Morgan McLintic on PR

Eleven years at LEWIS

Just realized that I've been with my agency, LEWIS PR, for 11 years. I joined on April Fool's Day in 1996. Wow, that's quite a good stint in agency land. I still find it odd that staffers think the best way up the ladder is to hop from firm to firm. You don't always gain experience that way, even if it does give you a new title. There is a lot to be said for fully understanding the culture and being an integral part of forging a company's history.

Anyway, I'm back in sunny London for a few days. Good to catch up with friends, family and a few agency lags, as well as to meet some new faces. The office has had a refit with news-laden plasma screens at every turn. A far cry from the cramped digs above a curry house when we started...[cue Pythonesque reminiscence and fade].

Technorati Tags: LEWIS

Prepare but don't share

While it's a good idea to prepare for media interviews, and to work towards that killer piece of Wired coverage, making it too transparent can seem a little gauche. Then again briefing spokespeople is standard practice. Email is a dangerous thing - don't tell me you haven't sent one to the wrong person yourself (though probably not to Wired, oops).

PRWEEK US is blogging (and has been for a while)

Not sure how I missed this but PRWEEK US has a blog called The Cycle (after news cycle). While the tower banner ad center stage is a little odd and the frequent [sub req'd] must be annoying when referencing your own stuff, it's good to see PRW blogging. I'd always wondered why they didn't jump in earlier, but it was probably related to the website redesign, which was a gnawing issue among PRW staffers. Anyway it's been going since September (!) so this isn't breaking news, but wanted to give them props, albeit belatedly [subscribed!].

UPDATE - I should have clarified, as Keith O'Brien points out below, that PRW has ungated its news, so it's just the features which require the login. Thanks Keith.

Technorati Tags: PRWEEK

Reality Twittervision

Check out Twittervision for a mashup of Twitter with geolocation data. It gives you a world map with each 'tweet' popping up in realtime. It's reality TV, web 2.0-style. Massively trivial and disjointed but also strangely compelling.

Meantime, Twitterific 2.0 beta is out.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitterific, Twittervision

InfoWorld to fold print edition

Sam Whitmore, who was once described to me as a 'media scientist' (I know he liked that), has the scoop on the news [sub req] that tech weekly, InfoWorld, is to fold its print edition. Last run will be Monday after which InfoWorld will be online only. SF Gate has more here. Clearly feeling the heat from the blog news networks like TechCrunch and GigaNet, claims The Chron.

Technorati Tags: InfoWorld, GigaOm, Sam Whitmore, TechCrunch

Celeste Altus leaves PRWEEK US

Bay Area bureau chief at PRWEEK, Celeste Altus, is leaving mid-April to go freelance. She joined about a year ago to replace Andrew Gordon, who jumped to the dark side joining, Access Communications. Keith O'Brien is caretaking tech PR news while the publication hires a full time replacement.

Good luck Celeste!

Technorati Tags: PRWEEK

Don't bribe reporters with free tax software and $100

I actually feel quite sorry for this account executive at Access Communications who was sent over the top with the offer of $100 and free tax software for reporters willing to test Intuit's new press center. Ouch.

Pointless PR social network gathers momentum

The Public Relations social network with no charter, direction, or aim beyond simple existence is now up to fifteen members. It's a place to hang out, make the same friends you've already made and perhaps a few more, try Ning (which is very slick and Ajax-like) and basically relax safe in the knowledge that there is no expectation of you at all. Tom Murphy set it up for reasons he can't fathom and we're all enjoying it thoroughly. Sign up here - you never know, something might happen, but if it doesn't that's cool too.

Technorati Tags: Ning, PR, Social Network

Yet one more twit

I've been resisting Twitter since I'm evidently already struggling to maintain my current channels of communication via email, IM, SL, VoIP, blog, RSS, phone, face to face(!). But today email went down which left me in need of a comms fix and with a few spare minutes to catch up. So bosh goes a belated Gmail on my new BB Pearl, Google Reader and a sign up to Twitter.

First reaction is that noise to signal ratio is going to be high. The companion app, Twitterific looks like a good way to contain the river of news. River is a good analogy since there is some valuable cargo and some sewage floating downstream. But in terms of conversations with people, it looks good.

I'm relatively friendless with fewer followers, but a quick look shows many of the bloggerati already there. If you want to add me, I'm at http://twitter.com/morganm.

Technorati Tags: Twitterific, Twitter, Twitter

Guide to corporate blogging

My colleague, Mark van der Wolf has put together a 20-page guide to corporate blogging, called the Business Value of Blogging, which he presented at the recent EuroBlog 2007 event last week. You can download a copy here.

Technorati Tags: blogs, corporate blogging, LEWIS, Mark van der Wolf