The Week in PR

Friendlier Skies: Aiming to put its crisis behind it as quickly as possible, United Airlines said it settled “amicably” with injured passenger Dr. David Dao for an undisclosed sum April 27. In what appeared to be a well-coordinated chain of events that day, United released an 11-page report to media early enough so it could be in that morning’s papers. The package came complete with quotes from an extremely remorseful CEO Oscar Munoz who uttered what has to be considered one of the all-time great understatements: “Our review shows that many things went wrong that day.” There also was a conciliatory email to passengers that day. The report lays out policy changes designed to eliminate the chances of a situation similar to the Dao affair reoccurring. To demonstrate further that the incident sparked “a culture shift toward becoming a better, more customer-focused airline,” as the Munoz letter to passengers says, United also unveiled a no-questions-asked policy on permanently lost luggage, including $1,500 in payment. The next day, April 28, United was set to employ a policy that increases compensation for passengers who voluntarily leave a flight to as much as $10,000. Perhaps not coincidentally, these changes were made public prior to May 2, when Munoz will face lawmakers on Capitol Hill during a hearing on airline consumer issues. Clearly United remembers the lesson now-ousted Wells Fargo chief John Stumpf learned from legislators: A recalcitrant attitude doesn’t work.

Ripple Effect? Southwest Airlines says it was studying a policy to end overbooking for several years. OK, but the United situation made a move expeditious. Southwest said Apr. 27 it no longer will overbook flights. The policy will begin sometime this month, perhaps as early as May 8. Meanwhile United responded properly to the death of a giant bunny that was being transported in the cargo hold on one of its Chicago-London flights. The bunny’s death “saddened” the airline, which promised an investigation.

Internal Communications? Not. As W magazine’s Adriana Stan says in our lead story this week, there’s no longer a distinction between internal and external communications. What you communicate internally eventually will go public. Sports network ESPN is a case in point. For months stories floated in the media that ESPN was preparing to drop the ax on personnel in its 1,000-member on-camera corps. The numbers varied from 40 to 70. Even the red-letter date was out there: April 26. When the date arrived last week, ESPN figured chief John Skipper’s letter to employees would leak anyhow, so the sports leader went directly to the public and posted the missive to its media site. While the letter avoided the words “layoffs” or “job cuts,” its message was received. “We will implement changes in our talent lineup this week,” Skipper wrote. Besides discussing ESPN’s revised content strategy, Skipper noted, “a limited number of other positions will also be affected…” Presumably that means off-camera jobs. Skipper failed to mention a specific number of layoffs, though. Fear not, as trade pubs used the Skipper letter to anchor their reports, several also tapped sources to put the layoff figure at 100. Indeed, some of ESPN’s best reporters were cut. Since PR people trade in news, the same currency as reporters, it was a sad day in our sector, too.

Deals and Expansion: 3BL Media acquired CR Magazine from SharedXpertise Media LLC. 3BL also will manage the Corporate Responsibility Association. PRN Pro friend Dave Armon, 3BL’s CMO, will become CEO of the Corporate Responsibility Board LLC, the new 3BL Media division housing CR Magazine. – Cutler PRdoubled its team and relocated to NY’s Berkeley Building, 19 West 44th Street.

People: FleishmanHillard named Geoff Bilbrough GM, Hong Kong operations. Bilbrough was deputy GM/SVP for the past four years. He will report to Rachel Catanach, senior partner and president, greater China. 12-year veteran Patrick Yu (picture on page 1) was named deputy GM. – Porter Novelli named Alicia Thompson managing director of its Atlanta office. The former Edelman and Coca-Cola executive will report to N America president Jennifer Swint. – Lippe Taylor added Jennifer O’Neill to its ranks, naming her healthcare practice leader, a new position. She joins following a 13-year tenure with inVentive Health. – Congrats to one of the finest communicators we know, Sena Fitzmaurice of Comcast, who was promoted to SVP, government communications, April 28. – KNOCK named Jillian Froehlich VP, head of digital. She comes from Fallon, where she was director of social and digital strategy. – Phelps named Tony Stern chief creative officer, succeeding Howie Cohen, who’s retiring after a five-decade career that included creating iconic Alka-Seltzer ads such as “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.”