Robert Scoble has a long rant on public relations, and how bloggers have changed the way stories break, and whether A-list journalists should get the scoop first:
“The thing is people in the new word-of-mouth network are figuring out it really doesn’t matter WHO you talk to first, as long as you talk with a diverse range of bloggers and make yourself available.”
I think the element that bloggers and the web have added is “the great unknown,” or at least it can be perceived this way. If you want to sell your PR plan, you need to have a strategy, one that you control, and has concrete deliverables. There is a ton of proactive stuff you can do with bloggers (Robert references some of them in this case study), but if you have the choice of starting with a big league journalist or throwing it out there for the blogosphere to have their way, well…