The Editors Blog

Opinions? We have them

I think our guest columns, editorials, and PRWeek columns have been featuring some great fodder for debate.

Here are some:

Impressions

Cultural diversity

Agency pitching

Where are the men?

Discuss.


40 Under 40 2008

PRWeek is now accepting nominations for its second-annual “40 under 40” feature, to be published in the December 8 issue. This special feature will profile 40 agency, corporate, and nonprofit professionals, as well as educators, under the age of 40 that are doing outstanding work for their clients/companies and for the PR industry as a whole. Individuals featured on the list will demonstrate innovative thinking, strong determination, and results that indicate a long and successful career in the PR industry. Those individuals profiled on last year’s list are not eligible for inclusion in this year’s feature.

To nominate someone, please download the entry form here and e-mail to . Individuals nominated must be under the age of 40 as of 12/8/08. Entry forms must not exceed two pages. Please contact Erica Iacono at erica.iacono@prweek with any questions. All nominations must be received by 5pm EST on September 15.


And…

We have a PRWeek Twitter feed these days. You can follow us at . During the seven minutes a day it works. Kidding!


Because you’ve been waiting

We’re going to be calling for submissions soon for the 40 under 40 feature, which runs in December. This will no doubt please Erica Iacono, who has been inundated with pre-submission solicitations.


Op-Ed-gate

I’ve been following the news that the New York Times‘ John McCain’s Op-Ed on the grounds that it did not announce anything new and merely served as a refutation of Barack Obama’s recent Op-Ed that ran in the same paper. Of course, this is fertile ground for conservative critics to allege liberal bias to the NYT’s - a point the paper poorly tries to deflect by reminding the McCain camp that the paper endorsed McCain in the Republican primary. What has been heartening is that editors of all stripes have appeared on talk shows to support the Times‘ decision based on editorial control. Presidential candidates - no matter how important - do not get jurisdiction over the decisions of the working press. The New York Post found the news value in the Op-Ed (perhaps more so in the controversy, then in the Op-Ed) and decided to run it. So it ran. Ask any thought leader about their experiences, and you’ll often find it takes a couple of tries to find a taker.

McCain has no shortage of opportunities to espouse his points. The Times owns its own real estate. Editors everywhere should applaud the Times for maintaining its standards, even though it’s liable to draw plenty of criticism. Here’s, I think, the salient point:

In an e-mail to the campaign on Friday, David Shipley, an op-ed editor at the newspaper, said he could not accept the piece in its current form, but would look at another version. In the e-mail, released by McCain’s campaign, Shipley wrote that McCain’s article would “have to lay out a clear plan for achieving victory — with troops levels, timetables and measures for compelling the Iraqis to cooperate. And it would need to describe the senator’s Afghanistan strategy, spelling out how it meshes with his Iraq plan.”

We get plenty of Op-Ed submissions that don’t conform to our editorial standards (too self-promotional, poorly written, written in the form of a Q&A, etc). And we find nearly all are happy to work with us on getting the copy to the best place. Of course, those scenarios don’t often lead to the opportunity to throw red meat to the base.


Digital staying power

If the PR industry needed any further proof that developing digital capabilities is essential to its future, the results of this year’s PRWeek/MS&L Marketing Management Survey make a loud and clear argument. Of those surveyed, more than 75% expect their companies to increase budgets for digital/online initiatives, and digital/online is the last area of the marketing mix that they would cut if forced to because of economic conditions. The accompanying article offers examples of companies that have truly embraced this space, and the value they’ve found in doing so.


Whose blog is best?

Coinciding with a special announcement, PRWeek will be holding a poll-style competition to find the best PR industry blog. We’re going to be broad in our specifications for potential entries. Your blog must merely tackle issues affecting PR professionals. PRWeek editorial members will whittle down entries (and our own selections) to a list of 32 blogs, all of which will be voted on by your peers to find the best PR blog out there. Agency/corporate/personal blogs are all valid for submission. If you wish for us to consider your blog, please send your URL, a brief description, and any relevant stats to .


Video plays nice with the print star?

So, we’ve started doing some video. I’ve already enjoyed the stuff we’ve done. But I’m also open to suggestions. What types of videos would you like to see?


If…

If you had as an audience the rockstars of the C-suite (a clever way of saying blue chip company CEOs), what one question would you ask them re: their thoughts about the PR industry?


Agency blogs

I talk to a lot of agency leaders who are very proud of their blogs, but don’t really talk much about what value it adds to the business. Of course, many of these professionals made their marks as journalists and, therefore, look to their blogs as hobbies. But these blogs are often carried under the banner of the agencies they run. So I ask: Why do you blog? What’s the ROI back to the agency?


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