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Todd, as always poignant. Hopefully the wire services will pick up on this trend. I've seen several of them read the case study, so we know it got their attention.

If you can get somewhere with the wire services, you are a better man than I am woman. I can't tell you the number of conversations I had with folks at all three big ones and it was like banging my head against my desk each time. And don't even get me started on the folks in the newsroom who are responsible for uploading them. I've been called at 11pm by one of them to tell me about "the funky formatting issue" that my document was faced with.

Congrats to the team for the big b-day! You were on my mind yesterday as I hear the question from a software CEO, "Why wouldn't you use a SMNR?" He truly didn't know why everyone is not doing it this way!

We're making progress!

/kff

Todd: I'm still running up against client prejudice regarding the SMNR. "It's just not corporate enough." said one unnamed VP I work with. Thanks for the links to major brands adopting the style. Change is in the works. Just goes to show the PR industry trained C-levels well. Now, if you can just get B-schools to train using SMNR! Thanks for the updates and happy B'Day to us all.

Roberta, thanks for the note. Take a look at TODAY's blog post, in which I point to a SMNR put out today by Hewlett-Packard.

If H-P and SAP are up for it, how much more corporate can ya get?

Todd:

Glad to be invited to the one-year birthday party for the social media template. Before I show up to enjoy cupcakes with you, though, I’d ask you not to make PR Newswire the piñata.

Over the last four years a lot has changed with how professional communicators are distributing their messages and to whom they are distributing those messages. When PR Newswire first launched MultiVu and began distributing Multimedia News Releases four years ago, we understood that the news release would become a much more dynamic, interactive communications tool used to target online audiences and consumers directly.

You are right to say that the wire services – PR Newswire included – have a lot invested in reaching the lowest common denominator. We also have a lot invested in reaching the most advanced users. Too much of the time we get criticized for being behind the times because the vast majority of our audience is traditional media who often don’t have the latest equipment within their newsrooms to receive information in the formats that we wish they could.

A perfect example of this took place at the Social Media Club event in Austin, Texas, last month. Michael Pranikoff – our director of Emerging Media – was on a panel about the social media release. One of the other panelists was Omar Gallaga, the Features Technology reporter for the Austin American-Statesman. Omar lamented that he didn’t know what a Social Media Release was until he was asked to be on the panel because they don’t have the ability to receive press releases in this manner in their newsroom. He spoke about the fact that many of the journalists he works with work on old computers that barely have the ability to download large attachments let alone play video. If they want the ability to do these things, they often have to work from their home computers.

At the Web 2.0 Expo, Brian Solis posed a question about a CEO of a Web 2.0 startup who was quoted as saying, “I would rather have a blog post about my company in Scoble’s blog than an article in WSJ by Walt Mossberg.” The panel gave a lot of credibility to a hit on Scoble's blog, but also talked about the strength and power that people such as Walt Mossberg and the traditional press still yield.

I appreciate the fact that you mention that the people at the top of newswire services definitely understand the push to new media. We are always looking at ways to improve our distribution, whether that means enabling communications pros to reach broader media audiences, or making sure they have to tools to engage specifically targeted, online communities. And, as you said, education is key to all of this. Educating our staff so that we can assist our clients appropriately is of extreme importance. We are also educating our clients as well. To date in 2007, PR Newswire has conducted numerous webinars and free, live seminars around the country on "PR in a Web 2.0 World," and countless meetings and presentations at PR agencies and corporations on this very subject.

It sounds like PR Squared readers like Roberta, who also commented on your post, continue to advocate for the SMNR. She is also correct that there is plenty of resistance.

Among our customer base, social media and blogging is not yet seen as a complete way to distribute information. Your work has moved this forward significantly, Todd, but even you utilized the PR Newswire multimedia news release to garner online and offline coverage for your creation a year ago. Since then, we’ve switched on plenty of new features to encourage sharing of MNRs on sites and communities where commenting, tagging and bookmarking provide greater exposure. Soon, we’ll introduce even more tools that those committed to social media will find very exciting.

Sadly, adding these capabilities is the easy part. The real challenges lies ahead for senior agency executives like you, Todd, and the management team at PR Newswire to convince our own employees and our customers that the definition of media goes beyond print and broadcast, and that this democratization is a good thing.

Thanks in advance for not hitting me with a stick when I come to your snazzy new office in Boston next week, Todd. Each of us can do more to advance the profession if we don’t treat each other’s contributions as social media piñatas.

Thanks,

Dave Armon

Dave, thanks for the thoughtful response. I am looking forward to seeing you in Boston next week.

I don't disagree that the wires have come a long way in the past year. (And I hope you'll preview what you've got up your sleeve with me, even if under NDA!)

I also don't disagree that there is still hesitation (to say the least) and technical difficulties among our respective stakeholders.

But there are two key things we ought to (all) discuss:

1) If one can gain value from a SMNR with even the simple ability to browse the web, i.e., there is no compunction to "download large files" or video, but, the multimedia files are there for those who want them, and, the links are there for ALL (including the technically challenged), then, why is SMNR distribution a technical issue? This may be a case where I need a tutorial on your distribution mechanisms.

2) The role of the wires, in general, is worth discussion (a dialogue I kicked off in my subsequent post, and which I am still thinking about quite a bit). Not that there is NO role for the wires, but maybe we are putting too much responsibility on your shoulders, to "carry the brand to the community"?

Please don't mistake my tone in these posts: I may be frustrated with the wires, but, I also acknowledge that that frustration might be misplaced (at some level), and, anyway, I promise to hide the piñata stick when I see you!

Todd, while we're on the topic of social media, as a former journalism student, I'd like to share some related thoughts!

While it’s true that in today’s social media environment, a blog post can be just as influential as a front page placement in the L.A. Times, let’s not overlook the value of traditional journalists--and sending press releases their way. Although bloggers might be giving “Mr. Gates” a run for his money, a lot of them depend on traditional media as a source of information. So despite bloggers’ influence, the mainstream media is still setting the agenda. In “The Socially Responsible Existentialist,” Jane Singer makes a great point. She says,

“As each person becomes his or her own gatekeeper and goes about setting his or her own information agenda, journalism is abolished. But not for long. People quite quickly realize that they need help in understanding events, in identifying what is most important, most relevant, most interesting. A professional press corps soon reappears.”

We should look at new media as a complement, and not a replacement, to traditional media. I love the idea of the SMNR, just as long as it’s reaching traditional media outlets over the wire as well.

I agree, Lesley, that we can not lose sight of mainstream media (MSM).

It's been my experience, though, that no one wants to lose sight of them. So, I may overemphasize the "democratization" of information access (enabled by the SMNR) simply to make sure that bloggers don't get lost in the shuffle.

In other words, it is more common for people to ask, "What does this mean for MSM?" than it is for them to ask about "What this means for bloggers."