And now, a story that practically tells itself...

The following ran in today's New York Times. It's the tale of a response from Target, the giant retailer, to blogger Amy Jussel of Shaping Youth, who had called to complain about a Target advertisement. You have to read it to believe it.

Target offered an e-mail response:

“Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets,” a public relations person wrote to ShapingYouth.

“This practice,” the public relations person added, “is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest,” as Target refers to its shoppers.

As the blogosphere progresses and becomes increasingly influential, communicators will need to find ways to reach out to bloggers just as we do to traditional journalists. This will become an integral part of media relations.

However, bloggers are not traditional reporters. Sending them press releases via a blast email will not turn out well.

The Lorelle on Wordpress blog has an interesting post titled "Promoting Your Wares to Bloggers." Here's one of her points:

Don't Waste The Time of a Blogger

If you want a bloggers attention, don't waste their time. Do not put a blogger on a mailing list they never asked to be on. Know the blogger and the blog you are approaching. Read their blog and their policies. If they clearly state, like I do, that they will not accept any requests for commercial link exchanges, don't even ask.

U.S. media reports fairly on success, failure in Iraq

As a headline, the above is not particularly dramatic. It's not particularly controversial, either. Except when you put it in the context of this Army Times story, which came to my attention via the Romenesko media news blog:

From my foxhole-view as a tactical battalion commander in western Baghdad in 2006, the American press, although not perfect, has reported the reality of the Iraq war.

Contrary to what most believe in the American military, as well as some conservative columnists and a few politicians, the American press does give a reasonably full, fair and balanced picture of what is happening in Iraq.

Just a quick note to mention that I'll be speaking at the Social Media 2007 conference in Chicago this week.

My topic: How To Pod-ergize Your PR! I'll be presenting on Friday afternoon.

I spoke at this event in Atlanta in January, and can say that for any organization interested in getting into blogging and/or podcasting it should be quite useful. I'll try to do a blog post or podcast episode based on new ideas from the conference once I get back.

Welcome to the new PR.

In the old, pre-Web 2.0 world, conventional wisdom held that it was necessary "to have significant news before you were allowed to write a press release." No more. The new rule, according to David Meerman Scott: "Don't just send press releases when `big news' is happening; find good reasons to send them all the time."

These new rules come from David's e-book, "The New Rules of PR," which has just been updated with a second edition.

David is the guest in the latest episode of my Talking Communications with Farrell Kramer podcast. In our interview, David talks about his new rules in the context of using press releases today -- with detailed examples such as how to use releases to drive individuals into the sales process -- as well as working with the blogosphere.

Google today rolled out its full versions of Google Apps, which is essentially an online IT infrastructure managed by Google.

I mention this because our agency has been a beta tester since mid-November and I've found this to be a great service. It is something that may well be appropriate for PR agencies and communications organizations of all sizes -- but particularly small and midsize organizations.

Basically, Google gives you:

• a start page all your team members can access online, including customized content (such as links to outside services like media directories), and access to your email and calendar

It's been hard to avoid the woes of JetBlue.

After last week's snow and ice storm left passengers stranded in New York -- some stuck on planes for many hours -- the airline has been battered again and again. With each passing day, stranded passengers seemed to grow angrier, and the airline's reputation seemed to be sinking further.

Then, JetBlue posted a video on YouTube. In it, CEO David Neeleman told the world what happened and what he was doing about it. This was not a typical, highly polished corporate video. Neeleman wore an open shirt, stumbled here and there on his scripting, and seemed ... authentic.

Take a look.

The blogosphere has the power to start stories like nothing else. I came across a great, still-developing example today from the blog The Consumerist via Robert's shared items in Google Reader (which is Robert Scoble's link blog.)

It's a post titled "14 Hewlett-Packard Company Secrets From A Former Employee." Here's a quote that cites the first few:

The sale of a business is something that is usually done in private, with communications typically beginning when the transaction is ready to be announced. With the advent and advances of Web 2.0, however, there's ample room to experiment with new approaches.

In the most recent episode of my Talking Communications with Farrell Kramer podcast, I talk to Ryan Carson, Director of Carson Systems, who is doing just that. Ryan's company is in the midst of selling DropSend, a Web application that allows individuals and businesses to send large files via e-mail. To communicate that fact, Ryan decided to cover the sale via blog, posting on everything from the sale announcement to financial/operating metrics and negotiations.

It was nice to see my old friend The Wall Street Journal upon returning to work today.

"You look good," I said at first sight. "Have you lost weight?"

Actually, it's been well-known since late last year that the WSJ -- perhaps the single most influential publication for U.S. business communicators -- was undergoing a major redesign. And redesigned it has been.

The new Journal is now 12 inches wide (according to my ruler) instead of 15, which is a reduction of 20%!