Foote Communications LLC

Foote Communications LLC is a multi-media company, specializing in public relations, internet, multicultural marketing and political strategy and messaging.

The company’s principal, Neil Foote, developed, managed and coordinated the public relations for the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show, BlackAmericaWeb.com and the Tom Joyner Foundation.

With more than 25 years of media experience, Foote Communications helps you stay on the right path with your marketing, digital media and public relation’s needs.

Take a tour of the website and learn more about how we have solutions for your media needs: Public Relations, Internet Solutions, Multicultural Marketing, Political Strategy & Messaging.

 Creative. Strategic. Experienced.  Foote Communications LLC.  Always there for you … 

WEB TRENDS

• Immediacy:  Today’s newspaper readers and TV watchers live in the land of immediacy:  they want the information/news NOW and don’t want to wait for the 6 o’clock news or tomorrow morning’s newspaper.  Media organizations are trying to get news and information to readers as fast as they can using multiple forms of media.
• The keyword is “user-driven content”:  Blogs are among the hottest items that are readers/viewers to post their own content, and discuss the articles and hot issues at hand. This form of  participatory journalism is changing the traditional method of ‘top down’ journalism where editors and reporters solely dictated what was news.  Blogs are online diaries where writers can post their random comments. Many news sites are now incorporating them in their websites, and many news websites are requiring their reporters to host their blogs tied to their beats. The jury is still out how blogs are being received by the 25 – 54 age demo, but they are the hottest thing among the 13 – 25 year old demo… (Check out http://xanga.com to find millions of blogs out there or go to Technorati, http://technorati.com to get  stats on bloggers.)
• Podcasting:  You, too, can be a broadcaster.   If you have a computer, a microphone, you can produce and post your own newscast, commentary, advice column.  …  Go to http://podcast.net  to find a tutorial on how to create and post your own podcasts.  These downloadable audio programs can be uploaded via iTunes and posted in the Podcast Directory, allowing users to subscribe to them for free and download them to their iPods or other Mp3 players.
• Mobile mania: Cell phones have become ubiqitious.  So now media organizations and cell phone companies are joining forces to provide content – from headlines to mini-newscasts – accessible via your cellphone.  e.g. Verizon’s V-cast…. Miami Herald’s ’5 minute news cast’.  Text-based marketing and promotional campaigns are becoming a frequent tool used by reality shows to drive viewers and increase viewers time watching primetime programming.

What Students Need to Know To Succeed in the Digital Age

* The Fundamentals:  Strong writing and reporting/researching still prevail.

* Become tech savvy: Beyond just knowing how to be a savvy reporter knowing how to ask the right questions, today’s reporters will have a huge advantage if they are comfortable using a digital a recorder, a digital still and/or video camera and a photo scanner.

* Become a student of the web: Know what the trends are and understand what the hottest new sites are.  If you already have a MySpace or Facebook page, you already are in the web publishing business, and you should challenge yourself to learn as much about how to use all of the free web tools to create a very dynamic and interactive page. 

* Learn Spanish, Chinese or Farsi.

What Black Colleges (Historically Black Colleges & Universities- HBCUs) Need to Know About Preparing their Students for Careers in Media:

* Hold onto to the foundation, but open your minds to the new world….the  digital era is here, and your students needs to become armed if they are going to get employed at a media company.  Remember, the days of  ‘newspapers’ or ‘television’ stations are over! Its’ all about convergence!
* Invest in your students by investing in upgrading your students’ equipment. Consider corporate sponsorship to revolutionize your academic environment
* Invest in your faculty:  Send them to conferences that deal with issues beyond traditional journalism
* Attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas to see what the latest trends are. - Feb 2006

Less than two weeks ago, Dr. Donda West stridently advised a seminar of single parents/students at Atlanta’s Spelman College, “Know who you are and where you are going.”

Now, she is  dead in Los Angeles at the age of 58.

West, wearing a crisp white suit, was the keynote speaker at the Nov. 2 Single Parent
Student Summit, sponsored by Denny’s and the Tom Joyner Foundation.  West joined
syndicated radio personality Tom Joyner, Nelson Marchioli, president and CEO of Denny’s, and several others to offer advice and inspiration to the students at the Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center.  Earlier in the day, Joyner and Denny’s announced the restaurant chain’s $80,000 sponsorship of the Foundation’s single parent scholarship. 

Myra J.,  a personality from the Tom Joyner Morning Show, who offers her tips for single mothers every Monday, hosted the event.  The other featured speakers were Ericka Dunlap, Miss America 2004, Rev. Charles White, deputy chief of field operations for the NAACP, and Debra Smithart-Oglesby, chair of Denny’s board of directors.

West reminisced about her days working at Spelman, and later at Morris Brown College.  She worked in the admissions office at Morris Brown as a recruiter, and later as an English professor.  She met Ray West, a photojournalist, who later became her husband and the father of  successful recording artist, Kanye.  She recalled how she and Ray divorced after Kanye was about 18 months, but she has now regrets.

“I look back at those days and wonder how I made it,” she said. “I’d have to decide whether to pay my light bill or my gas bill.  … I knew I would make it because my mom was feisty.  We grew up in Oklahoma City … and I remember she was the kind of woman who didn’t let anything get to her.  She’d take me into the ‘whites only’ bathroom or drink form the ‘whites only’ water fountain and just wait for someone to say something.”

The bespectacled West fumbled with her notes throughout her presentation and kept a
watchful eye on a colleague who kept track of her time for her. As she apologized for taking a bit longer than the time alloted, West remained focused on completing her speech.

West urged single parents to stay in contact with the father or mother of their children.  Then she offered then tips:

1) Know who you are and where you’re going. 
2) Don’t let nobody stand in your way. “Get the terrible toilers out of your way. 
Surround yourself with positive people.”
3) Expect the best, but always be prepared for the worse.
4) Determine early on who and what is important to you.  “Growing up I never said I
wanted children.  So I set out to be parent there was and be the best parent you
could be. .. I was passionate about being a mother. … Find your support and reach
out.  And you’l be surprised how people will reach back.” West recalled something her father told her, “We’ll make a her a masterpiece.”   “Be conscious of what you say to your children because they remember everything you say.”
5) Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
6) Don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. When doors are shut in your face, open another
door.
7) Be passionate and get fired up.  Find out what your passion is and do it. Do
whatever you need to get what you want.
8) Have no fear.  “Every time fear raises its ugly head, push it down,” she said
motioning with her hand in a downward direction. “That’s right push it down.”
9) In all y getting get understanding.  “I don’t know if that’s in the Bible or not, but
get into your kids heads.  Make them talk to you.  Make a connection with them.
Your kids will always be your kids; get tight with them.  Remember, your spouse
may not always be your spouse, but your kids will always be your kids.”
10) Have unshakeable faith.  “Don’t have any doubts.”

(Originally posted 9/19/07 on DigitalMediaCrashCourse.com) 

Three weeks ago, most of the major national media ignored the story of six black teenagers charged with attempted second-degree murder of a white classmate.  Meanwhile, for nearly a year, black radio and the black press have covered this story on a regular basis. 

Now, as an estimated 20,000-plus descend on this rural town of 2,971 residents, media from around the world are camping out. They’re poised for live shots that will take place throughout the day tomorrow – Sept. 20 – a day that will become a benchmark in America’s 21st Century race relations. 

It’s a sort of ‘Back to the Future’ day when Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. – if he were alive – would wonder where did he go wrong.  How could a country that has come so far still struggle with how to deal with racial tension and animosity?  While King won’t be there physically, his son, Martin Luther King III, the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse L Jackson will be there – with many others.

What’s the big deal about the Jena 6 case?  The storyline, the sound bites and the circumstances take this country back 5o years when King led marches to Selma and Montgomery.  LaSalle Parish police already have called in additional police enforcement.  Just like the old black and white news footage from our not so distant past,  you can just see the streets lined with uniformed officers as the mainly young, black faces walk through the tiny town that wishes it had never been discovered.

Since September 2006, the tension has been mounting; all the diatribes  have cast an ugly shadow on America: Nooses on a tree; teenagers tried as adults and shackled like slaves; nationally recognized civil rights leaders rallying their loyal bases to hop buses to stand up for their civil rights. ”Come on family,” shouts out talk show host Michael Baisden to his listeners. “This is a Journey to Jena.  This is about family standing together as one.”  Black radio standing tall as mainstream media focuses on O.J. Simpson, Michael Vick and whether Kanye West or 50 Cent sold more singles.

Tom Joyner,  Baisden, Rickey Smiley  and Al Sharpton have taken to the radio airwaves to use their platforms and influence to spread the word – to create a forum for blacks to express their points of view because no one seems to be listening.  Just like in the Sixties, international press – like the BBC - have trekked to a Deep South town to tell the story about civil injustice from a country that flaunts its self-described moral superiority championing freedom and human in words only.

Is this just a photo op for King III, Sharpton and  Jackson? Is this just another media circus because the media have grown bored of the deadly drone of the Iraq War?  Is this just a slight pause before the media head to Vegas to see what happens next to O.J.?

The hope is that most media will look at this Jena story as a small part of how blacks and whites view this country so differently.  The hope is with a black person running seriously to become president of the United States, the country has shown maturity and sophistication.  The hope is that the media – black and mainstream – will shed light on the on-going racial tensions that are happening in the small towns and big cities throughout this country. 

Dr. King’s ‘Where Do We Go from Here’ speech in August 1967 said it best, and quite honestly, his words ring true today:

“Where do go from here?”

Now, in order to answer the question, “Where do we go from here?” which is our theme, we must first honestly recognize where we are now. When the Constitution was written, a strange formula to determine taxes and representation declared that the Negro was 60 percent of a person. Today another curious formula seems to declare he is 50 percent of a person. Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half those of whites. Of the bad things of life, he has twice those of whites. Thus half of all Negroes live in substandard housing. And Negroes have half the income of whites. When we view the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share. There are twice as many unemployed. The rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites and there are twice as many Negroes dying in Vietnam as whites in proportion to their size in the population.

In other spheres, the figures are equally alarming. In elementary schools, Negroes lag one to three years behind whites, and their segregated schools receive substantially less money per student than the white schools. One twentieth as many Negroes as whites attend college. Of employed Negroes, 75 percent hold menial jobs.

This is where we are. Where do we go from here? First, we must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amidst a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassailable and majestic sense of values. We must no longer be ashamed of being black. The job of arousing manhood within a people that have been taught for so many centuries that they are nobody is not easy.

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Neil Foote, Foote Communications, neil@neilfoote.com

(Los Angeles –  August 21st, 2007) Comedian J. Anthony Brown, known for his quick wit as co-host of the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show, will unveil his new line of men’s clothing at the MAGIC Show, the largest apparel show in the world.

Brown, co-host on the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show, will be exhibiting at Booth ME 0853 in the Men’s Category at the

“Let me tell you,” Brown says, “these are my original designs and there’s nothing out there like this.  I’m really happy how everything turned out.  The colors and designs are bold and are intended to stand out above the crowd. I’ve paid particular attention to the detail, and I’ve added the specially designed cufflinks and watches as accessories.

”The Magic Show will be held at the

Brown’s stylish, high-fashioned suits are available now at selected retailers around the country and via his website – http://www.thejspotstore.com/suit_collection.html.During the past several years, Brown has exhibited at the February and August MAGIC Shows, which are billed as the world’s largest and most recognized trade shows for the apparel industry.Brown is available for interviews at his booth on August 27th – August 30^th, as well as for phone interviews. 

To interview Brown and learn more about new projects, contact Neil Foote at 214.448.3765 or neil@neilfoote.com.

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