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Source:Mashable!

In another interview from the Los Angeles stop on the SummerMash tour, Aaron Novak, the host of all the on the road interviews, brings us a short conversation with Apple Levy from TheGreenGirls.tv, a new ecoblog centered in LA, but covering the worldwide green movement.

Her blog tries to put an entertainment spin on the green movement, covering the news and views from greentech, eco-friendly companies with the purpose to inspire folks to live a more ecology conscious lifestyle. Features on the site include not just the typical blogging fare on what’s new in business and the non-profit world, but features like a weekly video wrap-up, the eco-hottie of the week and tips for organic and healthy living.

Watch the interview by playing the embed below or downloading the MP4.

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Source:Mashable!

It’s not often I say this, but Steve Rubel is onto something in his latest blog posting.  Most often when I write something about a post by Rubel, it involves hyphenated words “Kool-Aid”, “skunk-drunk”, and “off-base.”  Today, though, he’s struck up a meme on the changing role of the Public Relations person.  He bases his post off the supposition that we as bloggers simply don’t care to have our news spoon-fed to us any longer:

It’s my view that increasingly, bloggers (and maybe journos too) simply don’t want our help. Many bloggers - particularly those who cover tech - love to discover new things and experience them on their own, unaided by PR. Exhibit A: Robert Scoble. Note the joy of serendipity in his post. However he’s not alone by any means.

I know that when I write about news (which is not as often as I used to), I mostly do so if I discovered it on my own - as I did twice over the weekend. If I didn’t find it on my own or stumble upon it early myself, I don’t bother. I actually like the thrill of the chase and serendipity. I want to be first. This is something that has fueled the egos of reporters for years - partly because it sells. Heck, count me in.

He’s right.  Very often I get press releases that lead me to discoveries of my own, and the articles I write end up being far different from what the PR folks often wanted (much to their dismay, occasionally).

But Rubel then asks the question: “..what then for PR?”

I think I have the answer, or at least a observations from my recent interactions with PR folks on a regular basis. They’re serving as connectors to the businesses that employ them, it seems, as well as to the journalists they use to propagate their message. Instead of being sent press releases by public relations folks, I’m receiving friendly emails and phone calls letting me know about upcoming interesting tidbits of news, and increasingly I’m striking up conversations of a friendly nature that often have very little to do with what sort new thing their client may be doing.

It’s leading to all sorts of beneficial things that work towards advancing my goals as a journalist as well as for me as I wear my entrepreneurial hat. PR folks are in the business of knowing folks, and when I as a blogger and member of the press am able to establish good relationships with them, I’m able to not only hear about stuff from their clients, but ply them for information on general trends they may be seeing, or contacts at other relevant companies for stories I may be investigating.

It’s odd, because before coming into contact with so many PR professionals, I never would have imagined them as much of a resource for information other than the company lines of the organizations they represent. Those that position themselves in the mindset that they aren’t gatekeepers for information but connectors for entrepreneurs and resources for journalists will achieve the most success for the clients they do represent.

Not being gatekeepers means thinking less about the press release and more about the RSS and OPML file.  Being a connector is thinking in terms of what the public wants to hear and what the journalist likes to write as opposed to what shape and spin the story should have.

I won’t say it’s quid pro quo (you do me a favor on this story, and I’ll cover your client), but PR professionals who avail themselves to me definitely makes me more inclined to listen to the pitches they end up sending my way. Chances are, they’ll better understand the type of beat I’m most interested in covering and the pitches they send me will be actually, you know, targeted (as opposed to the scatter-shot of press releases most of us bloggers are used to).

It’s definitely becoming a new landscape, the further we tread into this whole New Media thing, and perhaps I’ve been lucky enough to assemble a set of contacts in the PR business who are a cut above the rest in their savvy, but their industry from my perspective seems to be evolving step for step with the changing nature of media itself.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 11:36 pm and is filed under pr, Press Releases, New Media, Opinion, citizen journalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.