No More Free Google News from PitchEngine

If you’re a fan of PitchEngine for online distribution of news releases, as I have been, you likely already know about the announcement this evening.  For those who don’t — the owners of the site announced that they will no longer include free releases on the feed that goes to Google.  What this means is that these free releases will not rank on Google News.

Here’s a portion of the announcement:

We’ve recently been targeted by spammers who are using our tool solely as a means to affect their Google rank, which is simply not in the best interest of our users, especially our paid subscribers. While it’s been a great asset for our users, it’s simply not going to work if this content goes unregulated. We’re also going to step up our SMR and brand authentication efforts to maintain the validity of content hitting our feeds – even for paid subscribers.

Releases from those who subscribe, and pay $35 per month, will continue to have releases streamed to Google News.

I realize that nothing stays free on the Interwebs for long these days, but PitchEngine was an outstanding free way to create and make available attractive social media releases.  Now, because the management of the site wasn’t able to police submissions properly, no one gets to take full advantage unless they pay.

I’ve already seen on Twitter a bit of a backlash to the decision, and some support of it.  The response from one of PitchEngine’s site builders to the critics has been to say the spammers are to blame, and that the move adds to the value of the paid service.

Spammers are not going away and they don’t care what you think, so if you blame them for anything, you’re wasting your breath.  They’re like the common cold in that way.  And, as with the common cold, taking a few precautions will help reduce the chance of  “infection”.  Changing the way you do everything seems a bit extreme.

Note: I’ve updated my ongoing Review of Online News Release Sites to reflect this change in policy.

Reporting Live from New Media Seminars

Another great group yesterday as I presented in my second New Media Seminars.  The half day workshop is organized by Madison+Main, an advertising and new media firm in Richmond, VA and a strategic partner of EndGame Public Relations.

The seminar once again covered all things new media and social media, and how businesses can use these new tools to promote themselves. There were sessions that introduced the concept of social media, how to optimize your site for the search engines, and how to get noticed in the social media universe.  I reprised my earlier presentation on how social media has changed PR, and how it can be used as a PR tool.  That’s me in the picture, in the middle of talking about how social media has changed the way PR professionals build relationships with reporters.

Thanks to Dave Saunders (@madmain) and Madison+Main for inviting me.  The next iteration of the seminars will be held in Virginia Beach, so if you live in the Tidewater area, be sure to attend!

Tweeting in Real Life?

What would happen if we behaved the same way in real life as we do on Twitter?  What if we lived life in 140 characters or less?  Check out this video from CollegeHumor.com to get an idea of what that would be like…