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.

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.

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!

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!

Working with reporters is never an easy matter for communicators.

There's always a natural tension between journalists and PR/IR folks.  The communicators want their messages to get across, and reporters don't want to be spun.  Mistakes can be costly. 

Episode 4 -- Don't Do This: The Biggest Mistakes You Can Make with Reporters is designed to address this directly.  The discussion centers around a list I created of the biggest mistakes communicators can make with reporters.  You can find the list here, on FKCBlog. 

Where would PR and journalism be without the interview?

Companies seek out interviews.  Politicians seek out interviews.   PR firms seek out interviews on behalf of their clients.  And reporters seek out interviews in order to generate new stories.

Episode 1 of Talking Communications with Farrell Kramer is here and this first show examines the art of the interview.  What makes a good interview?  What makes a bad one?  What are reporters' pet peeves?  This episode sums up all the things a communicator should know before chatting with journalists.

Anne D'Innocenzio, who covers the retail industry for The Associated Press, is our guest.  Anne gives a wonderful, candid interview on her experience with the news side of interviews.