May 1, 2008
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  In this Issue:  
  Media Relations - At the Heart of Great PR   
  Online Newsrooms  
  Good Reads about Media Relations  
  PR News, PR Insights  
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  Refer March Forth to a Friend  
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  Learn More About Vehr Communications:  
  What We Do  
  Who We Are  
  Our Work  
  News and Views  
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  Archives:
  March 4, 2008
  March 31, 2008
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  Media Relations Blogs:  
  PR 2.0  
  Wannabe Mogul  
  Media Relations Blog  
  Media Relations  
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  Featured Links and Blogs:  
  PR Links   
  PR Week  
  PR Newswire  
  Advertising Age  
  The Wall Street Journal  
  PR Blogs   
  Online PR Thoughts  
  Neville Hobson  
  Pop! PR Jots - Views  
  Corporate PR  
  PR Squared  
  KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog  
  Micro Persuasion  
  A view on PR from Silicon Valley  
  Media Bullseye  
  PR Machine  
  PRWeek  
  Fine on Media  
  Scatterbox by Steven Silvers  
  Observations of Public Relations  
  Murphy's Law  
  now is gone  
  Online Media Daily  
  Strategic Public Relations  
  PR Studies  
  Corporate Engagement  
  National News  
  MSNBC  
  The New York Times  
  CNN  
  CNBC  
  Yahoo News  
  USA Today  
  ABC  
  NPR  
  AOL News  
  FOX  
  World News  
  Google News  
  Yahoo News  
  BBC  
  CNN  
  The New York Times  
  MSNBC  
  NPR  
  PBS  
  Los Angeles Times  
  ABC  
Picture1Picture2Picture3 Picture4Picture5  Media Relations - At the Heart of Great PR  Knowing, understanding and meeting the needs of today's online and offline press is at the heart of great PR.  How an organization plans for, achieves and integrates media relations into a comprehensive strategic communications program is as important today as ever.    Whether product launch, crisis response, earning's release, merger announcement, consumer promotion, sponsorship, or any of a myriad of other needs, working hard to score "earned" exposure is important and possible.  You have to know your brand, know "your" media, be creative, be responsive, be aggressive and work hard at it ... really hard.   Your audience, whether other businesses, customers, bloggers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, consumers, public officials or communities, places greater value in a story than an advertisement.  "Go Digital or Go Home"  Providing 24/7/365 access to news is essential.  Just ask the air lines.  Recent news about the proposed Delta/Northwest merger was supported by a dedicated Web site (http://www.newglobalairline.com/).  It is easily accessible through Delta's or NWA's corporate sites and designed for employees, customers and communities with a complete "news center" for media.  American Airlines grounding its MD-80 fleet in early April created serious issues for travelers at the DFW International Airport.  As reported in PRNews (www.prnewsonline.com - subscribers only) (April 21, 2008), DFW's public affairs chief cited two rules for the crisis: 1. "Everything is your job." and, 2. "Go digital, or go home."    TEKgroup International (www.tekgroup.com), in their 2008 Online Newsroom Survey, reports that 97% of journalists prefer receiving Email alerts for news stories and 92% prefer them for pitched stories.  This edition of March Forth provides you with some great links to information about media relations, online newsrooms and media relations books.  Please contact us or visit our Web site to learn more about Vehr Communications and this important part of any PR program.  Online Newsrooms  Designing Web sites to maximize media relations:  Nielsen Norman Group Report             Building Your Online Press Room by B.L. Ochman: webpronews.com                   The Online Press Room - A Requirement for any Company Web site by Jon Boroshok: techmarcom.com        Goods Reads about Media Relations Connect below to view our most preferred books regarding Media Relations.  Many options exist for those interested in learning more. Media Relations: Issues and Strategies The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly  PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences       PR News, PR Insights   

Connect (on the left) to a number of PR and Strategic Communications online resources, blogs and discussions.  These are some of the ones we particularly favor. As practitioners, we use communications to manage reputations, build relationships and deliver results.  The internet is changing how we do it, but how we have always done it is critically important. We hope the connections we provide here, and the various additional news outlets and blogs we connect to on our Web site, help you to understand this rapidly changing industry as much as they help us.