Our PR department is amazing! (or Netscape PR recap)

Just got a list from my amazing PR department with some of the massive coverage we got for the launch last week.

We did 26 analyst/press briefings which is more briefings than we've done on any tour in seven years I've been told. I think every, single outlet said yes--wild!

For five days last week I did up to nine, 45-minute presentations of the new Netscape. It was exhasuting, but amazing. It's so great to have the resources of such a professional, fun, and intelligent PR department. I hate PR... I never do it, I just build stuff and let the chips fall.

Now that I've seen how GOOD PR is done I'm changing my position. It's really, really powerful to do a press tour if you have a *qualified* PR group. Thanks Andrew, John, Linda, Lisa, Lauren, and everyone else in the group that helped out!

Amazing.... great work.

Netscape Print & Online Coverage

PUBLICATION	HEADLINE
Associated Press	AOL to revamp its Netscape.com Web portal
Reuters	Netscape reborn again as blog-era news site
Bloomberg	AOL Remakes Netscape.com, Ranks News By...
New York Times	AOL to Turn Netscape Site Into a Newspaper of Sorts
Washington Post	AOL Retools Netscape.com Portal
LA Times	Web Users to Make News on Netscape Relaunch
San Francisco Chronicle	Netscape digging for a second act
PCWorld	Netscape to Take On Slashdot
PC Magazine	Netscape Embraces Web 2.0 for New Site
PCPro	Netscape goes Digg
InformationWeek	AOL Relaunches Netscape.com To Challenge Digg and YouTube
InternetNews.com	Netscape Site Revamp Looks Familiar to Some
eWeek	New Netscape Taps the Wisdom of Crowds
MediaPost Publications	AOL Revamps Netscape As Collaborate News Portal
Jupiter Research	Netscape: the New New Thing?
TechCrunch	AOL-Netscape Launches Massive "Digg Killer"
CNET News.com	New Netscape.com focuses on news
WebProNews	Netscape Back With Hybrid Journalism Site
Red Herring	Netscape Makes the Social News
BetaNews.com	Netscape.com Reborn as Digg Rival
PaidContent.org	Netscape.com Relaunched as a User-Driven News Aggregation Site; Calacanis is GM, Netscape
San Jose Mercury News	Netscape.com to be revived as `social news site'
South Florida Sun-Sentinel	Netscape set for overhaul
Times Online	Extra! Extra! Netscape to change into a news site
iMedia Connection	Netscape Relaunches with Blog Focus
TMCnet.com	New Netscape.com portal to let users vote on what gets shown
Crain's New York	Netscape.com returns with new look and focus
NewsFactor Magazine	AOL's Netscape Web Portal Is Reborn
TechNewsWorld	Netscape Is Back
Search Engine Watch	Netscape Aims To Be Digg 2.0, Slashdot 3.0 With Community News Model
ClickZ News	AOL Tries to Revive Netscape.com with Digg-Like Content
Good Morning Silicon Valley	Diggscape
ZDnet.com	Netscape 2.0: Netscape.com gets social
VNUnet.com	AOL prepares to launch Digg killer
MarketingVOX	AOL Turns Netscape into Digg-like News Portal
ARSTechnica	AOL diggs revamped Netscape site
Computer Business Review	AOL resurrects business IM and Netscape
IP Democracy	AOL May Actually Have a Winner in New Netscape
All Headline News	AOL To Revamp Its Netscape.Com Web Portal
Blogging Stocks	Netscape.com relaunched as web 2.0 media site
BlogCritics.org	Netscape, AOL Look to Crush the Web 2.0 Out of Digg, Reddit
PortalIT News	AOL Turns Netscape into Digg-Alike Portal
Digital Bulletin	AOL relaunches Netscape in new guise of news site
The Inquirer	Netscape does a Digg
MoneyControl.com	Netscape.com Relaunched As News Site
SlashFilm.com	Digg meets YouTube = Good; AOL ripping off Digg = Bad

Jun 19th 2006 1:13AM
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1. yes, PR is wonderful, but functionality is better. I have signed up, redistered, but cannot sign in, no e-mail verification, and the link for that is cirtcular, and, hmm, banality seems the chief product, and perhaps the PR is much ado about not much?

Posted at 1:57PM on Jun 19th 2006 by ana ma roopa

2. You forgot the most important one of all: I mentioned you on MY blog!
http://www.scott-o-rama.com/2006/06/17/around-the-blogosphere-june-17th/

That alone should ensure the future success of the site! ;-)

Posted at 3:19PM on Jun 19th 2006 by Scott-O-Rama

3. Although I'm not totally in awe of the new Netscape, I will give it one thing, I went to check it out. Wheras, if it was announced some new digg clone called "Woodoo" just went live, I probably wouldn't, Web 2.0 or not. There's a little bit of brilliance and nostalgia to take an old Web 1.0 site and revamp it.

Posted at 10:14PM on Jun 19th 2006 by Mr. K.

4. Didn't hear word one from your PR company nor AOL's internal communication department about the launch on my end, Jason -- frankly, pretty suprising. So scratch us off the list as a result of their work.

Posted at 4:34AM on Jun 20th 2006 by Danny Sullivan

5. "Now that I've seen how GOOD PR is done [...]"

Jason, exactly what are your metrics for determining what "GOOD PR" is? I'm still not sold on your opinion of our AOL PR team, but that's probably because we measure them differently.

The way I see it, "GOOD PR" is about the effectiveness of the message and not about getting lots of coverage from many sources. Quantity is no substitute for quality, and I measure quality by the effectiveness of the communication. Of course, this raises the question "what's effective communication?" I'd have to say it's one that reaches the intended audience.

Carpet-bombing news outlets might reach a lot of eyeballs, but what are they left thinking after reading the news? Is it compelling enough for them to try it out? Based on the new user tracker, as of right now (6/21) there are some 2,800 registered users. Looks like you're using Omniture tracking instead of Sitemeter so the daily unique visitor count isn't publically available, but even at a factor of ten that's probably 30,000 uniques a day, I'm guessing.

Was the "message" effective enough to be considered successful? Perhaps some surveys could be crafted to find out.

Posted at 1:49PM on Jun 21st 2006 by Dossy Shiobara

6. I bet the PR department is having fun trying to spin that guy who tried to cancel his AOL account and recorded it when the AOL rep wouldn't let him. It's on the front of DrudgeReport right now. Fun stuff!

dm

Posted at 8:41PM on Jun 21st 2006 by Don M

7. That made the front page of Drudge? Awesome.

As for effective PR, that's a good point on metrics. That biz needs metrics like [insert clever analogy here]. I can tell you what bad PR folks are like. How about $30k for a "high-priced" firm "doing you a favor" for a "friend" (the CEO), and literally doing aso-frickin'-lutely nothing. Oh, they pitched a launch party... Ah, the boom days ;-)

Authenticity is something you can't manufacture though, let's all keep that in mind.

Posted at 9:11PM on Jun 22nd 2006 by Victor Agreda, Jr.

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