Middle Chamber Books Podcast Interviews Controversial PR 2.0 Consultant, David Meerman Scott

Scott’s Free Electronic Book ‘New Rules of PR’ Downloaded More than 50,000 Times;
Argues that Press Releases Should Bypass Mainstream Media

CHERRY HILL, NJ – April 1, 2006 – More than 50,000 people have downloaded David Meerman Scott’s free electronic book, The new rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly, which calls for public relations practitioners and marketers to drastically change the way they use traditional press releases. Scott is the guest in Lubetkin & Co. Communications’ latest “Middle Chamber Books Podcast,” an Internet-distributed audio program that features interviews with authors and offers them an opportunity to discuss their books in a podcast environment.

Scott, a marketing consultant, PR 2.0 evangelist, and speaker, is also the author of two other books, Cashing in With Content: How innovative marketers use digital information to turn browsers into buyers and Eyeball Wars, both of which are available for sale on Lubetkin & Co.’s Middle Chamber Bookstore website, at www.middlechamberbooks.com. There is also a link on the site to Scott’s free e-book.

In the podcast interview, Scott describes how marketers should target press releases to the end-user, the reader, rather than limiting the release’s reach to journalists at mainstream publications.

“With the ability of millions consumers around the world to read press releases directly on Web sites like Google News, Yahoo! News, and via vertical market sites and search engines, marketers must fundamentally alter the way they write and distribute their releases,” said Scott. “That’s not to say that having mainstream media write about your organization isn’t important. It is. But newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV are now icing. To take advantage of the cake focused organizations use the power of PR 2.0 via press releases, blogs, podcasts and Web sites to reach buyers directly with important information. Audio programs such as Middle Chamber Books Podcast are a great example of PR 2.0 at work.”

“We believe podcasting offers a unique and valuable opportunity for authors to discuss their work in a controlled environment, while giving interested readers some real insight into the thinking and personality of writers whose works they might like to sample,” said Steven L. Lubetkin, managing partner of Lubetkin & Co. “Our Middle Chamber Book Store, an Amazon.com partner, also benefits by making available to our customers podcast interviews providing additional insight into the authors whose books we sell. We are seeking opportunities to partner with publishers on advertising and promotional opportunities in connection with these podcasts in the future.”

Middle Chamber Books (www.middlechamberbooks.com) is an online bookstore affiliated with Amazon.com and managed by Lubetkin & Co.’s publishing division. Scott’s books are featured selections at Middle Chamber Books. (“Middle Chamber” is an allegorical reference to a location deep within King Solomon’s Temple, where, according to legend, initiates were taught the seven liberal arts and sciences. Middle Chamber Books features books in these genres, Lubetkin said.)

Podcasts are digital audio programs distributed via the Internet. Listeners can download podcasts and play them on their computers or transfer them to digital music devices. The programs got their name from the popular practice of transferring them to the Apple iPod music device. Podcasts are either posted to a website, a weblog (“blog”), or made available through a technology called “Really Simple Syndication” (RSS) that lets listeners subscribe to specific podcasts and automatically download them into their portable digital audio players. The Middle Chamber Books Podcast is available in all three methods (see Editors Note below for specifics).

Publishers and authors interested in scheduling authors’ appearances on the podcast should contact Lubetkin & Co. via email (steve@lubetkin.net) or through the bookstore website.

Lubetkin & Co. Communications is the leading producer of podcast programming for business and organizational clients, including Sun National Bank, Rutgers University, the New Jersey Bankers Association, and the Public Relations Society of America. Lubetkin, who hosts the Middle Chamber Books podcasts, is a veteran broadcast anchor and corporate communications executive for Bank of America, Fleet, Summit Bank, Standard & Poor’s, Unisys, and Conrail. The firm’s website is www.lubetkin.net.

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Editors, note: The podcast interview with David Meerman Scott is available as an MP3 digital audio file.

You may download it at http://www.middlechamberbooks.com, or at the Middle Chamber Book Store Blog (http://middlechamberbookstore.blogspot.com).

The podcast is also distributed on an RSS feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/MiddleChamberBooks and in the Apple iTunes Music Store.