PR Business 1 - 0 PR Week

Posted Saturday, April 1, 2006 at 10:48pm in Blogging, PR General, Technology  | 

Good afternoon PR fans, you’ve just joined us following the terrific head-to-head battle between leading PR magazine, PR Week, and up-and-coming contender, PR Business, for the highly acclaimed title, Tech PR Publication Champion.

Wow, what a battle it was too and it certainly lived up to the pre-match hype. No one was sure which way this one was going to go but many critics were claiming that the leading champion (PR Week) was just too old, too stuck in its ways and wouldn’t rise to the challenge of the new, hungry opposition with a point to prove.

Let me tell you, this wasn’t the case. Both came out fighting with the long established mag, PR Week, demanding total respect from the outset. But showing no signs of intimidation, PR Business demonstrated its rough and tough ability through its much reported tech PR training regime.

Both publication warriors were up for the challenge, and a great column piece by PR Week editor, Danny Rogers titled “New media channels reach tipping point” showed that PR Week did indeed mean business. The opening sentence in the column was “We stand on the cusp of a revolution” only added to the excitement.

Now if this isn’t a pro-tech statement from PR Week then I don’t know what is. Many even thought that it could have been the decisive factor between the two, pretty much before PR Business had a chance to find its rhythm. But no, PR Business followed up with a double page spread written by Mantra PR’s Lawrence Dore, titled “The future’s bright”.

The piece delved right into tech PR from a beginner’s stance and highlighted the need for regular PR to embrace new communication channels or “sit in a dark room and wonder why no one loves them.” Perhaps, the best comment (in my opinion) is “something strange has happened: technology has become interesting, ubiquitous, and, dare I say it, downright sexy.” Damn right Mr D, I hear ya.

Oh but that’s not all. If that wasn’t enough to stagger PR Week, PR Business unleashed a killer move. Someone who’s in on the know and a frontliner of the PR blogosphere. We hear about Wikipedia, blogs, podcasts, the Guardian, MySpace and last and **certainly** least, Strumpette (no link sorry).

Looks like this was the pivotal moment in the fight, but credit where it’s due, PR Week tried to fire back with a page dedicated to tech news and another (page) recommending three online publications to target consumer gadgets to. (Which, in my opinion, missed out the majority of big players like Engadget and Gizmodo, for example.)

For the newcomer, strength and stamina certainly was in abundance as it continued to unleash a tirade of unanswered hits. Notably the “Straight talking” piece with the strapline “Why the bloggers should not be silenced.”

I’m happy to say PR Week wasn’t badly hurt - a bruised ego more than anything. In the post fight interview it said it will be back with a vengeance and also a weekly round up of best blogs - whether they are PR blogs I don’t know - we wait with anticipation. Rematch? Who knows?

Watching in the stands was a possible contender for the Tech PR Publication Champion. It goes by the name of CorpComms magazine. A new monthly magazine covering… all things corporate communications I guess? And in the spirit of transparency, like Drew B, I’ve been offered a chance to receive some back issues, so maybe there’ll be a post on it soon?

So PR fans, that’s all from us. Playing us out is Arctic Monkeys with When The Sun Goes Down. Until next time.

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