The Minnesota chapter for Women in Communications has issued a call for entries for their 2004 Crystal Clarion Awards for creative work in advertising, public relations, design, and interactive media. The entry deadline is March 8, 2004. More information is available by visiting their Web site.

Also:

Entertainment Recognition Group is proud to announce the Call for Entries for the 2004 Pegasus Awards, the preeminent nonbroadcast video competition. Visit www.pegasusawards.com for a list of categories and nomination information.

Click here to check out the 2003 Pegasus Awards Best of Show winner by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons entitled "Sedentary".

Elevator speeches are quick sound bites that summarize capabilities. An elevator pitch should be direct, future focused and list your companies core competencies.

Elevator speeches can range in length, but should absolutely .

Here is what the USA Today recommends an elevator pitch cover:

Ideally, what you want is a pitch that will spark someone's interest and have him or her saying, "tell me more." Here then are a few questions you must answer if you are to create a great elevator pitch:

1. What is the problem you are trying to solve? Every great business solves a problem for someone. Why do you go to the local store to buy some bread? Because you have a need for bread and the store solves it. What problem does your business solve?

2. Can you keep it simple? One problem some people have when they first start their pitch is that they think the whole world understands the buzzwords in their field. They don't. Use plain English.

If you are looking for some sample elevator pitches check out .

Despite efforts by the Fed to keep interest rates low and encourage businesses to start hiring again, Minnesota has yet to see the job market pick up. According to today's Star Tribune a survey by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development showed that some of the decline in hiring was due to slow hiring in the retail and restaurant industries.

The Strib also reported the quarterly job survey found 50,100 job vacancies in Minnesota from October through December -- down some 5,000 from a year earlier. Get the full story here.

This is your last chance to be recognized for your 2003 volunteer PR work! If you have volunteered 25 hours or more doing public relations related work for an organization, you may be eligible to receive a Minnesota PRSA PROS Award. Get the details here.

Here is a Quick PR Tip from PhoenixvilleNews.com: Include PR into your Web site. It may sound obvious to a lot of you but there are plenty of companies that haven't figured it out yet.

Tonight on National Public Radio there will be a discussion on how this year's Presidential election is going to be impacted by blogging.

If you get a chance tune in to NPR at 9 p.m. EST to catch this conversation, hosted by our very own Minnesota Public Radio's Christopher Lydon.

Click here to find an NPR station near you.

Its time to register for the 26th Annual Minnesota PRSA Classics Awards again. This year's awards will take place on Thursday, March 11, 2004.

You can register or download a form and send it in.

For the second year in a row Minnesota PRSA will also honor Minnesota PR students with the Minnesota PRSA Student Classics Awards.

Get all of the details on this years ceremony at Minnesota PRSA's Web site.

A long time staple of WCCO Radio has come to an end. WCCO-AM 830 has dropped its farm broadcasts ending an 80-year tradition.

WCCO sister station KSNB-AM 950 will pick up their one remaining farm reporter, Roger Strom. Get the full story from today's Twincities Business Journal.

People under age 30 are shunning newspapers, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for The People & The Press in Washington D.C.

An article in today's Star Tribune highlights some of the findings, but the overarching message is that people ages 18-30 are no longer reading the daily paper and are turning to the Internet for news.

Here are some powerful quotes from the Strib article:

It's not the first time newspapers have faced erosion of the youth audience. For more than 20 years TV has siphoned off young readers and advertising aimed at them, said David Card of New York-based Jupiter Research...

But the Internet is creating new problems for newspapers that TV never posed, such as sharply undercutting newspaper ad rates...

"The whole question of classified advertising is perhaps where the greater challenge lies," said Tim Ruder, marketing vice president of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, the online arm of the Washington Post. "The Web has allowed national aggregation of those classified listings along with new ways of finding and connecting people. I think newspapers are working to become part of that..."

"Printed newspapers are not going away in our lifetime," Card said. "But I doubt that a lot of young people who grew up on TV and the Internet are going to retreat to the printed newspaper as they settle into middle age."

How will this new trend impact public relations and blogging? Stay tuned!

Looking for a job in PR? Visit Minnesota PRSA's job board. This month they have some pretty good opportunities listed including:

Russell & Herder has an opportunity for a public relations director to join its Minneapolis office. The successful candidate will have a solid track record in strategic planning and account management. Please send cover letter and resume to: Human Resources Russell & Herder , Minneapolis, MN 1295 (No phone calls please)

Minneapolis-based PR firm Haberman & Associates seeks modern storyteller to lead national media relations campaigns in the technology, med-tech and bio-tech sectors. Ideal candidate will possess insanely great national business, trade and consumer media relations skills; 2-4 years experience at a PR agency; awesome writing skills; and an appetite for working in an ever-changing, fast-paced environment. Investor relations experience a plus.

These are just two of the exciting opportunities on Minnesota PRSA's site.

Katherine Lanpher is leaving Minnesota Public Radio according to an MPR.org news release.

Lanpher hosted Midmorning, which airs from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on all Minnesota Public Radio news and information stations, for the last time today. Her spot will be filled by interim hosts, including Minnesota Public Radio's Kate Smith, until her successor is named.

The Twincities Business Journal reported this afternoon that Lanpher is joining a new liberal-leaning daily radio talkshow with comedian/commentator Al Franken to be broadcast from New York.

Excitement doesn't fully describe how much I enjoy watching the the . Four years ago I got the opportunity to go down to Iowa and cover the Election 2000.

This year I just watched it from my living room, but I still could capture the atmosphere and the excitement that seemed to fill the whole state.

Regardless of political affiliations, watching the event last night was better than watching the Super Bowl for me because it begins to answer the question who could be our next President? Who do you think will win the Democratic nomination?

Minnesota PR agency LaBreche Murray announced today that they have added three new accounts to their portfolio including Jostens Inc.; Wausau Papers; and Lifetouch Inc.

LaBreche Murray is a partner in the world's oldest and broadest-reaching network of independent public relations agencies, Public Relations Organization International (PROI).

A recent survey of journalists in the UK revealed what they think of public relations professionals.

According to HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk, 35.8 percent of journalists (in the U.K.) found PR agency staff members to be "muppets" with little knowledge of either their needs or their own client.

By contrast, just 19.8 percent respected public relations professionals as an aide to developing stories.

The article summarized their finding by saying, 52.4 percent of journalists said the quality of written materials produced by PR staff was "okay" with the main story angle typically outlined in the headline or first few paragraphs of the press release. But 42.7 per cent said they found the majority of press releases were little more than "corporate wallpaper" containing news only of interest to the company itself.

Get the full story here.

Advertising, Minnesota and the Super Bowl, that's right I bet you never thought you'd hear Super Bowl and Vikings in the same sentence again!

And since the Vikings aren't going to the Super Bowl again this year, Minnesotan's will have to console themselves in the fact that at least we are drawing in some business from advertisers. Get the details below.

The 2004 Super Bowl will be in Houston, Texas this year, and a Minnesota advertising firm, Martin/Williams, has landed a deal to create a Super Bowl commercial for its client Staples Inc.

So even if none of us care about the Patriots or the Panthers we can watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials. That's what I plan on doing.

Get the full story here.

The Twin Cities office of Weber Shandwick today announced the hiring of employees in the consumer marketing, healthcare and financial services groups. The consumer marketing group hired Donna Egan as an account director and former intern Josh Carter as an assistant account executive.

Egan previously worked for The Food Group in Chicago as the director of consumer marketing. She is a native of Phoenix, and holds a journalism degree from the University of Missouri. She currently works with clients Jim Beam and Microsoft.
Carter, a native of St. James, Minn., graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College and was a marketing/public relations intern with the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis before joining Weber Shandwick. He currently works with clients General Mills, The Coca-Cola Company, Jim Beam and Patak’s Indian Food.

The healthcare group hired Molly McMillen as a senior account executive. She previously worked for the Echo Press newspaper in Alexandria, Minn. as a lifestyles reporter and photographer. McMillen has a degree in broadcast journalism and French from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. She is originally from Mound, Minn., and currently works with clients Froedtert Hospital, Gilead Sciences and Case Western Reserve University.

The financial services group hired Lida Poletz as an account supervisor and former intern Laura Kennedy as an assistant account executive.

Poletz previously worked for Reuters in New York as a financial correspondent and is originally from St. Anthony, Minn. She received a master’s in business administration from Columbia University and currently works on the Internal Revenue Service account.

Kennedy previously worked for Ogilvy Public Relations as an assistant account executive and is a native of Edina, Minn. She has degrees in journalism/public relations and communications from Iowa State University and currently works with clients Case Western Reserve University, Internal Revenue Service and Professional Association of Treatment Homes.

The hispanic PR market in America is growing and whether you are a mom-and-pop pr shop, a national pr agency or an international corporation, the hispanic population is likely becoming an increasingly important audience to capture.

Other than pitching to publications like Laprensa Minnesota, as Minnesotan's we might be inclined to forget important resouces like Hispanic PR Wire (HPRW).

HPRW is the premier news distribution service reaching U.S. Hispanic media, organizations and destinations nationwide, in both English and Spanish.

Featuring targeted news distribution to Latino media, Hispanic PR Wire can route news by category to journalists in diverse fields of interest. HPRW also features a complete menu of Hispanic media circuits including national, state, and U.S.-based Pan Regional Latin America distributions. In addition, Hispanic PR Wire also offers specialized circuits targeting Latino organizations as well as Hispanic elected officials and opinion leaders.

Just some food for thought...

that press releases going out over its wire will now be distributed on a number of ABC Television station Web sites throughout the country.

According to a PR Newswire release the content will be accessible from the websites of nine local stations, including those covering the top three TV markets. The news releases will be organized by industry and subject, providing visitors with an easy way to search through the announcements as they are disseminated by PR Newswire.

The local ABC Television Web sites that will feature PR Newswire content include:

WABC New York, NY
WLS Chicago, IL
KABC Los Angeles, CA
KGO-TV San Francisco, CA
KTRK Houston, TX
WPVI Philadelphia, PA
KFSN Fresno, CA
WTVD Raleigh/Durham

As part of its commitment to providing the best exposure for its members' news releases, PR Newswire has entered into agreements with more than 500 newspapers and media organizations across the country to provide placement of member news on high-traffic news portals.

PR Newswire's copy is featured on the Web sites of major daily newspapers in Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, among others. PR Newswire distributes its members' news releases to more than 3,600 websites and online databases through direct relationships; through news distribution organizations including Bloomberg, Dow Jones Newswires, Moneyline/Telerate, Reuters and The Associated Press; through archival database services such as Dialog, Factiva and LexisNexis; and through third-party content aggregators such as Acquire Media, AP Digital, Comtex, FluentMedia, and YellowBrix.

Measuring the Power of Reputation
Thursday, January 15, 2004
3:00 p.m. ET
Duration: 1 hour

Today, a good reputation is a competitive necessity. It helps attract and keep the best talent, affects your bottom line and can influence shareholder value. This teleseminar will address the best way to assess a company's reputational strengths and weaknesses. The relevance of measuring corporate reputation as a vital strategic tool for managing positive growth will be demonstrated using the Media Reputation Index (MRi) a tool that provides detailed information about the performance of America's 100 largest companies.

You'll learn:
- Which companies climbed the reputation index in 2003 vs. which ones fell
- What stories were key influencers
- Which best practices can be adopted to change media and public perceptions
- How increased market share impacts news coverage
- How companies can rebound from an onslaught of negative coverage

You Will Hear From:
Mark Weiner, chief executive officer, Delahaye Medialink Worldwide, oversees an international firm that provides a variety of media analysis, and survey research services tailored to meet the special requirements of professional communicators around the globe. Mark is a frequent lecturer on measurement topics for Lawrence Ragan Communications, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), and the Public Relations Society of America, (PRSA). He is a member of the Measurement Commission for the Institute for Public Relations (IPR).

Register Today!
PRSA Member: $150 Non-Member: $250
Click her for registration details: Registrations must be in writing. Fax your completed form to , or mail to PRSA Registration, , , .

Kelly Groehler was elected 2004 president of the Minnesota chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

According to Minnesota PRSA's news release, Groehler intends to lead Minnesota PRSA’s business outreach endeavors in 2004, particularly to champion corporate reputation as a key business asset. She will also shepherd Minnesota PRSA’s continued commitment to provide cutting edge educational networking and career development opportunities for public relations professionals in the state.

Groehler has been at Padilla Speer Beardsley since 1996, and has helped shape the growth of the PSB's business-to-business and employee communication practice areas. Her involvement with PRSA spans more than 10 years, including a leadership role in the chapter’s public relations committee, national assembly delegate, and professional liaison for the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter at her alma mater, St. Cloud State University.

Joining Groehler as Minnesota PRSA officers in 2004 are: vice president – Shireen Gandhi-Kozel, APR, Minnesota Hospital Association; treasurer – Gail Liebl, APR, Morgan & Myers; secretary – Rose McKinney, APR, Karwoski & Courage; and immediate past president – Ann Folkman, APR, Select Comfort. Newly elected directors are Jan Hennings, APR, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota; Steven Miller, APR, Welland Laike Communications, Inc.; Larry Splett, APR, Honeywell; and Greg Zimprich, APR, General Mills, Inc.

What's in store for 2004 in Public Relations?

Good question and it is one Katie Sweeney of PRSA's Public Relations Tactics attempts to answer in .

From corporate pr, global public relations, higher education and health care Sweeney tackles every aspect of PR and what the climate will look like this year.

Here is an excerpt:

What challenges will you face this year as a PR professional? What are the most pressing issues that will affect your job and determine your ability to succeed? And where will your best opportunities come from? To help answer these questions, Tactics talked with the chairs of PRSA's Professional Interest Sections, who shared their thoughts on the year ahead and gave a glimpse of what to look for in each area of public relations.

Time is running out to register for Marketing Minnesota's Top Sports Teams. The PR/marketing managers from Minnesota's four major professional sports teams -- Mike Harmon (Vikings), Ted Johnson (Timberwolves/Lynx), Pat Klinger (Twins) and Matt Majak (Wild) will discuss their marketing of each brand. Co-sponsored by PRSA.

Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Time: 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Location: Metropolitan Ballroom and Clubroom, ., Golden Valley
Cost: $30 members; $40 nonmembers; $25 students; $5 extra for registrations received after 12:00 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8

I had every intention of updating this site more frequently over the last couple weeks but do to some extenuating circumstances I was unable, so let me take this opportunity to wish you all a happy new year! This year will no doubt be as exciting as last and I hope you will continue to view this site as your number one stop for public relations news in Minnesota.

If you have questions, comments or press releases you would like me to see please send them to me at .

Happy New Year!