Kate Hudson Can Thank the Edit Team for This PR Fail

Good PR is tough work: its often thankless hours are usually spent for another’s glory. There’s the client’s win, of course, but also bragging rights for the journo or outlet that snatched the juicy cover story from its competitors. We don’t need the credit, but perhaps a little respect for our craft would be nice. PRNewsers, consider the following situation and ask yourself how a seasoned publicist would have handled it differently. InStyle ran a cover story about Kate Hudson in its July issue without plugging her new release. Definitely an “oops!” for InStyle, which counts on maintaining good relationships with the celebrity publicists who bring them their cover stars, but was it an “oops!” that demanded a correction? As reported by AdAge, InStyle’s editors thought so: "CORRECTION We regret that in a feature on Kate Hudson in our July issue (p. 169) we did not mention her new dramedy with director Zach Braff, Wish I Was Here (in theaters July 18)," wrote InStyle on the Letters page of the next issue. InStyle Editor Ariel Foxman said Wish I Was Here was inadvertently edited out of an earlier version of the story. The story's editor pointed out the mistake after the issue went to print. That's when they deliberated on the best way to handle the failure to promote. "I said, 'Let's run a correction and let readers know about Kate Hudson's project,'" Mr. Foxman said. "It had been an omission and it was part of the reason Kate Hudson appeared in the issue." As far as Mr. Foxman knows, this is the only time the magazine has "corrected" a missing plug for a project in the six years since he became editor. Ms. Hudson's camp did not request the correction, according to the magazine. Her publicist did not respond to requests for comment. But what about Kate Hudson’s publicist? As any good PR knows, when an “oops!” happens the best comment is often no comment at all.

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Kate Hudson Can Thank the Edit Team for This PR Fail

Claire Daniel

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Claire Daniel