The Internet: It's Important
If you are reading this, then that means that we finally have Internet access again, but as of this writing, we're well into Day 2 Without The Internet. No Web, no email, nada. Something to do with a malfunctioning switch at our teleco's site. Some baloney like that. We lost thousands of dollars' worth of productivity. Lots of people simply went home, to salvage a few leads and send out client reports using their Gmail and Yahoo accounts. It was sucky. Needless to say, we're re-thinking our telecom options. (Suggestions welcome.)
The Internet. It's important.
When I got started in PR back in 1991, there was no World Wide Web. Most people were not even using e-mail. Few of the execs at my first "real" job even had PCs on their desks. And it was a tech company!
When you wanted to reach out to a reporter, you relied on the phone, a letter or a fax. I even resorted to a telegram, once.
When it came time to develop a database of editorial opportunities and reporters' contact info, you had to pore over huge books (anyone remember those big, fat Bacons Media Directories?), and then manually transcribe the data using FileMaker software. Good lord, it was primitive. I won't even mention the hours wasted stuffing press kits. Ugh.
Nowadays, most of those processes are automated, searchable, etc. Email and IM and social networking rule the day. In our profession, these tools have proven to be invaluable in terms of both workaday productivity and media effectiveness.
The Internet. I love the Internet. The Internet is important.
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Comments
Welcome back, we missed you. I thought our blog war brought down your servers (just kidding).
Posted by: Kami Huyse | September 6, 2006 01:10 PM
Life is a lot more complicated now. Cutting through the information overload is a challenge.
At least in those days Bacon's didn't "go down" sending everyone home...
welcome back
Posted by: Toby Treacher | September 7, 2006 05:57 AM