Early Wired editor Kevin Kelly supported Anderson, but some commenters pointed out that Wired publicist and ad reps are no strangers to spam, while others just considered it bad form to retaliate by exposing flacks' e-mails to real spammers.

Today Anderson dissected the reactions, but he skipped one consequence of his action: Publicity-hungry bottom-feeders now have a list of (hopefully) low-rent flacks.

(Photo by Aaron Tang/designverb)

From: Jill Nash Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 11:53 AM To: [REDACTED]@yahoo-inc.com; [REDACTED]@yahoo-inc.com; [REDACTED]@yahoo-inc.com; Marta Nichols; Samuel J Wolff; Matt Rhodes; Cathy La Rocca; Allen Olivo; Peter Daboll; Nick Chavez Subject: Team update

All:

After eight years on the Corporate Communications team, Joanna Stevens has decided to open the next chapter of her life. Her last day on the team will be October 30th.

Her contributions to Yahoo! have been immeasurable - from spearheading major announcements to managing countless crises to helping to grow our team. She's worked closely with three generations of Yahoo! executive teams, providing valuable guidance on corporate communications strategies, messaging, and positioning. She's helped the company navigate through crises that ranged from unprecedented lawsuits to adult content to market rumors. Jo has also driven financial communications, played a major role in countless earnings announcements, stockholder meetings, annual reports, and Analyst Days. Jo also led the team through pivotal announcements and acquisitions, overseeing the communications strategy and execution for major finanical transactions, including Overture, Flickr, RightMedia, and Alibaba to name just a few.

Jo also helped reinforce the Yahoo! brand externally and internally in her work. She conceived of the Yahoo! Yodel Challenge, leading the tour across the country and turning Wiley Gustafson, our litigious yodeler, into an enthusiastic emcee. She also led the cross-functional team that engineered a memorable 10th Anniversary for Yahoos and users around the world. And, of course, Jo is to be thanked for the countless stories that you've never read about Yahoo!.

May Petry, who is also VP of PR for Connected Life, will step in as interim leader until Jo's replacement is found. I'd like to thank Jo for nearly eight years of dedication to Yahoo!. Please join me in wishing her all the best.

Jill

I sent this to Rose and Adelson (both of whom I've met; I'm a friend of Rose).

Great to hear about your decision re: HD-DVD. Writing yet another history of the situation. Would love to hear from you today about how you plan to keep Digg from getting shut down by DMCA takedowns, and how you plan to defend against any lawsuits.

Here's what I got back:

My name is Marcus Tolero and I'm with K/F Communications, P.R. Firm to Digg.com, in San Francisco. We understand that you want to conduct an interview with Jay Adelson, CEO of Digg.com.

Of course, the boring responsible thing is to go talk to Jay. (And I tried but haven't heard back. They must've discovered it was just a blogger.) That's also the rather pointless thing — Kevin was always the site's front man before, so why is Jay suddenly the best source?

Because Jay's the responsible one. Kevin's the one who posted an end-is-nigh blog entry saying "If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying." (Also, Kevin was in LA when this went down.) Apparently the PR firm decided Jay was the safer founder to front. And yes, he gave solid answers to all the outlets above. But there's something missing. Kevin Rose, who gives raw honest takes on Digg news every week on his show Diggnation, could give the same real, un-PR-approved answers here. And that's what Digg's handlers don't want.

And so everyone gets their interview with Jay. Of course, two hours after Fortune posted their interview, Wired posted their own and called it an "exclusive." Sorry Wired, but Jay's talking to everyone. Well, except me.

Remember, don't drink and drive. Drink and get a ride with the first PR cutie you find.

• The Big Flip You sold for $30 million! Take some of your $2 million cut and buy a round for everyone. Ingredients: 1 oz Absolut Mandrin, juice of 1/2 lime, 1/2 oz Triple Sec, 1/4 cup fruit punch
• The Bubble 2007 is the Year of the Pig. That's you, baby. Hey, pigs are intelligent animals. Ingredients: Champagne and Sterno. Add bitters.
• The Flack This one goes out to my pal Steve Kerns at Thursty Thursdays, the weekly roving PR drinkfest in San Francisco. It's the weekend starter for anyone tired of press releases and gladhanding — drink up, 'cause there's an industry mixer on Saturday. Ingredients: Blue Skyy vodka, Chartreuse, mint, more vodka, just the tiniest hint of bitters
• The Hack For the journalist who's just met deadline, snared a book deal, or met the Flack Ingredients: Same as the Flack, but exactly twice each proportion. Leave the check with the Flack.
• The Stirr Looks boozy, but it'll only make you more alert as you cruise your more sauced-up colleagues at an industry mixer. Ingredients: Coffee and whipped foam — it's an Irish coffee without the Irish
• The Series A Round The opposite of a Stirr. Frankly, this is an investor roofie, and it'll take plenty of work for poor little you to buy an investor a drink. You can only drink half of it before going back for a Round B. Ingredients: Soju and a splash of Sprite. If the mark complains, subtly imply he or she is a sissy. Unless you're just a guy in a stripey trying to get a chick drunk on Friday, in which case be liberal with the Sprite, dude. You've got all night.
• The Business Lunch There are places we drink during lunch. Those places are mostly on the East Coast. Ingredients: Martinelli's
• The C-level A chief executive deserves the favorite whisky of writer Robert Louis Stevenson. Ingredients: Talisker, neat.
• The Yahoo Oh hell, just throw everything you've got at the problem and maybe it'll work. Ingredients: Rum, vodka, Kahlua, Coke, gin, Yoohoo, peanut butter
• The Sysadmin An all-nighter for those rare all-night server-rescuing sessions. Ingredients: Costco Vodka; Bawls Guarana from the free case you got at LISA
• The Code Monkey Ingredients: Costco Tequila, Coke (not chilled).*

  *Also, this drink interestingly has exactly 40mg of ketamine in it, which is actually ok if you take a B12 booster shot six to twelve hours ahead of time and remembered to synchronize your Perforce archive before FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK! THE PERFORCE ARCHIVE!

This is an installation of Diggbait, a daily column by Nick Douglas, who also writes for Eat the Press. He likes robots, words, and White Russians. Photo by Fred Armitage.

Email to journalists from a software company too small and probably too nice to pick on:

> We would like to offer you a free evaluation license for ____. We,
> of course, hope that you write something about it, and we believe
> that it will be interesting and relevant to your client base.

What this basically says is: "We also sent this mail to a bunch of professional analysts, consultants, and ghost writers who get paid a lot more than you."

This company needs a separate email list for starving freelance writers like me. Then they can email us the edited version of this pitch that ends with, "We, of course, hope that you write something about it, because we believe it could score you a book deal! Maybe even a TV show!"

• Is it just me or does CNET's president look like a younger, hipper Mark Foley? If that guy IMed you, would he make you a little horny? [CNET]
• The owner of UTube.com bitches that visitors looking for YouTube are costing him tons of bandwidth — then refuses a million-dollar offer for the site. Says he's holding out for 2 or 3 million. I think I speak for all of us when I say "fuck you." [Mashable]
• Someone's stalking my boss, Curbed blog publisher and Gawker Media managing editor Lockhart Steele. (I found out because I stalk him too.) [NY Observer]
• Flacks will have to pay press release distributor PRWeb to get their glorified spam out to journalists. The system's still broken until they have to pay the journalists. [Online Marketing Blog]

From: blast PR <[redacted]@blastPR-News.com>
Reply-To: blast PR <[redacted]@blastpr.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:49:07 -0400 (EDT)
To: [redacted]
Subject: TEST****************TEST BlastPR

test




If you would like to unsubscribe from this list, please send a blank email to this address: unsub-nhnuuurpzpqzrhouu@blastPR-News.com

OR send a postal mail to:
blast! Public Relations
128 E.Hargett Street,Suite 201
Raleigh, NC 27601

"Family 2.0 isn't the Cleavers of the 1950s or the futuristic Jetsons. Today's men cook, women work, and kids often are very tech-savvy," said Michele Madansky, vice president of sales research, Yahoo!. "Father doesn't always know best. He may not have a clue about what MP3 player is the best value, but daughter can be the expert because she has spent time online comparison shopping prices and features."

So some classic family values are still in place — according to Yahoo, shopping is still wimmin's business.

Press release with obnoxiously long title [Yahoo PR]

1. Don't follow up e-mail pitches ("I was wondering if you had the chance to read this material," said the SS PR message. Oh, I had the chance. I also had the chance to watch Ron Popeil infomercials). The journalist you pitched probably gets ten to a hundred of pitches a day and deleted yours. This time you're marked as spam.
2. Life is not LinkedIn. Do not try to "make contact" with every nearby human being. There's a reason that "making contact" sounds like something you do with aliens.
3. There is such a thing as bad PR. Don't try to prove it.
4. Tech writers are cranky. (They're surrounded by geeks and suits who make twice their income right out of college but can't put a sentence together.) Ply them with drink.
5. Before you send an irrelevant press release, count to 10. If you still feel like sending it, count to 20.

Still worried you'll come off as a flack? Below, other PR-plagued writers share their horror stories.

Ex-writer Kourosh Karimkhany ("Identify me as 'burnt-out former wire service reporter'") has some anti-flack anger to work out with his therapist:

From my days at Bloomberg/Reuters/Wired, sure. Got plenty.

1. Don't send postal mail. 2. Don't send a fax. 3. If you call make sure you keep the pitch to 10 seconds. If you don't have me in 10 seconds, you're never gonna get me. 4. Spell and pronounce my name right.

5. Embargoes are satan spawn. Please realize that we as journalists know exactly why there are embargoes: to meet the deadlines and timelines of the marketing department. No self-respecting journalist — even sleazy ones like the ones at [gaming blog] Kotaku — would EVER want to go along with your marketing department's plans.

One writer says, "Don't call around deadline time [4-6 PM Eastern]. Actually, don't call, period. E-mail is just fine, unless we already know you."

Valleywag owner Nick Denton wrote about Silicon Valley for the Financial Times. He adds, "Don't ask for information that you can find on the website, e.g., 'Could you tell me the name of the editor?'" Also, "If you're taking an exec round for a demo, keep them wanting more. Nothing worse than being forced to sit through an hour-long demo that should have taken 10 minutes."

Publicist Paula Gould says she gets along with journalists because she doesn't "tackle them at conferences or stalk them. I hate those kinds of publicists. They expend a tremendous amount of energy on very little return."

At the very least, don't be creepy. "One time," says CNET writer Nicole Lee, "at this big trade show, a PR guy tried to set up an appointment with me. And i figured, last day of show, sure. I figured he had a booth or whatever.

"But no. he just had this hotel room. And it was a small company i hardly heard of. And he wanted me to show up in the hotel. And I'm like, 'Ummmmmm.... can we meet at the trade show?' And he's all 'no... it's too much trouble.'"

She didn't go.

Spammers don't send follow-up mail.

S & S Public Relations already earned a Flacky Award nomination for asking a company to review a competing client's product. So I shouldn't be surprised that after an SSPR rep sent me a press release about recycling phones in Venezuela (not exactly Valleywag's beat), she followed up to see if I was still interested.

The average journalist (according to an above-average journalist) gets carpet-bombed with press pitches daily. Writer Paul Boutin has joked that Esther Dyson's idea of $5 e-mail charges should apply to pitches of all kinds. 'Til then, it's just spam.

A few writers (and many bloggers) ask for press pitches; readers can guess what that means about the quality of these outlets' material. Hell, I don't mind getting a few, since they're fun to mock.

But if someone's following up with Valleywag, they must be following up with every recipient. That's why SSPR gets re-nominated for a Flacky Award for spamming journalists.

Earlier: Good PR is bad PR is good PR [Valleywag]

"We would like to verify your appropriate PR contact for the submission of relevant press releases," Texture Media rep Jessica Estes wrote to one business magazine's "letters to the editor" e-mail address. "If you could also identify the contact for potential article submissions, that would be most appreciated." The full release is after the jump.

If a PR agency has asked your publication to do their job, send the story to tips@valleywag.com.

> —-—-—--
> From: Jessica Estes
> Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 1:59 PM
> To: [redacted]
> Subject: Please verify your PR submissions contact.
>
> Editor of [redacted]:
> I work for an interactive marketing agency in Boulder, Colorado. Our
> award-winning interactive and marketing is newsworthy in and of itself, and
> several members of our client roster—such as Fidelity—are appropriate to
> your magazine's content. We would like to verify your appropriate PR contact
> for the submission of relevant press releases. If you could also identify
> the contact for potential article submissions, that would be most
> appreciated.
>
> Thank you for your time!
> —
> Jessica Estes - [redacted]@texturemedia.com
> pr coordinator
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> [phone redacted] desk | [phone redacted] main
> —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—
> 1801 13th street | suite 130 | Boulder, CO 80302
> :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> www.texturemedia.com

Every blogger who got the awkward video pitch from Stickam must be afraid to mock it. ("But I'll just be playing into their hands!") But this video proves that yes, some publicity is bad publicity. After ten seconds of this, even Rocketboom seems suave by comparison. So here it is.

5W Public Relations, as the agency responsible for this painful experience, you get nominated for the Flacky Awards.

Stickam Video Pitch [Stickam]

My favorite part is this: "Anderson's voice can be easily heard and he can interact, in a meaningful way..." It sounds like she's pitching an interview with Terry Schiavo.

Whole release is after the jump.

MEDIA ALERT...MEDIA ALERT...MEDIA ALERT

CHRIS ANDERSON, AUTHOR OF THE LONG TAIL,

WILL SPEAK TO 100 PEOPLE IN A FREE, IN-DEPTH,

CONVERSATION VIA SKYPECAST

WHO: Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired magazine and author of The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.

WHAT: Will participate in an intimate conversation, moderated by Michael Sippey, General Manager of Typepad, the hosted blogging service. The conversation is free and open to 100 attendees. These attendees are invited to join in via Skypecast.

WHERE: People can attend Andersons' conversation by accessing the following link: https://skypecasts.skype.com. The conversation is open to 100 attendees. These attendees will be welcomed on a first come/first serve basis.

WHY: Since publishing his essay in Wired in October, 2004, on what he called "The Long Tail," and then following it up with his book in May, 2006, Chris Anderson has been in high demand. By conducting a Skypecast—a live, moderated conversation for a group of 100 people from anywhere in the world—Anderson's voice can be easily heard and he can interact, in a meaningful way, with those interested in his perspectives on business and culture.

WHEN: Monday, July 24, at 4:30 PM EDT

CONTACT: For more information, contact, Leslie Koren at Kaplow Communications, [info redacted]

Photo by Ben Hammersley

"Communications firm": "PR firm with pretensions"
"Strategic communications firm": "PR firm with even greater pretensions"
"Media relations consultancy": "I just schmooze journalists, get some strategic communications firm to write your damn press release"

By the way, the sender is PR god Sean Garrett, not the other Sean Garrett, creator of such lyrics as "Conversation got heavy, she had me feelin like she's ready to blow!"

—-—-—-- From: Sean Garrett Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 1:44 PM Cc: rsvpto463@gmail.com Subject: 463 Communications party next Tuesday night

When George Clooney drank that shot of Fernet off of Condoleeza Rice's stomach, we knew we had to bring the 463 Communications Happy Hour from Washington, DC to our other home of San Francisco.

More than the antics of VIPs and world leaders, you can look forward to a party that has nothing to do with a widgets, tags and mash-ups. You only may need to endure chatter about net neutrality, H-1B Visas, and, our favorite, the analog hole.

So please join the entire 463 gang in a celebration of all-things-tech-policy-geeky as we thank our clients, partners and friends for giving so much work that we're just getting around to having our first Bay Area bash.

Deets are below.

The Details:

Tuesday, July 25
6:30 p.m. — 9:00 p.m.
The Gallery Lounge
510 Brannan Street (Cross 5th Street)
(http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=510+Brannan+Street,+San+Francisco)

RSVPs Requested: RSVPto463@gmail.com

Free Drinks. Heavy hors d'oeuvres. Good Music.

It will be just like being in DC, but without the sticky weather, bad ties and interns.

Hope to see you there.

Friday Night
Two googletards meet for Battlestar Galactica marathon on UPN but end up calculating their worth as the weekend stock price hovers around $415; after two epicurean Mike's Hard Lemonades, a message is sent to an internal developer list with an idea for (a) Google Base or (b) an old Yahoo/Microsoft product with a new AJAX interface.

Saturday Night/Sunday Morning
Senior VP Marissa Mayer returns to her email client from a night of weeping in front of a vanity mirror, costumed in lingerie and stilettos no one knows she owns; realizes (a) Google Base or (b) an old Yahoo/Microsoft product with a new AJAX interface is exactly what the company needs.

Monday Morning
CEO Eric Schmidt receives idea at a weekly staff meeting; pretends to understand it; in a halfhearted attempt to save face, makes offhand remark about how processors are much faster than when he was in grad school at Berkeley.

Two Weeks Later
Upstart, 20-something business development and/or marketing Googlies learn about it at the Googleplex cafeteria; confuse it with a competitor for Oracle's database solution and/or a product that will take down Boeing. Spread it casually at Marina bars to all their other dotcom friends.

45 Days Later
Om Malik receives phone call; does investigation; dispells rumors that an aircraft is involved but still poses question: is this an Ebay-Killer??

46 Days Later
Michael Arrington publishes "exclusive" screenshots on TechCrunch; says it lacks features which his Web 2.0 company Edgeio has; provides an irrelevant recommendation for Zooomr or Skobee.

47 Days Later
Zawodny blogs; laments that Yahoo had this idea in 1999; considers quitting; instead posts excel spread sheets cataloging (a) his weight loss (b) his Cessna's mileage.

48 Days Later
Chaos ensues at Microsoft, Yahoo, and/or Ebay; Fox buys Myspace anyway; Steve Ballmer throws a chair.

49 Days Later
John Battelle's intern discovers rumor, "breaks" story; Schmidt denies rumors to the New York Times; says Google is not out to displace any other company.

2 Months Later
Google blog announces a product which will displace some other company; Google engineers realize this is actually (a) Google Base or (b) an old Yahoo/Microsoft product with a new AJAX interface. Lose heart; but add it to their del.icio.us pages anyway.

2 Months and 1 week Later
Wall Street clods doubt Google after much inquiry; stock drops to $385; panic at the plex.

2 Months and 2 weeks later
Mayer holds damage control press event; research director Peter Norvig shows pictures of caseless servers last used in 1999; claims computers without cases are much more efficient; "70/20/10" is bandied about along with shrimp cocktail.

2 Months and 3 weeks later
CFO Reyes figures out math to make Google meet quarterly expectations; considers the follical implant surgery but in a late, lonely night at the office, rediscovers appreciation for the Jean Luc-Picard look.

3 months later
The math works; on a Friday the stock balloons to $415 in after hours; coincindentally, two googletards meet for another Battlestar Galactica marathon on UPN...

PR blogger Strumpette (aka Amanda Chapel) is known for playing nasty. Now she's crowing that she's bested the CEO of major PR agency Text 100 International. Amanda (if that's her real name) shares the entire exchange (she calls it a catfight) with Aedhmar Hynes, which she drove the CEO to end with this:

'Amanda', you chose not to comply with the rules of engagement I set in an earlier comment. As a result, this will mark the end of our conversation. I also won't allow you to make any further comments on this blog. You like to see yourself as the advocate of words, but the way YOU use words disqualifies you from an open dialogue. Your provocations on my blog are only minor examples of your vicious game. You have also attacked other respected individuals even though your attacks were baseless. I won't let something like that happen here. I am not the first to ban you from the dialogue, and I certainly won't be the last.

Hm. As in all catfights, looks like the real winners are the easily thrilled onlookers.

Text 100 CEO in Vicious Catfight with Strumpette [Strumpette]

Well, according to this tip, Eric could beat both of them to "I do."

Google CEO Eric Schmidt was spotted with his girlfriend Marcy Simon on Saturday on the beach in the French Riviera with Marcy sporting a huge yellow diamond engagement ring. I guess he actually is divorced and is readying for a long-term relationship.

Chances are, that's President Marcy Simon of PR and media consulting firm WCTV. Aha, Eric wasn't just looking for love. The efficient exec knows that now he can score free advice to prop up Google's flimsy PR arm. (And maybe throw in some private public speaking lessons.)

Earlier: Valleywag exclusive: Oh Schmidt! [Valleywag]
And: Larry Page ain't engaged [Valleywag]

• Why have I been hiding it from you? Thursty Thursday is the leading weekly Thursday-after-work-happy-hour-gathering-for-professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's unofficially run by the sexy folks at worldwide PR firm Bite Communications. Tonight it's at a downtown San Fran bar, the Royal Oak. No web page for this, so just show up after 6:30 and yell, "I'm here to meet the non-geeky PR people!"
• Third Thursday, though, has a Meetup page AND an Upcoming.org listing, so you won't miss the June edition of this monthly Palo Alto event. Tonight's speakers include former venture capitalist Jeff Nolan or VP of virtual world builder Linden Lab.
• If tonight's SF Tech Session feels even more comfy in the Microsoft SF office than earlier sessions, it's because organizer Niall Kennedy joined Microsoft's Windows Live team this month. Tonight, the demo session features Box.net, Fabrik, and Amazon's S3 — three online storage services.

A concerned reader noticed, leafing through Wired Magazine, that one of the role-playing terrorists in a story on military training camps resembled a local Valley PR figure. Could outspoken blogger Jeremy Pepper be an Iraqi collaborationist?

The evidence seemed damning. Pepper is known for popping up suddenly at gatherings full of self-important Valley figures with a backpack similar to the one the man above sports.

But Pepper's defense comes in the form of a recent self-portrait. Like any good Valley geek, and unlike his lookalike, Pepper never shows up without his iPod headphones securely in place.

The only terror this man's spreading is the tinny leaked sound of his Black Eyed Peas mp3s.

Baghdad, USA [Wired]
Pop! PR Jots [Pepper's blog]

Tech Innovator: "I'm starting a game. You take a drink every time you see a PR person." Tech Journalist: "No, thanks. I already played that game for five years."

• The pitch e-mail should mention what's being pitched. This isn't a forwarded YouTube clip. It's your job.
• Don't call the e-mail confidential. It's PR and your whole point is to get written up.
• When someone actually clicks through, they don't want to hear an autoplay video. Especially if it has nothing to do with the press release.
• Don't put inspirational quotes at the end. That's asinine.
• Maybe have a stronger message than "We beat Google to this space." Because a week after its launch, Google's version will outclass yours, and it'll have a bigger user base.
• Did I say "a week"? I meant "four hours, after which Google's server is crippled by the unexpected popularity."

After the jump, the offending release.

Please check out our latest press release. We are trying to get it in the hands of experts like yourself.

CLICK HERE:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/5/prweb390727.htm

Hope to talk more soon...

Shannon Allen

===================================

Shannon Allen
CEO / Founder
MARQI.com

"Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great, make you feel that you too can become great." - Mark Twain

CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
Please be advised that this document contains Confidential Information. The contents of this communication may NOT be shared with nor divulged to anyone without the express written and signed permission of the document's author. If you have received this material by mistake and are not one of the author's intended recipients, please alert the document's author immediately and delete/destroy this document. Thank you.

Hacks and flacks wished Andrew Orlowski (pictured, the one with his hair on top) farewell last night with a calm happy hour at the Edinburgh Castle Pub. His exit dilutes the pool of Valley journalism, as the Register reporter was a long-time snarker and Google hound (one confident enough to snub Google Press Day). Now, after five years in the Valley, he's headed back to England.

At Orlowski's goodbye party last night, the crowd included John Gilmore (Sun employee #5 and the creator of alt.* on Usenet), long-time Apple troll John C. Dvorak, and ZDNet reporter Dan Farber. Even the NYT's John Markoff broke away from his crowd of screaming fangirls to raise a glass for Orlowski. Spark PR picked up the tab and fixed the guy-girl ratio. As 'wag readers know, PR ladies are the coolest.

After the jump, more photos from Farber.

"Hey Dvorak, make that face you made when you finally got spam today."

"And how many times have you awkwardly commented on Leo Laporte's delivery during This Week in Tech?"

With the death of TechTV, Screen Savers host Patrick Norton had to trade his leather briefcase for a Jansport backpack.

Photos: Andrew Orlowski Send Off [Dan Farber on Flickr]

The move is clear signal that Edelman wants to, as CEO Richard Edelman puts it, make technology the "third leg" of its capabilities, together with its strong healthcare and consumer practices.

"Third leg," eh, Mr. Edelman (pictured and happy to see you)? No need to be so obvious — we know you're compensating.

Edelman acquires A&R Partners [PR Week, paid sub required]

The Weber Shandwick takeover of Valleywag continues with WS legal practice guru Lucas Mast's report on this week's Third Thursday. In this edition of the PR and marketing talk series, PR blogger Jeremy Pepper MC'd a panel of corporate-blogging masters. If you're feeling cynical this morning, just read Lucas's three bullets and be done with it. We'll see if our boy Lucas can learn to stop paying attention to the actual talks and give us the nitty gritty, like whether someone got Steve Rubel drunk. In the meantime, Mr. Bright and Sunny pimps Third Thursday.

PR and tech folks who chose to skip Third Thursday to watch the Will & Grace finale live missed a rare chance to quiz a trio of corporate PR vets who have launched blogs at their Silicon Valley companies. Some helpful hints in launching corporate blogs:

1. Lock your HR in a closet
2. Blindfold and tie up your Legal
3. Spell-check and edit C-level postings

OK, so the crowd that got insights from Cisco's Jeanette Gibson, Ingres' Cynthia Schott, and Net App's Jodi Bauman [pictured] did not hear any of the abovementioned advice. They DID get some very useful tips based on the trials and tribulations faced in launching their respective blogs including having a clear policy for employees blogging (whether endorsed by the company or not), encouraging frequent posting, working as needed with Legal to ensure that problems do not arise, figuring out ways to measure traffic and impact of the blog(s) and scaling blogs as appropriate within your company.

All in all, a great night of drinking, networking, and sharing ideas for successful a successful blog launch from those in the know. Great job Pepper and Co.

Check out Cisco's High Tech Policy Blog, Ingres CTO Dave Dargo's blog and Net App founder Dave Hitz's blog for the fruits of the speakers' labors.

Earlier Third Thursday: Guest story: TechCrunch says "Wired's gonna be my bitch" [Valleywag]

Ok so your blog says no pitches. So to what email address may I alert you to a next gen online social networking platform?

Just thought you might like an advance sneak peek at the t-shirts that were distributed at a blogger happy hour last night (StormHoek was served, natch) to be worn today at The Syndicate Conference. Which I guess makes this impending event a Blogmob.

For the remedial class, Pepper and Rubel are more likely to end up together in a boxing ring than on a T-shirt. Extra-credit assignment: make a Venn diagram of the name "Rubel" and the word "wrong" appearing on Jeremy's blog.

Are you important?

— PR blogger Renee Blodgett, overheard talking to a speaker at Syndicate, the digerati-filled New York City conference. Blodgett was reportedly recruiting all the "top bloggers" for her client's party.

Give it up for Brooke Hammerling, winner of the Snacky or Flacky tourney of Valley PR hotties! The Brew PR founder was outvoted over runner-up Terra Carmichael from Yahoo in the final round of Snacky or Flacky. If you see her this weekend, buy the girl a drink.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

The interview process is a bit simpler than the weeks-long process for engineers. It starts, said one potential hire, with a phone interview, followed by a half-day interview session with a slew of recruiters. Google says they tell applicants immediately if they're hired. But then comes a month-long background check — don't worry, that Gmail account is perfectly safe — because they can't have just anybody spamming out press releases.

One reader got the pitch in person. Their story, after the jump.

The GOOG has also been hanging out at PRSA events...last March, at [a luncheon]...I was leaving the event and a Google recruiter came up to me and handed me an official business card (no name/title on front) with two names and phone numbers on the back...said if I was interested to give a call. I didn't call.

Earlier: Google's dumb publicist pitch leaked [Valleywag]
And: Google spamming to fill its PR department [Valleywag]

Dude - the google thing? So they sent to me. And my response was..."That's nice, but unfortunately the people you've sent this to are no longer on this particular alias. Good luck with your recruiting efforts, and feel free to forward any resumes you receive onto that alias, as we're hiring right now and are looking for the best and brightest."

SHE FREAKIN CALLED ME TO FOLLOW UP. Totally unclear on the concept, no? Irony is apparently past google these days.

I mean, how'd SHE get through the process?

Click the jump to see Google's e-mail.

From: Diane Hill [mailto:redacted]
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 2:23 PM
To: (redacted)
Subject: corp comm here at Google

(Redacted)-
Your name surfaced across my desk today as I noted I am searching for top talent in Corporate Communications here at Google. I am looking for people with a non traditional background in consulting and crisis management skills and also others in a direct Public Relations or Communications space. Is there anyone of interest whom you think I should be speaking with? I ask people at your level because often we are references for those we have managed in the past. Please feel free to forward my contact info to anyone of particular skill set. I appreciate your time and efforts in my pursuit of finding the right people to grow our organization.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Diane Hill

Staffing Corporate Communications

(e-mail redacted)

1600 Amphitheatre Parkway

Mountain View,CA 94043

(phone redacted)

Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?"

Will you choose Brooke Hammerling, who founded Brew PR and throws yacht parties for Larry Ellison's companies? Or will you choose Terra Carmichael, who as a perfect Yahoo publicist uses Yahoo's blogging tools to chronicle the lives of her twin babies? Vote by tomorrow evening, campaign amongst your friends, and choose wisely — because everyone's a winner until they lose.

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Final round of: Snacky or Flacky (all posts) [Valleywag]

Yahoo mommy-blogger Terra Carmichael whumps TagWorld "Don't call her booth babe" Paula Gould with both twins tied behind her back.

The knowing pout of Brooke Hammerling beats the Lohan-esque grin of Margaux Vega.

Full poll results behind the jump. Next, the winners will battle for the crown in the Snacky or Flacky final round.

Part of: Snacky or Flacky (all posts) [Valleywag]

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"They're spamming internal team aliases, asking for anyone/everyone. They're basically making it completely known that they're out for anyone, no holds barred. I don't imagine agency heads are so pleased."

Still getting confirmation from other flacks, though the first one I pinged said, with dismay, that he hadn't gotten anything from Google.

If you got one of Google's headhunter mailings, send 'em to tips@valleywag.com so the unhappy flacks in the audience can get a break.

I'm told that the deal on these embargoed releases is usually that the publicist gave some prestigious outlet an exclusive in return for the embargo. For example, your first Embargo Breaker, Congresspedia, had cut a deal with the WaPo (verified!) in exchange for embargoing the story until after the WaPo broke it. I'm fine with people making those deals, but doesn't that make it really stupid to turn around and send out the news as junk mail to strangers?

After the jump, the offending release.

> From: "Jamie Newton"
> Date: May 10, 2006 10:17:26 AM PDT
> To: (redacted)
> Subject: Embargo time correction (for Sunday)
>
> The embargo date for the release below should be 1 PM ET on Sunday,
> not 2 PM ET as originally listed (due to a miscommunication with
> the journal). Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. —
> Jamie
>
> ***
> A study to appear Sunday, May 11 in Nature Neuroscience (online
> edition) describes a naturally occurring, previously unrecognized
> growth factor that stimulates regeneration in injured optic nerves
> - raising the possibility of treating blindness due to optic-nerve
> damage and the hope of achieving similar regeneration in the spinal
> cord and brain. A press release is below; for links to additional
> resources, visit: http://www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom/
> Site1339/mainpageS1339P1sublevel206.html.
> A high-resolution image of the regenerating optic nerve is
> available.
> If I can be of help, just let me know.
> Sincerely,
> Jamie Newton
> Public Affairs
> Children's Hospital Boston
> (phone and e-mail redacted)
>
>
> EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE:
> Sunday, May 14, 2006, 1 pm ET
>
> CONTACT: Jamie Newton, Children's Hospital Boston
> (phone and e-mail redacted)
>
> FACTOR ISOLATED THAT REGENERATES NERVE FIBERS
> Previously unknown molecule spurs regeneration in the optic nerve
>
> Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have discovered a
> naturally occurring growth factor that stimulates regeneration of
> injured nerve fibers (axons) in the central nervous system. Under
> normal conditions, most axons in the mature central nervous system
> (which consists of the brain, spinal cord and eye) cannot regrow
> after injury. The previously unrecognized growth factor, called
> oncomodulin, is described in the May 14 online edition of Nature
> Neuroscience.
>
> Neuroscientists Yuqin Yin, MD, PhD, and Larry Benowitz, PhD, who
> are also on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, did their
> studies in the optic nerve, which connects nerve cells in the eye's
> retina to the brain's visual centers, and is often used as a model
> in studying axon regeneration.
>
> When oncomodulin was added to retinal nerve cells in a Petri dish,
> with known growth-promoting factors already present, axon growth
> nearly doubled. No other growth factor was as potent. In live rats
> with optic-nerve injury, oncomodulin released from tiny sustained-
> release capsules increased nerve regeneration 5- to 7-fold when
> given along with a drug that helps cells respond to oncomodulin.
> Yin, Benowitz and colleagues also showed that oncomodulin switches
> on a variety of genes associated with axon growth.
>
> Benowitz, the study's senior investigator, believes oncomodulin
> could someday prove useful in reversing optic-nerve damage caused
> by glaucoma, tumors or traumatic injury. In addition, the lab has
> shown that oncomodulin works on at least one other type of nerve
> cell, and now plans to test whether it also works on the types of
> brain cells that would be relevant to treating conditions like
> stroke and spinal cord injury.
>
> The current study builds on work Benowitz, Yin and colleagues
> published a few years ago. Studying the optic nerve, they found -
> quite by accident - that an injury to the eye activated axon
> growth: it caused an inflammatory reaction that stimulated immune
> cells known as macrophages to move into the eye.
>
> "To make this finding clinically useful, we wanted to understand
> what was triggering the growth, so we could achieve nerve
> regeneration without causing an injury," Benowitz says.
>
> Working in Benowitz's lab, Yin took a closer look and found that
> the macrophages secreted an essential but as-yet unidentified
> protein. Further studies revealed it to be oncomodulin, a little-
> known molecule first observed in association with cancer cells.
>
> "Out of the blue, we found a molecule that causes more nerve
> regeneration than anything else ever studied," Benowitz says. "We
> expect this to spur further research into what else oncomodulin is
> doing in the nervous system and elsewhere."
>
> For oncomodulin to work, it must be given along with an agent that
> raises cell levels of cyclic AMP, a "messenger" that initiates
> various cellular reactions. Increased cyclic AMP levels are needed
> to make the oncomodulin receptor available on the cell surface.
>
> A two-pronged approach
> Benowitz also notes that there is another side to the nerve-
> regeneration problem: overcoming agents that act as natural
> inhibitors of axon growth. These inhibitors are the subject of
> intense study by several labs, including that of Zhigang He, PhD,
> at Children's Hospital Boston.
>
> In a study published in 2004, Benowitz and postdoctoral fellow
> Dietmar Fischer, PhD, collaborated with He to combine both
> approaches - overcoming inhibition and activating the growth state
> (by injuring the lens of the eye) - and achieved dramatic optic-
> nerve regeneration. Now that Benowitz has isolated oncomodulin, he
> believes even greater regeneration is possible by combining it with
> agents that counteract growth inhibitors.
>
> "We're in the midst of an exciting era of research in nerve
> regeneration," Benowitz says. "There are a lot of promising leads
> in the area of blocking molecules that inhibit regeneration. But to
> get really strong regeneration, you also have to activate nerve
> cells' intrinsic growth state."
>
> The study was funded by the National Eye Institute (part of the
> National Institutes of Health), the Patterson Family Trust, the
> European Commission, and Boston Life Sciences, Inc. The
> oncomodulin technology has been licensed by Boston Life Sciences,
> Inc. (BLSI; Hopkinton, Mass.), which is testing recombinant
> oncomodulin for ocular indications in pre-clinical studies. BLSI
> has also licensed other axon regeneration technologies developed at
> Children's. For more information on BLSI's activities, contact
> Sharon Correia at (redacted).
>
> Children's Hospital Boston is home to the world's largest research
> enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its
> discoveries have benefited both children and adults since 1869.
> More than 500 scientists, including eight members of the National
> Academy of Sciences, nine members of the Institute of Medicine and
> 11 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise
> Children's research community. Founded as a 20-bed hospital for
> children, Children's Hospital Boston today is a 347-bed
> comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care
> grounded in the values of excellence in patient care and
> sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and
> families. Children's also is the primary pediatric teaching
> affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For more information about the
> hospital and its research visit: http://www.childrenshospital.org/
> research/.
>
> - ### -
>

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Part of: Snacky or Flacky [Valleywag]

Right, four snacky flacks are left (full elimination brackets after the jump) in Valleywag's PR hotties tourney. Now TagWorld publicist Paula Gould and Yahoo publicist Terra Carmichael face off to determine who will advance to the final round.

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Part of: Snacky or Flacky [Valleywag]

Brooke hammers Justin, 366 votes to 56, and still has enough hotness for another round.

To the 54 people who voted for Jeremy: Good on ya. To the 373 who voted for Margaux: Isn't she the cutest?

Next up: Stage 3 cuts two more flacks off the Snacky or Flacky gravy train. Full poll results after the jump.

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