On Monday, I joined Shel Holtz on his popular For Immediate Release (FIR) podcast for his ongoing series regarding the New Media Release (NMR) lead by Chris Heuer of BrainJams and Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher (one of the most influential blogs in the U.S.). The podcast is available online at http://forimmediaterelease.biz/index.php/weblog/C5/

The series was inspired by Tom Foremski’s original post, Die Press Release, Die Die Die, where he tells the PR industry that things cannot go along as they are . . . business as usual while mainstream media goes to hell in a hand basket. Foremski has even offered advice on how to create a better press release:

• Provide a brief description of what the announcement is, but leave the spin to the journalists.
• The journalists are going to go with their own spin on the story anyway, so why bother? Keep it straightforward rather than spintastic.
• Provide a page of quotes from the CEO or other C-level execs.
• Provide a page of quotes from customers, if applicable.
• Provide a page of quotes from analysts, if applicable.
• Provide financial information in many different formats.
• Provide many links inside the press release copy, and also provide a whole page of relevant links to other news stories or reference sources.
• And tag everything so that I can pre-assemble my stories.

Since then, many PR professionals have taken it upon themselves to combine the latest technology, such as RSS, del.icio.us, squidoo, technorati tags, etc. to create a new template for more effective press releases. It’s definitely a work in progress.

One of the more active players in the space, Chris Heuer, recently founded Social Media Club and the New Media Release discussion group on Google. His goal is to unite the industry under a common flag of advancing the PR industry as a whole.

Per FIR, the third installment discusses what to call this thing, how to get the profession to work together on a single product, and the role the wire services will play.

Stay tuned…it will only get more exciting.

Tags: NMR, social media club, shel holtz, chris heuer, tom foremski, FIR, silicon valley watcher,hrelease new media, new PR, futureworks, pr2.0, pr 2.0, pr, public relations, press release, brian solis, podcast, online pr, digital pr.