The Weather is Great

I’m thinking of selling my Lowe’s stock. It’s a wonderful company and given the state of the economy, the DIY crowd clearly has reason to shop there.Yet, as good as its gardening department might be, its PR department left me scratching my head.Today, this PR blogger received an unsolicited 652-word “news” release, pasted into the…… Continue reading The Weather is Great

The PRfect Match

As one of the 74 percent of Americans who reads “a printed or online newspaper” at least once a week, I couldn’t help but notice the full-page ad that broke in the “Money and Investing” section of Friday’s Wall Street Journal, and again today.It was a “house-ad” from Dow Jones that amazingly targets…the PR professional.…… Continue reading The PRfect Match

HARO v. Profnet

A couple of years after ProfNet’s 1992 debut, founder Dan Forbush (below) decided to expand his service’s universe of users to the agency side of the PR spectrum. I remember talking to Dan at the time, and soon after, convincing my firm to subscribe to what grew into a veritable “killer ap” for the profession.ProfNet…… Continue reading HARO v. Profnet

The Bad Pitch Wiki

As the long-time, but recently retired editor of the Gawker-owned A-list blog Lifehacker, Gina Trapani has moved effortlessly in tech and social media’s rarefied circles. In her editorial gatekeeper role, she also received more than a fair share of inane or misguided story pitches from lazy or vendor-reliant PR people.Now that she’s out of her…… Continue reading The Bad Pitch Wiki

Along the Media Spectrum

PR pro Deirdre Breakenridge today tweeted a link to a recent Daily ‘Dog post by Jake Wengroff in which the global director of corp. comms. for Frost & Sullivan asks: “Does a WSJ hit count in the Twitter era? PR must now embrace a hybrid model…” “Hit,” “placement,” “earned media,” whatever you call it, few…… Continue reading Along the Media Spectrum

Maximize Your Gobbledygook

My friend and occasional collaborator Mark Fortier pinged me about his client David Meerman Scott’s newest initiative Gobbledygook Grader from HubSpot.It’s an online tool that hopes to solve the other issue around which Holtz and Scoble locked horns this week: poorly written pitches (as if misguided pitches were not bad enough).In his post, Meerman Scott…… Continue reading Maximize Your Gobbledygook

Misguided and Irrelevant

A couple of weeks ago, I penned a post on a new PR search application with which I am involved that I believe holds considerable promise in its ability to help the profession find the “right” journalists for their news or feature story suggestions.Rather than rely on job titles or reporting beats, MatchPoint spiders a…… Continue reading Misguided and Irrelevant

Clip-Craving Clients

In this new communications paradigm, what PR skills and client deliverables remain unscathed?Converseon’s chief strategist Mike Moran retweeted a link to a post this morning by Paul Gillin with the bodacious title Why Online Matters More Than Print. In it, Mr. Gillin extols the superior buzzmaking virtues of online media versus print (and broadcast), which…… Continue reading Clip-Craving Clients

The End of PR Spam?

I’ve been in the PR game for a while, and as long as I can remember, clients have judged and compensated PR pros based on their ability to build a positive presence in the media. This client-agency paradigm hasn’t changed much over the years, though the means for building that presence, and the nature of…… Continue reading The End of PR Spam?