Circulation of traditional, printed newspapers has been on the decline for sometime now.  However, according to a recent Nielsen Online report online readership of these same publications is up.

Here are few numbers:

The NY Times had 18.2 million unique visitors in December and USA Today’s traffic jumped up 15%  to over 11 million visitors.  The Washington Post?  Up 12% to 9.5 million.  Even more impressive is the staggering growth seen by smaller publications.  For example, the NY Daily News increased by 99% to almost 6 million visits, the LA Times increased their visits by 73% from a year ago.

It’s unlikely that the traditional newspaper is going to go away anytime soon, but these numbers should prove the point that the ‘online news’ is here for good.  Publishers who want to stay current, and profitable, should be sitting up and taking notice if they haven’t been already.  Publishers and PR people alike should take advantage of the boom in online readership.  Rather than bemoaning the downfall of the traditional paper, embrace the fact that people are still getting their news from these trusted sources – and there are now even more ways to get your clients into the spotlight.

It’s older news that Digg – the uber popular social news aggregator, is looking for a PR agency.  On Friday PRWeek said it was down to 4, MediaBistro’s sources say the decision is essentially made – but no one is officially talking.

No matter which firm lands them as a client, Digg having an official PR team has big implications for the site.  Digg announced last week it will be cutting it’s staff and mentioned that it would be downsizing the expansion plans that were in place for 2009.  In the current economic climate it is no wonder that the website is trying to focus on profitability, and a PR team can help them achieve those goals without alienating users.

Reports have also been circulating that several of the top power users on Digg are actually on the payroll of PR/Marketing agencies.  Power users’ stories are more likely to make it to the front page, getting them to submit your story essentially guarantees top-tier recognition.  Does this undermine the trust of users?  Sure, but it’s up for debate on whether or not this issue will have a lasting impact.  The addition of a formal Digg PR plan could tilt the scales.

You know what?  Not everyone gets to be on the Today Show or Oprah…and that’s OK.

Example: You’ve got an awesome new product/service etc. so naturally you write up a press release.  Now you can either submit it to Oprah and wait for them to find and notice yours out of the thousands they receive daily and call – OR you can tweak your release to be SEO-friendly and submit it to a distribution service.  Ensuring that your press release reaches a wide variety of search engines, blogs, websites and even journalists who are actually very interested in your product/service and will write about it.

Maybe you do both, but the point is that you’re going to be better off diversifying and letting a larger number of people find you, even though they may be in smaller niche markets.  David Meerman Scott had 2 ideas on how PR is evolving that are particularly applicable to this strategy (from his blog):

1. The old ways to get noticed were to buy expensive advertising and beg the media to write about you and your products.  The best way to get noticed today is to publish great content online.
2. Don’t talk about what your products and services do.  Instead talk about how you solve problems for your customers.

PR and the world of the press release is changing, traditional media sources are on the decline and online distribution methods are more accessible and producing better results than ever.  That is why we say go ahead and reach for that low hanging fruit.  While all your competitors are fighting each other for access to the top you’ll be building a solid base of customers and attention.  And who knows, maybe if enough of the small-time players are singing your praises the big media outlets will take notice eventually anyway.

President elect Obama’s inauguration gala is tomorrow and the total cost of the celebration has been estimated to be upwards of $160 million.  The PR team behind this should get a medal.  In the midst of an economic crisis, shortly after the PR nightmare of fiscally irresponsible corporations, not many people seem to care about this hefty price tag…or maybe they do, and we’re just not hearing about it.

That’s good PR.  The general public and policy makers seem to be OK with this number. Admittedly there are several factors to take into account.  Yes, the money has been raised by the campaign and how they spend it is mostly to their discretion.  However, included in that $160 million estimate is the price of intense security and transportation – courtesy of the government, aka taxpayers.

To put this in perspective, 4 years ago Bush spent around $40 million on his inauguration celebration.  At that time, with an on-going war and the economy starting to decline, Bush was met with harsh criticism and encouraged to be more frugal.  Obama and co. don’t seem to be having the same issues.

That tidbit of information has been widely circulated.  What is less known is that the $40 million Bush spent doesn’t include the astronomical cost of the security and transportation that is included in the published estimate for Obama.  The estimated cost of security/transportation/federal salaries etc. spent on Bush’s inauguration by the government was $115 million.  Add that to the $40 million Bush spent and suddenly the difference between the two inauguration’s pricetags diminishes significantly.  Check out this story from Media Matters for more details and the source of these figures.

Our goal isn’t to finger point or judge whether this is good or bad, it is simply to point out how important a great public relations team can be.  There are two fine examples of PR spin at work here, one from each side.  The first is the fact that this celebration will cost a lot of money, but the Obama public relations team has succeeded in downplaying it and making it a non-issue in the eyes of the public.  The second is the burying or, worded less harshly, non-disclosure of certain aspects of where exactly both of these cost estimates come from. A good move from the Obama opponent side, but we have to ask – Isn’t the fact that this information doesn’t seem to ‘matter’ to the public yet another result of the stellar PR work being done by Obama’s team? What do you think?

There are tons of opinion pieces and articles/posts out there about corporate blogging, and most of them seem to have a negative spin.  They focus on the risks that a company takes by having a blog and all of the potentially negative outcomes associated with them.  We’re of the opinion that a bad corporate blog is just that, bad – bad for your reputation, bad for your business, and ultimately a risky venture.  However, when corporate blogs get things right it can be a public relations gold mine.

Here are 5 of the top reasons that corporate blogs succeed:

1. They Take It Seriously. Blogs are extremely easy to set up and pretty difficult to maintain in a meaningful way.  Corporate blogs who succeed take it seriously, often dedicating an entire team of staff members to their maintenance.  They put a specific plan in place so that content is created on a regular basis and realize it is a long-term investment.
2. They Take the Time to Brand their Blog. Successful corporate blogs take the time in the beginning to define how the blog will fit in with the firm’s existing corporate culture and set up specific objectives/goals.  They realize that a blog is just another type of communications tool, and they make sure it fits together with the rest of their PR efforts.
3. They Don’t Use the Blog for Blatant Self-Promotion. Yes, we all know that the reason a company has a blog is probably to promote itself.  However, no one will bother to read it or get involved in a discussion if the blog is just a glorified advertisement.
4. They Research the Blogging Community Before Launching a Blog. The human voice is a big part of why blogs are different than websites.  Bloggers will want a certain level of interactivity (comments/feedback) and will be turned off by overly corporate-y, structured, or impersonal language.  Corporate blogs who realize this fare better, and it is a reason that a blog may not be the best option for all companies.
5. They are Original in Both Structure and Content. Successful corporate blogs realize what makes a blog a blog and structure theirs accordingly – using visual elements, links, comments, and layouts that make the content easy to digest.  Blogs that just type up their latest press release for the next post, or only serve as a news feed suffer.  Also, blogs that are doing well are contributing to the community’s discussion in an original way, either by offering a new idea/point of view or putting a new spin on an old topic.

There have been tons of posts on PR blogs in the last few months about how Twitter is becoming an incredibly important tool for today’s ‘web 2.0′ PR professionals.

Check out this post on the PR Squared blog, aptly titled ‘Get Into Twitter or Get Outta Public Relations?’ That pretty much sums up the attitude in the industry right now, at least among early to mid-adopters.  Just take a look at the list they’ve compiled of PR pros (both new and old-school) who are currently on Twitter – its an impressive list and warrants attention.

Posts like these Twitter hacks and tips or this post on Ogilvy’s blog about Media Relations & Twitter are popping up all over the place in an effort to outline the benefits of using social media – twitter specifically – as a marketing strategy.

The benefits are somewhat obvious.  Twitter especially is a great tool for building relationships, a staple of good PR.  If you follow the big names in the industry an opportunity to forge a relationship that would never occur in the ‘real world’ may present itself and I think that this, more than any other factor, is why people are getting so excited.

Not everyone agrees though -read Twitter is Completely Overrated for some insight into the drawbacks of using Twitter and similar social media strategies.

It’s becoming a real debate – but something generating this much buzz is at least worth checking out.