Peter Shankman, the creator of the much talked about HARO (Help A Reporter Out) service has been a feel good media story. Guy starts a free service to help reporters find sources. Guy sends the list to PR folks for free so they can get their clients mentioned as sources. Guy grows the list on his own to over 23,000 to compete with paid service from Profnet. Guy signs on advertisers to keep it free for users and gets “way over $100 CPM’s,” as advertisers reach a very targeted group. Everybody wins. What’s not to love about this story? Capitalism at its very best.
Unfortunately, fairy tales don’t usually last forever.
This morning while scanning some Twitter updates my colleague stumbled across this:
and then this:
My first thought - Maybe Hamilton Nolan is right and this is some sort of cult. Folks what are we thinking? I realize Peter does use shock value, he did agree to get tasered after all. But his use of the word “lynching” and all the connotations that come with the word is totally uncalled for and wrong. Now I obviously don’t know the race of the PR person that he is referring to and despite our name, we don’t usually get into racial discussions on our blog. If the PR person happens to be white - then perhaps it’s nothing more then an egregious error in judgement. If the PR person happens to black his use of the word is unconscionable. Either way, the use of the word that brings back images of one of the most despicable acts in our Nation’s history is wrong.
There’s obviously some comparisons that can be made here to the recent incident involving Golf Channel host Kelly Tilghman and her use of the word “lynch” in referring to Tiger Woods. Her use of the word in context was “young players who wanted to challenge Tiger Woods should lynch him in a back alley.” Tiger’s race, being an issue on the tour since he first set foot on it, made the remark a punishable offense and the network rightly suspended her for two weeks.
Since I started this post Shankman has updated his Twitter feed and let everyone know that the PR person has sent him a heartfelt apology:
At the very least Shankman owes everyone a heartfelt apology of his own for the consistent use of the word.
Back in the olden days, say 2001, musicians would scamper to MTV’S TRL studious in Time Square and discuss the launch of their new music video with Carson Daly or some other nail polish wearing hipster. That’s what worked and that was the standard formula for dropping a new video. That’s not so hip anymore.
Today, Kanye West has the blogosphere, Twitter and YouTube a buzz, by dropping his ninth video off his 2007 Graduation album as an online video. NEON, the media group which directed John Legend’s “P.D.A. (We Just Don’t Care)” produced the video. In the video Kanye takes on the role of a puppet and is competing as a track star in the fictional “Unified Games.”
The video was rolled out earlier today on Kanye’s official blog and is making its way across the Internet and YouTube land. No doubt in my mind that it will build buzz from the ground up and be a feature story item in the mainstream media over the next couple days. That’s the value of a well produced and timed (the strategy around timing for the Olympics was well choreographed, make no mistake) viral videos. Kanye has always shown a flash for marketing and creativity and it’s on full display here.
Scoble goes inside NBCOlympics.com with Eric Schmidt, director of media and advertising evangelism at Microsoft, who is working on the site with NBC executives. He reports in the video that they are getting 4,000 unique visitors per second.
For months the Valleywag has speculated over who is potentially dating the “most eligible bachelor in technology” (i.e. Pete Cashmore). It seems we can finally put the speculation to rest.
Now we really know what caused the infamous fight between the Owl and Mozilla’s Firefox - another man.
The New York Timesreports that the U.S. Postal Service is encouraging people and businesses to keep the environment in mind when mailing documents and packages. They’ve even trademarked the term environMAIList. How much is this green initiative just one last attempt to survive?
Twenty years ago almost everything came was delivered by a post office employee – from magazines, bills, letters, business documents, and of course, credit card advertisements. Today, it seems like we’re just stuck with the credit card advertisements.
Email and the internet have dramatically changed the way we receive mail and news. Newspapers are a whole other issue – but the amount of people having them delivered to their doorstop has completely changed as well. But what has happened over the past 20 years?
The days when you would send a friend a letter, postcard, or other kind of note to say hi are long gone. This week’s delay of correspondence has turned into email, IM, text messages, and social networks like Facebook. After all, why send a postcard in the mail when you can just post all of your vacation pictures on Facebook with captions underneath, and a nice message saying that you’re having a great time?
The content from magazines has all been put online, and bills/payments have all become automatic withdrawals or are done through online banking. Email has completely changed business as well, as anyone would be hard pressed to find someone who uses mail as a first, second, or even third option for business communication.
So how will this green effort help the U.S. Postal Service? Probably very little, if at all. The mail business isn’t falling behind because of the environment, but because technology, innovation, and the internet have dramatically changed the way we go about communicating.
I was out socializing on the patio at Brainstorm: TECH last night when Michal Lev-Ram of Fortune snuck up on me to ask me what I had in my pocket. On a patio full of “top-executives” I obviously had the least cool technology in my jeans.
Somehow my broken Motorola Q (this happens once a month) and my (actually I borrowed/stole this from my colleague Stephen Russell) 1980’s tape recorder made it into the segment. Unfortunately, so did I. Clearly the lesson here is to not go on camera after a 6 hour flight with no sleep the night before.
RaceTalk is live at Fortune Brainstorm: TECH where the first panel is wrapping-up and David Kirkpatrick is getting mad that the audience is turning the conversation to Tesla.
Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com made an interesting statement on the first panel before it changed tunes saying:
“Web 1.0 = Transactions, Web 2.0 = Collaboration, Web 3.0 = Innovation.”
Already hearing some buzz in the press room from bloggers that are complaining that they can only watch through the live feed and don’t have access to the Ballroom.
Kara Swisher of BoomTown just stopped into the press room (even though she has a pass to the Ballroom) and noted:
David Carr, media columnist for the New York Times, admits that he’s a word guy.
On September 11, 2001, Carr was dispatched to cover the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers.A few block from Ground Zero, Building #7 in the World Trade Center complex collapsed.An enormous cloud of dust and debris rolled down the street where Carr was stationed.
He dove under a parked automobile where a pigeon had also taken cover.
“We had an inter-species moment,” Carr said.“Both of us were looking at each other as if to say, ‘What the freak are we doing here?’”
Under the car, David found a copy of Strunk & White’s “The Elements of Style.”He put it in his pocket and still cherishes the edition.He admits he can’t write as eloquent as the guide advises, but he believes the book solidified his passion for words.
Carr was putting this story in the context of Web 2.0 and the changes in journalism, communications and public relations at the second day of the PRSA Digital Impact Conference in New York City today.He spoke to a packed room of PR professionals about his transformation from “Fred Flintstone” into a journalist utilizing the tools of the Internet – from blogging to video.
Carr said in today’s world professionals are faced with “hellacious clutter” from living modern, technology enabled lives.
“While I’m talking you’re all going to be checking your mobile phones, iPhones and checking email,” he said.“I don’t blame you, we’re all too busy.We all get hundreds of emails a day.We are all fighting for our content to be noticed.”
Carr has moved from being a wordsmith to experimenting with online videocasts and a New York Times’ sponsored blog called “Carpetbagger” – a blog about the Oscars.
“We are in a pull world, not push,” Carr said.“And if you are in the push business, well, time to rethink.”
Carr suggested that PR people embrace new technologies, but to be cautious about listening to anyone who claims to know what going to happen next.“No one can anticipate what’s next in this market,’’ he said.“It’s moving too fast.”
Those of you who follow my blog will know I’m currently into Social Web Analytics. Here’s my last post on the topic. So some interesting news from Summize’s labs, a new semantic analysis tool to give you a snapshot of the feeling in the Twittersphere.
Simply go here and enter the brand or object name in which you’re interested. Here’s one I did earlier…
Earlier this month, TechCrunch and the Washington Postannounced that they were entering a syndication partnership, where the WashingtonPost.com will add TechCrunch stories to the technology section of their site.
In a move that seems to help both the WashingtonPost.com and TechCrunch, a third party was not so hot about the deal. WIRED writer Betsy Schiffman wrote a story later that day calling out TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington:
We’ve got nothing against TechCrunch, but it seems crazy-crazy to us that the Washington Post, a paper known for the sort of reporting that can take down U.S. presidents, is publishing content written by a dude who invests in the companies he writes about. But what do we know.
Arrington immediately fired back through Twitter, and then followed that up with a call to action:
No one at WIRED is responding to me today about their post yesterday. I’m organizing a WIRED burning party (the mag, not their offices).
Schiffman wrote another story that appeared Tuesday afternoon, pointing out Arrington’s choice words towards WIRED, and posting an unanswered email that she sent to Arrington:
I know that you disclose your investments, which is fine, but the very fact that you invest in companies you may write about goes against the longstanding set of ethical standards that have governed newspapers for decades.
Schiffman also reports that questions to the Washington Post also went unanswered and reiterates her point that “There are some basic ethical standards that should be followed when you are a journalist. And that includes avoiding conflicts of interest.”
I question WIRED’s intentions in posting about this, specifically now that they have posted twice. As a competitor they are clearly conflicted when writing about us, and attacks like these, including the childish tagging issue, appear to be little more than attempts to disrupt our deal with the Washington Post…
I have a lot of respect for many of the writers and editors at WIRED. But as far as I’m concerned WIRED.com, from Editor-In-Chief Evan Hansen on down to Betsy Schiffman, has clearly crossed an ethical line here. Perhaps they are giving up the fight to write relevant content and are resorting to sensationalist trash like this to generate page views. If that’s the case, it is a shame. I used to love that magazine.
As both Arrington and Schiffman seem to be standing firm in their corners, it will be interesting to see if WIRED responds to Arrington’s latest statements which seem to address all of the issues WIRED has with the syndication.
