Holtz Communications + Technology

For the last several months, For Immediate Release has been sponsored by CustomScoop, a media clipping service. On each episode, Neville or I read a brief description and invite listeners to take advantage of a free trial.

On Monday’s episode of FIR, a listener—Mike Holladay—wrote in to complain about these sponsorship announcements. They were getting repetitive, he said, and he hoped CustomScoop could come up…

Coca-Cola has entered Second Life by taking an approach other than buying an island, building an edifice, and hoping residents will stop by for a visit. Working with crayon (yes, I’m part of the team, along with several other crayonistas led by C.C. Chapman), Coca-Cola opted to break into the 3D metaverse by getting out amongst the population.

The effort is a…

I’ve seen some live blogging via Twitter, folks at conferences commenting on what the speakers are saying. But plans by the executive producer of a new Fox TV series to Twitter updates during the premier of “Drive” may be the first such use of the channel by a mainstream media outlet. Greg Yaitanes, who also directed the first episode of the action-adventure…

I am overly tired of the “X is dead” redundancy. I understand the enthusiasm with which those who spout “X is dead” embrace what they believe in, but communication channels rarely die because of the advent of something new, even when that new thing represents a revolutionary, paradigm-changing development. Print didn’t replace face-to-face communication, after all, and television didn’t kill radio.

I’ll bet the first person to leave a comment…

Catching up on my feeds after a two-week stint on the road that left me with little time, I stumbled across a post from Stowe Boyd reporting on a Zogby study. The survey reveals that most Americans believe bloggers and citizen journalists will play an increasingly significant role in the way news is reported. I agree with the results of…

For some time now, I’ve been urging companies to establish employee blogging policies. I still think that’s the case, but I’m also wondering how effective they’ll be if employees have something they really want to get off their chests. And, of course, a blogging policy won’t help if employees take their gripes to YouTube.

Two cases in point:

• Steven Silvers reports on a Consumerist item about a…