Fred Hunter takes journalism’s directive to tell everything in the lede and turns it upside down. “I always bury the lede,” said Hunter, WBRC meteorologist and host of Absolutely Alabama, a series of stories about people, places and things in his home state. Hunter was the keynote speaker at Alabama Media Professionals’ annual awards luncheon April 12 at The Club in Birmingham. Twenty-four AMP members attended the event, and 10 were honored with awards in the AMP Communicat

More than 100 people from 29 states poured into Birmingham September 7-9 for the 2017 National Federation of Press Women Communications Conference and 80th Anniversary Celebration hosted by Alabama Media Professionals, which was appropriately labeled "Stars Fell on Alabama," a reference to the media and writing stars our state has produced and those who visited our state for the conference. An Opportunity to Learn History, Writing and Other Communications Skills Attendees la

Almost daily, a new public relations crisis pops up in the news. Think United Airlines, Pepsi and even Alabama state government. If professional communicators in disaster areas say the wrong thing or give the wrong advice, the consequences can be dire. To make matters worse, communicators often are personally affected by the disasters and/or are overwhelmed with what they’ve seen, and this impairs their decision-making skills, crisis-communications expert Dr. Suzanne Horsle

Mitzi Eaker started her presentation with the Alabama Media Professionals with a warning. “There is a lot of information in this presentation that I normally spread out over a weekend, so in the next 30 minutes I will be going fast.” She kept her promise. It all began with a simple definition – only it was not one that Eaker provided. Instead, she challenged each of us to define what success meant to us – individually and in business. See what our next meeting will be a

We had four experienced full-time freelance communications professionals tell us the tips for success. The session, moderated by AMP member Rick Watson, included some tips on: Acquiring clients Brokering financial arrangements Client satisfaction Panel participants were Billy Brown, photographer; Gigi Douban, writer for nationally distributed radio programs; Lilla Hood, graphic designer; and Jennifer Walker-Journey, writer for local and national media. Most panel members s

In a joint effort, Donna Francavilla and our organization organized a mini-conference for media and communication professionals. There were 9 speakers, including some AMP members. Through an exercise with a partner (see photo), Kathryn Lang taught us how the body reacts to laughter. The categories of the topics were self-improvement, internet tools, and media. Other speakers there: Steven Flowers Meredith Cummings Donna Francavilla - Founder, Frankly Speaking Communications,