PR, Influence and Networking

On Sunday, PR Newser’s Joe Ciarallo asked me whether I had seen Claire Cain Miller’s prominent piece on PR 2.0, or as some valley wags may soon call it, “the crowning of Brooke Hammerling.”Of course I had. Who hadn’t? It’s so rare that The New York Times visits our enigmatic profession, and with 3000+ words,…… Continue reading PR, Influence and Networking

Embargo This

Nowhere is the demand for exclusives stronger than among the handful of media that control the fates of the latest and greatest personal tech products. From Pogue and Mossberg to Gizmodo, CrunchGear, Engadget, Mashable, and of course, the elephant in the early adopter room, TechCrunch.All invariably ask to be the first to break the new…… Continue reading Embargo This

(Not) Ready for Prime Time PR

PR people often advise their start-up clients to make sure their ducks are in a row before the big public reveal of their new product or service.The “is-it-ready-for-primetime?” Rorschach Test should probably also apply to media sneak previews.Case in point: Microsoft’s “first broad consumer Web service, called Photosynth [which] turns multiple photos of a scene…… Continue reading (Not) Ready for Prime Time PR

PR-Less Pitches

Robert Scoble has a worthwhile discussion on his blog. It sums up how he likes to be pitched story ideas. Hint. It’s more geek-to-geek than PR to journo, with a little crowd-sourcing thrown in for validation. It’s also “PR-less”:This is the way I love to learn about a company.No, not from a PR firm.No, not…… Continue reading PR-Less Pitches

The Long Black List

Since the dot-com days, the PR profession has suffered (and rightfully earned) its share of slings and arrows at the hands of the beleaguered (by inane PR pitches) tech journalist.How many more rants can we endure from the editors and reporters for Ziff-Davis, IDG, CNET, Wired, The Industry Standard, Red Herring? The answer is: at…… Continue reading The Long Black List

PR Pet Peeves

At least Russell Shaw didn’t indict the whole profession for the mistakes of a few.At 1AM this morning, the VoIP, IP telephony and broadband journeyman journalist for the likes of ZDNet (not to be confused with sibling CNET) and others, aired his frustration with trade show PR “types” charged with capturing, for their clients, the…… Continue reading PR Pet Peeves

Vudu PR

The last time this blogger visited the subject of embargoed stories, it concerned the wallpapered coming-out party for a digital effects company called Contour (pictured). That company’s technology was the subject of gushing feature profiles in The Merc News, Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, among others — all on the same day.I…… Continue reading Vudu PR

Cutting Edge PR

This appeared yesterday in one of the lead chroniclers of the tech sector: “Publicity is, in effect, free advertising.””The downside of free publicity is that you cannot control what is said about your company, product or service.””Newspapers, business periodicals, TV and radio stations, and magazines can all offer the publicity for which you’re looking.””The hook:…… Continue reading Cutting Edge PR