Big City Public Relations

Zack Germroth, APR

• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781977233127
• eBook ISBN: 9781977272515
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Public Relations
• Index: Business

Big City Public Relations: Real PR Experiences + Lessons Learned

Through 30-plus episodes, author Zack Germroth covers PR strategies, media relations and crisis communication. Each experience ends with "Lessons Learned."

Big City Public Relations replays the largest implosion in the western hemisphere attracting 50, 000 onlookers and national media, to a collapsing TV infrastructure, the closing of the Preakness, and a "most wanted" suspect pursuit by 100 police officers.

The author served Baltimore's dual housing agencies with some 2, 000 employees. The 10 most troubling landlords and demolishing 10, 000 row homes were also topics for the thousands of media stories he handled. While wearing the Public Relations Director's hat, he also served as the Public Information Officer (PIO) for "Housing's" 35-officer police force.

Chapters 1 through 4 set the scene, and chapters 5 through 32 each replay in detail a PR/media-heavy episode: some were picture-perfect; others needed extensive hands-on mitigation.

Three contributing PIOs from Fire, Police, and Public Works detail one of their agencies' national-news-making episodes.

If you're a PR practitioner, student or teacher; city employee or resident; someone who may occasionally respond to the media, or just curious about PR in a big city, you may enjoy this Big City Public Relations tour covering 14 years.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• About the Author
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: Let’s Take a Tour, Put on Your PR Hats and Buckle-Up
• Chapter 2: Setting the Scene, Part A
• Chapter 3: One of the Toughest Jobs in the City: Demolition
• Chapter 4: Part A: Demolition, The Need
• Chapter 5: How Baltimore Became City of “ECHO’s” With Some Help From Chicago
• Chapter 6: Unique Baltimore Fishing Contest Goes Round-the-World: It Only Took 12-inch, 1-pounder to Win
• Chapter 7: Storm From Nowhere Rips Houses Apart, While Uniting Workers and Neighborhoods
• Chapter 8: Human Termites Stripped Houses For Profit, City Approached Problem from Horse, Cart, and Barn Perspectives
• Chapter 9: Special Events That Did Not Go Exactly As Planned
• Chapter 10: Hot Roding in TV Station’s Truck While Pursuing Notorious Landlord
• Chapter 11: Rats Eating Car Engines and Other Horrifying Stories!
• Chapter 12: Housing Authority Worker Cooking Books and Appliances
• Chapter 13: Bomb Squads Unite! Blowing Things Up For Practice
• Chapter 14: Building-scaling Suspect Eludes 100-plus Officers and FBI
• Chapter 15: The PR Beep Goes On
• Chapter 16: “Demolition Hell Week” Merges Into Demolition Done Right (Note to Readers: You Might Want to Wear Your Safety Hard Hats While Reading This Chapter.)
• Chapter 17: Massive Demolitions Key to Neighborhoods’ Success Allowed City to Open Home-buying Incentive Doors And Media to Come Along for Ride
• Chapter 18: Who’s Keeping Out Whom With $1 Million Fence? Hollander Ridge Creates Media Frenzy, Quelled by Rescued Sex Slaves
• Chapter 19: Hollander Ridge Shooting Suspect Disappears: We Had Trouble
• Chapter 20: Landlords: Some Were Slumlords, Drug Lords, Others Were in Our House
• Chapter 21: Baltimore’s Movies, TV Sets, Lights, Cameras, Action Is it “Ballywood?”
• Chapter 22: Homeless Meet Car-less Assistant Secretary We All Get Welcomed Ride From Baltimore Sun
• Chapter 23: Disabled Robbery Victim… Well Almost
• Chapter 24: Murphy Homes Falls, The Terraces Opens: Both Made Housing History
• Chapter 25: History-making Media Day, When “Baltimore’s TV Broadcasting” Became the Headline
• Chapter 26: Three Police Mini-episodes: New Years Celebrants Shooting Y2k Devils, Buying Guns for Safety, and Police Beat
• Chapter 27: Thanksgiving Delayed: Officer Shooting Takes Place Among Questionable Witnesses
• Chapter 28: “Hold Your Horses?” 2nd Jewel in Triple Crown, Nearly Misses Leaving Gate for 125th Running
• Chapter 29: Bye-Bye Broadway: Baltimore’s Tallest Comes Down
• Chapter 30: Timeline of a Failed High-rise Development: From Conception to Implosion, Flag House Courts
• Chapter 31: Christmas Provides Package of News Homeless Get Moved, HUD Comes to Rescue, Unexpected Holiday “Gift” on “Housing’s Doorstep”
• Chapter 32: “Bomb” Drops in Historic Fells Point, Housing Commissioner Spends Night in “Slammer”
• Epilogue Housing’s Doors Close, Others Open Housing Commissioner Episode Was Not on My Calendar, PIO Experience Can Lead to Calls For Your Expertise
• Police: Foxtrot Copter Down by Police Department PIO Rob Weinhold
• Fire: The Tunnel Fire by Fire Department PIO Hector Torres
• Feature Item: Recommended Reading