You can try emailing the new editor, Keith O’Brien, but I’m guessing he, too, is feeling his way as editor.

I’m not sure what else they can do at this point.

I know this isn’t a “current” topic anymore, but it’s something I’m still dealing with. I’m very worried about my personal information floating out there in cyberspace.

I emailed Julia Hood weeks ago, and she said she would have her executive team “look into it.” Since then I have sent a few more follow up emails which have gone unanswered. I’m pretty sure I’m being ignored.

I don’t want to drag anyone through the dirt, but I’m pretty sure the only reason B.L. Ochman received priority treatment is because she has a strong internet PR presence, and I feel that Julia and PRWeek are ignoring me because I can’t do as much damage to her brand. What should I do?

Bad news travels fast and it is nice to have an open line of communication with the people who spread the word. Better yet, they will know they have an open line of communication so they feel comfortable calling you to get both sides of the story.

Meanwhile, my calls to the PR office reached only a clueless intern who had no idea what was going on or how to fix it, but didn’t think it was such a big deal.

I finally managed to set up a block on my incoming e-mail to filter out all of this junk, and eventually got myself permanently removed from this guy’s e-mail list. Meanwhile, however, I had multiple copies of an outstanding set of e-mail addresses for movers and shakers here in L.A., none of whom probably wanted their information shared in this way!

There was no follow-up of any kind from this PR firm. In these pre-blog days, the incident probably faded into obscurity.

GLB

The way this was handled by PR Week and particularly by Adicio was insipid. I just kept calling PR Week editors until I got the very nice Keith O”Brien on the phone. He told he that he reads my blog and respects my work and he gave said they had not a clue about a fix for Mac. He genuinely tried to help, but of course he’s an editor, not an IT person. Where were haymarket’s IT people? Who knows?

Adicio people were soon hiding behind voicemail, and when I did get the general manager on the phone he promised to call me back and never did. And they didn’t pull the plug on the damn emails for at least a day because they kept on coming. Simply stupid behavior.

I told everyone I spoke to at PR Week and Adicio that I was twittering the events, names and numbers live,and that I would be blogging about the “incident.”

Julia Hood told me to call Microsoft but didn’t offer to pay for the assistance. She said there was nothing they could do, it was just a “mistake.” But surely someone approved that email and should have seen that they were sending to an OPEN list. And if they didn’t, well, why not?

I waited almost a whole day before I blogged about the situation because I really wanted PR Week or Adicio to solve the problem.

But then frustrated recipients of the email started to hit “reply to all” with their take on what was happening, and before you knew it, there were tens of thousands more mails floating around.

The real damage to PR Week and Adicio.com comes in search engines as the news spreads. I did my level best in the two posts I wrote to be sure they come up in the top 10 results for Adicio and PR Week, and as of today, my posts are moving on up. They’re not going away, nor are the posts other people are writing and search optimizing their posts, comments, etc.

So, no matter what lame excuses PR Week gives in their paper, PR Week blew it. People make mistakes. And other people can either compound them or fix them.

If PR Week had apologized prominently and genuinely and transparently IMMEDIATELY people would have had warmer feelings toward them. Now PR Week and Adicio can examine their asses off, but the bad will remains from thousands of people and their friends and acquaintances.