September 15th, 2008 
joel Participants in last week’s poll about the best cable news coverage of the party conventions favored Fox News Channel followed by CNN.
This week’s poll keys off of a discussion that took place a month ago on Peter Panepento’s blog, Outside Erie. In the comments of the post, “Erie’s Flawed Thinking,” George Vietze gives his account of meeting with the City of Erie’s economic development team and learning first hand the accomplishments of various authorities and bureaus at the city that are making progress toward their goals of creating a better community. The discussion led to the opinion that there are many initatives going on at the city level that are never covered by the Erie media, and that someone in the administration skilled in public relations could help the city better get their message out.
Which leads us to this week’s poll. I hope that many reporters on the street are willing to give us their opinions.
Does Erie Mayor Joe Sinnott need a Communications Director?
- Yes...the city needs to better manage its message. (57%, 13 Votes)
- No...he gets the word out about city successes just fine. (43%, 10 Votes)
Total Voters: 23
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If there is no Communications Director then who puts the news on the city website and who puts out the press releases?
The LAST thing the city needs is one more person roaming around city hall. The current staff only needs to do their jobs – and that includes more effective communications.
Erie area which has incredible demographcs that has attracted many entities is one of the least marketed areas in the entire country. When I moved here just over three years ago from San Diego I downloaded the economic feasibility that Presque Isle Downs and Casino provided to the State of Pa. It gave me transparency to
information that would have taken me years to discover.
At that time the Erie area had over 4,500 hotel rooms, currently the number exceeds 5,500 rooms, Erie area was within 500 miles of 50% of the population of the United States, thousands of visitors from surrounding areas including Canada take advantage of no sales tax on most foods and clothing, millions of tourists visit the beaches on Presque Isle, attractions such as Family Sports Park with capability of indoor soccer and golf,
Splash Lagoon an indoor water park extends business through the winter months, Waldemeer Family Parks attracts many visitors and the Casino and Race Track after three years proves the demographics by producing over $30-40 million dollars every WEEK (yes WEEKLY!!)
generating income to the State of Pa. in the $1.5million a WEEK!!, giving the State the incentive to up-grade Erie’s attractions,.,ie.,the Tullio Center has been given $34million dollars by the State of Pa., because it is in the States interest to increase gambling revenue to build the States income stream…follow the money!
The City of Erie, Erie County, Chamber of Commerce, the Manufacturing and Business Association and many other organizations are working hard to upgrade the area, the problem is that there is no focused marketing of the combined efforts of these organizations that are working hard to improve Erie. There is a tremoundous need to write a “blog” that specializes in following the economic development of the area, this blog if done professionally will highlight the talent of the originator of the site and will be picked up by google and many other interested sites and spread the word about Erie and give the blog site top billing on google
and other sites that will enhance all those participating. This is not only a much needed marketing service but it the best way to market the area and the talents of the blog site. This is a new age of electronic marketing, I joined Globalerie.com as a commentor over three years ago in an effort to find out as much as I could about why an area with great demographics was decades behind, that effort caused my comments to get posted and picked up, little that I knew that if someone googled my name my web site was also listed and ancillary to promoting the area my own business flourished in the worst recession in my memory.
What goes around does come around. Do not miss out on the opportunity to promote your own area and benefit everyone.