Glossing Over the News Release

At yesterday’s PCNY lunch, I sat next to BusinessWire’s Christine Corey. “How’s business?” I wondered. “As good as ever,” she replied.For those who follow this space, you may have noticed my last post in which I decried Vocus for inaccurately tagging me in its media database as a tech reporter. Suddenly, scores of irrelevant (to…… Continue reading Glossing Over the News Release

HAPPRO (Help a PR Pro Out)

HARO founder Peter Shankman I confess. I’ve never been a huge fan of HARO, the free crowd-sourced service for journalists seeking topic experts or human examples to validate their story’s premise. While following its founder never ceases to disappoint, the service itself, in my mind has fallen short in its net benefit to the PR…… Continue reading HAPPRO (Help a PR Pro Out)

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

Hocus Vocus

I have nothing personal against Vocus. It’s all professional. First, I should say that I’m not a subscriber to this media database management, distribution and monitoring company. I have been known to disseminate a release or two via PR Web, which happens to be owned by Vocus.I should also disclose that I co-developed with a…… Continue reading Hocus Vocus

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?

Hocus Vocus

In the last year, Vocus has gained considerable traction in its efforts to position itself as the media database software company that “gets it.” Yet earlier this week in one of my favorite blogs, Church of the Customer, Jackie Huba took Vocus to task as just another purveyor of PR spam. “Undaunted, Vocus powered on…… Continue reading Hocus Vocus