Mr. Edelman, I appreciate your thanksgiving comments. I saw RENT with my daughter on its release date. I saw it on Broadway years ago and was moved then by its message of hope amid bad circumstance. In light of your comments about speaking out and making corporate America better, I wonder if Edelman is comfortable handling PR for Microsoft/xbox-360 in light of the shortage of hardware that is causing price gouging, hypervigilance and heartbreak among kids and their parents? Why is Microsoft silent on this issue? Is this good PR? Was it a planned inadequate supply/distribution? Why was the release of xbox 360 planned to coincide with the Christmas buying season when Microsoft knew it could not come close to meeting the demand? This is the "PR" challenge. How will Microsoft respond?
Thanks.

Hi Richard,

I agree with this with you that the business world can do wonderful things when it wants to. But as for designing products, the listening companies do must be tempered.

I've heard a story about the move from steam to diesel trains in which the steam engine companies were so busy listening to their customers ask for improvements that they ignored the coming diesel revolution. Their customers showed little interest in these new engines at first, but once they were on the market they took over. By the time they started to respond, their customers had all left.

Also, in the 70s and 80s GM designed some pretty horrible cars because they were so busy listening to what their customers "wanted" as opposed to what the designers knew would be right.

That said, we're in an age in which it's important to listen to our customers and be open. The best companies will learn how to balance what they're hearing with what they know is right.

Hi CT--of course you are right. A company needs to listen primarily to its experts but also be guided by customer input. Blogs can provoke that kind of comment and input. Thanks for reading my blog

Hi Chuck and Richard,

Success is never a matter of a ‘one OR another’ approach: we need the end user to understand when and how products are used. We need the designer to come up with ideas beyond the users' mind and wishes. Most of all we need to get rid of examples from the 70 and 80s since we entered the times of disruptive progress. Then progress was linear and (maybe) foreseeable now unexpected products and competitors can pass us by.
Therefore we must see, learn and feel.
Cheers,
Joris

Great thoughts, Richard. It does seem like a fundamental shift in media and journalism will mandate a fundamental shift in our profession. Your final statement, about new ways to "innovate and lead" is maybe perceived as more of a challenge than it needs to be.

I've seen several posts floating around in the blosophere lately about the merits of "licensing" PR practitioners. The line of thinking seems to be that if we certify the professional standards and quality of PR practitioners, we'll be worthy of the respect we're due.

That seems wrong to me.

I keep getting the feeling that many PR professionals feel marginalized in the executive suite and desire permission to speak out. To me, that's like the employee who constantly complains of never being "empowered" but has all the tools and authority required.

What's lacking is courage.

As your post so aptly points out, there has never been a time when media has been such an integral factor in the life or death of an enterprise. Entire businesses now exist solely in the media. The speed of information is now the defining parameter of organizational operations and change. And as those speeds increase, executives and entrepreneurs who understand how to manage information in the media will continue to see their stock rise.

Put in its most simple terms, one bad move in the media today can be disastrous for a company. In two to three years, such a move might be terminal.

PR professionals, because of their focus on positioning and the strategic relationships between brands and stakeholders, are in a unique position to capitalize on this opportunity. We just need the courage to take advantage of our own strategic opportunity.

Thanks,

Mike Bawden
Brand Central Station

For PR professionals, they are susceptive enough to know the media trend including BLOG, but it is difficult for us to know how to use BLOG as our new tool properly, helping both clients and media.

Richard,

These are very astute and timely observations that should give pause to anyone plying their trade in the PR profession nowadays.

A couple of thoughts: practitioners need to recognize that the transformation we're seeing applies to both entertainment and news content. Much of what's being reported on paidcontent.org and other sites revolves around the new distribution channels for entertainment programming, and the monetization thereof, e.g., pay-per-view episodes of "The OC" on one's cell phone. While PR practitioners need to be mindful of the "placement" opportunities (and potential partnerships) offered by this media genre, it is the providers of news and information content (mainstream and citizen-types) who continue to serve as primary pipelines to our clients' constituencies.

On this front, the fragmentation and explosion of "media" outlets -- not just online, but new niche magazines and cable channels -- make our jobs these days almost unscalable. You are right in your call to make our clients' news "smarter." RSS-enabled and keyword-tagged news releases, in addition to more efficient use of digital images, audio and video, better accommodate the growing legions of online journalists and media consumers who parse their daily intake of content with RSS readers and TIVO.

Finally, while we shouldn't underestimate the "influence and credibility" of citizen journalists, we should rest assured that the knowledgable PR professional will not be disintermediated anytime soon. As Los Angeles Times New York bureau chief Josh Getlin recently noted, "There are no substitutes for an informed publicist...I've yet to see anything that competes with that."

Richard, I am a penultimate PR student from Sun-yat sen (Zhongshan)University, Guangzhou, China.I am going to have an part-time job interview 3 hours later, and guess what? That is no other than Edelman's department in Guangzhou. I'll do my best to get a chance to work with you for sometime:)
I'm a blogger too, it keeps me thinking and being sensitive to the changes of the society around, it helps me in the PR affair someway.
Well, I'm going to Edelman now~ Wish me luck~

By the strangest of timing, I was refelecting on the consequences for the PR industry today.
The heat is on traditional media and fewer editorial pages is going to impact press relations a lot. The PR industry has to take these developments very seriously.

Mike you are right--we do need courage. But we also need the discipline to do it better--to have more content, 100% accuracy on facts, compelling video. We should also bring the employees and enthusiastic consumers in early so they can opine and contribute to the outcome (even product design). Thanks for reading my blog.

Richard,

I think you're exactly right. It's my hope that strategic communications professionals like PR's will recognize what's at stake and, as a result, will recognize the need to be more vigilant, more accurate and more passionate about their jobs and the brands they advocate.

Your comment about the need to bring in employees and enthusiastic consumers is so right - and, almost embarrassingly, so common sens-ical. After all, we all know, deep down, that it's much easier to live up to a brand's promise if we all pull together. And we know it's much more credible to have enthusiastic consumers endorse, live and communicate a brand's USP than any amount of "marketing" messages sponsored by a company in its own self-interest (either directly through advertising or indirectly through media relations).

Yet, not until the rise of the blogosphere have corporate managers really started to take note.

Thank you, Richard, for taking these issues head-on. In your position you can bring them much more visibility than a "small-market, ad guy" like me.

I'll keep reading your blog. Just keep writing such compelling stuff.

Best Regards,

Mike Bawden
Brand Central Station

www.brandcentralstationc.om

PS - I didn't comment on your post a month or so ago, but I just wanted to thank you for your insights into the Polish market. I've been to Poland twice on business in the past twelve months and agree with your assessment that it truly is a land of optimism and opportunity.

Best,

Mike

Peter, I completely agree with your point on the establishment media. I do believe that there is a credibility and reach advantage. But for those under 30 years old, the new media rules and we need to change our tone, our approach and even the look.

nteresting post on the blog of PR man Richard Edelman about the future of media.

Extracted highlights:

* The largest 50 Web companies are attracting 96% of the ad spending on line.
* 9.5 million homes in the US now have TiVo or another digital video recorder. 64% of DVR users skip all ads and an additional 26% skip through most ads. The number of homes with DVRs is expected to triple in the next five years.

* Every dollar coming out of print advertising revenue for newspapers is replaced by only 33 cents online.

Changes to the media landscape are dramatic. I think many in the media industry have not yet internalized these numbers

David,

Note today's Pew Study for latest data on Craigslist taking classified ads away from newspapers. This is real issue.

Rose as we say in the US break a leg (that means good luck)
and keep reading my blog

The 6AM post titled �Is Public Relations Ready for Discontinuous Change?� has drawn good attention in the blogosphere and has been linked to by several other bloggers.

Your statistics are quite interesting. I'm a freshman at Northwestern University and am in Medill, the journalism program. I suppose part of this message is directed toward Thomas Crampton. Many of our lectures have revolved around the realization of the media that we need to change. And are changing. Newspapers are creating websites with live video streaming. I think the lines differentiating broadcast, print and radio and becoming blurred. Some students are worried because they had their heart set on a specific profession and they think their job will be mute upon graduation. I personally see it as a chance to have even more opportunities. On a slightly different note, I think we are experiencing a very important part of history now as far as free internet goes. I imagine in a couple of years someone will figure out how to capitalize on it--tame it so to speak. But is there a more common ground than all out capitalization? Look how popular/influencial a free internet is now. People like that and can't get enough. This is a business's dream. My possibly unaswerble question is how do we get that kind of interest and have the profit outweigh the cost? And how would PR fit into that?

Caroline Smith
caroline-smith@northwestern.edu

CS I had dinner last night with long time NY Times reporter/editor Key issue--decline in advertising in classifieds at same time as drop in circulation of print edition. They want to keep highest quality reporting--that is essence of brand. But the cost issue is relevant in face of flat to declining revenue. No solution yet--but pay for tiered content is coming Note NY Times Select as model

How do PR professionals innovate and lead? What about a new model for PR that focuses on the development of a community of interests? Media ink would no longer be the penultimate PR objective, but more often the starting place for discussion. Social networking has produced Friendster, Myspace and FaceBook. What about an online community of journalists, publicists, bloggers, users and others who share an interest in a company, an industry or an issue? This community might generate its own Wikipedia-like content, could serve as a clearinghouse of opinion, and might generate a healthy interaction and discussion among all the constituencies. What do you think? I do agree that the PR/marketing communications industry is in flux, disrupted by new channels of communication (blogs, RSS, podcasts), new media (online, citizen journalism), new constituencies (bloggers, consumers, users – worldwide and real-time), as well as the relative decline of “MSM.” The “client” has lost control of the messaging, and customers, employees or competitors increasingly set the communications agenda. Distribution is no longer linear and 2-dimensional, but must be delivered in a form and through a modality appropriate to each constituency – it probably doesn’t make sense to fax a blogger, and few newsrooms today are monitoring RSS feeds. True, the PR professional must still act and interact with MSM, but also with bloggers, users, investors, employees and others who often play a more important role than traditional media. And, the pitch isn’t made over lunch, but online 24/7. How does PR assume leadership? One approach might be to explore new ways of doing business that embrace change – how about an online community focused on whatever is top of mind?

Excellent article by Richard Edelman about the future of public relations. Relying mainly on several statistics about the shift of advertising dollars to the Internet, Edelman argues that �there will be continued cost pressures on the companies, but with attendant questions about the ability to maintain quality of the product. The search for new revenue streams, whether from repurposing (such as podcasting) or pay-for-content, must accelerate.�

Dear Richard,
being a universtiy student who majors in Public Relations, I was very interested to read your comments on the future of our industry. I also think it is important to note that training should also to be initiated at a tertiary level, so as to ensure future of our industry.

Thanks for reading my blog. Training is a sore thumb for the industry. We need to get beyond the basics of writing and pitching.

Richard, Thomas (Crampton),

I'm a little late in coming across this posting via a series of links but here I am. Anyway, as Thomas pointed out, Richard as a PR man states some interesting advertising facts..(but then again, its those outside the ad industry that better understands the online potential. Afterall, in keeping with that, the biggest ad network in the world could be Google, a search engine by definition!)

* The largest 50 Web companies are attracting 96% of the ad spending on line.
* Every dollar coming out of print advertising revenue for newspapers is replaced by only 33 cents online

It has to be noted but not often verbalised that there are many ad execs/ media planners and marketing directors who are clueless about online and their fear of the unknown makes them risk averse...however they also have to keep up the pretense of going with the flow and park advertising dollars online and so they go with the low common denominator buys. Hence the 50 web companies attracting the bulk of the media budget.
But there will come a tipping point where the ad dollars will reflect the true state of where the real audience is at and a greater distribution down the Long Tail. For now, it is ignorance and fear that dictates the media spend allocation and hence the skew to the low common denominator. After all, to paraphrase the old maxim "no one will ever get fired buying Yahoo"

In the course of updating my understanding of the "established PR industry," I ran across this blog and I found it quite interesting. Much of this discussion is limited to the decline of traditional methods, which I believe misses the main issue.

It seems to me that the decline in traditional media has forced all business into what is, truthfully, a much more fundamental approach to advertising. Before the advent of electronic communications (beginning with commercial radio and television and continuing to our online world), information was spread by word of mouth and various other public forums. Playbills and notices were posted on light poles, sandwich boards on kids walking the street, patent medicine sold from wagons. All where people who wanted to be entertained, fed or healed might congregate.

We're back to that era. Television, radio and mass print publications made businesses and advertisers in general lazy and apathetic. Several million dollars and your message is out there to blast anyone who turns on a box or opens a page. Today, our street corners are electronic and anyone with an online shopping cart has their modern wagon. Just as in the 1800s, media consumers are again more in control of what they see and hear. Tivo and on demand sees to that.

The "established" PR and advertising world is suffering from withdrawl. We need to be clever again. Not just with our creative, but with how we lay our information in the path of those who may want to find it. Elective messaging is what we have come back to and the industry must embrace it. This is back to grassroots marketing, but on a global scale and a nanosecond pace. This calls for a return to basics in our thinking about why people buy; and where and how they find information. Then, we apply that to these fantastic, unlimited streetcorners known as blogs, iPods, Sidekicks, podcasts and whatever's next. Fundamental marketing that is in varying degrees available to companies of all sizes. All that's lacking is a change of perspective, a willingness to work hard to get to the consumers, and a new way of earning compensation for this more granular, pinpointed approach. Innovation has taken on a throwback, yet futuristic look and we'll need to go back to basics to catch up to its demands.

Richard,

In this otherwise accurate and - for those of us trying to educate marketers and communicators about consumer generated media and marketing in the UK - somewhat disheartening analysis of the European blogosphere, you assert that "most blogs in the UK are on technology".

I wouldn't want to generalise, but I'd argue that there are actually more political blogs in the UK than technology ones, a view which would appear to be supported by Britblog.com, the best (only?) topical directory of UK bloggers.

Niall,

Well said
I picked up this comment from one of the speakers and should have challenged it. The bigger challenge as you say is to interest those in UK FR IT SP in blogging.

As for Germany, the market seems to be finally waking up. Journalists/press are discovering the blogging "phenomenon" and growth rates are similar to those seen in the French market ~2 years ago.

Germans don't like new technologies too much ;-)

Heiko,

Thanks for writing
I think that Germany should see substantial growth Tie together good broadband penetration with dissatisfaction with tradtional media and lack of trust in institutions like government and business This was condition in France So I agree

Richard, we are also thinking of how to add and use BLOGs into our media lists, and how to set up a trustful relationship between our clients and accepters.

I am a Chinese PR guy, and found your BLOG online few days ago when I was trying to search for other info. I love the title: 6 AM. In China, it's Yuan Fen. Do you understand YuanFen?

Now, reading what's new on your blog is the first thing I do everyday when I am in office. 9 AM !

Camy,

Thanks for your note. Did you know that I had my honeymoon in China. My wife and I visited Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Guilin and Hangzhou.

I think that China has a very vibrant blog scene. You should definitely be establishing relationships with those bloggers. All the best

I've just been pointed to this piece by another blogger (Influx) and I find it very interesting.

Back in July I wrote a piece on my blog, PSFK, about 'British Bloggers Won't Get It' - criticizing the British Marketing folk's poor attitude toward the blogosphere - and by reading your piece there seems to be the same state of affairs.

http://www.psfk.com/2005/07/british_markete.html

Richard,

There are several major reasons why blogging uptake in the UK has apparently been so slow.

1) The failure of digital media agencies to blog and therefore demonstrate its value to corporate clients. I looked at the sites of the top 15 agencies in June and found that not one appeared to have a blog.

2) The unwillingness of media owners to provide blogging tools to people because this could make the media owners liable for libel under UK law. This may well change once News Corp completes its purchase of MySpace and its newspapers and BSkyB can promote blogging there without any direct liability.

3) UK bloggers are often invisible as members of the largely American-dominated Anglophone communities of MySpace and LiveJournal.

Mr. Richard Edelman,

Fisrt of all, let me introduce myself. I am PR, responsible for internal communication of an important Brazilian IT company and engaging post-graduation in one of the main Brazilian Communication College. The theme of my research is about Corporate Blogs, more concerned regarding CEOs doing it on web.

One of the references I receveid have been yours. So I would kindly ask you to share your opinion about this issue.

I really appreciate in advanced your help and I'll glad if you can reply to me.

Best regards

Juliana Rodrigues

1. What was your purpose when you have decided to create this blog?
2. What are the main achievements you have realized since you have started?
3. What are the inconveniences around blogging?
4. Why do you think CEOs should start blogging?
5. What are your suggestions for those who are thinking about to start blogging?

Richard,

You are right in observing that blogs and declining readership of traditional newspapers signify the increasing importance of public relations. However, the internet poses a practical and theoretic problem for PR.

The rapid growth of the internet (blogs)places real limits on its efficiency as a communication tool. The growth of information on-line is exponential over time. Theoretically the internet will never be organized as long as capacity expands and population grows.

I suspect that professional and interpersonal networks are critical factors with respect to influential blogs. Like Carny Ma, I stumbled across your blog while reading some pr students blogs. I read about theiir site in PR Tactics and was preparing to talk about new technologies in one of my classes.

I do enjoy your blog.

Vince Hazleton

VH agree that the web is disorganized
but i believe in the free market principle
that there will be migration to excellence
and that certain bloggers will prove themselves to be excellent
that is why we are focused on the most linked to blogs

Juliana,

Hello from Chicago
Corporate blogs fall into multiple categories
First is CEO or executive level example is Jon Schwartz blog from Sun Microsystems
Second is employee blogs example is scobleizer by Robt Scoble of Microsoft or the site Minimicrosoft which is a more dissenting blog voice Third is a marketing blog like Fast Lane from GM written by chief designer Bob Lutz I believe fundamentally in corporate sector participating in the blogosphere Check my earlier blogs on this

Piers,

I think that Brits may be more satisfied with their daily newspaper ritual than most other countries--you do have an almost unmatched diversity of opinion and approach in newspapers But blogs are coming....

Colin,
All of these are plausible explanations. I thought it particularly interesting that the FT does not make it easy for its journalists to blog (note Pretzlik's remarks) in part because comments are not immediately posted. I do believe your newspaper sector is more vibrant than in most countries--has crowded out potential blog competition but not forever.

Good viewpoint, Richard, but the Forbes article did something that the BusinessWeek article did not: created fear. And, from fear comes either action or inaction, and in this case the action will come from CEOs asking their marketing and PR people about blogs, and potentially getting more into the game and understanding blogs better.

And, well, being good for PR.

The best PR event Edelman could host would be to say no thank you to the WalMart account. I find it distressing when a firm I have respected staffs the Walmart War Room. Even under unfettered capitalism, sometimes a responsible company should walk away from an opprotunity just to protect your core values. In my opinion, you just blew it!

Nicely stated.
And I also agree with Jeremy, this story has given people out-of-touch with technology one more thing to be terrified of.
The irony of the Forbes story is that its undoing is taking place in the blogosphere, almost like the author threw up a BS story to test the reaction of bloggers.

Well said. I personally love the concept of executives blogging during product development process. I think it is the way forward for companies (and Sony's efforts to get back in the portable music space come to mind as ripe for the opportunity) that want to build an authentically enthusiastic following. Invite customers into the development process, make them feel a part of it, and I am certain they will become genuinely loyal brand evangelists, the type you simply cannot buy.

Jeremy,

That's one thing I love about you jeremy. Always the optimist. I worry that this article will prompt overeager legal types to look for litigation options. Maybe the cumulative effort of biz week and forbes gets us there. Thanks

They can come after bloggers all they want - but the sheer numbers of the people involved combined with the technical abilities of many bloggers means in the long run, the free floow of information cannot be stopped without fundamentally altering the nature of the Internet.

I believe we are in far more danger from censorship from international boundaries than would be lawyers looking for a fast buck. Lawyers have to look for opportunities, and there will be painful losses for some unfortunate people - but the networking capabilites of the blogosphere are far more effective than the slow-moving processes of the legal system.

I've had to shut down blogs that might hurt my business - but it's very easy to blog anonymously if one chooses. If bloggers in Iran and China can do it, I'm sure bloggers in the US can do so also.

The number of law blawgs is also in our favor - the more of them - the more they get the medium, which means the more eager they are to defend it.

Reasonable people can disagree. The company is making real progress on environmental issues, health. Note great contributions after Hurricane Katrina. Stay tuned.

Jim,

Interesting point on censorship. Note the aggressive moves in France in past week to close down blogs by Muslim teens. Apparently there was huge traffic to site with photos of teens who were electrocuted as they fled the cops. Note that the site that was taken down is still able to be contacted at bouna93.skyblog.com. So to your point about the elasticity of the Web!

I completely agree on your opinion about the benefit of a larger group of people becoming involved with the conversation of anything, from the media to top corporate businesses. I can't understand why some people are afraid of this. It's a kind of controlled democracy where ideally everyone will come out on top. Mr Durbin, your comments on international censorship is very interesting. I haven't heard about times when that has been an issue, but obviously it is. I'm still not sure about the future of blogs. I've heard that it will be just another trend. And sure, it might be, but I think the idea will continue to exist, just morph into more advanced mediums as the technology allows it.

Caroline Smith
caroline-smith@northwestern.edu

This is more than a fad. Mainstream companies are recognizing a unique opportunity to have real conversations about products. And to improve their image by appearing human.