Fun & Insightful Blogs for PR Professionals

Here's our list of fun Blogs written for or about PR people. They're worth surfing when you need a laugh or inspiration for your own campaigns, or when you're handling tough clients and need to take a break.

1. FlackLife (Canada)
http://www.flacklife.blogspot.com/

This is the "life and rantings of a humble public relations guy in the frozen wastes of Canada's capital city." Creative spelling ("I doan tink so") and oddball voice, in addition to plenty of news and insight on PR flacks around the world, make it a must-read.

Recent posts include thoughts on the spin behind Nike's child labor kerfuffle, vote-rigging fraud inquiries, and a short lecture on a Hawaii PR practitioner who died and left a donation to a journalism program rather than a PR program.


2. G2Blog (US)
http://www.g2bgroup.com/blog/

A blog from G2B Group, this focuses on corporate communications, the technology industry, and the media.

A recent post takes jabs at PR flacks who are placing "more importance on a face-to-face meeting" between the client and the journalist than the actual publication of an article, but goes on to claim that the level of PR is continuing to rise, "even in today's hypercompetitive environment."


3. PR Bop: Weird and Wonderful Off the Wires
http://www.prbop.com

This new Blog from ResearchBuzz editor Tara Calashain just launched formally yesterday. A few recent links include a
release about Hello Kitty Tongue Tape (really), Mary Kate and Ashley Toothpaste, and a Three Ton Hershey's Kiss.


4. Dan Gillmor eJournal (US)
http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/

Gillmor is technology editor for the San Jose Mercury News. His blog covers breaking news and commentary in technology, politics, PR, in fact anything he finds interesting and noteworthy.

Under archives, you can search the "New Journalism" category of Gillmor's blog for his thoughts on the PR world. (There's also a useful "Letter to PR people" about pitching story ideas to him.)



5. PR Opinions (UK)
http://www.natterjackpr.com/

Tom Murphy offers thoughts and opinions about the PR industry. It includes some recent interesting views on that ever-present question: how can PR and blogging live together in harmony?

There are also a bunch of posts on the recent debates surrounding RSS vs email and the future of both.


6. Up2Speed's Roundtable: The State of Online Journalism
http://www.up2speed.com

Focusing solely on online journalism, this is almost exclusively news-driven. Each entry begins with a link to the news story it is pulled from.

Our favorite recent post? A link to a three-minute Flash movie featuring Arianna Huffington vs "Ahnold" in a drag race.


7. PR Studies (UK)
www.prstudies.typepad.com/

Hosted by Leeds Business School and Centre for Public Relations Studies, this is a well-written and slightly self-deprecating blog about PR in the UK.

Watch for responses to a challenge thrown down to identify
examples of PR-led innovations online. http://prstudies.typepad.com/weblog/2003/08/index.html


8. Phil's place
http://www.philsplace.blogs.com

Phil's PR background includes four years with Porter Novelli in Brussels, four years as PR manager for Belgium & Luxembourg of a major, worldwide IT company, and three years as a headhunter -- "my mistake," he says.

His Blog entries include behind-the-scenes info on the debate going at Brussels' PR Center, in response to a request by Institute of Public Relations president-elect, Anne Gregory, for the PR industry and the media industry to sit together and discuss the "rules of engagement" and go for the truth not spin.


9.. Blogs for Business
http://blogs4business.com/

Run by self-proclaimed Blogxpert John Lawlor, this one features links to headlines from six different Blogs John runs including useful ones on email, using Blogs in business, and how blogging trends such as AOL Blog affect business bloggers. Worth checking out. Recent headline, "PR Folks Fooling Bloggers, Redux".