The Future of Media Round Up features the top articles and blogs curated by Bateman Group on issues and events related to the convergence of technology, media and communications.

Here’s our take on the most disruptive news, commentary and insights about PR and media from the months of November and December 2011. Please share links to other must-read articles in the comments below if you think we missed anything.

Required Reading:

Redefining Public Relations in the Age of Social Media, The New York Times – From Nov.21 to Dec. 2, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) sought submissions from public relations professionals, academics, and students and the public to help redefine what “public relations” means. The role of public relations has been significantly transformed by the Internet and social media. PR is no longer about solely managing the message. It has evolved to focus on facilitating the conversation between entities and their audiences. This why PRSA’s “Public Relations Defined” effort is calling for a “modern definition for the new era of public relations.” The last time PRSA updated its definition was in 1982. Interested folks can visit prdefinition.prsa.org to share their definitions.

Social Media Help Bosses Tell Their Story, Financial Times – More than three-quarters of the leaders of the 100 biggest US corporations do not have a Facebook page and only two CEOs use Twitter. But among twenty-something entrepreneurs running online companies, 100 percent are fully involved in the scene. The pros and cons aside, a strong reason to use social media is that can be the ideal platform for disclosing compelling stories that aren’t readily accessible to the public. “More practitioners in business should be out there describing their experiences and giving their opinions. It might help correct some of the misinformation promulgated by anti-capitalists, and the general skepticism about wealth creators expressed by much of the media.”

Occupy Movement Pushes CSR to the Tipping Point, CSRHub – The Occupy Movement is forcing banks to examine whether current  Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts like philanthropy are enough. Facing the movement’s disastrous effects on client and employee loyalty as well as recruitment, financial firms are being pushed to seriously reconsider going beyond old-school deeds to show true leadership in “doing well by doing the right thing.”

Public Relations Won’t Fix Penn State’s Crisis, PRSAY (PRSA) – The multilayered Penn state crisis has raised a lot of questions and challenges around the university’s reputation. From a PR standpoint, “one thing public relations professionals cannot help people understand, and should never have to, are an organization’s moral and legal failings.”  PRSA’s own Keith Trivitt and Arthur Yann give their PR perspectives on the crisis and make the distinction that the crisis is a management issue and not a public relations issue.

Charlie Miller’s Punishment by Apple Tests a Complex Relationship, Huffington Post – Earlier in November, white hat hacker Charlie Miller’s relationship with Apple was damaged when the company said he violated the terms of his agreement after disguising an app to reveal a security flaw in Apple’s App Store. This incident reflects the tension in the partnership between companies and their security experts. Should flaws be disclosed privately to developers or publically? Bruce Schneier, a security expert, thinks that “if researchers don’t go public, things don’t get fixed…Companies don’t see it as a security problem; they see it as a PR problem. And if there’s no PR problem, it’ll never be a priority.”

Follow @BatemanGroupPR for more opinions on breaking news and issues.

Today, it’s my pleasure to share with you some exciting news — two recent developments that together mark a big step forward in our agency momentum. In a press release issued yesterday, we announced that Recyclebank has retained the firm to serve as the company’s PR agency of record, handling all corporate, partnership and consumer communications, effective immediately.  What began last year as a small retainer to build awareness of the company’s innovative partnership program has now grown to multi-faceted, full-service relationship encompassing communications programs targeting all of the company’s core audiences: consumers, corporations and cities and municipalities nationwide. Under the watchful eye of Tyler Perry, Recyclebank has grown into one of our largest accounts, now serviced by a bi-coastal team of five people and growing.

Which leads me to our second piece of news — Bateman Group also announced today the opening of our new offices in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope! With Recyclebank as a flagship account, our plan for the Brooklyn office is to focus primarily on working with companies located in the New York Metropolitan area looking for consumer lifestyle and consumer technology PR expertise. The new outpost will also support current Bateman clients located throughout the Eastern U.S., Canada and Western Europe, particularly those accounts where having team members based in a time zone closer to the client’s own is a service requirement.

We’ve always taken care to build a geographically diverse client roster to protect against regional economic slumps. When the recession hit Silicon Valley in late 2008 and leads from Northern California slowed to a trickle, we found great companies eager for our special brand of communications in places like Hamburg, Germany (CoreMedia), Madrid, Spain (Panda Security), Reading, England (The Open Group), Toronto, Canada (Platform Computing) and Stamford, Conn. (Protegrity). Even though today we’re seeing a steady resurgence in business from Silicon Valley, we continue to work towards our goal of becoming one of the most respected agencies nationwide. Our expansion into New York City today represents the first of many important milestones in that quest.

As for Recyclebank, allow me to share one of our first major initiatives as agency of record. We’re spearheading media efforts for Recyclebank’s Earth Month “Green Your Home Challenge”, a nationwide consumer contest running from April 1, 2011 through April 30, 2011 that aims to educate, motivate and inspire people to live more eco-friendly lifestyles. Be sure to check it out!

Earlier this week on Tuesday, March 1^st, Bateman Group along with fellow boutique PR agencies Mindshare PR, Kulesa Faul, Page One PR and Borders+Gratehouse co-hosted the third in an ongoing series of professional development events. The events — jointly organized and produced by all participating firms — are informal, intimate learning opportunities designed to encourage authentic interactions and, ultimately, cultivate stronger, mutually beneficial relationships between and among PR professionals and industry influencers we serve.

This most recent panel discussion brought together three of the most prominent names working in IT trade journalism today — Eric Knorr, the editor-in-chief of InfoWorld; Doug Dineley, executive editor of the InfoWorld Test Center; and James Niccolai, deputy news editor for IDG News Service. Yes, all three work for the powerhouse publisher IDG; however the similarities truly end there. Each panelist hailed from a different corner of the IT trade eco-system, including editorial direction and oversight, product testing and reviews; and breaking news. The result was a lively discussion moderated by Bateman Group Managing Director Lisa Melsted and attended by more than 30 PR professionals of all experience levels.

The discussion was successful in preempting the iPad 2 announcement, which took place on March 2^nd, and focused mainly on the changing tech journalism landscape, i.e., what’s driving it, what’s shaping editorial content, what are the hot trends, etc. Without further ado, here are some highlights from the panel:

1. Biggest challenges in the tech media landscape: The first question set the tone for the discussion by addressing how quickly media is evolving. Eric spoke about the shift from print to online that has caused journalists to rethink what content they publish and how they publish it. To the dismay of many of our clients, Eric reiterated that IT journalists are no longer covering product news like they used to, but now tend to focus more on larger trends. James expounded on Eric’s initial thoughts by stating how the need for immediacy has directly affected journalistic accuracy. He also mentioned the need for journalists to develop their own voice while still maintaining impartiality since the advent of blogging has led more journalists to create narratives and styles of their own.
2. Rest assured the Internet still rewards value: Amidst an ϋber-plethora of Facebook, Apple and Groupon articles, many of us in the PR industry have a hard time getting coverage for lesser-known brands. Eric Knorr told us that quality content is still the biggest driver in tech journalism. Doug chimed in saying that the advent of online metrics, such as article page views and organic search rankings, has caused journalists to consider keyword usage in headlines, but the body of the articles remains mostly unchanged. The panel agreed it will be interesting to see how tweets and Facebook “likes” will be measured moving forward.
3. New delivery platforms translate into new rules of engagement: Today’s iPad announcement emphasizes new delivery platforms that are becoming increasingly mobile. Tablets are built on multimedia capabilities, while mobile devices such as smartphones clearly point to a trend of needing information at one’s fingertips. Gone are the days when journalists were only expected to produce compelling content because they are now being expected to expand their capabilities to include podcasts, video production and active tweeting. The promising aspect of this trend is that journalists are learning to deliver relevant content based on the context of their audience, which bodes well for our clients Baynote and CoreMedia.
4. Hot trends in the tech industry: According to the panelists, emerging trends other than cloud computing  and the omnipresent “mobile everything” include “Big Data,” new open source distributed software frameworks such as Hadoop, the consumerization of IT, power efficiency, desktop virtualization and browser-based computing. Eric asked the obvious question, “What’s next for Windows now that its truly losing relevance” due to the shift to web-based services. In an audience of PR professionals, the inevitable question was asked: “What articles drive the most traffic?” The answer: “Best of” and technology awards articles have perennially done well at InfoWorld, and Doug shared that any article on free tools or Open Source were quite popular as well. (As an aside, I have to agree with him–thinking about how that applies to my life, at least 25% of the apps on my iPhone were downloaded after I read a “best iPhone app” article, and probably all of them were free!) Eric mentioned that articles about IT culture were also popular, such as the world’s “dirtiest IT jobs”. The Quora question that asks about the preferred alcoholic beverage among the IT security community would be an interesting one if it ever takes off – I’d have to go with Cosmos as the dark horse here.
5. PR Pet Peeves: After seeing the flaming of an unprofessional PR flack on TechCrunch earlier this week, we had to ask about PR pet peeves. James mentioned ambiguous press releases that leave journalists wondering what they’ve read after they read it. Okay, it’s a “solution” but is it software, hardware, a web service or what? Doug’s pet peeve was being pitched on a technology that he doesn’t cover (read: PR people need to perform their due diligence before pitching targets). It was assuring that all of the panelists actually do read emails from PR professionals, but lack the bandwidth to always reply.

Based on all of this great insight from Eric, Doug and James, it’s no wonder why IDG and their mainstay tech media properties like InfoWorld have not only survived but actually thrived during this difficult transition to digital publishing. They’ve done this by having foresight on those trends expected to dominate industry discussion in the future and being the first to put a stake in the ground on these issues. Case in point: Search for “cloud computing” in Google and you’ll see InfoWorld’s “What cloud computing really means” article from a year ago ranks second in the organic search results. They have also evolved quickly. When InfoWorld moved their entire content model online a few years ago, many assumed it was the end for them, but this couldn’t have been further from the truth. IDG publications have also been early adopters of social media channels like Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic, and are quickly adapting to new user devices like the iPhone and iPads. But what’s most at the heart of their success is that each of their media properties has stayed true to their core audience and brand.

These panels allow us to look at things from the journalist’s point of view, leading to more thoughtful angles and pitches that will ultimately translate into improved media relations. If you’re interested in attending our next panel discussion, please feel free to contact us.

Today’s post is the first in a new series debuting on Bateman Banter we’re calling: “The New J-School”, a semi-regular examination of the evolving nature of journalism in today’s digital age. The month of January brought to light some interesting developments we feel signal the start of a much larger trend — one that could swallow the conventional ad-supported media whole — the rise of corporate-sponsored journalism.

In the last week, two former BusinessWeek editors disclosed new deals to write for the corporate blogs of companies they used to cover. Steve Wildstrom, until recently the Personal Technology editor for BusinessWeek, forged a relationship with graphics chip giant NVIDIA to write for the company’s popular nTersect blog. This kicked off with a well-publicized trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where Steve reported live from the show floor. Wildstrom’s former BusinessWeek colleague Steven Baker also announced ongoing deal to write for SmartData Collective, a community of blogs sponsored by data warehousing leader Teradata.

Either by choice or necessity, more and more journalists are becoming independent agents forced to fend for themselves in the open market. Wildstrom and Baker are at the forefront of this new breed of journalist cutting their own deals, and, in the process, figuring out how to do the reporting, get paid and deal responsibly with ethical issues. As these free agents seek out new opportunities to make money, they’re finding very little coming from traditional advertising-based media outlets. There are, however, an increasing number of corporations producing their own content and becoming media companies in their own right, and many of them need help.

For even the largest companies, maintaining a corporate blog with the kind of content needed to become the “must-read” site in a given sector is an uphill battle. At best, there may be 2-3 budding thought leaders in every organization, but the responsibility of writing thought-provoking, compelling content week in and week out is burdensome when it’s an adjunct to a full-time job. The burden is then passed onto the PR team to clean up poorly written or conceived copy until it’s suitable for publishing; nudge others to complete their drafts; and source more and more “content creators” within the company to share the burden.

Cutting deals with former journalists brings a new level of professionalism, respect and credibility to a corporate blog while alleviating the burden that has fallen on the marketing and PR professionals who produce it. Moreover, these deals allow the newly freelance journalists to remain a part of technology sectors they’ve followed for years. Without a masthead to call home, fewer PR people are calling them with breaking news or to broker meetings with their CEOs. These journalists are worried, and rightfully so, that their value in the marketplace will diminish as their relationships with story sources and C-level executives erode over time.

If approached the right way, the rise of corporate-sponsored journalism sounds like a win/win for the reporters and corporations, but it also raises several questions. How will this impact the quality of the reporting long term? How will this benefit readers, if at all? In the tech sector, the number of journalists considered truly credible is quite small. With the publishing industry imploding, who’s grooming the market influencers of tomorrow?  How long before demand soon outstrips the supply? Could companies that fail to broker deals with newly independent journalists ahead of their competitors soon discover there aren’t any good ones left? Worse still, could a Cisco or Oracle or EMC swoop in and buy all the quality ones up?

Next time on “The New J-School”, we’ll attempt to address these “what if” scenarios and share our thoughts on effective ways to integrate corporate-sponsored journalism into a marketing strategy.

Last week there was a rare occurrence at the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper announced a change to its editorial policies. Moving forward, the newspaper will no longer honor news embargoes. The only exceptions are for exclusives or if the news is simply too big to be ignored. This became a catalyst for lively discussion among my colleagues about the changing media landscape and how we should adjust our media strategies to maintain client results.

This news is significant for a variety of reasons. First, it’s more proof the mainstream media landscape has been permanently altered by market acceptance of blogger journalism. Second, it’s also an indication some mainstream outlets are asserting themselves more aggressively in the online battlefield. With news cycles condensed to almost real-time and the consumption of news now a 24x7x365 paradigm, mainstream media are discovering the value of their brands despite the movement of ad dollars to new media. What’s so important about breaking stories? What’s the actual value? Can it be monetized?

The answer is yes it can. What’s at stake here is that the traffic goes to the publication that posts the news first. As competition for traffic and ad revenue intensifies, this makes embargoes all the more fragile. With journalists’ major focus being to break news, a trend is emerging. We are more often seeing a serious decline in the quality of the stories being written – not enough attention to detail, no fact checking, a forgotten hit of the spell check button. We have all experienced the “I don’t need a briefing, I will just write something from the release” situation, which often times results in a follow up “thanks for the story; unfortunately you’ve got some of your facts wrong” scenario. Will this shift towards no embargoes change that? If getting a story exclusively, the hope is that the journalist will take the time to speak with sources, do some research, and put some relevant industry context around the story. It should be noted that many journalists do this regardless of the time frame.

The second implication relates to our clients. For major launches, we invest months into planning, strategy, content development, securing third party references and coordinating analyst briefings to support the messages. As a result, clients expect a high return on investment: multiple press and analyst briefings, and a significant volume of top tier features resulting from them. As more and more publications move away from the embargo, however, this is definitely going to change. A big part of our job is setting client expectations; this will certainly come into play when we need to employ an exclusive strategy for major news. While one thoughtful, lengthy piece in a top-tier outlet can pack quite a punch, a client’s business cannot always be hit with just one publication.

I do not think that this is going to become an industry wide policy shift, but I do think we will see more and more outlets (that have the brand cache to do it) shifting their policies. I am eager to see how far the dominos go with this trend, however, and to further discussions on how this impacts PR.