Intel's 'press conference'

So who tries to control the media more firmly, the Chinese government or U.S. companies operating in China? I'll let you decide. This is a story in two parts. Here is part one.

As I mentioned then, Intel’s CEO is arriving in China this weekend for a press conference next Monday in the Great Hall of the People, the huge venue on Tiananmen Square.

Word is that Intel may announce a huge investment in Dalian, the seaside city in northeast China, perhaps the biggest high-tech investment yet by a U.S. company in China.

I was planning to go to the press conference. So I had my office assistant Linda Fan look into who was handling press relations. She found that it was the local office of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. She wrote an email to the Ogilvy person in charge.

To my surprise, Ogilvy wrote her back and suggested that there isn’t enough space for all the journalists who want to attend, so I won’t be getting an invitation. Here’s the email:

Hi Linda,

My name is Calvin Tchiang, I work with Dustie at Ogilvy PR in Beijing.

I was writing to thank you for your interest in Intel and our press conference.

At this time, we are out of spaces for media, due to the restrictions the Great Hall of the People puts on our event. I hope you can understand, we would love to have you.

I will make sure you recieve our news release for this event and you are on our announcement list for future Intel events/announcments.

Looking forward to working with you in the future. :)

Thanks,

Calvin

Calvin Tchiang
Associate
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
Office: +86-10-85206537 

This is curious, isn’t it? Anyone who has been to the Great Hall of the People knows that it can hold many thousands of souls. Was this a mistake? So I wrote to the head of the Ogilvy office. I just got a phone call from another PR person there. The upshot? Can’t go. No way, Jose.

I explained that we have several newspapers in California, including the Sacramento Bee in the state capitol, and that some of our newspaper readers undoubtedly work for Intel. Still nothing.

Part two: Hours after posting the above item, I got a call from an Ogilvy PR person who said that they really had to struggle but they finally found a spot for me on Monday.

Here's part of a follow-up email:

Dear Mr. Tim Johnson,

My name is Calvin Tchiang, from Ogilvy PR Beijing-- enclosed is an invitation to an Intel press conference.

Outside the conference venue, we will have one invitation prepared for your important media outlet, please bring your business card to claim the invitation.

So in the end, I'll be attending. But the whole incident was a healthy reminder that corporations and PR people also do plenty of information control and limiting access to information.

Comments

[Joe Rogan]

I don't see how anyone is controlling information. Isn't this an event for a company announcement? Last I heard, companies can make their announcements whenever they want and invite whoever they want.

Looks like you just weren't important enough.

[Chris]

Maybe it's just me, but Intel seems to be taking little joy in this move. They were mum about the whole thing for two weeks, then this press conference issue. I've read a few reports that Dalian may not have been their first choice, which is interesting, because people here have been talking about it for months, maybe a year. I wonder how much they really like the deal they got.

[Will]

"But the whole incident was a healthy reminder that corporations and PR people also do plenty of information control and limiting access to information."

That we do. And I'd wager that most of us find it the least fulfilling aspect of our jobs. Personally, I'd much rather be making a journalist happy than frustrating him and worrying about how that's going to come back to haunt me. But we don't always get the option.

The good news is that, unlike the Chinese government, we can't detain you and force you to write a self-criticism for writing articles we don't like. Although we may fantasize about it from time to time.

[Phillip]

Kudos on working the system ... but in the interest of full disclosure, have you had any dealings with Ogilvy before, or written negative things about Intel in China? Not to say those are reasons you shouldn't get to go, but they could have contributed to you making second-tier and not first. It's the agency's job to try to put things in their client's favor; it's sometimes the journalist's job to break through that.

[Tim J]

Okay, full disclosure. I have had few dealings with Ogilvy in the past, and only positive. I spoke with the Beijing chief for a story once about why foreign companies, like KFC and Haagen Dazs, keep getting targeted by media. I've never written about Intel before.
In response to Joe H, I don't think importance of the media in this day and age means a lot. We have 32 newspapers in the United States. Consider that little, if you like. And of course, companies by their nature will put their best foot forward in providing information.
But to say that there wasn't enough space at a press conference in the Great Hall of the People was a little over the top. There were probably 200 reporters at that news conference, many of them from local papers in Henan, Sichuan and other outlying provinces.
I prefer that PR people 1) Just say the truth, even if it is, 'You're not the kind of media we are targeting for this event.' And 2) understand that most foreign reporters are not by nature hostile to foreign business interests.
I certainly don't think anyone can find a story of mine that is unduly harsh on foreign business. Only one comes to mind -- a long story on how the Hong Kong manufacturer of Gold Peak batteries at its Dongguan factory was being accused of slowly poisoning hundreds of workers with cadmium.
Now on to Will: Thanks for posting. I enjoy your blog and hope the move to Shanghai goes well. Maybe we'll meet someday.

[Will]

Thanks, Tim. I still pine for Beijing, and look forward to moving back in eighteen months. But in the meantime I'm making the most of Shanghai. I hope we get a chance to meet on one of periodic trips back to the capital.

I've just posted about your experience:
http://tinyurl.com/yrkbjm

I thought it was an interesting lesson for PR people.

[Thomas]

Hi Tim: Did you miss the very sarcastic tone of his comment "we will have one invitation prepared for your important media outlet"? Say it in Chinese, and you will see it drips with reverse-insult syrup.

[C.M. Wade]

Speaking as a former foreign correspondent who covered Shanghai for three years, I can tell you, there ARE efforts by many foreign multinationals to control information on their business activities in China, but not for the reasons that one might assume. Most companies pay Chinese journalists, and pay them well, to attend press conferences. And salaries at the state media are somewhat low by western standards, and ethics scant, so they typically take the pay outs. The reporters go on to write glowing pieces about how much the foriegn companies are investing in the mainland, which gives their bosses (in Zhongnanhai), face. Foriegn reporters, for obvious reasons, don't take the brown envelopes they hand out at these events, and have, myself included, written about this un-ethical marketing practice, and that makes the companies reluctant to invite members of the western media. Just food for thought from an old China hand. It's an amazing country to write about, enjoy it.