Day: March 24, 2003

The new second generation independents…..   

The merger mania that saw many of the top independent PR firms snapped up at the end of the last decade is reaching it’s natural conclusion.  Many of the original entrepreneurs are once again seeking to return to their roots.

The latest is Andy Cunningham, a veteran of the technology PR business, who is spinning the Citigate Cunningham CXO practice out as an independent entity from Citigate Cunningham, although Incepta [FLASH warning] who bought Cunningham in 2000, will retain a 25% holding in the newly independent firm.

CXO offers “strategic communications programs” and was launched in November 2002.  Cunningham communications itself was launched in 1985.

As an aside.  The Citigate Cunningham website has no mention of this news, in fact, the front page has an announcement on the foundation of Cunningham CXO from last November….

The world of media blogs according to Forbes……   

Forbes magazne has named what it believes are the top five media-related blogs:

1. Metafilter
2. Blogcritics
3. I Want Media
4. Gawker
5. Romenesko

How RSS can work for Public Relations….. 

Phil Gomes has written a whitepaper (PDF) on “Using RSS in Corporate Communications”.  It’s definetely worth a read for any PR person interested in learning how RSS can help you get your message out.

We’re very flattered that he’s included Cape Clear‘s RSS feeds as an example!

Phil’s PR firm, the G2B Group has also published it’s latest newsletter.

Update: CNET has a story looking at how publishers are looking to use RSS to reach out to readers.

Newsletter tips…. 

Whilst I was travelling around last week, a number of key design issues for e-mail newsletters became very apparent.  Here are some thoughts:

1) HTML only newsletters are useless to remote readers if the content requires a live Internet connection.  I read a lot of e-mail off-line when travelling.  If I pull up an e-mail and it consists of empty boxes, I delete it.  Remember to include the content as plain text

2) Most people on the road still only have regular access to 56K Internet, and that’s best case.  Large, graphic intensive e-mails take forever to download and don’t make a good impression.

3) Finally and I’ve written this before.  Provide links to an online version of the content.  A story is more liekly to be viral if I can forward a link rather than the entire e-mail.

4) If you go to the trouble of putting a newsletter together, why not include a “call-to-action” such as an offer to download a more detailed whitepaper?

5) Remember to include contact details….