Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Glass-half-full PR, economic crisis edition

We got a press release today that starts like this:

FLATS PROJECT TO MOVE FORWARD
Developers say Flats East Bank will happen, despite troubling economic times, but work to be temporarily suspended

Note how that last clause contains the real news, and it how totally contradicts the headline.

The journalist-cynic in me wants to rewrite it. But the wordsmith in me marvels at its nouveau-Depression tenacity, its Believe-In-Cleveland, ISG-forged-steel resolve in the face of a global credit seize-up.

In the rest of the release, developer Scott Wolstein, Mayor Frank Jackson, and the would-be development's top prospective tenants pledge they're still committed to the project, which they hope will get financed when the credit markets "return to some level of normalcy," as Wolstein puts it.

Kudos to local PR professional Nancy Lesic, the release's contact person and presumed author.

Actually, I can't resist rewriting it:
FLATS PROJECT WORK SUSPENDED
Developer insists Flats East Bank project will happen, despite company's debt and faltering stock price

Here's the Plain Dealer's rewrite:
Flats East Bank project put on hold
Work on the $522 million Flats East Bank project has been suspended, and the credit crisis raises questions as to whether the long-awaited development will happen.

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