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Target requires blogging skills for media relations people

logo_target_bullseye.gifTarget is looking for a new 'Senior Manager of Media Relations.' One of the requirements is 'Strong knowledge for Internet journalism, e.g., blogs.' Here's one of the largest retailers in the country proactively looking for someone to either be involved in publishing blogs or to monitor blogs as part of crisis communications when a story on Target breaks out on the blogosphere.

As Jeremy Pepper of Pop! Public Relations wrote:

This is a major shift in corporate awareness, understanding that online media and blogging are part of the communications mix, and need to be tracked, monitored, and yes, responded to sometimes. Let me reiterate that – Target is not buying the cluelesstrain pitch that blogging practices need to be separate, but rather is looking for a PR person that understands blogs, how to track them, and how to work within the blogosphere.

At the LMA conference in Phoenix a couple weeks I listened to a panel of experts on PR and media communications. The need for a law firm to have on staff or consult with a person with a strong knowledge of Internet journalism skills was never mentioned. Heck, the panel never mentioned the term blog. It's time for communications professionals serving law firms to wake up, if for no other reason than job preservation.

  • http://pop-pr.blogspot.com Jeremy Pepper

    Kevin, I wish I had known you were going to be out here in Phoenix, just so I could have had the chance to meet up, and discuss blogging and public relations.
    Next time you are here for a conference, let me know.

  • Dave Freedman

    Internet journalism involves a lot more than blogs. I've been a journalist for 26 years, and have had dozens of feature articles published online, none of them on blogs — that's Internet journalism. Mainstream media outlets have online versions of their publications and broadcast stations — that's Internet journalism. Blogs are also Internet journalism.

  • Dave Freedman

    Shame on you — you have narrowed the definition of Internet journalism for your grubby, self-serving purposes.

  • http://kevin.lexblog.com Kevin O'Keefe

    Dave, no one said Internet journalism is just blogs. Blogs have just brought Internet journalism to the masses.
    Allowing lawyers to publish helpful legal information from their desk, family room or kitchen table is a good thing. If I am grubby and self serving by helping lawyers do that, so be it. Airplanes help bring families together – that's good but I do not call Boeing money grubby and self serving just because they help bring families together.
    The legal profession, as measured by our awful reputation, needs to do more to reach out and communicate with real people. Blogs, an incredibly powerful new form of journalism do this.
    Those law firms who use this new medium will be rewarded in many ways.