I read a short blog post by Lewis Dvorkin of Forbes about how they are developing a comprehensive digital content-management system for the magazine. I was struck by the following passage, which concisely describes the “new journalism” that is becoming the way of the news-publishing world:

With all that, I find myself transfixed by the emerging talents of a new breed of digital journalist, reporter, writer, blogger — or whatever label you choose to attach to knowledgeable content creators in the internet era.

A single journalist can now use the ways of the Web to research, report and investigate. That same journalist can produce or find relevant photos for their stories — and video and audio, too. In real time, the journalist can mine and extract the information they need from the world’s communication and data streams. That same journalist, at their desktop or with a cell phone or iPad in hand, can then produce and program it all for publication and broadcast, then distribute and market it across the web, then join and moderate a rewarding conversation.

This new kind of journalism is continuous and never ending, because the individual content creator has truly become part of a community. News consumers benefit as full participants in a transparent process that offers more information and context. With all due respect to the talented journalists who came before, it’s not solely about reporting and writing any more. Today, you need to do it all.

Sounds pretty cool, except there is one thing missing — the PR guy feeding the journalist story ideas and news about his client.

That should scare the hell out of me, but it doesn’t. Why? Because the “new journalist” still needs the content that we the flacks have. She needs our photos, access to our experts and reliable, easily accessible information about our clients. We just have to get content to her in a new and different way.

That’s where our challenge lies — not in getting the “new journalists” to know and trust us, but to make sure they know how and where to access the content that is critical to their accomplishing their job and to us accomplishing ours.

When the ongoing tale of Tiger Woods’ misdeeds began its media circus, the avalanche brought back memories of other misguided efforts to dodge negative news coverage.

My last seven months of U.S. Air Force service, after my WWII combat flying career, were as a military public relations officer. Just days after reporting as PRO for Bowman Field at Louisville, Ky., I was awakened at 2 a.m. with instructions to report immediately to the base commanding officer.

The CO informed me that a training flight had crashed, ordered me to take care of the media by “keeping it out of the papers” and told his sergeant to find me an office and telephone.

Promptly I began calling the wires, local papers and radio stations — there was no TV in 1945 — to inform them about the crash. And remembering my newspaper days when I would be incensed by sources trying to hide unfavorable news, I promised to provide more information as it became available.

When the sergeant reported my actions, the colonel was furious about me “blatantly disobeying orders.”

I reminded him he had told me to “take care of it,” and said that was exactly what I was doing.

“You must be crazy! I’ll bust you,” was his angry response. “Why the last time when we wouldn’t talk to them, they kept the story going for weeks!”

I attempted to reassure him that by promptly disclosing the crash and by providing details, the story would fade away in a few days. Which is exactly what happened. Later the colonel did apologize and I went on to employ the same crisis communications’ approach as during my Air Force PR days.

After more than 63 years later, this remains the agency’s standard operating procedure when the news ain’t good.

It’s not the first, and it likely will not be the last time a corporation breaks the unwritten rules of blogging to make the medium serve its business ends. But this time, it involves a multinational corporation (Coach), a trade group (International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition), an institution of higher learning (Hunter College), a class in public relations and a nonexistent student (Heidi Cee) in a conspiracy to further the IACC’s battle against fake Coach bags.

Adweek covered the details, but the big picture is that Coach gave Hunter a $10,000 grant to get the class to run the scam, a few months later Hunter received a $1 million donation from Coach’s CEO, Lew Frankfort, a Hunter alumnus. My, isn’t that a tangled Web they wove.

Here’s the gist of the scam, according to Adweek:

Hunter College students in New York couldn’t miss the poster plastered around the Upper East Side campus. Reading “MISSING — $500 reward!!” it was accompanied by a photo of a young, blonde, Heidi Cee, pleading for the return of her lost Coach bag.

Tear-off tabs listed Cee’s phone number, blog, MySpace page and Facebook profile. Visitors to the blog (encounterheidi.blogspot. com), which drew more than 15,000 hits after the posters went up, learned that the bag was a gift from an ex-boyfriend serving in Iraq.

One day, Cee blogged that another student had returned the bag. A day later, she wrote that on closer inspection, the bag was a fake and she had been scammed for the reward.

Outraged (”EFFING COUNTERFEIT!” she wrote), Cee blogged that she was researching the world of counterfeit goods. She discovered, she wrote, that they’re linked to criminal activity, child labor and terrorism. She even posted a video to YouTube about counterfeiting, “Break the Chain,” and organized an anti-counterfeiting event on campus that drew a crowd with free food and T-shirts.

Given the proliferation of fake blogs (also known as “flogs” or “flack blogs”), you might think folks would start to wise up. But in this case, which is an instance of “astroturfing,” or a fake grassroots campaign (IACC wants to end counterfeiting of brand names), it’s even more insidious. Heidi Cee’s Coach bag gets stolen, she blithely pays the reward for a fake, and the next thing you know, there’s a campus rally around IACC’s campaign.

There are two lessons here: The first is that as attractive as social media are as potential marketing tools for corporations, transparency and honesty are absolutely essential for corporate blogs; the second lesson here is that one should approach any blog (except this one, of course) with the same skepticism one reserves for the guy trying to sell you a “real” Rolex watch for $25.

At the start of the new year, we thought it might be interesting to see what some of our PR colleagues think will happen in the public relations industry in 2008. So we sent out a query on ProfNet and received some interesting prognostications.

One of the more far-out predictions came from Tina Kicklighter, vice president of public relations for the Robin Shepherd Group:

One of the major trends driving the public relations industry in 2008 will be virtual worlds. With Fortune 500 companies pouring billions of dollars into metaspace, public relations will be integral in transporting the virtual realm to mainstream consciousness.

Already market leaders like Domino’s Pizza attract customers who order a virtual pizza — and get a real one delivered! Nascar offers fans the chance to drive virtual cars around a virtual racetrack, ‘Playboy’ tempts with virtual ‘bunnies,’ Harvard offers real students virtual degrees, and the list goes on.

It’s interesting to note that both Reuters and CNET set up virtual news bureaus in Second Life in 2007.

For Wayne Schaffel, president of Public Relations Network, the more traditional practice will be emergent in 2008:

We will see strategic public relations come back to the forefront. Right now, there is a certain “placement at any cost” mentality. I see a return to objectives-based, results-oriented progams that help establish a company’s credibility and reputation rather than simply creating the next fad.

The technological advantages of cell phones, laptops and e-mail has run its course. Look for a return to real-world press kits with hard-copy releases, real photographs, real samples, real information, real envelopes and real stamps. Those who really know how to create news must re-learn the best ways to disseminate that information.

But Shel Horowitz, author of “Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First,” suggests using new media tactics merged with tried-and-true PR skills to get your message across:

More and more, consumer-journalists such as bloggers as well as social networks will shape the way our entire society frames news and feature stories.

Creative pitches that focus on the story behind the story will get more coverage, and traditional press releases will get less. Example: instead of “Electronic Privacy Expert Releases New Book” (Quick trip to the delete key!), “It’s 10 O’Clock — Do You Know Where Your Credit History Is?” (Tell me more!)

For Gina F. Rubel, Esq., president and CEO of Furia Rubel Communications, new technology breeds new business:

More and more consumers of products and services are turning to the Web. As a matter of fact, about 50 percent of our clients are referred through word-of-mouth or direct public relations outreach and the other 50 percent have come to us via the Internet.

Patty Briguglio, president of MMI Associates, Inc., suggests we seek to counterpoise old and new approaches:

In 2008 PR firms will need to create an effective balance between traditional PR and new media tactics. It is important to take advantage of the new media tools, such as podcasting and blogging, and to convey the value of these applications from a PR standpoint to your clients.

So there you have it, the future as PR practitioners see it. We’ll revisit this post in December to see who was the true oracle of 2008.

While some of the nation’s most gifted communicators are numbered among North America’s public relations ranks, there’s a common lack of consensus as far as defining their profession.

Shortly after opening my office in 1946 I visited my grandmother who was vacationing at a Miami Beach hotel. I was introduced to a number of her contemporaries, one of whom, after my departure, asked “Well, you have a lovely grandson but what does he do?”

“He’s in public relations,” my grandmother replied proudly.

“Sounds important, but exactly what does he do,” her friend persisted.

Scratching her head, my grandmother replied, “I think he gets little things in the newspapers.”

And even today that is at least part of our client responsibilities, although we prefer to call it “media relations.”

However, the functions of NewmanPR, which we broadly define as public relations marketing, go far beyond the media relations discipline.

A classic example is a program we developed for a small Miami car rental company, Yellow Rent A Car, the forerunner of a 5,500-car fleet that became Greyhound Rent A Car.

Until the early 1960s, almost all car rentals were based on a daily fee plus a per-mile charge with the customer being reimbursed for any gasoline purchases. When the client asked for ideas to help stimulate business and increase the 200-vehicle fleet, our agency proposed the concept of a fixed weekly rental fee with no mileage charge. The company’s owner provided the final part of the equation by offering a full tank of gas with the customer returning the car in the same fashion.

The unlimited free mileage plan not only pleased customers, but provided a platform for extensive media coverage in travel and business publications and eventually was adopted by most of the car rental industry.

There are times when the most effective public relations can be achieved by a total lack of publicity.

In the late 1940s a Miami Beach oceanfront hotel owner was exceedingly proud of a new fire sprinkler system installed in his property shortly after a major hotel fire in Boston. He urged the agency to publicize the feature.

We pointed out that there was little purpose to be served in reminding potential guests of possible hotel room fires and he agreed — reluctantly.