Aggregator Launches Short Press Release Service
Muck Rack, a Web site that aggregates journalists’ tweets, recently announced the launch of a short-message press release service, which enables companies to publish releases, with links, up to 130 characters long at a cost of $1 per character. The announcements are published on Muck Rack’s release page as well as its Twitter feed. As […]
Transparency Is Not an Option
Transparency is an issue that continues to arise as social mediums and online communications gain momentum. Social media provides companies with a great opportunity to represent their brands and interact and build relationships with key influencers and consumers. However, if a company fails to be completely transparent in its online communications, the result can be […]
Radio Media Tours
A radio media tour (RMT) is defined as a series of interviews offered to radio stations throughout the country during a specific time period. RMTs are typically conducted via telephone with radio reporters, news producers or talk show hosts. The interviews are either live or taped and typically last about 10 minutes. While RMTs are […]
Are Online Games the Next Generation of Journalism?
At the 2009 Games for Change Festival, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas Kristof delivered a surprising keynote address saying that online games can be a powerful reporting platform for educating people about global issues such as the environment, poverty and human rights. His epiphany came during a chance encounter with online game, “Darfur is […]
PR Sweeps the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival
For the first time ever, PR agencies from around the globe were invited to participate in this year’s annual Cannes Lions Advertising Festival to demonstrate their ability to successfully convey a brand message through their campaigns. While the most prized award, the “Lion” award, went to an advertising campaign, it was a PR campaign that […]
A New Kind of Newsroom
Dedicated journalists across the nation are refusing to quit – even when they’ve been laid off. In a New York Times article, David Carr reports on a new journalism trend spurred by this economy: newsrooms owned and operated by journalists. These newsrooms have a few marked differences from those run by top daily newspapers. There […]
How will the WSJ Impact Pitching Strategies?
The Wall Street Journal Editor Robert Thomson recently told the Financial Times that the publication plans to introduce a micro-payment system for individual articles and premium subscriptions to the Web site this fall. The WSJ‘s premium plan will target readers interested in niche industries including energy, commodities, wealth management, and more. It will place more […]
The Economy and PR: Tips to Connect with Frugal Consumers
In a recent article for Advertising Age, Avi Dan shares his predictions for consumer behavior and what it will mean for marketers. Says Dan, “Unemployment will remain high, consumer confidence low and consumption depressed.” According to Dan, this is a recipe for a new consumer behavior: frugality. Dan explains, “The economy is shrinking to levels […]
PepsiCo’s Open Newsroom Experiment – How Corporations are Using Social Media
At a time when journalists are being laid off left and right, PepsiCo has a very compelling offer: chronicle the Internet Week conference using social media and receive $750. Internet Week is June 1-8 in New York City, and PepsiCo is calling journalists, students, social media experts and anyone else to capture the week’s events […]
Publicity Stunts – Fan or Foe
Normally I am not a fan of publicity stunts. Often stunts seem too gimmicky, costly and offensive. And if they’re not well orchestrated they can be a disaster. Consider Snapple’s attempt to build the world’s largest popsicle. It flooded Union Square in downtown Manhattan and the fire fighters had to be called in to block […]