Friday, May 20, 2005

Podcast links moving to libsyn.com

When I started the www.lubetkin.net website, I thought 600 mb was a lot of webspace. That was before I began podcasting with high-quality 192kbps MP3 audio files to take advantage of the stereo quality I can achieve with my Olympus DS-2 digital audio recorder.

Fortunately, thanks to my friends Shel and Neville at For Immediate Release.biz, I learned about LibSyn, a podcast syndication service that offers cost-effective hosting for podcast files. So we're moving the CompuSchmooze podcast archives (and future shows) off the main server.

So effective immediately,  all of our podcasts  for our different blogs are now being stored on our new podcast server at http://lubetkin.libsyn.com. You can also download our podcasts there for Lubetkin's Other Blog Podcast, RatingAgency.com CompuSchmooze and our audio syndication feed for radio stations, Lubetkin Broadcasting.

RSS feeds for all of our podcasts/blogs remain at Feedburner.com. I will republish all of the blogs with the revised links.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Pay to Play Still Extends to Wall Street Analysts?

Interesting one-liner in the South Jersey Courier Post coverage of local darling of bank analysts, Commerce Bank (NYSE: CBH). Story about the shareholders' meeting mentions how the executives tried to deflect questions about the recent convictions of two bank executives in the pay-to-play corruption trial of Philadelphia City Treasurer. The story then mentions that the company's chairman, Vernon Hill, "also confirmed the bank sponsors seminars by Jim Cramer, a commentator on TheStreet.com who is a Commerce booster."

OK, let me get this straight.

Jim Cramer, a guy who holds himself out as an independent expert on various stocks, and who tells his paying clients they should invest in Commerce because he thinks it's a good investment, is on the company payroll, in the form of a sponsorship fee for seminars he conducts -- seminars that he charges people to attend, and at which he probably also touts Commerce's stock?

Nothing like independent financial advisors, is there?

Friday, May 13, 2005

New Blogs and Podcasts (Public Relations Ramblings)

We got a mention on Public Relations Ramblings. Thanks, Chris Thilk, for the
mention.

-----------------------------------------

Lubetkin & Co managing partner Steve Lubetkin has picked up the blogging
bug.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/PublicRelationsRamblings?m=11

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Posting only selected comments hurts blogs

Most commentators in the blogosphere have railed against sanitized blogs as being inauthentic. It's my turn to join that chorus.

Richard Edelman, leader of one of the largest PR firms in the indistry, was among those invited to attend an industry wide summit meeting on ethical guidelines for PR practice. He didn't attend, but sent one of his aides. Apparently that aide didn't give Richard any kind of report on the session, which included the Council of Public Relations Firms and other notables from the industry.

Now Richard has posted a blog entry in which he grandly announces -- in response to a comment from a visitor -- that "I am going to push for an industry summit latest after Memorial Day We have to agree on standards on VNRs and some enforcement mechanism with teeth."

So I called him out on it by pointing out that there had already been an industry summit, and that he had been invited.

Here's what that exchange looks like on Richard's blog:

I read with interest your proposal for an industry wide agreement on standards, but I'm confused. The Public Relations Society of America, on whose board of directors I sit, went to great lengths to host an industry wide summit of PR practitioners and professional organizations last month in New York, and yet Edelman did not participate, despite being asked.
What will your summit accomplish that the summit already held by leaders in the industry did not?PRSA has had a code of ethics and professional standards for more than 60 years, and there are significant barriers to effectively "enforcing" such standards beyond being a moral compass.
(My blog/podcast is at
http://lubetkinsotherblog.blogspot.com or RSS feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/lubetkinsotherblog)
Posted by: Steve Lubetkin at April 28, 2005 04:56 PM
Steve,
Thanks for sending me a noteEdelman should have sent a person to the confab on ethics...i am not sure we knew about it PRSA has taken a leaderhip position for sure But there are other initiatives on going such as Council of PR Firms et al If we have a cacaphony at the end, nothing is improved That is what I was trying to avoid.
Richard
Posted by:
Richard Edelman at May 6, 2005 02:29 PM



What Richard didn't post to his blog, although he promised to post it by Monday, was the rest of the email conversation we had. So in the interest of transpoarency and full disclosure, here's the rest of the thread:

From: Steve Lubetkin [mailto:steve@lubetkin.net]
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 5:46 PM
To: Edelman, Richard

Subject: RE: Your email

Richard, I don't think we had a cacaphony at all. From the documents I
have, you were invited personally to attend on behalf of Edelman. Why
you don't recall the invitation, I can't say.
Council of PR Firms was there, as were leaders of many major PR firms,
including Ray Kotcher, Tom Hoog, Larry Moskowitz from MediaLink, and
even journalists, represented by Kevin Smith from SPJ.
We had all the players in one room to discuss the issue.
It's one thing for a PR industry leader like yourself to miss the
opportunity to be at a true industry-wide summit on PR ethics because of
missed communications. These things happen. So I'll give you the benefit
of the doubt on that.
But then -- without doing any basic fact-checking that would have told
you that there already HAD BEEN a PR industry summit on ethics -- you
posted a blog entry suggesting that somehow the industry was ignoring
this issue. You made it sound like you are going to wave a wand and call
a summit to fix the problem. Well, pardon me, but that's just a little
ingenuous, and it's the kind of factually inaccurate hyperbole that
raises credibility problems for us all. That's why I commented on your
blog posting.
We'd love to have you on-board in this industry-wide initiative. Please
join forces with us. We will all be more credibile if we can achieve
alignment on ethical behavior throughout the industry. It's not going to
happen in the blogosphere.


-----Original Message-----
From: Edelman, Richard [mailto:Richard.Edelman@edelman.com]
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 5:49 PM
To: Steve Lubetkin

Subject: RE: Your email

Steve I accept Matt H [Matthew Harrington of Edelman] will be my proxy as he is running our ethics task force
I don't want to be a pain or to solve this in blog land
I do want to tell you that the Council of PR Firms for one is going its
own way
We want to be part of the solution for sure
Thanks for making sure we are in


Anyone else think Richard should post all the comments on his blog, not just the ones that make him look good?

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Sounds more like an armoire...or maybe a steamship container...


 Monday's lead headline in column 6 of the print edition of the New York Times:
 
35 Iraqis Killed As Leaders Seek to Fill Cabinet
 
 
 

Updating Podcast LOBP #5 Link for RSS Syndication

LOBP #5, May 5, 2005: UPDATES AND CORRECTS the link that you may have already received. This posting corrects the link and alerts you that the link in the original post also has been fixed. The correct link for the audio podcast is:

http://www.lubetkin.net/sounds/LOBP5-PRSAPhilCareer.mp3

Sorry!

LOBP #5, Podcast on Career Moves, PRSA/Philadelphia Chapter Panel 3/31/2005

LOBP #5, May 5, 2005: "Taking Charge of Your Career: Making the Most of Your Opportunities," a Panel discussion at PRSA Philadelphia Chapter meeting March 31, 2005.

Panel members: Janet Long, Recruiter, President, Integrity Search; Brian McPeak, Director of Corporate Communications, Rohm and Haas Company; Mary Kate Breslin, Account Executive, The Brownstein Group. Conversation runs about 1 hour and includes Q&A with audience.

I summarized this meeting in an earlier post to this blog. Now, you can listen to the entire program. Special thanks to the panel members, who agreed to be podcast.

Technical notes on our recording equipment.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Profiled in New Jersey Business Magazine

Steve is featured in the "Banking and Finance" column in the May 2005 issue of New Jersey Business magazine. The column, by George Saliba, is called "Public Relations Seminar: Tips Given for Banks." (PDF File)

Monday, May 02, 2005

Listen to us in The Hobson and Holtz Report - Podcast #28: April 28, 2005 ([Technorati] Lubetkin)

I am in good company this week in the For Immediate Release podcast.

... , Dan York, Peter Dean, Nicecast, Apple PowerBook, iPod, NewsFire, Steve Lubetkin, Olympus DS2, Union ...
NevOn

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Steve is quoted in Saturday, April 30, Bergen (NJ) Record

I was quoted in a Richard Newman article, "Not even banks can stop those prying eyes," in Saturday's Bergen (NJ) Record, the second largest paper in New Jersey.