Hey Everybody,

I just wanted to share some sad and shocking news that I heard with you this morning. So, the rapid decline of newspapers is becoming more real everyday. Check out his article from TIME discussing the possible demise of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Ever wanted to know what a death sentence feels like? You can get a pretty good idea over at the Seattle Post Intelligencer. On Jan. 9, Steve Swartz, an executive from Hearst, announced in the newsroom that the company was putting the money-losing newspaper, known locally as the

As you might expect of any news broken in an actual newsroom, the whole thing is captured on grainy video. One reporter holds a digital recorder; a photographer snaps away. The executives wear shirtsleeves with ties askew. When Swartz, looking not unlike a man condemned, says, “At the end of the sale process, we do not see ourselves publishing the P-I in print,” he has to raise his voice to be heard over unanswered phones and garbled bursts from the police radio.

Check out the rest of the article here.

Yeah, that is pretty sad. I hope they get a buyer. But not really the best market for hope on that buy. So where does that leave the PR Professional. Well, strangely, I also saw this story from Sally Falkow of the Bulldog Reporter discussing what PR Pros will do after newspapers.

If the media is truly dying, what happens to PR?

Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 and co-author of Get Content, Get Customers, spoke at a PRSA Cincinnatti luncheon recently.  His presentation was titled The Present and Future of PR.

Pulizzi says that in a conversation with Forrester Research he heard a prediction that within two years half of all US newspapers will stop production.  If that happens the PR and media relations model will be broken beyond repair.

Who gets to tell the story then? ” If PR’s role is to help manage the information from an organization to its “public”, doesn’t that include the creation of targeted story-telling initiatives like custom magazines, enewsletters, blogs, white papers, etc.?” asks Pulizzi.  And I’d add video.

Check the rest out here.

Have a great weekend,

Will Flavell

Hey Everybody,

When I was a kid, I often fantasized about being a newspaper man. To me they were some of toughest, smartest and most interesting men in the world. True little men taking on corruption, scandal and city hall with the power of the press. As a social media guy these days, I often get sucked in the same “Dying age of the Newspaper” discussion. I’m sure you know it. I just wanted to share with everyone, this article and link that I saw. It is a Website that is being built to save the Rocky Mountain News.

Below is a excerpt from the story that I read on it. It appeared in the Daily Dog and was written by Sally Falkow:

Staffers at Dying Denver Daily Answer the Call: Group Takes Action on the Web to Save the Rocky Mountain News On Dec. 13, a group of staff members from Denver’s Rocky Mountain News gathered at the downtown Denver Press Club and agreed that they would no longer stand idle as their beloved paper careened closer and closer to a dire fate. And they decided to use the Internet — widely credited with hastening the demise of newspapers — to get the job done, the NY Times reports.

The paper, known informally as ‘The Rocky,’ had recently been put up for sale, with the distinct possibility it could close next year. The group of about 30 met for two hours trying to figure out how they could save one of Colorado’s oldest businesses, which has been churning out news here since before the Civil War. “The overall attitude at the meeting was that they weren’t going to sit around and do nothing,” David Milstead, the paper’s finance editor, told Times writer Dan Frosch.

In what staff members said was possibly the first effort of its kind, they decided to start a website, iwantmyrocky.com, so that readers could voice their support for the paper and the Rocky’s own employees could publicly make the case for its survival.

So, please check out the story on the Daily Dog site. And then go visit Iwantmyrocky.com and lets save one of these great papers.

Best,

Will Flavell

Hey Everybody,

I just read another great article by the unshakable Sally Falkow. It is on how many reporters are following twitter for news stories. She sites the recent LA quake as an example. Also some companies are switching to using twitter more to disseminate news. Dell recently used it in a press conference. She also lists a lot of  reporters who are doing this and provides increased usage stats. Read the story here.

Just sharing some cool Web stuff. Enjoy,

Will Flavell

Just that – broad sweeping accusation that everyone in the PR field is a liar, cheater and snake. Those that are not? Unemployed.

Personally, I am a PR guy and I am not offended by this. We need to get our act together and quit lying. We need to become experts in engaging our publics, not just whitewashing them with half-truths and hoping it sticks.

I just wanted to add that the Bulldog Reporter wrote on this today and they really didn’t have much to say. The ‘Dog article really just gave a lot of quotes. I guess that they are sitting this one out. Anyway, check it our here for more details.

read more | digg story

So, I am at the Media Relations Summit 2008 this week. Today, I got to meet the man, the scobleizer. Robert Scoble, the original Microsoft blogger literaly wrote the book on blogging in a corporate environment and I got to meet him today. He was the keynote speaker and I went to a small breakout presentation featuring him as well.

He was a very nice guy and possibly the most interconnected (on the Web) human on the planet.

I just wanted to share some of the cool new things that he told us about with all of you:

-Scoble currently chooses to view the Web through a program called FriendFeed. He literally shocked the audience when he showed how this program aggregated his blog, social networks, feeds, twitter and much more. He watches thousands of his friends at once. It was totally scifi geeky greatness.

-He also introduced Memes to many of the audience. These are good logs of the top 2,000 or so blogs on a subject. Check out Techmeme.com for a good example. These are pretty cool too.

-He told us about a ton of cool sites and programs. Also check out Qik, Office 2.0 and SlideRocket. There are tons more. Let me know what you think. I would love to discuss with anyone.

Sally Falkow interviewed Scoble and she got some great quotes. Check out the interview at: Sally.

Thanks for reading. Your friend,

William Flavell

Hey everybody,

I am attending the Bulldog Media Relations Summit 2008 right now. I am attending a lecture by Brian Solis and Sally Falkow right now. They are both great and I plan to use many of their facts, images and ideas in future presentations back at my company. I just wanted to send on that they are really good.

Thanks,

William Flavell