Communications Blogs You Should Subscribe To

Already mentioned by Lawrence Ragan Communications as worthwhile communications weblogs:

• A Shel of My Former Self - online communications pioneer Shel Holtz
• Jana Schilder Public Relations web site - with regular, blog-like updates
• Dick Edeleman's blog - bi-weekly postings from the president of "the world's largest public relations firm"
• What's Next Blog - BL Ochman on new technologies and common sense communications
• Desirable Roasted Coffee - Commentary with attitude from expatriate American consultant Allan Jenkins
• gapingvoid - Hugh MacLeod's giant leaps in branding and PR ideas, with written and visual wit that bites
• The Bach Door - Communications consultant with strong tech skills, Pete Shinbach

Some Top Communications / Public Relations Blogs Ragan Missed

• Online Public Relations Thoughts - Jim Horton's often insightful perspectives on PR and all that jazz
• Corporate Engagement - Aussie Trevor Cook brings a Pacific Rim perspective to public relations
• Nevon - Brit Neville Hobson in Amsterdam has irrepressible enthusiasm and a sharp eye
• InfOpinions - Robert French's communications school blog with a very comprehensive blog list in the right margin
• Media Guerrilla - award-winning look at tech PR from insider Mike Manuel
• Musings from POP! Public Relations - Jeremy Pepper offers news, comments, interviews
• Micro Persuasion - Steve Rubel on blogs and PR: 50 to 100 items each week without being boring
• The Speechwriter's Slant - a recent addition to PR blogs, but I'm sure it almost qualifies as compelling even to Ragan editors (inside joke - David Murray is a Ragan editor)
• Phenix Rising - Steven Phenix on PR
• PR Opinions - Tom Murphy's compendium of PR news and commentary

In Canada, no one covers the beat religiously, so you have to bounce around from this blog to CanuckFlack, FlackLife, Brian Kilgore's BAK's Report and some non-blog sources to stay on top of things. Spanish speaking? Better subscribe to Blog de Octavio Isaac Rojas Orduna.

But why limit yourself to just subscribing to individual weblogs?  Visit Technorati and search for PR, a URL or other tags. Explore del.icio.us.  Subscribe to Blogdigger's Headlines from PR Weblogs. There are other tools for doing targeted searches using keywords and tags. Many of them bring you back to these communications blogs, because that's where a lot of the new content is being generated on public relations and corporate communications.

For a comprehensive list of PR and communications blogs, check out Constantin Basturea's Bloglines PR list, and send him an e-mail if you find some blogs he hasn't listed yet (cbasturea at gmail dot com). It is his attempt to list every PR-related blog in the world, so if you know of ones that he hasn't found yet, help him out. He also has a PR blog. Also check out the NewPRWiki, where links, lists, articles and other postings cover the public relations world.

There are communications sources that have mutated into primarily blog or podcast discussion sites. Debbie Weil's Blog is one of these, and Amy Gahran's former e-newsletter about online writing Contentious is now almost entirely about blogging.

Disclaimer:  There are PR/communications blogs and other sources that aren't on my list. That doesn't mean they're somehow unworthy. Either I don't visit them regularly, or I don't know about them, or I forgot to include them (or they're somehow unworthy). ;-)

Update:  Lists are so subjective and open to mistinterpretation that I added "Some" to the subhead, in recognition that there are dozens of PR blogs out there that I've never seen, much less evaluated.  I don't claim to have encyclopedic knowledge of what's out there.  My point is that I there's more value and insight than Ragan is giving credit. Any suggestions for addditional links are appreciated.

Comments

[Octavio Isaac Rojas Orduña]

Thanks, Eric.

It's quite difficult to be read in Spanish by English-speaking PR pros.

Google translator does a good job, but it is not enough.

It's a good thing to know that your job gains some recognition.

Cheers!

[Josh Hallett]

Back in January I wrote a quick guide to using RSS to monitor the media and blogs, many of my PR friends have used it to start listening.

http://www.hyku.com/blog/archives/000189.html

[Eric E]

Thanks, Josh. I'm going to show some PR colleagues on Wednesday how to scan blogs for PR or personal purposes, and your guide will make a good link.

[Jeremy Pepper]

Well, somewhat shows how out of touch people can be. They were proud when I went on the offensive against their ProfNet piece asking for people to attack Lizzie Grubman.

Oh well.

Thanks for the shout-out. You're in Tuesday's interview with IABC's Chairs. :-)

[Scott Baradell]

This is a helpful list....thank you.

[Britt]

Yes, great list, Eric. I've been looking to expand my usual visits to Shel, Nev, and Steve Rubel.

[B.L. Ochman]

Thanks Eric! You've put together a great list. And I'm not just saying that because I'm on it. Really! :>)
B.L. Ochman
What's Next Blog