JPG Mag Flap Shows the Weakness of Corporate Communications in a World of Unvarnished Discussion

I’m not one of those zealots who believes every blog is good and every corporate website is bad.

But if you’re in corporate communications, you should review some of the examples of human-to-human communications that’s the norm in blogs and podcasts and take note.

In your travels, you’ll probably come across the vilification of everything corporate. Don’t dismiss this as the ravings of a zealot. There’s a lesson to be learned here.

One reader commented on Derek Powazek’s site this week, explaining why he responded well to Derek’s explanation of the changes at JPG Magazine, and why he found the official response so offensive:

"Your post, and basically all of your work online, is very individual. You write with the voice of a person, a voice of hope, or of hopes dashed in this case, I suppose. Paul’s response was written in the voice of a corporation. The voice of a corporation is a voice of fear. It’s the fear that we might say something wrong, we might betray a weakness if we show our humanity, we might open ourselves to attack by our rivals, so better to say nothing or say as little as possible.

"Fear is poison, and it’s endemic in corporations. It kills the humanity in people. With Paul’s initial response, to me, he showed that the poison, the fear, had taken over from the hope, the humanness, that a Powazek/Champ-fronted JPG projected. Even his lengthier, more personal post on Flickr started out by saying that he had to be careful what he said because he represented the company. The poison runs deep. I have to deal with that poison every day at work. I don’t want to deal with it outside of work. And that’s why I deleted my account, because JPG showed that it was now more about fear than hope.

"… [It] came down to the fact that you wrote from the heart and he didn’t. I have no interest in participating in a community based on fear. The decision to delete my account was easy in the end."

Corporate communications doesn’t have to be cold and impersonal. It doesn’t have to be timid or arrogant. It is possible to tell the stories of your founders, employees, investors, customers, communities and suppliers without reducing everything to the usual mantra of "maximizing shareholder value".

Some corporations are run by cold, impersonal people, so it’s not surprising their communications reflects that.

Other corporations are run by people who understand the impact they have on people. For those companies, it’s important to let that attitude show through in their marketing, communications, customer service, employee communications and investor relations.

I doubt the people running 8020 Publications (JPG Magazine) are cold and impersonal. When an employee "leaves", it’s often difficult to say anything without the risk of a lawsuit that could cripple the company and drain time and energy from running the business. For a more human view of the company’s situation, here’s a response by Jason deFillippo, a former co-worker and friend to Powazek’s damaging public comments about his departure:

"It’s a shitty situation that never needed to happen. All because Derek needed to feed his ego and try and belittle a once close friend. And this is nothing but ego. I don’t care what he blogged. This is nothing but ego. He’s trying to salvage what he can by showing us how mighty and powerful he is by flat out lying about what happened at the end of his stay and turning people against us because he can. It saddens me to no end and I feel utterly betrayed because it’s done nothing to help the community. It’s actively worked to destroy what he claims to love above all else which is hypocrisy to a degree I didn’t think him capable. It’s done nothing to help his friends that are still trying to make JPG a success. It’s all been done to make him feel better.

"Well I hope it worked Derek and I hope you feel better. Because it came at your friend’s expense. Shame on you for it. I will honestly miss having you as a friend. It meant a lot to me but doesn’t seem to matter to you.

"I hope some day I can forgive you but it’s not today and damn you for making me post this."

A lot of the online discussion about this story has been emotional and perhaps overstated. What’s important to note is the complete ineffectiveness of the official company comments, in the face of real people telling their stories.

Previous posts:

• In Defence of "the New JPG Magazine"
• JPG Magazine and Flickr Follow the Digg Route to User Backlash

Tags: communications, business, corporate, personal, distrust, trust, voice, jpg magazine, derek powazek, fear, hope, style