As the kerfuffle over the social media press release dies down, I have to confess to surprise at a statement made by Robert French at a geek dinner in Atlanta last week. Robert teaches public relations at Auburn University where he requires his students to blog; he insists that they understand the role the conversation plays in organizational communication. But he also understands the scope of the communication landscape, and said that he wished those who enthuse over blogs as a replacement for traditional channels of communication (i.e., press releases) would study the issue before talking as though they have been practitioners for years. He is not telling anybody to shut up; he only wishes they would gather some facts before making unreasonable recommendations.

Why unreasonable? In this discussion, I have been focused on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation FD, the requirement for fair and widespread disclosure of financially material news and information. But Robert—who as a professor is likely to know such things—points out that there are more than 30,000 public notice laws in the U.S.—federal, state, and local—that require the distribution of a press release. Based on that, French said, “I am prayerful for a little more thought to go into the pontifications.”

Indeed, some of these laws—maybe even all of them—are outdated and need to change. But until they are changed, they are still the law and organizations would be flat-out stupid and irresponsible to ignore them and, in the words of some, “just blog.”

On the heels of the social media press release discussion comes the introduction of (and Stowe Boyd will love this) a template for a social media newsroom. Newsrooms are the label given to the part of a company’s website dedicated to providing content to the media. It’s also called a pressroom, a news centre, and a host of other names. Call it what you will, it is traditionally the repository of press releases, executive bios, image galleries, fact sheets, transcripts of speeches, media contact info and other material the media may need at a moment’s notice.

The template for the social media newsroom comes from the forward-thinking folks at SHIFT Communications and Todd Defren. In addition to the template available for download, there’s also a PDF of a presentation that covers the newsroom’s elements in detail and also offers an explanation for the newsroom’s role. (Undoubtedly, some people will read “social media” and not see beyond that, but if they take the time to read—really read—the presentation, they may form a different opinion.)

Most companies are still evolving from a broadcast model, according to the presentation, even though they are anxious to figure out how to participate in the conversation that social media have enabled. “The ???Social Media Newsroom??? template is intended to get companies thinking about how to present themselves to broader audiences; to motivate greater participation and openness; and potentially boost organic website SEO.”

The newsroom as envisioned in this template (and it is only a template) is segmented into left, center, and right-hand segments. The segments include…

• Executive information, including bios and speaker history
• A multimedia gallery
• del.icio.us accounts with links to information about the company, the industry, competitors and other relevant information
• Links to media coverage the company has received
• News releases
• A company calendar of upcoming events and activities
• Contact information (including Web 2.0-like links, such a Skype and AIM)
• A tag cloud containing terms relevant to the company, industry, products, speeches, competition, press releases and media coverage
• RSS feeds for corporate bloggers, pictures, profiles, and excerpts

There’s more, including an “everything” RSS feed and something SHIFT is calling “Storyline Syndicator.” SHIFT goes to some pain to justify what they think could be a controversial idea: Offering story ideas in a secure area to reporters. I don’t think it’s controversial at all, and know a lot of companies that have done something similar. Heck, I’ve known companies that prepared ready-to-cut-and-paste customer stories for reporters who didn’t have time to go out and dig up customers to interview. It’s up to the reporter whether he’ll use these resources and how.

In any case, the template and presentation offer a great starting point for companies who are ready to evolve their newsrooms to accommodate more than just the traditional press, and to make their traditional press offerings relevant to outlets that want their online content to be more valuable than their print content.

It’s getting to be something of a litany, but congratulations again to Todd and SHIFT for moving the ball forward. And, of course, SHIFT walks the talk. Their own newsroom has adopted the elements of the social media newsroom.