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Sarah Lacy on Putting the Public Back in Public Relations

Sarah Lacy is an exceptional reporter with a unique flair for cutting through the fluff, extracting the real story, and communicating it with a scrupulous sense of relevance, impact, and vision.

She’s an award winning journalist and author of the upcoming book, “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0.” Lacy has been a reporter in Silicon Valley for a decade, covering everything from the tiniest startups to the largest public companies. She writes for TechCrunch, contributes a biweekly column for BusinessWeek.com called “Valley Girl,” and is co-host of Yahoo! Finance’s Tech Ticker.

I’m also extremely lucky to call her a good friend.

Sarah took a moment to share her thoughts on my new book with Deirdre Breakenridge, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.

What is wrong with PR? Plenty. Every day for the last decade or more, I’ve received more than fifty unsolicited pitches. Less that 1% ever wind up being articles. That’s wasted effort for the person who wrote the release, wasted time for the journalist weeding through it all, and wasted money for the client.

It’s now a new gripe, but until ten years ago, it was the only system we had. Now, social media has turned everything on its head. It’s changed the way readers consume information, the way reporters find and write about it, and it’s about time it change the way PR professionals pitch.

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations gets it all – what’s wrong with the old model and the power of the new one. Brian and Deirdre explain in clear detail how it’s no longer about pitching, it’s about engaging. They explain what that means and hot to do it right. If everyone reads this, my job as a reporter would be a whole lot easier”

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations is written for the those facing the new intersection of all that is rooted in Public Relations including PR, media and analyst relations, customer service, product development, social media, brand and community managers, executive management, HR, journalists, bloggers, marketing, advertising, students, teachers, content publishers, and everyone in between.

The book is now available at Amazon, the Amazon Kindle store, Barnes & Noble, Safari, and bookstores everywhere.

You can read more about the book here.

Thoughts from other leading voices:

PR has changed forever and Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge are at the forefront of this change. If you think PR is fine and dandy, please buy this book because without it you will be out of business!” – Gary Vaynerchuk

“Putting the Public Back in Public Relations” is a passionate and persuasive case for rewriting the rules of public relations. Authors Solis and Breakenridge expertly combine third-party perspective with case studies and examples to paint a picture of a profession on the brink of reinvention.” — Paul Gillin

“Movers of the message, now hear this: the public on the other end of the transaction isn’t waiting around for you to reach it with your pitch. Let Brian Solis explain these things to you, and you will be far, far better off.” — Jay Rosen

Hugh MacLeod (@gapingvoid) also created an original and brilliantly poignant drawing to commemorate the book’s debut.



Kindle Edition

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