You heard it here first. 2007 will be the year mobile content moves from the digital fringe to the consumer heartland.

There are some tech trends that will help me not look like a liar this time next year -- primarily that 3G mobile networks will reach critical mass while the high-end cell phones required to tap into them see a dramatic drop in price and rise in availability. Think flawlessly streamed video without the stutters and choppiness you see today.

But the thing that will really take mobile gadgets mainstream has more to do with Hollywood than tech. 2007 will see the first Emmy’s given to video content sent over broadband to everything from computers to cell phones to iPods. Look out Kiefer Sutherland, the broadband of brothers is heading for your red carpet.

Just the notion of original content from something like Current TV competing head-to-head with network prime time shows is already moving mobile into mainstream consciousness. In reporting on the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ decision to accept broadband content for Emmy consideration, the LA Times ran a headline asking “A new Emmy for webisodes?”

Webisodes? Screaming from the pages of the entertainment industry’s paper of record? I know that even veterans of the tech world were amazed to see such insider jargon from mainstream media. Only a matter of time before webisodes and mobisodes become entries in Webster’s or the Oxford English.

The glitzy award recognition couldn’t come at a better time for the gawky adolescent that mobile is today as the medium tries to define itself.

Unfortunately, a lot of the early content being pumped to people’s handhelds is simply repurposed broadcast TV – not modified to fit the relatively tiny size of the “third screen” or the snippet-style viewing habits of consumers who most often cozy up with their handhelds when they don’t have anything better to do. That’s usually while waiting for a bus, riding the train to work, waiting to be picked up from soccer practice or queing up for a movie.

The idea of watching 47 minutes of your favorite TV show on your cell phone just doesn’t fly. Or how about watching a two-hour movie on your video iPod? Actually a battery doesn’t exist that can do that for an iPod without a recharge.

So less is more when it comes to mobile content. And what’s loosely called “made for mobile” should indeed only be content that’s made for the mobile medium. That’s not a criterion for winning Emmys, it’s a requirement for winning consumers as ongoing customers.

Companies like GoTV are setting the bar in mobile media, producing original content ranging from daily news and celebrity dirt to first-run mobsidoes like makeover show Primped. The only network content they run is trimmed to fit the size and sensibilities of the third screen and its viewers.

But GoTV is the exception. The sooner mainstream content providers and carriers get the gestalt of the new mobile viewer, the better chance they’ll have of participating in the mobile revolution rather than being overtaken by it.

And going mobile doesn’t stop there. Just look at the consumer-generated media phenom that is YouTube. We’re talking videos that often span seconds instead of minutes. I’ve been working on a project with the folks from MySpace who tell me they won’t run videos longer than 30 seconds on their corporate pay-to-play sites. 15 seconds is the ideal.

Forget mobisodes, how about microsodes? And the Emmy goes to…

In public relations, we've traditionally focused our time and talents on talking: delivering messages through traditional media channels and by direct means.

Talking has been a key component of our craft for centuries.

But in the future, it’s clear PR practitioners must continue sharpening another skill set: the ability to listen.

I don't for a minute suggest that communications pros aren't good listeners. On the contrary, the communications function largely serves as the listening post for most organizations. Most of us pay close attention to what's being said about our companies and the clients we represent in the press and mainstream channels.

I’m simply suggesting that, in the next 50 years, we'll need to listen not only to those with the loudest voices and those with the largest followings… but we'll also need to improve the way we listen to individuals. We must become more active facilitators of dialogue.

The influence of the individual continues to grow. Want proof? Look no farther than consumer generated media such as blogs.

Just this week, David Sifry of CGM search engine Technorati issued an update on the current state of the blogosphere. And his findings clearly illustrate the growing importance of the individual's voice.

More than 50 million blogs now exist, and since 2002, the blogosphere has doubled in size every 6 months. 175,000 blogs are created every day (that's 2 new blogs each second).

And while the growth of new blog channels may eventually cool, studies suggest consumers are using their self-built communications tools to publish thoughts more frequently. The total volume of new blog posts continues to climb -- now to 1.6+ million new entries each day.

The clear implication for PR pros and the brands we represent is that the individual voice must be recognized, and relationships with unique customers and loyalists need to be cultivated more closely than every before.

Today, individuals expect and demand the companies they do business with to listen.

Earlier this year, a nine year old student in California wrote a letter to Apple Computer Chairman Steve Jobs with some recommendations for improving the company's venerable iPod.

Instead of an appreciative note back from Jobs or his staff, she received a letter from Apple's Law Department insisting that she not send "suggestions" to the company, telling her she can read the company's legal and privacy policies online if wanted to find out why.

Is this any way to build loyalty and relationships?

(Later, after local media picked up on this story, Apple reportedly changed its policies on responding to correspondence from consumers -- particularly children.)

As the cacophony of voices grows louder and louder, organizations need to pay close attention to what's being said, and look for opportunities to join and nourish the conversation.

Who knows – if we keep working at it, 50 years from now we might all be more skilled listeners. At least that's what my wife keeps hoping for.

I’m really delighted that the “human element” advertising and PR campaign for Dow Chemical is off to such a great start. I believe it is resonating with the public, as well as Dow’s internal audience because, in this time of so much technology surrounding all of us we crave the human element as a stabilizer. (Disclosure: Dow Chemical is a GH client)

I’ve often quoted author John Naisbitt, who was way ahead of his time when he wrote his book, “Megatrends” some years ago. He coined the terms “high touch” and “high tech.” This illustrated the need to balance all the technology he saw coming with the humanizing factor. Many organizations are becoming increasingly reliant on impersonal communication. We all know people who are much more willing to use e-mail or voicemail than to set up face-to-face meetings or even talk on the phone. This is part and parcel of the trend towards emotionless interactions that are starting to define business relationships.

Unless an organization makes a commitment to HUMANIZING relationships, the online culture will take over. Sophisticated technology is enticing, and it’s easy to forget what’s being sacrificed when a culture is overly dependent on this form of communication.

If you were looking for a tourism site for Newfoundland you might have found
www.tour-newfoundlandlabrador.com through one of the major search engines. Instead of finding recommendations of great restaurants or sightseeing tours, you'd find a website filled with anti-seal hunt messages and graphic images.

The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is trying to punish the people and businesses in Newfoundland through economic terrorism .... destroying their tourism business in an effort to put pressure on those who are involved in the seal hunt. Unfortunately, it seems like lots of "mom and pop" businesses and B&B's who have nothing to do with the issue are bearing the brunt of this attack. That's unfortunate and unfair.

It’s a man’s world? Hardly. Especially when it comes to the gadgets and gear that drive the booming consumer electronics industry.

Women are all about tech these days, with 75% preferring a high-end cell phone over designer shoes according to a survey by market researcher TRU for the Oxygen Network.

Diamond necklace versus a plasma TV? The gadget won hands down by a similar margin. And a whopping 90% of those in the "Girls Gone Wired" survey said they'd take a media center PC over a pair of flashy shoes.

When it’s come to tech, women are often tagged by their role as a family’s “Chief Memory Officer” – scrapbooking photos, mementos and family history via digital cameras, PCs, DVRs and digicams.

It’s also been pretty obvious that women wear the financial pants in the family when acquiring electronics and other items. Call her the “Chief Purchase Decision Maker” for everything from junior’s GPS cell phone to two-figure home theater systems.

That should create a whole lotta clout for the fairer sex with electronics manufacturers and their ad and PR experts. But many in the industry, including the CEA, acknowledge that women have long been overlooked. All the more amazing when you look at the TRU data.

But even women sell themselves short it would seem, with 59% of those polled by TRU saying “Women are much more tech savvy than they give themselves credit for.”

Consider this a wake-up call for marketers and other comms professionals. Overlooking women is one thing, but equally unforgivable is pandering to them as tech lightweights.

Big mistake.

It’s time to not only reassess women as a target audience, but also to be smarter about how we actually speak to them. From girls and moms to boomers and seniors, women are a complex and multi-dimensional group.

Oh yeah, and they get gadgets better than a lot of guys.

The bounty is high for companies that welcome women into the consumer tech fold as the wise, discerning and influential buyers they are.

There are throngs of these folks waiting to attach to brands that realize being female-focused means more than being female-friendly, it’s also being female-smart.

Is it just me, or is the sight of an old-school CD spinning in a clunky mobile player enough to make your skin crawl? OK, I admit to being something of a gadget bigot, but I’m not alone.

Led by the seemingly ubiquitous iPod, MP3 player adoption doubled to 20% of US households from 05 through the first half of 06, so says Forrester Research in its annual consumers and tech benchmark. Now that peer-to-peer song swapping has gone mainstream with services like iTunes and Rhapsody and self-made mash-ups are the rage, fewer people see the need or have the patience for CDs.

The Digital Consumer is indeed living the Digital Dream and the old-line world of packaged media is paying the price. The rise of broadband and spread of sophisticated handhelds allow more traditional media to be consumed in entirely non-traditional ways.

And it’s affecting much more than music. More download-heavy marketplaces are popping up for everything from ringtones to movies and the digital distribution for any manner of consumer and enterprise software is commonplace.

Next-gen video game consoles like Nintendo’s Wii will offer hundreds if not thousands of titles via virtual storefronts – quick and easy downloads of favorite games at your digital fingertips.

The possibilities are pretty much boundless for taking packaged media digital.

Consider what you can already do with pay per view and on-demand digital cable. Now imagine how cool it would be to have the flexibility and playlist personalization that is the Netflix brand pumped to your home through fat broadband pipes. Say buh-bye to DVDs and the USPS.

With 41% of US households now enjoying those broadband pipes, per the Forrester numbers, Netflix had better be careful. If it doesn’t board the on-demand bandwagon it might find some digital up and comer assaulting its packaged media model the way it took on Blockbuster with an online solution.

As the Digital Medium becomes more defined by truly Digital Media, you have to wonder what happens to the purveyors of traditional packaged media. It’s no surprise that retailers are plenty worried about the brave new world of digital downloads. But before you start selling your shares of Best Buy, remember the vainglorious stall-out of the bricks-to-clicks revolution that was the dot come era.

In those days everything was moving to the virtual world of e-commerce. No doubt, e-c has become an important part of the world’s economic fabric, but it hasn’t shuttered brick and mortar storefronts as once expected.

Brick and clicks co-exist and even flourish with the right business model because the digital consumer likes to slum in an analog world. Kick the tires, squeeze the shrink wrap, flip the pages.

It’s just that consumers also like the convenience and status of doing it online too, especially gadget-heavy Gen Yers and Millennials. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Finding a happy medium between old and new will be the challenge and the payoff for retailers and the digital developers that supply them.

As a result, the rumors of the demise of packaged media have been greatly exaggerated. At least for the time being.

Many consumers have that hold it, smell it, collect it mentality. And the tech behind digital downloads still has a ways to go. Broadband isn’t exactly the efficient and economical vehicle it needs to be, set-top storage is too pricey, handheld storage too small and advanced wireless networks are still on the horizon in the US.

Come to think of it, maybe those old spinning CDs aren’t so bad. I listen to my Smashing Pumpkins collection on my iPod but I take a certain comfort in knowing I have all their CDs with all those liner notes and lyrics to thumb through if I ever get the urge.

Like a lot of consumers, I guess I’m equal parts digital and analog, downloaded and packaged.

It’s often said that high-powered CEOs are the people with the great vision. They view the big picture, see around corners and can spot a winning gambit from a mile away.

How is it then, that these eagle-eyed captains of industry are seemingly so blind when it comes to the hottest method going for constituency communication? Yep, I’m talking about the blogosphere.

Maybe you’ve heard about it? Technorati recently reported the blogosphere is growing at a staggering rate, doubling in size every 200 days. On average there are about 1.6 million posts each day -- that’s about 67K posts per hour or 18 every minute.

Who’s blogging? Everyone from tweens to parents, boomers to seniors. And they’re often talking about brands and product purchase issues, driving the manna of word-of-mouth buzz that has become a primary influence in how consumers buy most anything.

Blogs are indeed the hotbed of the reference-based communication revolution, shaping consumer attitudes and actions that have the power to build or bring down the mightiest of brands.

And yet conspicuously absent from the blogosphere are the uber stewards of the world’s biggest brands. The NYT reports that only one Fortune 500 CEO is known to actively blog. That’s not a misprint, I said ONE.

For all the posturing around the Internet and new media that corporate executives have made in the last couple of years, they are absent from the dialogue. But are the CEOs really to blame? After all, they do have a business to run and a company to lead. Can you fault them for not having the blogosphere in their immediate field of vision?

That job really belongs to their communication consultants, who should be making the very basic case that executive blogging is good for business. Hard to imagine a better direct-to-consumer channel for the big boss to speak to the people who love, or should love, his/her brand.

The Technorati numbers, coming in such close proximity to the frightening revelation of the NYT piece, should feel like a rush of blood to the head for Corp Comm departments and the agencies that support them.

C’mon, folks. Time to wake up and smell the ether. We’re doing a disservice to our employers/clients if we’re not only advocating for a CEO blog, but making it an ongoing reality for the execs we represent.

As Jonathan Schwartz, the Sun Micro CEO and only guy among Fortune 500 brass who is blogging today, says: For a CEO “having a blog is not going to be a matter of choice, any more than having e-mail is.”

Said another way, it’s the old axiom that “to be perceived as a leader, you need to act like a leader.” High time we get more of our CEOs to act like CEOs in the new digital era.

It has the potential to be the world’s biggest party line. Or to kick word of mouth into hyper-gear for instantaneous communication. It’s a novel idea called Pheeder, a service that allows a person to broadcast short messages via cell phones to what could be an infinite universe of friends and acquaintances.

Given the ubiquity of cell phones and text messaging, Pheeder could be the perfect audio connector for today’s massive mobile buzz culture. The service provides voice mail pings to mini social networks on everything from a local pick-up game of streetball or impromptu house party to blog-like stream of consciousness on world events.

Pretty simple the way it works: You dial the Pheeder number, record a message and direct the service to the list or community you want to reach. Seconds later everyone in your group has a voicemail from your personal “phonecast” via VOIP. Think of it as a mini podcast with built-in distribution. Because users opt-in to receive a “pheed” or pass it along to friends, there’s limited spam potential.

By going audio, Pheeder takes social networking text-based services like Dodgeball to the next level, opening up opportunities beyond what bar your buds are gathering at.

Consider the options for this new form of blogs, or phone blogs -- or as I like to call them, “phlogs.” There’s great upside for PR and marketing types in leveraging this kind of user friendly syndicated opt-in service.

Imagine your company has a hot new upgrade coming out for its popular handheld device. Pop yourself into a service like Pheeder and you can let your loyalists know the good news and how to get the feature by driving them to your website or retail partner.

Say you have a product recall and you want to let customers know about the issue. Record a 60 sec. vmail from your CEO explaining the problem and assuring consumers your company cares about its customers and is doing everything it can to address the issue with specific steps people can take.

Or how about internal comm’s, reaching a remote and mobile workforce with messages on everything from quarterly earnings to new market direction to company pep talks?

Lots of potential in the world of politics as well with political marketing. Some pundits see it as the ideal opt-in answer to the irritating automated phone messages you get from Dubya on election eve.

No matter how you slice them, what makes phlogs so compelling in this era of WOM and authenticity is their permission-based quality. The antithesis of brand spam and junkmail. You only get it if you say you want it or it comes from a trusted friend.

Phlogs are a chance for brands to become that trusted friend, to speak the language of buzz in the latest medium of social networking.

On this day of remembrance for our nation, I've been struck with how we as a society now commemorate major events in America's history.

I won't address the topics of terrorism, the politics of our government's prosecution of the "War on Terror" nor will I share my personal memories of 9/11 here. There are many better places to look both online and off for dialogue on these topics.

Instead, I'd like to explore – just briefly – how we as a society are remembering 9/11 from a communicator's perspective, and examine how new media channels and technologies are changing the way we look back, as well as forward.

In the years following major milestones in our country's history – be it the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the assassination of JFK, or the landing on the moon—we’ve traditionally looked back and commemorated these events by sharing our personal experiences with one another (largely verbally and in person), and by replaying the public records of these events, primarily the stories which dominated the popular media channels of the day.

Do you remember the early days of space exploration through the skillful reporting of Walter Cronkite?

Or the well-known footage of the President's motorcade that fateful day in Dallas in 1963?

Or the newspaper headlines of December 8, 1941?

When I compare the way we've historically looked back at major milestones with how we're remembering 9/11 today, I see significant changes being fueled by the new ways we're sharing information and communicating as a society.

The Internet and digital communications channels have made our collective memory of watershed events more vivid and more long-lasting.

Mainstream media now makes it easy for citizen to relive events. CNN offered a full day of its 9/11 broadcast feeds to online subscribers of its Web-based video channel “Pipeline” today. Users can logon and watch minute-by-minute as the events unfolded 5 years ago from their desktops.

Consumers are playing a more active role in remembering, too. Indeed, many of the most riveting images and videos we recall from that fateful day in September came from citizen journalists—the real people who found themselves thrust into one of the most significant world events of a generation. Armed with portable video cameras and photo-enabled mobile phones, those on the ground helped form our collective consciousness. And, of course, the then-nascent bloggers found themselves sharing their experiences from Ground Zero with a worldwide audience through the click of a mouse.

The speed and ease by which historical events can be shared and relived is amazing. Truly, the Internet has transformed the way we remember into a sort of “digital consciousness” stored on hard drives, web sites, blogs and photostreams which will live in perpetuity.

For professional communicators who manage the reputations of organizations, this societal memory has far-reaching implications, too. Companies who find themselves in the midst of scandalous events – be it accounting irregularities, products malfunctions, etc. – find it harder than ever to move beyond missteps and erase the collective memory of society in today’s digitized world.

Our founder, Al Golin, talks a lot about trust. In the future, it will be increasingly important for companies to consistently build trust with constituents through honest dealings and socially-responsible business practices. In our digitized world, past sins may be forgiven but they’ll never be forgotten.

So too will we never forget the horrible events of 9/11/01. They’re only a click away and embedded into our “digital consciousness”.

My favorite summation of the blogosphere's backlash potential comes from Steve Hayden. “If you fudge or lie on a blog, you are biting the karmic weenie,” says the ad guru. “The negative reaction will be so great that, whatever your intention was, it will be overwhelmed and crushed like a bug.”

It’s no secret that to hoax, hype or otherwise misrepresent and manipulate is just bad mojo when it comes to the blogosphere. The denizens of this world have zero tolerance when it comes to being punked.

And yet the roll call keeps growing for blogosphere blunders that we can all learn from. A few recent examples:

The blogosphere went after one of its own recently when a contributor for the blog site Joystiq pumped up an impending video game industry announcement. Having teased his readers that there was big news a comin’, only to have it turn out to be a standard vendor announcement, Robert Summa found himself taking a chomp of that karmic weenie. Joystiq faithful went fully ballistic when they realized the news was average industry fare and called for the blogger’s head. They first got a written apology from Joystiq, followed by the abrupt firing of Summa.

Next up, those happy go lucky kids from Facebook, the high school-college social site. Smelling manipulation on the wind when the site issued “stalker-like” syndication tools for info swapping, Facebook members staged a full-scale revolt with on-line petitions, anti-Facebook coalitions and threats to ditch the site for eternity. The site’s CEO responded with a blog to members asking them to “calm down and breathe.” (!!!) That didn’t go over so well and Facebook subsequently launched privacy controls to block user info from being shared.

Then along comes the outing of LonelyGirl 15, the teen queen who built up a following in the millions with 2-3 minute videos posted on YouTube talking about her “real-life” angst. As her popularity grew, so did suspicion that she could be a fake, a viral abomination. It was the crisp editing, music overlays and soap opera pacing that eventually did her in. Oh, and the IP tie-back to a talent agency didn’t help either.

Sensing the blogosphere was preparing to open a can of whoop wrath on Little Miss Lonely, her creators revealed her secret and made a ham-handed plea for understanding in the name of art. The guys behind the site -- a few non-descript 20-somethings, one of them an unemployed filmmaker, another a lawyer -- said they made up the pubescent and the storyline in the spirit of creating a new “art form.”

BS! screamed back the blogosphere. Though many had long realized they were being played and took the hoax in stride, nearly everyone had issues with the creators’ excuse for telling the apocryphal tale. People have called for everything from LonelyGirl boycotts to her on-line suicide.

What’s all this mean for the world of PR and marcom? Simply that the karmic weenie remains in full force across the blogosphere.

The people who built up this word of mouth hotbed do not suffer phonies well. They seek out fraud between the lines of text and in the IP addresses of those who post. They can spot manipulation from a mile away. And they don’t want to have anyone exploit them by trading on their personal data.

Try even nibbling around the edges of the karmic truth and your company or client will pay the price, left to make public and painful reversals of strategy or inauthentic excuses like those above. The damage to a brand in such cases is much greater than any potential upside associated with playing the blogosphere.

So if you’re tempted to pull one on the blogosphere, proceed with caution. Or just don’t proceed at all.

As we look forward to the next 50 years of communication, many in our industry are trying to predict which channels and information sources audiences may trust most in the years ahead.

Will mainstream media be obliterated by "citizen journalists" who self publish their thoughts on a whim -- and who don't always subscribe to conventions of journalistic integrity such as rigorous fact-checking and multiple sources commonplace in mainstream media?

And will online/digital sources of information replace the stalwarts of the media world today? Or will the biggest names in news simply keep evolving their product offerings into new formats?

The answer is probably somewhere in between.

Today, LexisNexis unveiled the results of a new survey asking consumers about the kinds of information channels and sources they trust most today for critical news (such as pandemics, looming weather events, etc.), and which sources they'll likely rely on in the future.

A few of their key findings:

* Today, consumers still trust "traditional" media most for critical news -- "traditional" defined as professional journalists from newspapers, television and radio (and their related Web offerings)

* Emerging media including citizen journalists (eg, bloggers), Web-only news outlets, and direct to audience communications tools like podcasts took a distant second in trust for "breaking" news.

Neither of these two conclusions should come as a big surprise. But it's important for professional communicators to read between the lines here: The method by which information is published or shared isn't nearly as important as the credibility of the source and the journalistic integrity behind the information. New media channels such as Web-based news outlets are among the most trusted information resources, so long as they're authored by someone who can be trusted to tell it to you straight.

It's also important to note that this survey speaks primarily to breaking news -- like the live reports from the shores when a hurricane is coming in -- not more "niche" news that's specific to an individual's interests. Other studies clearly show that consumers rely on the Web for finding more in-depth information and dialogue about sharply-defined topics of interest. While the Today Show or MSNBC.com may cover a myriad of technology-related stories, Apple loyalists may find more news and opinions specific to their interests on The Unoffical Apple Weblog (TUAW).

The Internet has made it easier than ever before to get news on demand any time of the day, on any particular topic. And as consumption of "traditional" (print newspapers, magazines, TV) continues to decline across many demographic sets, more and more individuals are feeding their growing appetite for news -- particularly news specific to topics of interest -- by going online. As consumers get more comfortable with getting specific news online, you can bet that they'll get (and trust) more of their "breaking" news from online sources too.

Lexis-Nexis went on to ask survey participants about how their media consumption habits are likely to change in the future.

The key take-away? Most consumers say that, in the future, they'll be a bit more "inclusive" in their media consumption, relying on both traditional/mainstream/established media channels and more "emerging" channels such as bloggers and direct-to-consumer sources like podcasts.

As we continue to evaluate the right channels for communicating with our target audiences effectively, it will become increasingly important to understand which information sources, channels and technologies they trust most. And adapt the way that we tell our clients' and organizations' stories accordingly.

At GolinHarris, we're investing a great deal of intellectual capital in preparing for the changes already underway. We're refining (and in some cases, building anew) the processes and tools that allow our teams to move quickly with changing consumer media habits and build creative campaigns that reach audiences effecitvely in the myriad of channels they trust.

One such example of this is Dialogue -- our approach for delivering client messages across relevant channels whether online, offline, or even experiential. For each client's unique communications challenge and audience, we devise a creative strategy and deliver messages appropriately through the right mix of channels that matter to the people we're trying to reach.

50 years from now, it's hard to imagine exactly what the landscape of influential media might look like, but it's safe to say those with a track-record of accuracy and balance in reporting will come out on top. Whether it's online or off.

If you had any doubt of the power of viral videos, look no further than the $1.6 billion price tag commanded by YouTube in its sale to Google. Viral videos, sweetheart of the consumer-generated media revolution, are very big business.

Why? For starters they really are a medium of, by and for the people. Anyone with a digicam and a creative eye for everyday life can stream a steady flow of content at virtually no cost to audiences that number in the millions.

Created in the language of the people, viral videos are fun, funky, irreverent. The higher the freak factor, the better for buzz-based consumers.

And they leverage an inherently visual medium to the hilt, featuring content that is cut to fit the small-screen viewing of the Net in both format and duration. That’s why all those attention span-challenged types in the blogosphere are coming back for more on sites like YouTube or Google Video (well, guess they're one in the same now).

It all adds up to authenticity, that Holy Grail of veracity coveted by every marketer and PR pro trying to get in the game of viral, word of mouth communications. Authenticity is the currency that enables brands to barter with next-gen consumers for awareness and ultimately advocacy. And viral videos are loaded with it.

So what do we as communicators do to harness YouTube’s authentic power of the people, short of shelling out a billion and half dollars for one of these sites?

Actually it’s probably more important what we don’t do -- namely, don’t try to force the rules of old-school marketing down the throat of this new medium.

Bastardize the medium and you bastardize your brand.

If we’re going to speak to this community we need to honor, or even create, boundaries that separate the editorial from the advertorial. That’s why I’m down on videos like Norelco Shave Everywhere or even the semi-celebrated Singing Smirnoff Yuppies.

Yeah, they’re trying to be funny, even absurd, but it’s still just an ad in a viral video’s clothing. Kinda like a bad infomercial, on crack. That might work for the ad guys, but as PR people we can aim higher.

Respect the medium and the medium will respect your brand.

The folks at Nintendo have a very cool take on this with the MySpace community they created for their new Wii video game console.

With an eye to leveraging the viral video phenom, Nintendo built the initial iteration of its profile around a contest to get people to submit videos of themselves playing with the new Wii controller. The only criteria: 30 seconds or less and be sure the subject involved Wii. Otherwise it was up to the people to film it, post it, rate it, chat about it.

It was done above board, people knew it was a Nintendo-sponsored contest that basically set the field of play and then backed off to let the people do their thing. Consumers got a chance to flex their creative muscles and show off a little while Nintendo was able to have real people show others what they’d do with the company’s hot new product.

That’s about as close to respecting the medium as I’ve seen. With interest in viral videos spiked by the YouTube deal, hopefully more companies and their communicators will keep the power of viral videos where it belongs, with the people.

I recall a certain journalism professor from college days who took great pride quizzing students about the top stories du jour from the major daily newspapers.

While some students were sure to glance at the headlines before entering his classroom, others clearly didn't dive any deeper into the newspaper than the drink specials listed on the back of the sports page. And they paid for it.

He argued that our society was growing increasingly apathetic about news, and that my generation was in jeopardy of becoming so ignorant about world affairs, those of us interested in a career in journalism were doomed.

My, how times have changed.

With the advent of 24-hour television news networks, new on-demand delivery channels and Web-based media offerings, news junkies can and do get their fill around the clock.

Just look across the pond for proof. Jupiter Research released findings from a new study that indicates (brace yourself) European consumers now spend more time online than reading newspapers and magazines.

Not a huge "aha" in and of itself. But here's the kicker: the Web overtook the top spot without cannibalizing print and television consumption. In fact, TV viewing across Europe rose from 10 hours to 12 hours per week. And print consumption managed to stay the same at 3 hours per week.

What's this mean for companies trying to reach news-hungry European audiences?

Quite simply, we PR folk need to think bigger than just a single news delivery strategy and take our clients' (European or otherwise) stories to a myriad of channels that matter to our audiences.

As consumer appetites for news grow, so too must our ability to deliver messages appropriately in these new channels. We PR practitioners need to be more versatile, jumping back and forth between "old" and "new" media channels without blinking an eye.

It's clear that the desire to stay in-the-know is increasing -- a real opportunity for professional communicators now and in the future -- and something that would make my prof proud.

Want the recipe for developing a successful news product?

- Add 1 part news reporting from trusted, professional journalists.

- Combine with 1 part citizen-generated/contributed news.

- Sprinkle with some interactivity and Web communications tools.... and voilà!

As newspaper circulation rates continue to slide (with another new report issued today showing accelerated declines), publishers are looking for new ways to attract and retain their audiences.

According to the Newspaper Association of America, mainstream newspaper publishers are learning quickly that combining traditional news stories -- penned by professional reporters -- with unique stories or supplements submitted by citizens creates a news package many can't pass up.

NAA reports that online news sites attracted a record 58 million unique visitors last month -- an increase of nearly 24 percent over the same period last year.

The association attributes Web news' appeal to "introducing new content and applications, including video and podcasts, and creating platforms that allow the local community to contribute and share ideas, opinions and information"

As new digital channels and technologies make it easier for individuals to take part in the news process, it's safe to say we'll see even more integration of "professional" news reporting and localized perspective from engaged citizens. The voice of each consumer will grow louder and more influential.

What's this mean for communicators and those we represent?

We need to become increasingly skilled at identifying brand ambassadors and encourage them to share positive stories about our companies, products and services to complement traditional news reporting.

And it can't be forced -- it must be earned. Smart companies are paying close attention to its most influential customers and are giving them new reasons every day to remain loyal and spread the word.

Loyalty is earned in many ways, but let's focus on two:

First, give your special customers privileges not offered to all. Make them feel valued and unique. When Volkswagen reintroduced the Passat in the Fall of 2005, it offered its loyalists the first opportunity to test drive the car when they showed up in local dealers. Before the general public. These folks paid VW back with their loyalty in the form of sales and positive word of mouth about the new vehicle.

Second, always deliver on your brand promises. Don't forget what's helped make customers loyal in the first place. Great products. Good customer support. Solid business practices. If these promises aren't kept, it's impossible for loyalty to be earned.

As the proximity of "official" mainstream news and consumer opinion gets closer together (literally, co-existing on the same web page in many instances), the voice of an individual can potentially carry more weight and credibility. Companies who have loyal followers who want to speak up about their positive experiences will see these opinions play out in the very channels consumers continue to trust most.

There is a new wrinkle in America’s fall Sunday routine--a subtle phenonenon that illustrates how digitization and fragmentation is forever changing how we seek and use information.

It seems that fewer and fewer people just watch football anymore. Ratings are soaring and revenue is astronomical, but more and more fans are no longer content to spend a Sunday lazily gazing at their city's team on the tube--and Sundays now witness new routines and behaviors with multi-media.

Most Sundays, a group of friends comes over to my house. Even though kick-off is at noon for most games, we don't start watching until five or ten minutes after for late arrivals--and with TiVo this artificial tape delay lets us fast-forward through commercials (especially annoying ones).

My computer is in one corner of the living room and my buddy James is parked in front of it the entire time. His head swivels like a tennis fan as he alternates from the TV to the computer screen watching real-time stats from any of a handful of Web sites. Periodically, someone will ask him to check on a particular player's fantasy stats.

Matt usually brings his laptop and connects to my wireless network to do the same--but he's also betting on games as well, and the laptop makes it easier to hide his gambling from his girlfriend on the other end of the couch.

Everyone watches the ticker for updates on players on their fantasy team--and I mean everyone. I don't know a person under 40 that does not play in at least one fantasy league. Fantasy football is a $1.5 billion dollar industry (even though the most popular league services are free) and between 15 and 18 million people play.

My friend Greg watches from his living room in Cincinnatti, but is quick to dash off IM's and cell phone text messages of trash talk whenever the Bears do poorly or his New York Jets do well.

As much as we clearly rely on technology to enjoy a longstanding Sunday ritual, we're not really that cutting edge. We don't subscribe to the NFL's cable network, none of us have the ESPN mobile phone (despite its "new direction") made especially for sports junkies to get alerts as if it was their personal sportswire.

But some things are clear from a snapshot of any given Sunday:

1: A growing portion of consumers won't rely on one medium at a time for entertainment
2: Fantasy leagues for all major sports continue to grow with new "leagues" for celebrities, movies, rock stars, and more.
3: Fantasy leagues popularity represents new avenues to reach consumers (Tivo recently announced a service to manage leagues through their set-top box.)

In 50 years, entertainment technology that makes today's plasma set look like Marconi's radio will proliferate so that the line between being in your living room and being at the stadium will only discernable by number of folks in line at the restroom. Mass personalization will drive dynamic on-field advertising that is served up to TV audiences based on their preferences. Enhanced sunglasses can even alter these settings when you are at the live event. Innovative media companies will even hawk "limited ad experiences" where consumers pay premium prices in exchange for fewer commercials--for those that want to just watch football.

The blogosphere had a decent showing this past election. Netroots, that intersection of the Net and grassroots mobilization efforts, had an impact on the Senate seats in Montana and Virginia as well as other races. And everyone from media to regional registrars looked to the web for real-time reporting of ballot fraud and electronic voting issues.

What seemed to be missing was that genuine sense of on-line passion we’ve seen in years past when the blogosphere and Netroots were hardly a twinkle in Howard Dean’s eye. That sense of mass political mobilization and the political social networking that the Deaniacs started in 2004 wasn’t there this time around.

Arguably that’s because we were in the netherworld of a mid-term election and burning issues like gay marriage were replaced by something as important yet complicated as healthcare reform.

Where we saw the blogosphere ready to flex its muscle was in the happy dismantling of fumbling politcos who left themselves wide open for a good old digital whooping. From Mark Foley to George Allen, the blogosphere had a field day with wayward nominees.

YouTube was the common factor in much of this chatter, simply serving up savory soundbites like Allen’s “Macaca” line or Foley’s previous comments on, uh, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. And post-election, YouTube continues to be the stage for verbal miscues like Rush Limbaugh’s MOL admission of lying to avoid a conservative election crash.

The lesson for professional communicators: Anything you say can and will be used against you on YouTube and across the blogosphere – whether it’s archived statements like Foley’s or off the cuff gaffe’s like Allen’s.

It’s long been known that everything a leader says is on the record (how about Jimmy Carter’s “I’ve committed adultery in my heart” remark way back with Playboy?) and that the microphone is always on (remember Bush #1’s “Kicked a little ass last night” reference to his debate with Geraldine Ferraro?).

But now those blunders can be repeated in real time and over and over and over again. In the hundreds of millions courtesy of consumer media replay sites.

It’s all a metaphor for comms and the executives we represent and counsel. We want our spokespeople to be spontaneous and quotable, fresh and authentic, but it can come at a price.

If you’re going to say it, say it right, say it true. Or don’t say it at all.

The world is watching, literally.

The most recent data released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations showed that newspaper circulations continue to decline. In fact, the latest figures are the steepest drop in at least 15 years. The overall average dip was 2.8% over the same six month period last year, with the LA Times leading the pack with an 8% decline -- which makes you wonder why so many people want to buy it.

The New York Times reported a drop of 3.5%, but also stated that the number of people who read the paper online now surpasses the number who read the print edition.

Although online revenue only represents a small portion of the company's overall income, it does point to an interesting conclusion. People haven't lost interest in the news; they just want to get it from different channels.

Perhaps the secret word for the future is "repurposing" -- finding new ways to deliver existing content.

A new company called Critical Mention is trying it with TV. They are creating an online database of news broadcasts from the top 50 markets that can be monitored as soon as they air by companies or PR firms. They even send you an email alert when your product or company is mentioned anywhere in the world with a link to the actual clip. This sounds like a handy service for multi-national communications departments.

They are also compiling customized clips with ads attached to be streamed from various websites like little TV channels. So if you have a website that focuses on racing, you can broadcast race results from around the country.

The future is still about content. The question is really about all the ways to deliver it and make money in the process.

Before I worked in PR, I worked in the music business. For a few years, I managed a record label in the Midwest that only released vinyl albums. Like many other baby boomers, I have lived through 78s, 33s, 45s, 8-tracks, cassettes, and CDs.

Now I am witnessing the demise of Tower Records, whose huge store two blocks from my home in Chicago is going out of business. And I am going to miss it.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a Luddite. We have four iPods at my house. One for me, my wife, our daughter and our 8-year-old son. I am even thinking about getting one for my dog so he won't get bored on long walks.

But downloading songs isn't quite the same as flipping through the bins at Tower, checking out the new releases and perusing the cool-looking album covers, which online are the size of postage stamps.

I am sure that in the coming years record stores will go the way of drive-in movies (which I also miss) and we will receive all the latest recordings electronically and they will sound just as good. But it won't be the same as standing out in front of Tower at midnight waiting for the new Bob Dylan album.

The line between mainstream media and consumer generated news is about to become more blurred.

The New York Times reports that beginning tomorrow, both Reuters and Yahoo will begin a renewed push to solicit and integrate reader submitted content into their news products both online and off.

CNN and other major news organizations have already been romancing their audiences to play a contributing role in news reporting through products like CNN Exchange, in which citizens all over the world who witness newsworthy events can upload photos and video to help tell more balanced, authentic stories.

What's unique about these new offerings is that consumers who submit content and serve as defacto journalists can actually benefit financially from their efforts (albeit it in a small way at first). Reuters will pay consumer journalists when their photos or videos are syndicated to Reuters clients.

With incentives in place, it's safe to assume more "casual journalists" will get involved in shaping the news we consume every day.

Companies and brands who have the most loyal followings have the best chance to benefit from this new model of news reporting. Imagine a mainstream article about the launch of a new car being supported by consumer-submitted video showing a happy customer driving off in their new wheels talking about the great buying experience and love of the new model.

And with all individuals being potential journalists, companies will need to focus harder in the future to ensure better customer service and consistently satisfying experiences. One consumer with a bad experience and a mobile phone has access to a global audience with unimaginable ease. Small slip-ups can have a huge impact.

As communicators, we'll need to stay on our toes to identify opportunities for encouraging our clients' loyalists to tell their own positive stories and to stay watchful for potentially damaging stories contributed by individuals.

Our jobs in PR are about to get a lot more interesting.

I’ve written here before about blogosphere blunders. From the written word to the streamed image, some marketeers and PR types just can’t seem to avoid the high-profile belly flops that go along with trying to pull a fast one on the blogosphere.

Their acts are tantamount to high treason -- seeking to influence viral opinion by wrapping corporate spin in flogs, apocryphal posts aping as authentic web dialogue.

The latest example is Sony’s embarrassing effort to punk the blogosphere with a flog written by a couple of faux gamers in love with Sony’s PSP handheld. It took the blogosphere about 20 seconds to realize the site was an unintentional joke, a truly laughable attempt to speak the language of bloggers with a couple of “playas” trading “funky fresh” posts on the merits of the PSP.

The real joke was on Sony and its “viral mktg firm” Zapatoni that helped create the hoax. The blogosphere lashed back big time with universal derision even from die-hard Sony fans wondering how mktg execs for such a vaunted brand could be so lame.

This isn’t the first blogosphere blunder nor will it be the last. But I say enough is enough!

Letting these guys off with a simple slap on the wrist, a la WOMMA’s attempt to censure Edelman for its recent WalMart fakery, just doesn’t cut it.

As a profession, we communicators need to be more vigilant about policing ourselves and holding guilty parties truly accountable. Not exactly a perp walk, but something that suitably calls out floggers and marks them as such.

Call it the National Flog Offender Registry. I see it taking the form of a website and serving as a database of the companies, agencies and individuals that have flogged their way to infamy via the blogosphere and other viral media.

First-time offenders get posted on the site for one year and then, barring any further fakery, lapse into archive status. Repeat offenders are called out on a permanent roster of naughtiness for all the world to see.

The Flog Offender Registry serves two purposes: First as a deterrent for any would-be flogger who would rather not suffer such public humiliation. Second as an on-line resource for corporate marketing and PR professionals to search as part of any credentials check of prospective agency partners or employees.

With TIME naming anyone contributing to the consumer-generated media revolution as its Person of the Year for 06, we have the opportunity to embrace or alienate pretty much the better part of humanity and the way it will communicate going forward.

Rather than circle the wagons and protect our own, how refreshing would it be to see our industry willing to name names, hold all of us to a higher level of transparency and in the process pave the way for a truly authentic and trusting relationship between the comms community and the blogosphere.

How cool would it be to have the Flog Offender Registry built as a microsite off the PRSA homepage or run in conjunction with a group like WOMMA?

That would go a lot further than the simple lip service we have seen from some of these organizations to date. What do you say, WOMMA, are you willing to put your website where your mouth is?

It’s official -- baby boomers and senior citizens are the new hipsters.

“Greatest Generation” grandparents and "Boomer Zoomers” are living longer, fuller lives, going back to school, traveling widely and adopting new hobbies well into their golden years. Today’s grannies are tech-savvy, using cell phones, e-mail and actively blogging -- check out the “Can’t Open It” videos chronicling the challenge of opening a jar on Thoroughly Modern Millie.

And it doesn’t end there… the Entertainment Software Association reports that more than 25% of regular video game players are 50 and older. These are definitely not your father’s grandparents.

The active baby boomer and senior citizen demographic is growing at an amazing rate. Every minute this year 330 American Boomers will turn 60. The 80 million-strong baby boom generation is the largest, most wealthy and influential generation in the history of the US, with more than $2.3 *trillion* to spend.

This group is hugely important to retailers for Holiday 06. Forget reindeer sweaters, Old Spice and fruitcake -- this holiday season, what grandparents and baby boomers want to receive are the hottest tech toys.

A recent Harris Interactive survey commissioned by Nintendo found that 52% of grandparents and 68% of baby boomers want to receive the latest tech items, such as MP3 players and DVDs. Nearly a third of grandparents and baby boomers reported that they’d like a portable video game system, like Nintendo DS Lite, from their loved ones this year.

Looking to 2007, it’s critical that advertisers, marketers and PR professionals get the attention of this older, wiser demographic. Otherwise the gold in those golden years will be helping to build market share for the competition.

We can take a page from sophisticated marketers like L’Oreal and Ameriprise who are already leveraging older icons in their ad campaigns.

If 60 is the new 40, it’s time raise our sights above the almighty 18-34 demographic and start thinking about what the Greatest Tech Generation really wants, what they’re not getting, and how their needs should impact everyting from product R&D to brand management.

Want to know what’s on the minds of today’s seniors? Just take a look at what’s playing on their computers, PDAs and video game systems.

In another example of information going portable and on demand, auto giant Ford Motor Company announced today that it will begin offering Microsoft's mobile data system in its cars beginning early next year.

Just when you thought a multitasking driver clutching a Blackberry was all you could handle... (Full disclosure: guilty, your honor.)

The new system, called "Sync" will let motorists download information to car-based and mobile computing devices including music, email, real-time traffic data and more.

Think of it as a lightweight mobile internet access point built right into your car with extreme ease of use, similar to some of today's hands-free bluetooth audio systems for mobile phones. It reportedly creates a mini wireless network for digital devices to talk to each other inside your car.

If it's simple enough to use, mobile data systems in-car could make it big. Imagine downloading new albums or time-shifted radio shows on demand to your car stereo on a long road trip. Or (eventually) grabbing the latest Disney animated flick for the kids to watch in the back seat. Or even hunting down the cheapest gas prices nearest to your location.

Once these new mobile pipelines to audiences are installed and operational, we can bet that marketers will soon follow. The next time you drive by your local Taco Bell, you could be hit with an instant mobile message offering discounts off products along with a gentle reminder that it's lunch time (and that their products are, above all, safe to eat).

As always, it's up to us to figure out creative uses for new technology that add value to consumers. If marketers push too hard or too fast with these new channels without adding something audiences want or need, technologies like this might die on the vine before they ripen. The best applications of this new potential access to audiences will see companies provide a valuable service to consumers -- not just unwanted, pushed marketing messages. They have to be tailored to individual interests and needs.

Years ago, many wrote that email would fundementally change direct marketing. And in some ways, it did. But ever since email hit the mainstream, over-zealous marketers stumbled over themselves to bastardize it without adding value. They sold consumer lists for unsolicited email to spammers far and wide, starting "phishing" for bank account information illegally, and partially detroyed email marketing's potential as an effective marketing communications channel.

Still, it's an exciting time when new technologies like this continue to make information -- and those we try to reach with it -- more and more accessible.

Think you've got what it takes to create a Super Bowl-worthy TV spot?

Chip maker Doritos does. The latest brand to jump on the consumer generated content craze, Doritos is conducting a contest online letting snack fanatics submit their own :30 second video spots best representing the brand.

Alka-Seltzer, Chevrolet and the NFL itself are also reportedly airing consumer generated content during Super Bowl XLI.

In the Doritos promotion, brand police select finalists based on subjective criteria like "creativity" and "overall appeal" (and of course, adherence to the "no naked people" rule), and America gets to vote for their favorite finalist's short to appear in Doritos' slot during the big game -- reportedly worth more than $2.6 million this year.

While the keys to the Frito-Lay marketing machine haven't been totally turned over to the masses without some restrictions in place, it's noteworthy to see companies giving brand loyalists a bigger say in one of the most hyped advertising venues around.

If the NFL exists in some form 50 years from today, one can only imagine how we'll be enjoying games, and how marketers will be capitalizing on the Super Bowl's captive audience to deliver branded messages.

One thing's for sure: consumers and brand enthusiasts will play increasingly active roles in the creation of their marketing messages and most visible campaigns.

As we keep a close eye on the devices, technologies and channels consumers use to get information and entertainment, today's announcements by Apple, Inc. should help give us a better indication of how audiences might get information in the future.

It's all about convergence.

Today, Steve Jobs -- the pop culture icon credited with ushering in the personal computer revolution and bringing portable media to the masses (via the iPod), announced a handful of new products aimed at making it easier for consumers to make information portable and shared between the devices at their fingertips.

While not entirely unexpected, Apple's big announcement today centered around the iPhone -- a handsome all-in-one device that melds together the ease of use of the iPod, with a high resolution screen, a quad-band mobile phone, and the ability to get email, download and listen to music, movies, television shows, take pictures and surf the Web. All from a slim micro-device that syncs up to your PC or Mac and shares information seamlessly. This isn't the ROKR -- quite clearly, a bungled rushed-to-market iPod/phone MESS developed with Motorola in years past. It's a full-fledged Apple device, running their UNIX-based OS X operating system and completely controlled by a novel new touchscreen system called Multi-touch that lets you navigate everything on the device with your fingers. No keyboard. No stylus. All interaction is dictated by the software and based on how you need to input data. Elegant and easy.

Great-- yet another gadget to buy. But if history is an indicator, this device might mark the beginning of an even bigger shift for the masses. The mobile component of a fully-integrated digital lifestyle.

The second piece of this converged media puzzle discussed today was Apple's new set-top-box device, dubbed Apple TV. The idea is simple: a hard-drive based, wirelessly-networked box that connects to America's big screen televisions and makes all your media available (from up to 5 computers on your home network) in your living room. That's right -- the place where we now watch local news and interest-specific cable shows.

The third piece of the puzzle, Apple's already had in existence: the personal computer. It's the piece that goes with you to the office, adorns your den, and helps manage your personal and professional lives. It now stores your photos, holds your entire digital music library, downloads time-shifted newscasts in the form of audio and video podcasts, and even lets you grab full-length motion pictures.

All these pieces will now work together, fairly seamlessly. As with all new technologies, widespread adoption is largely a function of ease of use. And Apple's hallmark is taking complex technologies and making them user-friendly.

The big shift here is that the control and flow of information is entirely in the consumers' hands. You download a new album from U2 or a video podcast from Disneyland, and it's automatically available to view on your PC, your iPod or iPhone, and now your television with Apple TV. You choose what, when, where and how to consume the information.

The gatekeeper of this information becomes Apple. Make no mistake about it -- they're a media company now, not a computer manufacturer (which explains why they've officially changed their name to Apple, Inc., from Apple Computer). Consumers who purchase these interconnected devices will get their information directly from the source, so Apple's control over what people see will grow exponentially.

These new technologies have a number of implications for those of us who are tasked with telling our clients' stories ... A few considerations:

1.) Traditional media relations isn't dead. In fact, it may see an uptick in importance. How many times have you made it home from work too late to see NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams? Now, just subscribe to NBC News' video podcasts and you can watch it when you want. On the train, in your living room, on your laptop. It doesn't matter. Placements in these trusted, mainstream media channels which increasingly make their content available on demand will gain importance in the future.

2.) We need to build relationships with the content distributors, like Apple. A few years ago, we were calling on their iTunes managers to discuss how to build visibility for clients' podcasts in the iTunes Music Store. As Apple and other information distributors play a bigger role in