Everything About Tech

When it comes to PR, there is damage control and then there is just plain cluelessness. Ten days ago, I found out that Aol’s chief technology officer Ted Cahall was planning to leave the company. Today, it became official . Even though my information was correct, Aol swore up and down that it wasn’t true. Aol, of course, is now a publicly traded company. If it knowingly made misrepresentations about the impending departure of a senior executive, it could face liabilities from shareholders down the road, especially if its stock price goes down. And if Aol’s PR department really didn’t know that Cahall was leaving, when I did, then it is just clueless. So just for the record, let’s review what happened. Cahall’s departure wasn’t a particularly huge story, but it was not yet announced. So I contacted both Cahall and Aol for a confirmation or a comment. Normally, under these circumstances, a company will either confirm the departure or simply not comment. Cahall never responded to my emails or phone calls. But Aol’s executive vice president of communications, Tricia Primrose Wallace , responded via email: “No, he is not leaving.” She followed up with another email prodding me, “You should update your story.” I added her denial. Primrose Wallace is the head of PR, the official voice of Aol, and one of the company’s highest paid executives (her salary is disclosed in SEC filings ). She reiterated that Cahall was not leaving. I asked if he was still CTO. She replied, “Yes.” I asked if he “will he continue in his current position?” She never responded. Today, she sent me another email informing me: There’s been a change in a situation that you and I talked about a week or so ago and I wanted to immediately let you know. Ted Cahall has decided to leave AOL—we’re announcing a search for a new CTO this morning. Ted’s going to be transitioning with the company until we find a new global CTO. Of course, the only thing that changed is Aol’s story. Cahall decided to leave long ago and was telling associates as much. To say otherwise was clueless at best, and dishonest at worst. Either way, there is a lesson here for PR people everywhere: Damage control does not work if you can no longer deny the truth ten days later.

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