Danny Sullivan

King Tides Hit Newport Beach: Before & After

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Yesterday, today and tomorrow, what are known as “king tides” are occurring. These are exceptionally high tide caused by how both the sun and the moon pull on the water. In my city of Newport Beach, they’ve pushed the harbor to extremes. Today, we had flooding in a few places. It would have been far worse […]

What’s A Fair Market Rate For Newport Harbor Residential Piers?

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Next Tuesday, the Newport Beach City Council meets again about assessing fair market rental rates on residential docks. But what’s the fair market rate for space over pubic waters that’s unlikely to be rented to anyone but the adjacent property owner? That’s a key question I’ve had in the current debate over proposed increases. Newport […]

Bad PR Pitch #1: “Open To A Conversation?”

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In hopes of improving the often sad state of PR pitches, I’m beginning a series dissecting the bad one I get. I’ll start with the “conversation” pitch. This one almost always goes in the trash. “Would you be open to a conversation with….” “I’d be happy to coordinate a conversation….” “Would you’d be interested in a conversation with….” No, […]

Filed Under: PR

You Can’t Watch SNL’s Hilarious “Downton Abbey” Sketch Legally Online, So NBCUniversal Pirates Itself

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All I wanted to do was share a funny “Downton Abbey Meets Spike TV” skit that was on Saturday Night Live this week. Unfortunately, there’s no authorized version of the sketch online from NBCUniversal. That made me hesitate, but apparently it wasn’t a problem for iVillage, an NBCUniversal-owned site. Nor was it an issue for Time, […]

Dear Rupert Murdoch: Let’s Talk Piracy & “The Simpsons”

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Rupert, my son had a simple request. “Daddy, can we watch last week’s episode of The Simpsons?” No, son, we can’t. You can blame Rupert Murdoch for that. Rupert, I know you’re all upset about all those SOPA & PIPA protests last week. Why, without them, how will you keep all your shows from being […]