The online press release has taken another big step forward.

PRWeb has launched a new feature allowing customers to embed video in their press releases. In Episode 21 -- Press Release Video, I talk to Jiyan Wei, the PRWeb Product Manager at Vocus, about this service.

Called Feature Video, it allows a user to upload video to one of several online video services, including YouTube, and then embed it in the press release, where it can be played with a mouse click. This is a great way to publicize viral video and a clever approach to making releases more interesting.

It's a pretty common occurrence in the PR agency business. A prospective client calls up and wants help putting out a press release. That's it. Nothing more.

In Episode 20 -- Press Releases Are Not a PR Strategy, author and PR practitioner Linda VandeVrede explains why such requests are common and, importantly, why they miss so much of what PR has to offer. VandeVrede has just come out with the second edition of her book, Press Releases Are Not a PR Strategy, and has a great deal to say on this topic.

VandeVrede, of VandeVrede Public Relations, discusses with us some misconceptions about what PR is and how it should be handled as well as pointing out the right way to bring PR into an organization. It is an interesting interview, particularly for anyone considering the adoption of a PR strategy.

Enjoy the interview.

I've noticed that not all subscribers made the transition to our redesigned site's feed.

Some of you who signed up for fkcblog and talking communications with farrell kramer may have subscribed to our pre-feedburner feed, which now no longer exists. If you have been accidentally unsubscribed, please resubscribe.

(I've just redirected those old feed URLs and it should work for most of you. But if you're not getting updates over the next couple of days, you may need to subscribe again.)

It's a simple process. Just navigate to our blog or podcast sites and subscribe in the normal way. Both the autosubscribe icon in your browser window and the icon in the sidebar go to the same place.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Just a quick note to alert everyone that we've just completed a major redesign of the talking communications with farrell kramer site.

I'll post more on this later but, please, come visit and check it out.

Importantly, the site's URL path has changed. The home page is now: www.farrellkramer.com/talkingcommunications. If you go to the old URL, www.talkingcommunications.com, you will be redirected to the new URL anyway, so no worries! I plan to keep the redirect up for awhile.

However, you will see the new URL in your browser as soon as you land. Also, the permalinks for all episodes have changed. Basically, they now all begin: www.farrellkramer.com/talkingcommunications/... The rest should be the same for all links.

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, our guest in Episode 19: The New Rules: "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 also has written an upcoming physical book "The New Rules of Marketing & PR," which is due in June 2007.

Just a quick note to let you know that our next episode, #19, is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 26.

It should be posted sometime in the early evening.

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. Ryan Carson, Director of Carson Systems, 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.

The year 2006 was as exciting a period in communications as I can remember.

Technology drove a lot of it. We talked earlier in the year about topics such as search engine optimized and social media press releases, corporate blogging, new media outlets and RSS distribution. But there were also celebrity and corporate scandals, the advertising vs. PR balance of power, the changing role of journalists, and other similar issues.

In Episode 17 -- Year in Review, I discuss these topics and others with Stuart Fischer, Executive Vice President of the PR firm Robinson Lerer & Montgomery. Stuart has a broad perspective on the PR industry and has some wonderful insights about the year that -- just a few more days now -- was.

Enjoy the podcast and thanks to all of you for listening during the first year of Talking Communications with Farrell Kramer. We'll look to do even better in 2007!

I am planning to post one more episode of Talking Communications with Farrell Kramer in 2006.  I don't have a definitive date for that episode yet, but I will let you know as soon as it is finalized.

Then, we'll launch into 2007!

A lot of public relations involves the attempt to generate media interest in a particular topic. In some cases, however, attention comes your way that is quite unwanted.

This is the negative story.

In Episode 16 -- Anatomy of a Negative Story, we look at the negative story and literally walk through the steps needed to deal with it. We start with the first word that a story is developing -- usually a phone call -- take on the internal assessment and decision-making process, move on to the actual interview with the reporter, and finally discuss how to handle subsequent cycles of the story once it appears.

My guest is Jim Maiella, Vice President of Media Relations for Cablevision, who has broad experience on both the corporate and agency sides of the PR business. Jim has seen negative stories in many contexts and the discussion we have is very informative.

We've talked before about the great strides press releases have made over the past few years. It's no surprise, for example, that the search engine optimized (SEO) release has become a big deal.

Today, we look at the social media press release.

The social media release is a specific format of press release designed to take advantage of social media bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us and a variety of other Web. 2.0 advances. It provides all the information an individual would need to fully understand the announcement -- including multimedia files and background materials -- whether for writing stories, posting to blogs or simply consuming the news.

When I heard about The Washington Post's decision to allow comments on all of its online news stories, I was taken aback.

During my career as a journalist, we were just getting comfortable with the idea of reporters' e-mail addresses being offered to readers. Broadly allowing comments on news stories raises the bar much higher, creating real conversations with readers and raising fascinating possibilities for communicators.

In Episode 14 -- Opening the Newspaper, Jim Brady, Executive Editor of washingtonpost.com, shares some of his thinking about reader comments in a very interesting interview.

Enjoy the podcast!

Press releases sit at the center of many PR campaigns, and with recent advances in Internet technology the release itself is in the midst of substantial change.

The value of the press release has been made particularly clear this year with the acquisition of a number of important players, including PRWeb, U.S. Newswire and even Warren Buffett's purchase of Business Wire.

The next episode of Talking Communications with Farrell Kramer will be posted on Monday, Oct. 16.

Apologies for the delay. We'll get back on our normal schedule shortly.

There is little question that we are in the middle of a public relations bull market. PR services are in great demand, and with this the job market has become quite active.

Episode 12 -- The Job Market looks at the current strength of the job market in public relations and the broad trends that are driving it.

Clearly, communications departments and agencies alike are generating a great deal of hiring activity. Yet, senior managers remain shy about making 'out-of-the-box' hires. Our guest, Bill Heyman, President and CEO of Heyman Associates, discusses this trend and other issues of great interest to anyone entering the job market or looking to make key hires.

Enjoy the podcast!

The next episode of Talking Communications with Farrell Kramer is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 18.  Sorry for the delay.

Blogging has become a major force in the media world. However, in the corporate arena it continues to be viewed with caution.

Despite the power of blogs to let companies conduct an interactive conversation with customers, investors and other important audiences, many organizations have held back.

In Episode 11 -- To Blog? our guest, John Elsasser, Editor in Chief of The Public Relations Strategist, talks with us about why some companies are reticent to blog and how they should think about entering the blogosphere. Our discussion builds upon the reporting behind the quarterly's Summer 2006 issue: BLOGS The Evolution Continues: Should You Join the Conversation?

Enjoy the podcast!

The growing importance of the press release has been hard to miss by those active in the communications world.

Press releases can now be distributed online with multimedia file attachments, optimized for today's all-important search engines, and made available with tagging, trackbacks and a variety of other Web 2.0 features. The recent $28 million acquisition of online press release distributor PRWeb by Vocus, Inc., a PR software provider, underscores the importance of the modern press release in the overall marketing and communications mix.

In Episode 10 -- Sold! The Modern Press Release, the heads of both companies, PRWeb Founder and President David McInnis and Vocus President and CEO Rick Rudman, talk to us about the transaction, why they did it, and what to expect from them down the road.

Writing is a critical skill for communicators, particularly now that the Internet era is solidly upon us.

Press releases. Blog posts. E-mail pitches. Podcast and conference call scripts. Speeches. PowerPoint presentations. You name the communications activity, and writing will be a major component. Episode 9 -- The Write Stuff examines the craft of writing.

Our guest, Mark Baker, a bestselling author and Senior Vice President at Robinson Lerer & Montgomery, talks about how to write effectively for communications. He also assures us that good writing is hard work for even the most practiced professionals. Enjoy the podcast!

Tell any journalist that the press release has become the No. 1 information source ahead of trade journals, news and general magazines, and he or she will likely laugh in your face.

But this is exactly what has happened.

New research from Outsell, a research and advisory firm serving the information industry, shows that because of its availability, brevity, push-delivery options and other factors, the press release is now a force to be reckoned with. Episode 8 -- The Rise of the Press Release examines this startling research finding.

Our guest for the episode is Roger Strouse, Outsell Vice President and Lead Analyst, who explains just how the press release got to this point and explores where it may be heading.

I've just added a listener survey to the Talking Communications with Farrell Kramer site.

You can access it by clicking on the Listener Survey graphic on the right side of the page or by clicking here.

This survey is run by a company called Podtrac, which gathers download, usage and demographic data to facilitate advertising on podcasts. I haven't decided for certain to have ads on the show, but it is something I am considering if it can be done in a way that is not distracting for listeners.

The survey also provides me with information on who is listening to the show and other usage data. This will be helpful in preparing future episodes.

Therefore, if you like the podcast and would like to help support it, please spend a few minutes and take the survey.

Episode 8 of Talking Communications with Farrell Kramer will be posted on the evening of Monday, July 17.

New episodes will continue to be posted every two weeks. The delay in Episode 8 is simply to switch to a beginning-of-the-week release schedule.

Thanks for listening!

Journalism and marketing are vastly different disciplines with strikingly different aims.  Journalists want to inform; marketers want to convince. 

Yet, as the Internet and the new technologies it has spawned continue to advance, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between the converging worlds of the journalist and the marketer.  Episode 7 -- Journalism and Marketing examines this issue from an academic perspective.

Our guest for this episode is John Lavine, Dean of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.  Lavine is grappling with this challenge as he works to modernize journalism and marketing education at Medill.

Investor relations has undergone dramatic change in recent years, and the jury remains out over whether this has all been for the better. 

Rules designed to level the playing field have in some ways backfired, driving public companies to disclose less and become somewhat inaccessible.  Episode 6 -- Great Expectations looks at the current state of public company communications and attempts to draw some conclusions. 

Our guest is J. Armand Musey, President of the investment bank Near Earth LLC.  Armand takes on this provocative topic, explaining, for example, that it is more difficult today to get a true sense for a company’s management team now that most communications have become scripted and subject to legal review.