About This Report On June 8-9, 2007, Edelman and PRWeek gathered some of the leading thinkers at the intersection of marketing, PR, journalism and academics for two days of discussion about the tectonic shift the Internet is causing in business communications. More than 90 people participated in a series of front-of-the-room and hallway conversations at The Harvard Club in New York City. While marketers, journalists and educators have been studying the changes wrought by the Internet, this was one of the rare occasions when all three groups were in the same room, talking about these issues together. This paper reports on the themes that emerged, the disagreements that remained, and the shared understandings participants went away with. For more information on the event, visit www.edelman.com/summit07.
Table of Contents Foreword by Richard Edelman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Changing Media Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Engaging Consumers Through Social Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Co-Creating Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Building Corporate Reputation from Inside Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Advocacy and Grassroots Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Era of Citizen Journalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Ethics and Rules of Engagement in New Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Enabling the Digital Generation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 What’s Next for New Media?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Commentary by Steve Rubel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Afterword by David Weinberger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Sessions & Speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Conclusion by Julia Hood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Facts and Figures about New Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside Back Cover
New Media Academic Summit
Foreword by Richard Edelman The idea for the New Media Academic Summit was spawned in a discussion with Professor Robert Pritchard (“Pritch”) at Ball State University in March 2006. It became clear from my visit to the school that both professors and students in public relations wanted to learn more about new media. It took about a year, but with help from the academic members of the Arthur Page Society and several important journalists and bloggers, PRWeek and Edelman were able to organize the first such event. We sought to provide the professors with tangible cases that they could bring back to the classroom, such as actual experiences of important players in marketing (Unilever and American Express). We attempted to show the breadth of stakeholders now being engaged online, with examples from politics (Ned Lamont for Senate), corporate reputation (Avaya), and civil society/environment (GE). We invited the full spectrum of media, from mainstream giants such as Dow Jones, Crain’s, Conde Nast and The New York Times to smaller companies such as Habbo, Meetup, and Gather.com. We were joined by important bloggers such as David Weinberger, Dan Gillmor and Jay Rosen. Pundits including Josh Bernoff of Forrester, Nick Lemann of Columbia Journalism School, and Pat Mitchell of the Paley Center for Media added different perspectives. This is a time of great opportunity for public relations. We are observing continued dispersion of authority and readership among media sources, with the average well-informed American relying on seven media outlets a day. There is decline in trust in traditional institutions, from government to business, with a “person like you” the new credible source of information instead of a regulator or CEO*. Advertising is believed by only 10 percent of consumers according to Forrester Research, while 80 percent of college students learn about new products through word of mouth according to research house William Blair. There are new voices in the dialogue, from non-governmental organizations to activist employees and empowered consumers. It is important at the same time to point out our greater responsibility to our publics. There is no room in our profession for spin. We are paid advocates but must base our work on truth. We must be transparent as to the purpose of the campaign, the funding source, and the basis of our claims. We should offer an opportunity for commentary and cocreation, committing to constant updating of information and posting of new content as we learn from the community. We will earn trust by facilitating an intelligent conversation based on facts. We hope to take this same concept to other parts of the world in the next 12 months. We are also committed to holding a second New Media Academic Summit in early June 2008 in New York City, so clear your calendar now. Richard Edelman President & CEO, Edelman
*Edelman Trust Barometer 2007.
New Media Academic Summit
The Changing Media Environment In the kickoff session of the New Media Academic Summit, a panel of industry leaders and experts discussed the changing media environment, how it is affecting business and academia, and its implications for the future. David Kirkpatrick, Senior Editor, Internet and technology at Fortune, served as moderator. Gordon Crovitz
Richard Edelman
Nicholas Lemann
Pat Mitchell
David Kirkpatrick, Moderator
Nicholas Lemann, Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, noted that history shows that opinion pieces are the oldest form of journalism, dating back to the 1600s. Reporting emerged after opinion and has been practiced by fewer people because it requires extensive training and skills and needs a relatively expensive infrastructure to support it and make it economically viable. Before the Internet era, opinion and journalism were delivered by different means—through word of mouth or traditional media respectively. Today, they are delivered by the same platforms in similar formats. Consumers are combining information and making their own interpretations of its reliability. What has this change brought to the media industry? The panelists identified great opportunities for and serious threats to the media industry. Gordon Crovitz, Publisher of The Wall Street Journal, asserted that “the industry always overestimates how significant the change in behavior is in the short-term, and underestimates it in the long-term.” Media companies have been pushed to reformulate their operations, adapt to new technologies, and explore new platforms. Pat Mitchell, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Paley Center for Media, recalled that a year ago, she was part of a board meeting where broadcast CEOs argued over whether the public would watch TV online. This debate is now obsolete. Today, The New York Times produces videos, ABC journalists write articles, and the weekly Fortune magazine issues new online content daily. Crovitz noted that in surveys, its print readers said that they do not want more news; instead, they want interpretation of the news from the previous 24 hours. The Wall Street
New Media Academic Summit
“ We’ve only made it to the top of the second inning in the digital age.” Gordon Crovitz Publisher The Wall Street Journal Journal now trains its journalists to write “secondday stories” on the day the news happens. The media industry is learning that the only constant is continuous innovation. What do these changes mean for the next generation of journalists? “More graduates are finding Web jobs, not newspaper jobs,” Lemann said. Columbia has been moving aggressively to bring the Web more and more into its curriculum, but is still primarily devoted to training reporters. Lemann’s perspective is that although the Web is very exciting and is by weight primarily an opinion medium, it’s also true that the largest number of readers bunch up around traditional media sites that are reporting-oriented.
Key Learnings •E very company can now be a media company. Through Web sites, social networks, videos, photos, blogs, and other outlets, corporations can communicate directly—without filters— with their stakeholders. • Every media company is a multimedia company. Media companies are no longer expected to limit their output to one format. Daily newspapers create videos and blogs; TV networks develop written content; everybody blogs. • Citizen journalism has its place alongside “traditional” media. It is being widely accepted that blogs and citizen journalism are not replacing traditional media, but have a special role to play along with traditional media. • Academic programs best serve budding journalists with traditional reporting and Web-based skills.
How is change in the media industry affecting public relations? To spread information, social media uses public relations strategies such as generating word of mouth, connecting with stakeholders, creating issue-focused groups, reaching out to advocates, and sharing opinions. Richard Edelman, President and CEO of Edelman, quoted Dan Gillmor, Director, Center for Citizen Media, as saying that journalism must, by definition, be “thorough, accurate, fair, independent, and transparent.” He added that while PR can’t claim to be fair or impartial, PR does have to be transparent about its sources of funding and who spokespeople are, provide real data and third-party sourcing for claims, and genuinely engage in conversation rather than selling. “Open advocacy is the only way that PR can participate in a meaningful way,” he said.
New Media Academic Summit
“ It took 35 years for TV to reach 25 million people and earn $1 billion in revenues. It took the Internet just three years. We have now reached a point where if you are an old media company and you are not deeply engaged in new media, you are a dead media company.” Pat Mitchell President and CEO Paley Center for Media
Engaging Consumers Through Social Networks
Scott Donaton
Babs Rangaiah
Scott Heiferman
Pam Talbot, Moderator
Social networks may not be new, but as this session explored, social networks on the Internet have opened up a brave new world of interaction and conversation between marketers and customers. In a time when viewers are using DVR to skip over commercials, platforms like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and other photo-, and videosharing sites on the Web are allowing brands to “friend” their customers. The opportunities for marketers are vast—as long as they understand the unique nature of social networks. How can brands best participate in social networks? Babs Rangaiah, Director of Media & Entertainment at Unilever, said that “as a brand, it’s best to create campaigns that penetrate the culture and leverage consumer behavior.” Dove and Axe (two Unilever brands and Edelman clients) have over 300 groups on MySpace and Facebook. Another Unilever brand that reaches consumers through social networking is Wisk. On Wisk.com, moms can create magazine covers with their children’s photos, such as “Sports Illustrated – Future Legend” or “Life Magazine – Kid of the Year.” Consumers can design these magazine covers featuring their children for free, and Wisk encourages them to share the photos with friends and family. Although this may seem like a simple marketing program, it required Wisk to become comfortable with allowing – even encouraging – its customers to “play” with its brand. Customers respond to this ceding of control by trusting the brand more. What should marketers know about social networks before they launch campaigns on them? Scott Donaton, Publisher of Advertising Age, suggested that it’s best to “give users control over how, when and if they interact with media. How do you go from an intrusion model to an invitation model of marketing? Marketers have to learn how to let go and let others shape who you are. Can you create a space for people to come to and then let an honest conversation take place?” Rangaiah noted that “it’s difficult to play in these communities if you aren’t honest…build
New Media Academic Summit
“ Since the first three cavemen stood around a fire, we’ve had social networks.” Scott Donaton Publisher Advertising Age your brand in a way that makes people want to play.” Donaton added that brands must be transparent about who is bringing the content into play. Consumers do not differentiate between marketing and entertainment; they care about what’s interesting to them. One example is Dove’s popular “Evolution” video, which can be viewed on YouTube.com. How effective is marketing on social networks? Moderator Pam Talbot, President and CEO, Edelman U.S., asked: “When consumers interact with a brand, does it affect consumer behavior?” Rangaiah said that the biggest, most successful campaigns of recent years have included consumers. He pointed to Dove’s work over the
Key Learnings Marketers are learning how to best tap into social networks to connect with consumers. Here are some key recommendations from marketing practitioners: • “Let go” and invite users to help shape the brand. • Grant consumers control over how and when they interact with the brand. • Deliver content that is relevant, interesting, or entertaining. Consumers do not differentiate between marketing and entertainment. They focus on what’s interesting to them. • Do not interact only to push your product or build your brand. • Avoid intrusion. Consumers must decide if they want to interact with the brand. • Be transparent. Admit weakness. Be honest.
past two years of as an example of online marketing that has lead to business increases. “It all goes back to sales,” he said. “Sales is the metric.” What is the future of marketing on social networks? Scott Heiferman, Co-founder and CEO of Meetup, predicted that there will be a backlash against social media communities. (Meetup, which first came to fame as the grassroots backbone of the Howard Dean presidential campaign, enables millions of people to use the Internet to organize local community groups with real-world meetings.) He believes that the real world generates more impact than online communities do. In his view, students are obsessed with Facebook because it isn’t media. “There’s some actual real life going on here.”
New Media Academic Summit
Rangaiah noted that there are “so many different ways that it can go. The video explosion is going to have marketing as a backbone. Consumergenerated [video] will be big. The world is flatter, and consumers and brands can take advantage of it.” From 3-D Web sites like Second Life to brandfocused communities, social networks are still evolving. Talbot concluded that “the virtual world might enhance real world experiences.”
“ Do things with the brands that penetrate the culture.…Leverage behavior in a way that doesn’t feel commercial.” Babs Rangaiah Director of Media & Entertainment Unilever
Co-Creating Content This is the age of mass collaboration. Online and off, companies and customers are co-creating content, and the results are altering the dynamic between marketing, technology, entertainment, and everyday life.
Tim Zagat
Nina Zagat
Robert Mankoff
Teemu Huuhtanen
In this session, moderator Jackie Price, SVP, Digital Entertainment, Rights & Technology, Edelman, led a panel composed of Tim and Nina Zagat, Co-founders and Co-CEOs of Zagat Survey; Bob Mankoff, Cartoon Editor, The New Yorker and President of The Cartoon Bank; Lesley Solomon, VP, Sales & Partnerships, Gather. com, and Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO, Habbo. The panel discussed how their companies and others are using new media to give voice to consumers via the co-creation of content – and what it means for their businesses. When Zagat was looking to publish their first restaurant guide 25 years ago, they were told that nobody wanted restaurant guidebooks written by a group of non-experts. What the Zagats didn’t know is that they would become of the first of many companies to use user-generated content to create a final product. Today, millions of people participate in its surveys on Zagat.com. “We shifted the paradigm of the survey,” said Tim Zagat. “The survey had always been for the benefit of the seller, and Zagat made it for the benefit of the consumer.”
“ The people who are involved [in online communities] are passionate and making connections.” Tim Zagat Co-founder and Co-CEO Zagat Survey
Lesley Solomon
Jackie Price, Moderator
The New Yorker is another example of a company that decided to encourage consumers to cocreate content and received negative feedback at first – readers said that they wanted content generated by New Yorker writers. Today, The New Yorker receives 1000 cartoon submissions a week and more than 500,000 entries for its cartoon caption contest. The contest allows The New Yorker to be engaged on a weekly basis with
New Media Academic Summit
“ We are constantly looking for entertainment and stimulation. People are generally in either a purposeful or playful mode online. We are not busier, but we just want something to do at every waking hour.” Bob Mankoff Cartoon Editor, The New Yorker President, The Cartoon Bank its readership and to generate additional buzz about the magazine. Habbo is an online virtual world for teens aged 13 to 16 that has members in 29 countries. When Mountain Dew wanted to launch in Finland, the soft drink brand created a virtual pool and lounge on Habbo and then hosted an online “tasting” two months before the drink launched. Site users who “tasted” Mountain Dew received a sample of Mountain Dew in the mail. Teemu Huuhtanen noted that “marketers must add value to the community.” By joining users in a world that they create for themselves, Mountain Dew can engage in active conversation with its customers. Gather.com, a social network for adults, is built on the idea of co-creation: “Media has become multi-directional,” said Lesley Solomon. The site gained popularity with a member blogging and reporting live on a story about a coal mine accident in Virginia. Since then, Gather has done work at the presidential debates with five Democrat bloggers, five Republican bloggers and five independent bloggers. Gather provides an environment where people can connect about interests and things that excite them and provide content to share with other users.
Key Learnings • Consumers do not want to be marketed to. They want to be engaged in a regular dialogue. • Consumers want to participate in the idea creation process to ensure that the final product fits their needs. • Consumers are creators, too.
Building Corporate Reputation from Inside Out According to Dartmouth Professor Paul Argenti, “Reputation is the collective assessment of all constituencies and how they view you.” To build and protect its corporate reputation, a company must be aware of how it is perceived by each of its stakeholder groups: employees, consumers, shareholders, NGOs, and local communities. Matthew Anchin
Jim J. Finn
Paul A. Argenti
Deirdre Latour
Matthew Harrington, Moderator
The Internet is changing the way corporations understand those relationships and connect with their constituents. In this session, panelists gave examples of how companies are using new media channels to communicate with stakeholders; enhance and protect their reputations, and showcase their work as responsible global citizens. The panelists were Paul A. Argenti, Professor of Corporate Communication, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth; Matthew Anchin, Vice President, Online Communications, American Express; Jim J. Finn, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Avaya; and Deirdre Latour, Director, Public Relations, GE. The moderator was Matthew Harrington, President, Edelman Eastern Region. Connecting with employees IBM has been able to ease implementation of corporate changes in part by holding online “jam sessions” with tens of thousands of employees that focus on “who we are” and IBM’s reputation. The jam sessions help earn “buy in” from employees ahead of time. Tackling rumors Avaya monitored the growing rumors and speculations online about its merger agreement in a $8.2 billion deal. To retain control of the story, the company took the pro-active approach of announcing the merger on the Deal blog of The Wall Street Journal. Explaining new technology GE transformed itself from the company that “brings good things to life” to “imagination at work.” Now, GE uses new media to explain its technology to consumers. “GE on Demand” provides videos and podcasts of scientists discussing products and new technologies.
New Media Academic Summit
“ The Internet has put the public back in public relations. Because we can go direct, we must be the most authentic voice of the company.” Matthew Anchin VP, Online Communications American Express Engaging stakeholders in philanthropy American Express created a Web site called www.membersproject.com, which allows cardholders to dream up, and ultimately vote for, one idea that will have a positive impact on the world. American Express will fund the winning idea with up to $5 million. Including NGOs GE’s Corporate Social Responsibility report is available online. To engage NGOs in its citizenship program, GE invited NGOs to write letters to the citizenship report, and GE posted the letters without editing the responses. This showed all stakeholders that GE is transparent about its CSR efforts and that it has third-party validation.
Key Learnings • The Internet enables companies to communicate directly with their stakeholders without the filter of the media. • New media encourages two-way communication between a company and its stakeholders. • To assess corporate reputation, companies should monitor and evaluate blogs. This will enable them to engage in the dialogue at an early stage.
Advocacy and Grassroots Engagement
Michael Cornfield
Carol C. Darr
In 2004, Howard Dean’s run for president was one of the first examples of a political campaign that was not only affected by the Internet – it lived and died by the Internet. Today, the Web is fueling a power shift in politics from the hands of the established political elite to the keyboards of nonprofessionals. This was the subject discussed by panelists Michael Cornfield, Vice President of Public Affairs, ElectionMall.com, and Adjunct Professor in Political Management, The George Washington University; Carol C. Darr, Director, Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet; Brian Reich, New Media Director, Cone; and Ned Lamont, Fellow, Harvard Institute of Politics. Michael Krempasky, Vice President, Edelman, was the moderator. Political aficionados are creating waves by becoming actively engaged earlier in the process than ever before and by sharing their opinions with large audiences. These are some of the changes that have occurred over the last couple of years:
Brian Reich
Ned Lamont
• Candidates can now tap into a wider pool of active support in a coordinated fashion. For example, http://mybarackobama.com manages the work of volunteers, helping them fundraise, obtain votes, and organize events for the Barack Obama 2008 campaign. • Political campaigns can be destroyed by video and blogs, as George Allen’s was as the result of his “macaca” comment. Ten years ago, unless a TV crew had been present, this offhand comment on the campaign trail probably would not have been captured and sent around the country. • Political ads are created outside of campaigns, such as the anti-Hillary Clinton “1984” video, and are broadcast to millions on video-sharing sites.
Michael Krempasky, Moderator
• Even candidates’ debates are now being influenced by non-professionals with the help of YouTube and CNN. • Politicians are starting to value the Internet more than paid television spots or media profile. Ned Lamont said blogs allowed him, during his run for the U.S. Senate, the chance to speak directly to voters. Lamont thought communicating through a
New Media Academic Summit
“ Everyone with a cellphone camera can create a political commercial. The power is shifting online to a group of non-professional political junkies. New media empowers people outside of campaigns.” Carol C. Darr Director Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet blog was more effective than getting 17 seconds on the news or 30 seconds in an ad. Campaign money The Internet has brought candidates new fundraising opportunities. According to a 2006 survey of the Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet, “The Internet is perhaps the single most important development in political fundraising, and Democrats appear to have taken better advantage of it than Republicans. More than half of Democrats gave online, more than double the percentage of Republicans. More than 80 percent of the contributions by people ages 18
Key Learnings • The rules of the game have changed for the 2008 election. Now, nonprofessionals are creating campaign ads, asking questions at debates, and shaping the national debate through blog discussions. Candidates and their campaign staff have less control of issues, image, and reputation than ever before. • The Internet allows advocacy groups to push presidential hopefuls to stay on message and demand that they describe their policies in-depth. • The Internet demands consistency from candidates. If they change their position on an issue, bloggers and YouTube videos will compare statements to show that the candidates’ views are not reliable. • The Internet creates new resources for candidates.
to 34 were made online. Almost half of all small, online donors gave without being asked first by the campaigns.” However, the campaigns are still getting more money from large donors. In 2004, George Bush and John Kerry raised only approximately 30 percent of their campaign dollars from small donors (under $200). Advocacy groups “Advocacy groups will set the issues for the 2008 campaign,” noted Brian Reich, New Media Director, Cone. “Candidates will have to sign on to realistic policies about big issues.” The Internet pushes candidates to respond to a large array of issues and to engage with advocacy groups. Youth vote The Internet may reach millions of young people, but at this stage, online engagement is not translating into a larger youth vote. Young audiences might forward the “John Edwards – I Feel Pretty” video to their friends, but it does not necessarily lead them to voting booths.
Percentage of 2004 presidential campaign contributions in amounts less than $200 George W. Bush
60% 14%
Wesley Clark
Joe Lieberman
Carol Mosley Braun Al Sharpton
$51m $22m
31%
$17m $14m
13%
$14m
9%
Dennis Kucinich Bob Graham
$215m
37%
Howard Dean
Richard Gephardt
$256m
31%
John Kerry
John Edwards
Total contributions from individuals
70%
$8m $4m
9%
24%
13%
$532k
$496k
SOURCE CAMPAIGN FINANCE INSTITUTE
Video examples (as of July 2007) • Anti-Hillary Clinton “1984” (viewed 3,573,895 times on YouTube)
• George Allen’s campaign was ruined by his “macaca” comment (viewed 240,270 times on YouTube)
• “John Edwards “I Feel Pretty” (viewed 814,877 times on YouTube)
• Mitt Romney vs. Mitt Romney on abortion
• “Obama Girl” (viewed 2,695,030 times on YouTube)
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The Era of Citizen Journalism The role of citizen journalists was debated in a lively session that featured Dan Gillmor, Director of the Center for Citizen Media and Jodi Kantor, Reporter, The New York Times; the discussion was moderated by Steve Rubel, Senior Vice President, Edelman, who blogs at Micropersuasion.com. Dan Gillmor
Jodi Kantor
Steve Rubel, Moderator
Citizen journalism can be enormously effective when the system functions properly, but the publication of inaccurate information can have disastrous consequences. For example, Steve Rubel cited Engadget’s publication of an e-mail from two different sources stating that two Apple product releases would be delayed. Within minutes of the publication, Apple’s stock dropped 2 percent, and the e-mail turned out to be fraudulent. To avoid such mistakes, Dan Gillmor said, Engadget should have contacted Apple to confirm the information. Even with cases like this, the collaboration between traditional journalism and citizen journalists frequently proves to be a positive one. Gillmor asserted, “For every beat, at every organization, the readers know more than the reporter. The first thing is to listen to the conversation.” The relationship between bloggers and journalists The relationship between citizen journalists and traditional journalists is complex. According to Jodi Kantor, traditional journalists have a different role. “I write features, and my job is to deliver this very polished piece of work. There’s a nice symbiosis between that and bloggers. It’s like the bird riding the elephant.” Citizen journalism has brought new value to traditional media. For example, Kantor asserted, “By reading blogs, I have been able to better understand how easily things can be misconstrued. Proof that blogging is better for journalism.” Kantor clarified, however, that she is reluctant to respond to bloggers because “if I’m going to publish something my editor should look at it.” Gillmor stated that he wished The New York Times would engage bloggers to a greater degree, but understood the concerns of editors and lawyers.
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“ By reading blogs, I have been able to better understand how easily things can be misconstrued. Proof that blogging is better for journalism.” Jodi Kantor Reporter The New York Times He asserted, “The best way to improve journalism is to have journalism be the story.” The New York Times is changing, however, moving toward a complete integration of its online and print teams. Gillmor offered a warning: “Blogging is a tool. When we ask if bloggers are journalists, we might as well ask if people who write on paper are journalists. I’m a skeptic of objectivity. If we don’t get people savvy enough to sort things out, then we’re really in trouble.” What should universities be teaching their students about citizen journalism? Kantor: “Kids need help to adapt to these new, confusing situations. It’s important to know what it means when someone ‘Googles’ you before they talk to you. It’s dangerous to draw a conclusion about someone based on their Google profile. If I started my career over again, I would certainly be more aware of things I did and what I said on the Web.” Gillmor believes that “colleges need to be teaching principles of journalism and apply them broadly across multiple media.” Young journalists should be thinking like business people and they
Key Learnings • Mainstream journalists now collaborate with bloggers to learn new trends, find new stories, check facts, and distribute breaking stories. • Citizen journalism keeps mainstream journalism in check. Bloggers can lend credibility or support, or identify inaccuracies in a story. • Public relations executives should write pitches to bloggers that are as customized as pitches to traditional media.
should not expect a traditional media career track. They need not only the skills of journalism but a knowledge of business and product ideas. The cost of experimenting is approaching zero in a Web 2.0 world. How can public relations firms and professionals use the new media and citizen journalism trends to further client interests? The public relations industry needs to adapt to these changes in the media industry and to the evolution of technology. Steve Rubel acknowledged receiving more than 100 pitches a day for his blog. He says that he doesn’t see a lot of customization to the pitches.
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Kantor noted, “Online video is a great PR opportunity right now. The PR community still values print and television more so than they do online. The New York Times is really interested in doing online videos. It’s very rare for a PR person to say, ‘I have a great idea for an online video.’”
“ Colleges need to be teaching principles of journalism and apply them broadly across multiple media.” Dan Gillmor Director Center for Citizen Media
Ethics and Rules of Engagement in New Media
Donald K. Wright
Henry Copeland
Rick Murray, Moderator
The daily expansion of new media technology not only increases the power of individual bloggers, but also impacts major corporations. As the readership of new media increases, ethical implications are expanding too. The mistakes made by media outlets, corporations and other entities, as well as new standards and legal challenges brought about by new media were discussed by Donald K. Wright, Professor of Public Relations, Boston University, and Henry Copeland, Founder of Blogads, in a session moderated by Rick Murray, President, me2revolution, Edelman. Ethical guidelines Setting ethical guidelines in any situation is often a challenge. But in the world of new media interactions, the feat is even more difficult. Rick Murray recommended reading Tim O’Reilly’s Blogging Code of Conduct to help shape discussion and debate (http://blogs.oreillynet. com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1952). Regarding the implementation of a code of conduct, Henry Copeland noted, “One guy’s ethical lapse is another guy’s profit center.” Wright asked, “If we can’t implement something at a national level, how can we implement it at a global level?” Murray asserted that “ethics is self-policing. It’s impossible to have a formal standard or process. We hold people accountable for living up to our standards. It’s voluntary but it’s self-policing. The blogosphere is very vocal and has a persistent voice; if you wrong them, they will come after you.” New ethics? Traditional media has long been plagued with ethical issues – for example, should a media outlet ever pay someone for a news story? Donald Wright feels quite strongly that new media presents the same dilemmas. He said, “The ethics for traditional and new media should not be different. New media is global, quick moving. Paying for news, paying for blogs, is just as bad on the traditional side as it would be on the blog side.” Copeland noted, “PayPerPost [where advertisers pay bloggers directly for writing sponsored content] didn’t exist a year ago. Now they have 2,000 bloggers signed on. Blue-chip companies
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“ We need to talk about responsibility. For example, New Hampshire is the only state that does not legally require seat belt use. Commentators said ‘it might be legal, but it is neither responsible nor ethical to not wear a seatbelt.’” Donald Wright Professor of Public Relations Boston University are doing this because it gets bloggers to talk about them and gets them some ‘Google juice.’ Traditional media is shrinking relative to YouTube, Facebook and MySpace. If traditional media is half of what it is today it will be a tenth of that in 10 years.” Reader responsibility “If you have a blogger writing inaccurate stories, and people are using the information, it could have [a] negative impact. It’s a source that may or may not be able to be confirmed,” said Rick Murray. Readers need to judge where the information is coming from and the agenda the writing is trying to push. It is similar to distinguishing hearsay from a credible source. Wright noted, “In PR, we’re usually talking about the ethics of the sender of information versus the receiver. Yet receivers of information also have some ethical responsibilities.”
Key Learnings • A person could never receive enough training in the role of ethics in new media. Since the medium keeps evolving, train people to make ethical decisions. • The first responsibility to be ethical belongs to the individual. • Companies can and should hold their employees accountable. Then acting ethically becomes both a corporate and an individual’s choice.
Enabling the Digital Generation
Walter Carl
David Weinberger
Merrill Brown
John Edelman, Moderator
Increasingly, communication and journalism classes are employing new media tools. In a recent survey by Edelman of its Summer 2007 interns and of members of the New Professionals Affinity Group of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), 66 percent of respondents said that new media was not included in their university’s or college’s curricula. The survey indicates that many professors are still unsure about how to integrate these tools into programs or how much time they should spend teaching students how to use them.
“ Professors need to rethink how the core writing courses are being taught. Digital thinking, digital skills, and entrepreneur skills – all of these must be taught.”
The challenges faced by academia are a lack of resources, the fast pace of technology’s evolution and application, and working in an environment where every student enters the classroom with a different degree of technological knowledge and expertise. These challenges were discussed by Walter Carl, Assistant Professor, Northeastern University, David Weinberger, Fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center and author of “Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder”; and Merrill Brown, National Editorial Director of News21 and Chairman of the Board of NowPublic.com, the leading citizen journalism company in the world, in a session moderated by John Edelman, Assistant to the Chairman and Managing Director, Global Human Resources, Edelman.
The emergence of news sites like Digg.com, which ranks news articles based on user reviews, directly empowers new media participants. New media platforms allow the public to move from members of the audience to dynamic actors effecting change.
Walter Carl pointed out that even students who are fully integrated into the digital age have much to learn. Students might know how to use new media for social purposes, but they do not understand how to use it in the professional world. “I have to teach my students how to make a hyperlink, how to write HTML, how to use RSS,” Carl reported. Blog and effect New media can’t be used in a vacuum. As Professor Carl put it, “You need to understand the social forces, consequences, and context – not just the technology.” The 2007 tragedies of Virginia Tech and the attempted London bombings have demonstrated that the ways in which information is disseminated are changing. In the aftermath of these events, Internet sources spread information far more quickly than traditional news sources. Social
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Merrill Brown National Editorial Director News21 network sites like Facebook.com helped friends keep track of each other immediately after the Virginia Tech tragedy.
As such, new media users are imbued with a great deal of power – and that power must be yielded wisely. Carl emphasized the importance of ethics, responsibility, and community standards. Merrill Brown noted that “public publishing is very important, so that work is not just being critiqued by the class. The response mechanism of public publishing is incredibly important. It teaches students to deal with feedback.” Feedback also forces new media users to be accountable for their statements and actions.
Key Learnings • Students need to not only learn new media but understand the implications of each medium. • In order to train the next generation of communication professionals, academics must keep up with how new media is being used by companies and agencies. • To prepare students to be citizen journalists, professors must talk to them about ethics and responsibilities. • Professors should encourage students to publish their content on the Web. This will help them feel more accountable for the work and it allows for feedback from a larger audience.
What’s Next for New Media?
Jay Rosen
Josh Bernoff
Rick Murray
Julia Hood, Moderator
New media technologies are emerging at a breakneck pace – which will boom and which will bust? Where does the power lie – with platform owners or users? How must the PR industry adapt?A panel comprised of Jay Rosen, Associate Professor and former Chairman, Department of Journalism, New York University; Josh Bernoff, Vice President, Forrester Research; and Rick Murray, President, me2revolution, Edelman, debated these questions and others in the final session of the New Media Academic Summit. Julia Hood, Editor-in-Chief, PRWeek, served as moderator. Which platforms will last? Josh Bernoff believes that traffic “matters a lot more than buzz” when determining which new delivery platforms are likely to catch on. Other considerations include: Has the platform spread virally? Is the platform “built on stuff that’s already there?” Does the platform satisfy some sort of human need – to communicate, to get together? Jay Rosen cited knowledgeable bloggers like Steve Rubel and Jeff Jarvis as reliable sources on which technologies will endure. Rosen also judged that any technologies that lower the costs of “sharing information and collaboration” will prove significant. New technology has the best chance of being adopted when it replaces a current standard. For example, people are reluctant to add another box to their TV: DVDs and DVRs replaced VCRs. Steve Rubel pointed to television as a medium that will grow. “Television is a closed platform [now]... You can’t get content without getting through gatekeepers.” He suggested turning television into an open platform; already, brands are creating dedicated content channels. But Josh Bernoff noted that getting high-definition content to TV through the Internet is not easy due to bandwidth issues. “[But these] problems are all solvable in the long-term, not the short-term,” he said. “It’s coming, but don’t hold your breath.” Ownership and power The Web is a decontrolled media environment. In traditional corporate structures, ownership is power, but in the uncertain world of new media, who has the power? Rosen noted: “The Web is
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“ Today, we have a decontrolled media environment…Users can veto what the owners think.” Jay Rosen Associate Professor and former Chairman, Department of Journalism New York University owned in a legal sense by lots of different kinds of owners.…Users can veto what the owners think.” As an example, he referenced the recent Digg.com debate, in which a hacking code was pulled from the site, then reposted in response to user complaints. Bernoff described the Facebook approach as “Build whatever you want on it,” and noted, “Even with corporate ownership, traffic depends on openness.” Public relations responses The new media world continually redefines the relationships among consumers, producers, and public relations firms. Panelists offered numerous pieces of advice about how PR organizations can best work in this new environment. Suggestions included demonstrating respect for consumers through messaging, relationships, and delivery; embracing conversation; engaging consumers and listening to them; focusing on quality; and understanding audiences and their concerns and appreciations. Rick Murray, in discussing Edelman’s approach, said that “We’re advocating a pretty radical shift [from] messaging to conversation.” He contended that PR methods such as press releases, pitching,
Key Learnings Experts use these criteria to judge the power and long-term prospects of new media technologies: • Traffic • Viral popularity • Does it build on existing platforms? • Does it lower the cost of sharing information and collaboration?
b-roll and major media hits are essentially the same as peddling, and they are not conversations, which “require you to think and act all the time.” Murray added that “the Internet offers us deep, rich and full insights that we didn’t have access to before....PR must start thinking about overall strategic decisions. Our hope is that the business expands to include a broader definition of engagement.” Jay Rosen said that public relations and marketing have lived by “the message” and will die by it unless they transform themselves. Messages are attempts to control markets. The Internet is hostile to that. What’s next for the Web? New media is, by its very nature, a creature of flux. But what do all these changes mean in the long term? What is new media evolving into, and how much influence does it actually have? Bernoff
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claimed, “There are two camps: ‘Everything is going to the Internet’ and ‘You’re crazy, nothing’s going [to the Internet].’” Murray wondered, “Is [the Internet] going to be free?” Rosen asserted, “That’s a major open question. I have had the sense since starting my own blog in 2003 that freedom of openness wouldn’t necessarily last. Fight to keep it open.”
“ [On] the Internet, 99.9 percent of everything is junk. What’s appealing is creativity in the message, in the relationship and in the delivery. Be respectful of people on the other end. Find a new way to do it.” Josh Bernoff Vice President Forrester Research
Commentary by Steve Rubel The marketing communications landscape is constantly shifting. That’s not new. What is new is the pace of change brought about by digital technology. It has created massive social change as millions of connected individuals create content that’s just as influential as what the pros put out. The sessions of the New Media Academic Summit, described in the previous pages, brought all this vividly to light. Further, the summit offered a clear view of what educators must do to help their students thrive in this new environment. Perhaps Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners summed it up best when she told the St. Thomas University incoming class of 2011: “The jobs you’ll be hired for in four years’ time have yet to be created.” It’s not easy to create a curriculum when the Earth is constantly shifting beneath our feet. However, business and academia can and should work together and take their best guess at where things are going. That’s all anyone can do. What is certain is that technology has forever changed how people interact with each other. The Net has enabled millions of like-minded individuals to find each other in online communities and work together toward a common goal: to be entertained, informed, supported, etc. Many of these communities are global. Further, they will become even more diverse as billions of people in China and India truly join the global playing field. Where we think this all nets out is that one day soon PR won’t be synonymous with “communications.” It will be defined solely by action and results; by how it is able to break down the walls between companies and constituents to produce some shared desired outcome. Communities are becoming the PR professional’s primary theater of operations. However, in the near future, community won’t just be a place we visit—a single site like MySpace or Facebook. It will be a river that runs through absolutely everything online. As the Web gets more social and personalization and search technologies become more mature, it will bubble up content that you care about at the precise time you need it and on the device of your choosing. Relevant information will find you, rather than you having to seek it out. These are exciting times, but they are fraught with risk. It’s our job to work together to make sure that we are preparing the next generation of PR professionals for a world that looks nothing like it did before. I am confident that we can make a difference and that it will lead to the next great era for our industry. Steve Rubel Senior Vice President, Edelman
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Afterword by David Weinberger The New Media Academic Summit did what a first meeting should do: People from different domains had their first tentative discussions, trying to find their shared interests and worries. That’s what we do with small talk, but in this case, the talk tended to be pretty large indeed. After all, the people in the room were by most accounts leading thinkers and influencers in their fields. So, what did we learn from these initial conversations, beyond the particularities? If we divide the attendees into journalists, bloggers, PR folks, and academics – acknowledging the ways many of the attendees blur those lines – I think challenges emerged for each. Journalists are struggling to deal with the erosion in differentiating value of what had been their staple product: news coverage. As reporting becomes increasingly (but not totally) commoditized, how can the papers survive on a Web that at every turn offers its own punditry and analysis? And how can newspapers best serve their democratic ideal of keeping the citizenry informed while remaining viable businesses? As blogging becomes more important in our culture, bloggers are stepping into roles for which they are sometimes ill-prepared. Often that’s not an issue; if a blogger writes bad poetry, there’s no harm done. But bloggers are also becoming sources for fact-based topics. They thus face the challenge of learning the appropriate lessons from those who preceded them. Maybe a journalistic blog post doesn’t have to be written in the lofty, pseudo-objective voice of traditional reporting, but some basic fact checking and a sense of fairness wouldn’t hurt. If bloggers don’t learn the right lessons, they run the risk of being marginalized or, worse, degrading the culture that is giving them its trust. The blogosphere also faces the challenge of how to enable bloggers to “go commercial” without being corrupted. PR professionals face the challenge of regaining credibility for themselves and for their clients. The old, reliable media processes no longer are effective. At the very least, they are not enough. You don’t see a lot of people reading press releases on YouTube. In fact, traditional PR techniques are alienating on the Web. PR thus needs a reboot. Two challenges are particularly severe. First, what’s the role for intermediaries in the disintermediated world of the Web? Second, who’s going to believe paid partisans when we can now talk with other customers like us? (Richard Edelman’s idea about PR professionals becoming transparent advocates aims at both of these challenges.) Academics face the challenge of making sense of all this. They have to keep up with the most recent of the most recent. They have to prepare students now for a future that will have changed by the time they get their graduation handshake. They have to formulate principles in domains that are still emerging. They have to teach practical skills in an environment where practice is rapidly evolving. And they have to do so within an infrastructure that, until recently, considered the Web to be a mere annex to the big house of business. The reform requires not simply the addition of some books and courses to the curriculum, but a reconsideration of how students learn and what constitutes authority now that the Web and its multifarious conversations are our first and continuing classrooms. The first New Media Academic Summit got us engaged across disciplines on these issues and many more. The one thing we know for sure is that the second summit will not be the end of the story. David Weinberger Fellow, Harvard Berkman Center
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Sessions & Speakers The Changing Media Environment Gordon Crovitz, P ublisher, The Wall Street Journal; Executive Vice President, Dow Jones & Company Richard Edelman, President and CEO, Edelman Nicholas Lemann, Dean, Columbia Journalism School, Columbia University Pat Mitchell, President and Chief Executive Officer, Paley Center for Media Moderated by David Kirkpatrick, Senior Editor, Fortune
Engaging Consumers Through Social Networks Scott Donaton, Publisher, Advertising Age and Creativity Magazine Babs Rangaiah, Director, Media & Entertainment, Unilever U.S.A. Scott Heiferman, Co-Founder, CEO, Meetup Moderated by Pam Talbot, President and CEO, Edelman U.S.
Co-Creating Content Tim and Nina Zagat, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs, Zagat Robert Mankoff, Cartoon Editor, The New Yorker Teemu Huuhtanen, CEO, Habbo Lesley Solomon, Vice President, Gather.com Moderated by Jackie Price, Senior Vice President & Practice Leader, Digital Entertainment, Rights & Technology, Edelman
Building Corporate Reputation from Inside Out Matthew Anchin, Vice President, Online Communications, American Express Jim J. Finn, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Avaya Paul A. Argenti, Professor of Corporate Communication, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth Deirdre Latour, Director, Public Relations, GE Moderated by Matthew Harrington, President, Edelman Eastern Region
Advocacy and Grassroots Engagement Michael Cornfield, Vice President of Public Affairs, ElectionMall.com Adjunct Professor in Political Management, The George Washington University Contributing Editor, Politico.com Co-author of “Plays for the Presidency� blog Carol C. Darr, Director, Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet Brian Reich, New Media Director, Cone Ned Lamont, Fellow, Harvard Institute of Politics Moderated by Michael Krempasky, Vice President, Edelman
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The Era of Citizen Journalism Dan Gillmor, Director, The Center for Citizen Media Jodi Kantor, Reporter, The New York Times Moderated by Steve Rubel, Senior Vice President, Edelman
Ethics and Rules of Engagement in New Media Donald K. Wright, Professor of Public Relations, Boston University Henry Copeland, Founder, Blogads Moderated by Rick Murray, President, me2revolution, Edelman
Enabling the Digital Generation Walter Carl, Assistant Professor, Northeastern University David Weinberger, F ellow at Harvard Berkman Center and author of “Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder” Merrill Brown, N ational Editorial Director, News21 Chairman of the Board, NowPublic.com Moderated by John Edelman, Assistant to the Chairman, Managing Director, Global Human Resources
What’s Next for New Media? Jay Rosen, Associate Professor, former chairman, 1999-2005, Department of Journalism, New York University Josh Bernoff, Vice President, Forrester Research Rick Murray, President, me2revolution, Edelman Moderated by Julia Hood, Editor-in-Chief, PRWeek
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Conclusion by Julia Hood There are numerous hubs of innovation in the public relations industry today, and they tend to dominate the discussion of the profession. We have all heard the messages: The world is changing, and communications is at the very heart of the revolution. Agencies, service providers, and corporations of all kinds are playing a role in fueling the momentum. But there is a great deal more that must happen before the PR profession can confidently assume an enduring and continually evolving role in this environment. That is why PRWeek was pleased to partner with Edelman on the academic summit that informed the content of this white paper. These hubs of innovation are making noise and confronting conventional marketing wisdom, but they are not enough to sustain real change in the PR industry over the long term. Organizational change must be deep and enduring, and true integration embraced if PR is to play an ongoing and meaningful role in, and potentially lead, the marketing mix. The key to that is in the industry’s ability to train, recruit, and retain top talent from traditional and non-traditional sources. And a vital part of that process is communications and marketing academia that is turning out newly minted professionals every year. Unfortunately, there are still PR programs that have not kept pace with the industry momentum. Some students are exiting colleges without any notion that the everyday communications activities they engage in with their friends and family have very real applications in their future careers. The challenge for educators is not only to keep up with the changes, but to figure out which aspects are truly important to focus on. As the theme of integration in marketing has been such an important part of the new media evolution, so we must grow this collaborative spirit to include the academic needs and perspectives at every step. The most important reason for this is to ensure that top communications programs remain one of those critical innovation hubs for the future. Julia Hood Editor-in-Chief, PRWeek
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Facts & Figures about New Media (as of July 2007) • If MySpace were a country, it would be the 11th largest in the world (between Japan and Mexico). (source: www.YouTube.com) • More than three-quarters of residential Web users got on the Internet using a high-speed broadband connection in November 2006. The 78 percent broadband penetration rate for U.S. homes represents a jump from 65 percent a year earlier, Nielsen/NetRatings found. (source: www.msnbc.msn.com) • Several Internet research firms, including eMarketer, Nielsen/NetRatings, and Quantcast, have found that the 35-64 age group comprised the largest proportion (around 50 percent) of YouTube’s audience, Ars Technica reported. (source: www.marketingvox.com) • According to Grunwald Associates, 96 percent of online teens and tweens report using social networks. (source: www.adage.com) • On July 18, 2007, TwitDir.com identified 340,000 public Twitter accounts. On average, 2000 new Twitter accounts are created every day. (source: www.twitterfacts.blogspot.com) •F acebook has more than 31 million active users, with an average of more than 100,000 registrations per day - and an average of 3 percent weekly growth since January 2007. The number of active users has doubled since the site opened registration in September 2006. More than half of Facebook users are not in college.The fastest-growing demographic is the 25+ age group. • Facebook is the sixth-most trafficked site in the United States. • Users spend an average of 20 minutes on the site daily. • Over 1,800 applications have been built on the Facebook platform. (source: www.mediabuyerplanner.com – July 30, 2007)
Disclosure At the time of the New Media Academic Summit 2007, Edelman had a client relationship with the following companies mentioned in this report: American Express, Avaya, Cartoon Bank, GE, Habbo, MySpace, Unilever, and Zagat. New Media Academic Summit
ABOUT EDELMAN An industry pioneer since its inception in 1952, Edelman is today’s leading independent global public relations firm with over 2,700 employees in 48 wholly owned offices and more than 50 affiliates worldwide. Premised on a culture of Pioneer Thinking, the Edelman network includes six specialty firms - BioScience (medical communications), Blue (advertising), First&42nd (management consulting), MATTER (entertainment), me2revolution (new media lab) and StrategyOne (research) - making it possible to provide clients with a comprehensive spectrum of communications services. Advertising Age named Edelman one of “Ten Firms to Watch” in 2007 in its Best Agencies issue. Edelman was also named Large Agency of the Year for 2006 by both PRWeek and The Holmes Group. Visit us at www.edelman.com for more information.
ABOUT PRWEEK Launched in the United States in November 1998, PRWeek is the first weekly magazine to offer nationwide coverage of the public relations business. As the leading trade magazine for the PR industry, it carries the latest news, in-depth analysis, top columnists, and reviews of campaigns - plus the best selection of job opportunities for PR professionals across the US. In addition, PRWeek distributes some of the most comprehensive research for PR practitioners including the annual Salary, CEO, Marketing, and Corporate Surveys, as well as key industry sector rankings and regional forums. In 2000, the magazine launched the PRWeek Awards to showcase and recognize the best practices in the Public Relations industry. And using the resources of the long-established UK edition, PRWeek also provides strong coverage of the European and international public relations business. PRWeek is published by Haymarket Media Inc., and includes bureaus in Washington DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Daily news updates, as well as the full content of the print edition, can be found at www.prweek.com.
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