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C. Renzi Stone talks about the new direction of Public Relations and what it means today.

The decline of US news companies has led to a call for expanded public media. But in the UK the BBC is blamed for stifling the news market – and it’s shrinking.

Richard Sambrook, director of BBC Global News since 2004, is saying goodbye to one of the world’s most influential jobs in journalism, and hello to, what should I say – the murky, spin-meisterly, lucrative? – world of public relations. Or should that be creative, innovative and transformational?

Amra Tareen, the savvy and ebullient founder of AllVoices, has
just closed a $3 million funding round for the innovative, citizen journalism site. That brings funding to $9 million for the two-year-old start-up. Not bad. TechCrunch has a good take on the AllVoices funding.
How does she do it? Amra returns to We Media [...]

The biggest surprise from yesterday’s unveiling of Apple’s iPad was that print publishers and journos weren’t terribly excited. “Waiting to be surprised. That hasn’t happened yet,” said Jim Roberts, the only New York Times wonk who didn’t confuse Steve Jobs with Moses. Valleywag has a good take on Print Media’s Big Tablet Letdown.
Our [...]

We couldn’t get to Hyderabad for this year’s group hug of the world’s newspaper publishers, but it sounds like the old boys are getting feisty in their dotage. Forced once to postpone because of bad economics and waning interest, the reconvened World Newspaper Congress, organized by the merged World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, launched [...]

This is a true testimony to the magic of a system that allows for open communication and collaborative problem solving around public concerns. You can really see how media, industry, government and private citizens can work together to improve their communities:

Tune in live or later for a discussion on the Future of Media from the Economist Media Convergence Conference.

The internet is a wondrous anomaly, a technical and creative achievement grander than the Tower of Babel, an infinite tangle of knowledge, ideals, data, entertainment, beauty, trivia, terror, news, noise, hubris, despair. It’s a cultural blender, a mixmaster archive crammed with visions, twits and everyday things.

Over on my Fast Company Experts blog, I offered some thoughts on the new Cone Nonprofit Power Brand 100 Study.  Here is how my post begins:
Cone Inc released their “Cone Nonprofit Power Brand 100” report yesterday – in which it valued (and ranked) the brands of some of America’s leading social, environmental and animal organizations.  [...]

WeMedia is once again producing a regular podcast that features in-depth interviews with prominent media, technology, and social change figures, as well as distinguished experts on current affairs and news. Our goal is to help the WeMedia community understand the roots of the changes taking place in our society, hear from the thinkers and [...]

WeMedia is once again producing a regular podcast that features in-depth interviews with prominent media, technology, and social change figures, as well as distinguished experts on current affairs and news.  Our goal is to help the WeMedia community understand the roots of the changes taking place in our society, hear from the thinkers and doers [...]

We Media members, readers, fans and friends are invited to breakfast and a conversation with Fast Company magazine founder Alan Webber and best-selling author Dan Pink.
When: 8 am – 10 am Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Where: The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner, 1700 Tysons Blvd. McLean, VA USA
To register: Click here.
The Washington Board of Trade has extended its [...]

A new revenue stream for SeeclickFix and its media partners is emerging:
SeeClickFix is currently hosting the SeeClickFix widget in sites like Boston.com and Philly.com and we are looking for other partners to host our free widget.
The tool provides much of the SeeClickFix functionality including the ability to view and report non-emergency issues. You can grab [...]

We new that tweeting was hot when we saw the usage in at the conference in Miami, but did not see the relevance to SeeClickFix at the time.  Fred Wilson from AVC.com has shown us the light:
On May 5th Fred Wilson Posted an article on his blog avc.com which suggested that it would be great [...]