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Tesla dissolves its PR department

electrek.co

21–30 of 139 posts

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#21

Good for them. Why do we need a biased filter (journalists) between customer and company.if it is damage recovery journalists and their employers can be easily bought for cash.in this world of direct communication it would be childish to assume papers and journalists are still relevant

Ironically, the content of this article exists because of journalism.

Business reporting ≠ journalism.

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#23

Good for them. Why do we need a biased filter (journalists) between customer and company.if it is damage recovery journalists and their employers can be easily bought for cash.in this world of direct communication it would be childish to assume papers and journalists are still relevant

On the same thought, why do politicians talk to journalists either? For example Trump doesn't trust them... so why does he talk to them at all? Why not just stop inviting the press in? Why not just present your own releases direct to consumer/elector via your website and social media?

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#25

Good for them. Why do we need a biased filter (journalists) between customer and company.if it is damage recovery journalists and their employers can be easily bought for cash.in this world of direct communication it would be childish to assume papers and journalists are still relevant

Elon, is that you? (J/k)

Firstly, this was Tesla’s PR team, not journalists. As a company, you’d think they would want people whose role is to talk to the public (consumers or journalists), as people not trained in that capacity doing so can quickly get you into trouble. One misstep can get you a visit from the SEC or cost you market share. Given Musk’s history of foot-in-mouth disease, this seems like a pretty awful business move.

Secondly, though your point about journalists and papers isn’t really hyper-relevant to having a pr team: journalists do the job of a) filtering out the noise (useless info), b) filtering out the lies from corporations, government, or people, c) investigating issues of public interest, and d) alerting the public when these issues are important or problematic. While individuals could do this themselves, we don’t all have the time, and it makes sense to have people who do this professionally (and better). The role of the free press has been this for a long time, and the calls against the press are a coordinated strategy by groups whose interests are opposed to knowledge being in public hands and who fear being investigated.

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#26

Good for them. Why do we need a biased filter (journalists) between customer and company.if it is damage recovery journalists and their employers can be easily bought for cash.in this world of direct communication it would be childish to assume papers and journalists are still relevant

Because trust, I seen yesterday some customer reporting a dangerous Tesla quality issue on reddit and it was "attacked" by fanboys and strong evidence was requested. If a journalist would like to report this problem then you would probably like Tesla to have some competent person to respond but seems you prefer the "Tesla did not responds to journalists anymore".

Btw I am referring to this post https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/j595ns/so_tesl... , it was stickied yesterday and I think is legit.

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#27
post #2

Can someone with experience with this help me understand the point of a PR team to talk to press? As an outsider, it just looks like another form of marketing—-never confirm or deny anything and just put out press releases that are filled with business jargon. And when it’s actual a sticky situation, any communication is going to be drafted by legal or execs. Maybe I’m wrong though.

It's great to talk to a press if the press has goals aligned with the company: make people more aware of a product / service. As an example my girlfriend wrote a book, she talked to the press about it, which made interesting content for the newspaper and the radio, and got some recognition in return for free. But as Tesla doesn't pay for advertising (unlike its ICE competitors), the incentives are not aligned, so Tes…

> It's great to talk to a press if the press has goals aligned with the company: make people more aware of a product / service.

It's also great to talk to the press when the story and the company's goals DON'T align. If a company is being investigated or impacted in some negative way, then not commenting looks worse on them.

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#29
"There are obviously still people arranging test-drive promotions for YouTubers but their role isn’t in a traditional public relations capacity."

Remember when people used to say Tesla doesn't do marketing?

The last few years of Tesla has been quite sobering for myself as I had my worldview flipped upside down. With Elon/Tesla, as more information has come out with time, it's been disenchanting.

I was sold a capitalist trying to save the environment by making a car affordable to the masses who is also going to have humans on Mars in a few months. I was inspired, now I'm disgusted in myself for believing it.

Re: Tesla dissolves its PR department

#30

Good for them. Why do we need a biased filter (journalists) between customer and company.if it is damage recovery journalists and their employers can be easily bought for cash.in this world of direct communication it would be childish to assume papers and journalists are still relevant

On the same thought, why do politicians talk to journalists either? For example Trump doesn't trust them... so why does he talk to them at all? Why not just stop inviting the press in? Why not just present your own releases direct to consumer/elector via your website and social media?

In the same vein (in a vastly different field), Nintendo stopped going to industry-wide events and started their own press releases directly to consumers instead - Nintendo Directs. It's been a few years now so seem to be successful, though I confess I'm not that big of a gaming enthusiast as I was before.
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