming music application that will compete for the attention of iTunes users or reject it and suffer further unwanted scrutiny by the FCC, not to mention a nasty public relations nightmare.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090824/youve-got-to-approve-the-app-steve-dont-be-pigheaded-ow-hey-stop-hitting-me-2/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090602/yahoo-gets-new-pr-head-from-netapp-the-internal-memo-natch/ http://allthingsd.com/20090602/yahoo-gets-new-pr-head-from-netapp-the-internal-memo-natch/#comments Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:45:20 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=14130

New Yahoo Marketing head Elisa Steele named a colleague from her former job, NetApp (NTAP), as SVP of Global Communications at the Internet giant.

Eric Brown (pictured here) was the VP of corporate relations at the data storage company, on whose board Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has also served. Before that, he was at Adaptec (ADPT).

Brown will report to Steele and start at the company in July.

Brown is filling a slot left when former Yahoo PR head Jill Nash left at Yahoo in February. She was briefly replaced by her deputy Brad Williams, who was laid off from Yahoo in a recent round of cuts.

He is also yet another executive from the business software arena to be hired under Bartz, who also comes from that background. Bartz also hired Jeff Russakow from Symantec (SYMC), which makes antivirus software and other security for the post of Customer Advocacy SVP.

It’ll be interesting to see how they all operate in a consumer-facing company like Yahoo, with all its many dramatic ups and downs of late, and which BoomTown has often compared to a Mexican telenovela.

Here’s Steele’s memo to the Yahoo (YHOO) staff, which includes a self-described “bad habit of eating ice cream in bed while reading my Kindle and surfing the web.”

(BoomTown can’t make this stuff up!)

Here’s the internal memo:

Marketing & Executive Teams,

I’m very pleased to announce that Eric Brown will be joining Yahoo! as Senior Vice President, Global Communications, reporting directly to me. In this critical role, Eric will oversee our Global Communications function, including public relations, product promotion, executive communications, public affairs, internal communications, corporate reputation management and social media outreach.

Eric is joining Yahoo! at a particularly pivotal time, as we update our corporate position and message, develop and execute a renewed global brand strategy and launch major new products and solutions. Eric will be tasked with more closely integrating the global communications team with broader marketing initiatives and the company’s overall business strategy. A critical objective will be to set the communications agenda and drive Yahoo!’s message to our various constituencies–the media, analysts, consumers, employees, and key industry influencers who create buzz and can have a significant impact on how our brand is perceived.

Eric is a Silicon Valley communications veteran with 18 years of tech experience. Most recently, Eric and I collaborated at NetApp, where he spent the last nine years helping to transform the company into a multibillion dollar global enterprise. As Vice President of Corporate Relations, Eric managed a large global team and strategic communications program. He was the core communications executive responsible for the company’s recent revamp of brand strategy and execution. He also played a significant communications role in helping the company gain recognition by Fortune magazine as the “Best Company to Work for in America” in 2009. Prior to NetApp, Eric was the head of PR for Adaptec responsible for B2B, brand and consumer communications, and held additional leadership positions in both corporate and agency environments.

On a personal note, Eric’s partner’s name is Scot, he has a Pomeranian named Clio, a passion for cooking and travel, and a self-described “bad habit of eating ice cream in bed while reading my Kindle and surfing the web.”

Eric will join us in early July, so please join me in giving him a warm welcome. I look forward to his leadership contributions in this vitally important role at Yahoo!.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090602/yahoo-gets-new-pr-head-from-netapp-the-internal-memo-natch/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20090202/yahoo-pr-head-jill-nash-to-depart-the-company/ http://allthingsd.com/20090202/yahoo-pr-head-jill-nash-to-depart-the-company/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:44:21 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=9289

Jill Nash, Yahoo’s chief communications officer, has told CEO Carol Bartz and other Yahoo staff this afternoon that she is leaving the company.

Yahoo has not made Nash’s resignation official, but is likely to do so quickly as Bartz tries to stanch incessant leaks (like this one; see below!).

In any case, sources said Nash does not appear to have any definite plans to move to another company immediately, so the reasons for her departure are unclear.

BoomTown would have to guess that Nash is simply completely spent from her past two years at Yahoo (YHOO), which have been very fraught from a public relations perspective, to say the least.

Nash, who was hired by former CEO Terry Semel, has had to deal with everything from management turmoil, after Semel was replaced by co-founder Jerry Yang, to poor financial results to a nasty takeover attempt by Microsoft (MSFT) to an even less friendly proxy fight to a failed search deal with Google (GOOG) to recent wrenching layoffs.

Not much good news to report, in other words, especially with a tough turnaround road ahead with newly installed CEO Bartz, who seems to have a very strong mind of her own about public relations.

(Including, several sources tell me, this week in an internal memo, offering cash rewards to employees who turn in other employees who leak to the press. Bartz has also initiated investigations to stop leaks. All I can say about these tactics–while it might seem reasonable to try to stop the leaking, from a management perspective, and I see why Bartz is focusing on it–is: Yahoo is not a prison and its employees are not snitches and–more to the point–they won’t leak to me if Bartz fixes the company.)

While I have not always seen eye-to-eye with Nash on this column’s coverage of Yahoo, I have found her to be a pro to deal with and fair, especially considering the often tense circumstances at Yahoo in the last year.

Nash is not the first top Yahoo exec to depart since Bartz got to Yahoo in mid-January and will not likely be the last, as the new CEO carves out her own path and chooses the team she wants.

Many Yahoos have told me, not for attribution and at all levels of the company, that they are bone-tired of the long-term struggle the company has been engaged in and want to move on, even in this weak economic climate.

Last week, this column reported the departures of Zimbra co-founder Satish Dharmaraj and marketing exec Eric Hadley, neither of which was necessarily due to Bartz’s arrival.

Now it’s Nash’s turn to say goodbye. According to Yahoo’s Web site, her duties were to lead its outward-facing efforts.

It reads, in part: “As a key member of the Yahoo! executive team, Nash will be responsible for the company’s worldwide communications efforts, including public and media relations, corporate reputation, corporate, financial and employee communications, and crisis and issues management.”

Nash came to Yahoo from the Gap, where she was the VP of global corporate communications. Previous to that, she worked at Charles Schwab (SCHW), KPMG and Transamerica Life.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090202/yahoo-pr-head-jill-nash-to-depart-the-company/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20081113/is-social-media-killing-pr-or-maybe-vice-versa/ http://allthingsd.com/20081113/is-social-media-killing-pr-or-maybe-vice-versa/#comments Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:03:05 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=6451

Last night, BoomTown was at the Horn Group offices in San Francisco to appear on a panel called “Is Social Media Killing PR?”

Focused on the “future of the media ecosystem,” it was moderated by Media Survey’s Sam Whitmore. Besides me, the other panelists were the Horn Group’s Susan Etlinger and Jeremiah Owyang, a Web strategist with Forrester Research.

The panel topic was inspired by recent blog rants by Jason Calacanis, Robert Scoble and Michael Arrington, all of whom have taken potshots at the PR industry as unnecessary or broken in the new social media order.

Of course, as was the intent, their pieces caused a teapot-tempest in the sector, although I said at the start of the panel that I was not so sure that PR folks should bite at this particular bait from a trio of bloggers well known for liking to start controversial debates.

In any case, it was a good discussion to a packed audience about what the implications of social media are for the PR business–essentially, fewer press releases and more Twitters!

My take was that as much as things have changed, little actually has and that social media were not going to turn a weak pitch into a strong one.

All that counted a decade ago were good products and solid start-ups–and that is all that still counts today.

And, in fact, with all the social tools PR folks now have, it is easier than ever for them and companies to go right around the gatekeepers of the media directly to customers.

Here’s a short video I did at the event:

[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081113/is-social-media-killing-pr-or-maybe-vice-versa/feed/ 9 http://allthingsd.com/20080822/verizon-searches-for-google/ http://allthingsd.com/20080822/verizon-searches-for-google/#comments Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:00:59 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=3774

[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20080822/verizon-searches-for-google/feed/ 0