Groupon’s PR chief quits—and offers an important lesson for other PR pros

If you haven’t guessed already, we’re talking about Groupon. The daily deals company, which has already come under fire for information disclosed in its initial public offering filings, is once again in the news for a PR gaffe. And the company’s CEO, Andrew Mason, has taken the time-honored approach of blaming the media for his own mistakes.

In a memo leaked to tech blog AllThingsD, Mason makes many claims, including annual growth of 12 percent from July to August of this year, not to mention a 20 percent decline in marketing expenses. Groupon has been criticized both for difficulty maintaining its top line and its enormous outlays for marketing—not to mention other missteps, from big founder dividends to sketchy accounting practices.