A quick rant to begin the day. I recently bought my first (and last) electronic book… just to clarify this, it is an electronic version of a widely published book, not to be confused with an e-book from an online publisher, I’ve actually bought a few of those books in the past and will again in the future.
I finally bought one of these damned books because I needed it fairly quickly. I will never do it again. It’s a great example of how traditional industries (publishers, music etc.) are completely missing the point. Their only reaction to the digital era is to sell products that are more inaccessible than their analog counterparts. The book in question could only be read using the very latest (and most bloated) version of Adobe Reader – which by the way includes loads of really useful nagware features. The book’s copyright protection allows you to print 12 pages in any given week…. You can’t transfer it onto you PDA… Instead you’re forced to read it on your laptop and when the battery dies… Well so does your reading.
Call me old fashioned but I personally prefer physical books and this experience has just re-affirmed my preferences. Publishers can clearly save money in distribution and production by selling electronic versions but instead they worry about pirates. They are flattering themselves.
Jim Horton, lest we forget the grand daddy of all PR bloggers, continues to provide readers with fantastic, honest insights into the real world of PR. He’s just published an article on writing for CEO’s and shock horror you can read it online with any copy of Adobe Reader, you can print it and you can even put it on your PDA.
Richard Bailey has some brief comments.
Edelman and Intelliseek have published a fairly interesting whitepaper [Registration Required] on blogging. The report has been released in conjunction with a new blog directory for Edelman’s clients which details the most popular and influential bloggers in particular segments – I wonder how long before that gets posted on the InterWeb?
Interestingly their top three PR bloggers (as listed in the whitepaper) are Steve Rubel, Elizabeth Albrycht and Jeremy Pepper. Neville Hobson is also profiled, but in the “General B2B” category. Thanks to Kevin Dugan for the link.
Funniest PR blog post of the week so far goes to Steve Phenix on that bloody Power Girls program.
(As an aside, my blog numbers are doubling with Lizzie Grubman traffic from Google, so someone is clearly watching/enjoying it. If it get’s a second run I may even make the Edelman pitch list)
While we’re on the subject of Edelman, the boss has a post entitled “Where have are all the cowboys gone” in which he bemoans the fact that Public Relations is being defined by the lowest common denominator, namely the UK’s Max Clifford or in the US Lizzie Grubman. I agree wholeheartedly with his sentiment, however there’s a interesting cultural nuance in his title. In Ireland, “Cowboy” is slang for untrustworthy, incompetent professionals. E.g. “I know I should have asked for some references but I didn’t expect the plumber to be a cowboy”. So the European view is that there are too many PR cowboys….
John Wagner takes Ragan to task over the assertion that there’s isn’t much compelling content available on blogs for corporate communicators. You see I knew this blog stuff would eventually mirror traditional publishers! 
Jeremy Pepper has a great post on transparency.
In the latest case of “Poacher turned Gamekeeper”, Mark Jen, the man made famous over getting fired (If you don’t know what I’m talking about a quick “search” is all you need) is now publishing the public Internet communications policy at Plaxo. Thanks to Matthew Podboy for the link.
The latest release of the Hobson and Holtz report, episode 21, is now up and available for your iPod. Topics include some debate on podcasting, a new IABC blog and the Global PR Blog Week 2.0.
Murphy's Law 