The avalanche of high quality video, photos and e-mailed news material from citizens following the July 7 bombings in London marked a turning point for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the head of its global news division said Wednesday.
"We don't own the news any more," Sambrook said. "This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between large media companies and the public."
I was about to prepare the company's obituary. But Cyan isn't dead yet. I sent an e-mail off to Rand and he answered, "We've had a reprieve. Managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat (that I can't give details about yet), so we rehired almost everybody. Crazy industry. It's giving me whiplash!" This company has had an incredible run since Miller and his younger brother Robyn founded it in 1987. They created "The Manhole," the first game on a CD-ROM. And in 1991, they began work on Myst. They released it on Sept. 24, 1993, and they changed the gaming world.
The LSU transfer led the Vols back from a three-touchdown deficit and Gerald Riggs Jr. pushed into the end zone from a yard out in overtime to give Tennessee a 30-27 win Monday night in LSU's long-awaited, hurricane-delayed home opener.
Amid the explosion of political activity on the Internet, a federal court has instructed the six-member Federal Election Commission to draw up regulations that would extend the nation's campaign finance and spending limits to the Web.
When the Pitch Becomes the Story
We’ve seen several examples over the past year of public relations professionals getting dinged by bloggers. Respected companies like American Express, Mazda and Dr. Pepper all received negative criticism when PR pros tried to unsuccessfully work with them. In general, the PR pros did two things wrong: They didn't fully disclose their clients' identity and they assumed incorrectly that bloggers lived by the same journalistic "code" as their mainstream media counterparts.
This unwritten code states that journalists will accept "off the record" comments as just that – off the record. The code also includes that reporters won't write about the "pitch," the actual act of marketing and presenting a story to a reporter.
Bloggers have proven that many of them don't adhere to this same code (and honestly, do they have to?). They often publish off the record statements in their posts and discuss the actual story pitch process. But traditional journalists still adhere to the code on their personal blogs, right? Wrong.
We know examples of journalists who have honored a media embargo with their traditional print publication, but posted the same story on their blog hours before the embargo was lifted. We know examples of reporters writing a balanced story for their employers' publications, but then writing different versions of the same story on their personal blog. This "inside baseball" is something we need to consider in public relations.
Journalist blogs have certainly created more transparency in the newsroom. Take Brian William's blog, "The Daily Nightly." Here, Brian writes daily about the goings on at NBC News, even providing us insight on how the day’s leading stories are selected. On his blog, Brian provides a glimpse of the editorial process to put The Nightly News together, including behind-the-scenes conversations between producers as to why and why not certain stories made it to air or didn't. Many newspaper outlets are encouraging their editors to write more about the why they cover what they do and how they go about doing it.
A recent story in The New York Times discusses how papers in the McClatchy Group, which owns the Sacramento Bee, The Star-Tribune(MN), and The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., are "undertaking 'accuracy audits' in which they survey people who appeared in articles to see if they were represented properly." Going even a step further, "some papers have invited citizens to sit in on their Page 1 meetings." CBS News' recently launched website features an ombudsman charged with, among other tasks, answering viewer questions about the workings of the news division.
This trend of "full disclosure" can be closely associated with the media's desire for the appearance of transparency and attempt to remain "sticky" with their current viewers/readers, while also attracting new ones. Living through the recent scandals involving the accuracy of quotes and existence of actual inside expert sources has put media somewhat on the defensive. This trend is certainly exciting. It's fun to have a view into the editorial process. But as public relations professionals, it should give us pause. It changes the rules. This isn't necessarily a bad thing – but it’s something we need to be ready for.
We need to ensure that our "pitch" can be distributed. We need to ensure that any additional background information that we give to a reporter can be published – either in the traditional publication or on their personal blog. And we might even want to consider the reporter's personal opinions and stance when we pitch them. While most journalists will work to deliver a balanced piece to their editor (as they are obligated to do), their personal blog, which might have a sizeable audience of its own, may share a different story (again, that's the reporter's discretion). Do the research, understanding the reporter's leanings can help you land a pitch and quite possibly prevent you from putting your client in a potentially adverse situation.
So the takeaway for today? Always pretend that you’re pitching Don Imus – someone famous for broadcasting the PR "pitch" as much as the story itself.
U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York September 14, 2005. World leaders are exploring ways to revitalize the United Nations at a summit on Wednesday but their blueprint falls short of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's vision of freedom from want, persecution and war. REUTERS/Rick Wilking
NerdTV is distributed under a Creative Commons license so viewers can legally share the shows with their friends and even edit their own versions. If not THE future of television, NerdTV represents A future of television for niche audiences that have deep interest in certain topics.
BENTONVILLE, Ark., Sept. 1 - Following President Bush's announcement today that former Presidents Bush and Clinton will lead a nationwide fundraising effort to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott contacted President Clinton and the White House and committed $15 million from Wal-Mart to jump-start the effort.
As part of this commitment, Wal-Mart will establish mini-Wal-Mart stores in areas impacted by the hurricane. Items such as clothing, diapers, baby wipes, food, formula, toothbrushes, bedding and water will be given out free of charge to those with a demonstrated need.
Wal-Mart previously donated $2 million in cash to aid emergency relief efforts and has been collecting contributions at its 3,800 stores and CLUBS, and through its web sites www.walmartfacts.com, www.walmart.com, www.walmartfoundation.org, www.walmartstores.com and www.samsclub.com.
Through its Associate Disaster Relief Fund, the company will also give displaced associates immediate funds for shelter, food, clothing and other necessities.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates Wal-Mart Stores, Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and SAM'S CLUBS in all fifty states. Internationally, the company operates in Puerto Rico, Canada, China, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, United Kingdom, Argentina and South Korea. The company's securities are listed on the New York and Pacific stock exchanges under the symbol WMT.
Go back to the Eagles on Wednesday, T.O., shut that massive piehole, play football and try to prove to some of us who think you're the worst kind of problem with American sports today that we're wrong. Please.
Meet the mouse that reinvented the wheel. The scroll wheel, that is. At $49, Mighty Mouse features the revolutionary Scroll Ball that lets you move anywhere inside a document, without lifting a finger. And with touch-sensitive technology concealed under the seamless top shell, you get the programability of a four-button mouse in a single-button design. Click, roll, squeeze and scroll. This mouse just aced the maze.
Spry and Mighty
In the beginning, there was one button. Then there were two. Then there were clickable scroll wheels and programmable toggles and solid-state slides. But nobody made a mouse as easy to use as your Mac. Until now. Mighty Mouse combines the capability of a multibutton mouse with Apple’s signature top-shell design for the best of both form and function. Use it any way you work: Stick with single-button simplicity or click with multibutton efficiency.
A traffic forecasting system capable of predicting traffic conditions seven days in advance will go live to the public in California on Wednesday.
Alongside the weather forecast, viewers of KXTV News 10 in Sacramento can now get 3D animations of their local road network, showing not only where the gridlock is but also where it is likely to be.
The system, called Beat-the-Traffic, is the first public traffic forecasting system that combines real-time traffic density and speed with historical trends on major routes.
