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Dog Bites Blog

I've got the scoop on the latest PR blogger: Dexter, a foot-tall pooch who is covering a different kind of beat at Eastwick. Blog name? The Dexter Papers (ahem -- I've seen those papers).

My name’s Dexter. I’m a dog. I work at Eastwick. Most animals list their accomplishments on their about page. As far as I’m concerned, a blogging dog is accomplishment enough.

Eastwick is run by a couple of swell gals, Barb and Elaine. Technically, I report to Elaine, but everyone at the agency is always bugging me, and telling me what to do. It’s OK. I’m well taken care of.

My biggest influences are St. Bernard (the dog, not the saint). and Old Yeller. Everyone cried at the end of Old Yeller. I know I did.

Should a blogging dog give one pause? I'm already a fan, and a subscriber. I'm hoping Dexter becomes the Triumph of the PR blogging world. He'll have plenty to do.

Miss Moxie's Got a New Look

... and I like it.

New SAP Blogger -- And He's a PR Guy

There's a new PR blogger in town -- Mike Prosceno at SAP. Mike -- who is a client and social-media compadre (we're speaking together at the Social Software Summit) -- launched his blog just a few days ago, asking the question, "what should a big-company PR guy blog about." It's a good question -- there are lots of big-company PR bloggers who work at agencies, but very few blogging from the inside. Accept Mike's invitation: tell him what you think he ought to focus on, given the resources at his disposal and the business mandates of his company. Mike's done some very good work with blogger relations -- if you are an enterprise blogger and you attend SAP events, you should get to know him -- and he will be using his blog to learn, share, and hone his craft.

Ruff Environment

I hear that there are at least four pooches who are making the rounds at Eastwick, my alma mater. And rumor is that one of them walked into an office, and left a present on the ... oh, never mind. But while I'm on the subject of Eastwick, I just learned that they have launched another seven staff-written blogs:

Community Stew (Rachel Lepold)
Measure for Measure (Juan de Leon)
Media Artifacts (Joel Postman)
Networked (Denise Vardakas)
The Connected Agency (Barbara Bates)
The Root Review (Marissa Root)
View from the Gallery (Katie Hallen)

And there's more to come. Blogmaster Joel Postman is right. There's a blogathon going on at Eastwick. But will the pooches get their own blog? That might keep them out of trouble.

Eastwick: "We Are Family"

Cool news from my alma mater -- the eastwikkers group blog has morphed into a family of blogs and it all looks really good. So who are the members of the family?

In Search Of: Stuart Froman's blog on "authenticity and clarity in communications and PR." Stuart is Eastwick's staff writer, and one of the agency's prize assets. I look forward to reading his new blog.

Green is the New Blog: This is very cool. Mimi Harris -- one of Eastwick's young guns -- is a great writer, and an original thinker. She's gonna look at sustainability and communities.

Stay tuned: This will be Becky's Quinlan's blog. Becky is another great writer, and a former TV anchor. She'll be on the broadcast beat, which she's been covering at eastwikkers for many months now.

Fake Steve Jobs Blog

Can't believe it's taken so long to find this. It's quite good. Here's what Fake Steve had to say today about the Walt Mossberg review of Apple TV:

So, should you buy Apple TV? Absolutely, says Walt. He gives it four thumbs up, raves about its simplicity and elegance, and tells you not to worry about the features we don't have, because even though Apple won't discuss these issues, Walt is sure that many of these features will become available in the future.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Oh wait. Um...

New CEO at TechCrunch

Big story (Om Malik got it first), and it suggests that TechCrunch is evolving into a more sophisticated media property. We'll look back on this, perhaps, as a turning point for blog ventures. Founder Mike Arrington spoke at the first Third Thursday in Palo Alto, and I recall him saying that TechCrunch was already poised to challenge traditional media properties like Wired ... and with a much less overhead. Even with the additional staff that it has added since then, TechCrunch looks meaner and leaner than many publications. My guess is that Arrington will now spend more time developing the editorial team, while the new CEO -- Heather Harde, SVP of mergers and acquisitions at Fox Interactive Media -- will build out the business. In the meantime, Harde's background in M&A is intriguing -- will TechCrunch buy other media properties (blogs, zines, other stuff)?

Nicholas Carr On the "Old New Journalism"

This is interesting. Nick Carr writes a thoughtful piece on Andy Abramson's pre-CES post, "Creative Video Blogging and the New 'Instant Journalism'" (I wrote about Andy's post yesterday). At first, Nick didn't "get" the piece, complaining that it seemed like "illiterate mush." But then he "realized" (shifting to the ironic voice) that he was "looking at the article through eyes corrupted by years of paying attention to the 'main stream media'." He spends the rest of the piece dissecting, skewering, ridiculing Andy's post. The most interesting moment is when he compares Andy's instant journalism (Andy's phrase) with the new journalism of the 60's. Says Nick:

Now, I vaguely remember somebody else labeling something "the New Journalism" a long time ago. I think that, maybe, Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson and Norman Mailer were involved. But I don't remember any of them being fueled by "Instant Journalism." I think they "composed" their work before they pushed the publish button. So they were probably more like "Old New Journalists" rather than "New New Journalists."

I'm unclear about the object of Carr's scorn. Is it Andy (who was having a bad day), bloggers in general, or blogging in general? But there's no question that the quality of blog content is often poor, and that the rush to publish creates all kinds of opportunities for mistakes (I myself made a spelling error when I first posted about Andy's piece). Carr has played the gadfly before, and I'm guessing he's trying to apply pressure on bloggers to get their act together. After all, he's a blogger himself, and today he, not Andy, is getting all the link love on Techmeme.

By the way, Carr's reference to the new journalism strikes a chord. When Tom Wolfe, Hunter Thompson and Norman Mailer first hit the scene, they too were slammed for writing illiterate mush (maybe not those words, but close). Critics were wrong, of course. But the new journalists earned the respect of the literary establishment by bringing a new kind of immediacy and artistry to the world of reporting, not by lowering its standards. They're good role models for bloggers, many who are in love with their rebel image. Perhaps I posted the wrong photo yesterday when I first wrote about Andy. Hunter Thompson (another Las Vegas rebel) or a bus called "Further" would have been better. I should have taken my time.

Andy Abramson: The New Rat Pack

Andy Abramson, a top-ranked VoIP blogger who has worked on both the dark side (PR) and light side (journalism) of news production, has an interesting post about the new style of journalism we are likely to witness at this year's Computer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. There was a time, not too long ago, when bloggers were at the back of the pack. Now they belong at the front, says Andy, because of the speed with which they can create compelling content (Andy calls this "instant journalism"). He adds:

Bloggers are now as important to the established companies as the mainstream media have always been, not just to the new and emerging companies with something new to show. As a matter of fact if you have to pick between the analyst, media or blogger this week, unfortunately the analyst drops to third in importance if you've got something to tell and sell. Candidly some media types who are not on deadline should take a page out of the sportswriters creed and code of mutual respect...photographers and those on deadline to the front of the pack, everyone else to the back.

Reminds me of other packs that once trolled and ruled Las Vegas. To get around that place, it makes sense to sitck together. Plenty of opportunity for that this year at CES. The Bloghaus and a number or private parties are designed to do that.

UPDATE: Gizmodo slips into the CES convention center, and takes photos. Very Ocean's Eleven ...

PR Blogger Likes to Shop

She's a PR pro, an erstwhile DJ, and she likes to shop. Tara Sims -- a former Eastwick colleague -- is now blogging. She helped me stir up trouble after the last presidential election. Sure she will give them hell at Bergdorf Goodman.