First on PRNewser: Following up on a tip sent to us by brother bloggers TVNewser, PRNewser has confirmed that Michelle Wallace and Mary Buhay were let go from multimedia PR giant MediaLink this morning.

Buhay served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications and had been with the company since 1993. Wallace was Senior Vice President, Client Services and had been with the company since 1989.

Medialink COO Larry Thomas (pictured) told PRNewser, "It is accurate that Mary and Michelle are no longer with us. We wish them the absolute best."

Elaborating on the company's decision, Thomas stated, "The entire media industry has changed and so have we. What it comes down to is we are now focusing ourselves on new media and other blended communications. As our clients reach out to us to solve new challenges, we are re-evaluating how we operate."

"If you take a look we've actually added quite a few media executives across the country and are still actively recruiting. It's just really as things evolve and the industry changes, media changes with it, and these departures are part of that revolution."

Medialink reported Q1 numbers on Thursday, with revenues down 11% to $7.1 million, from $8.0 million in the same period for 2007. Revenues from media communications services decreased 18.0% to $5.96 million.

Digital continues to show potential, with the Teletrax digital video tracking services increasing 59.2% for the quarter to $1.14 million.

The company has also launched a digital arm, mediaseed.tv.

Sometimes we feel like we shouldn't talk about Twitter (everyone's doing it!), but then we always end up giving in. One thing we wanted to talk about is the BusinessWeek story by Steve Baker about Twitter that he wrote using Twitter.

We saw the collaboration happening in advance of the story, and now that the final result is out, we wanted to take a minute for analysis.

So, who got quoted? Not surprisingly, Union Square Ventures partner and Twitter investor Fred Wilson and Twitter lead architect, Blaine Cook.

Also in the mix: Media Deluge blogger Christian Anderson, Shawn King of YourMacLife and John Yarmis of AMR research.

Baker writes that he received more than 250 responses, "some pure opinion, others furnishing facts and links to blog posts and articles. You can read many of them on Twitter search engine Summize by looking for #bwstory."

So, for all of you hoping to score some BusinessWeek ink via Twitter, better luck next time.

From the Associated Press:

Cowan and his mentor, Henry C. Rogers, founded Rogers & Cowan in 1950 and saw it become one of the world's biggest entertainment public relations firms. Among its stable of celebrity clients were Danny Kaye, Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Shirley MacLaine, Roberto Benigni and Elton John.

In 1988, Rogers & Cowan was sold to the British conglomerate Shandwick PLC. Cowan set up his new company, Warren Cowan & Associates, six years later.

Cowan also repped stars including Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra over the course of his career. Jesus Sanchez writes in the LA Times: You have Cowan to thank (or blame) for helping pioneer such popular publicity tools as celebrity sporting events, top 10 lists (the "most watchable man" or "most hypnotic eyes"), and product placement.

(Image at right: 1966 photo of Cowan (left) with partner Henry Rogers, courtesy AP)

(Text 100 CEO Aedhmar Hyne's avatar in Second Life)

While my co-editor Joe was mingling at the PRSA event, I joined Text 100 for the opening of their big new space on Park Avenue. The office is an open design with no offices, plenty of conference rooms, and small "telephone booths" for private or sensitive calls, and of course, a place to play Nintendo Wii. The agency has over 50 people in New York, and about 30 offices worldwide.

Though we didn't get a good picture of the space, the Second Life grab above is apropos of the CEO Aedhmar Hyne's brief talk about the changing media landscape, both mainstream and consumer generated.

Fresh off a "Best Midsize Agency to Work For" Sabre Award, the mood was upbeat. PRWeek Editor-in-Chief Keith O'Brien was there, as well as Scott Ferguson from eWeek and two of his colleagues. Numerous clients were on hand including several from IBM, presumably the agency's largest account.

Wii + beer was in full swing when I left at 10 PM.

Thank you to Aaron Uhrmacher for the invitation.

Thanks to the Daily Show, PRNewser is able to still blog the appearance of Terry McAuliffe on MSNBC's pundit-fest "Decision '08" on Tuesday night. It's worth seeing the original version (Hot Air via TVNewser) to see a true master of optimistic spokes-spinning in action, as Hardballer Chris Matthews (this time rightfully) interrupts him saying he AGREES with the Clinton camp in their wish to see the race for the nomination reach the convention next month.

McAuliffe's skills are so adept and chipper, one could use it as almost an educational parody when media coaching one's clients.

For a bigger laugh, see the Daily Show's "West Virginia Douche-Off" from last night, complete with the banjo music from Deliverance. Google the movie and the title of Jon Stewart's segment if you want references far worse than a shiver up Chris Mathews' leg.

National Geographic Society is looking for a Web Marketing Specialist

Los Angeles Times Media Group is looking for a Media Relations Manager

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is looking for a Communications Director

Siren PR is looking for AE's and AAE's

Want to work with me? Horn Group is hiring at the Account Supervisor and Account Executive levels.

One news item certainly lighting up blogs and Twitter streams everywhere is CBS' purchase of CNET for $1.8 billion.

The New York Times notes that CBS chief executive Les Moonves may have opted for change in the company's web strategy.

"We are not going to spend $1.6 billion on YouTube," he told the paper a year and a half ago, in an effort to ensure investors that the company's digital strategy would not include large acquisitions.

In the official press release, issued Thursday, Moonves states, "There are very few opportunities to acquire a profitable, growing, well-managed Internet company like CNET Networks. Together, CBS and CNET Networks will have significant additional exposure to the fastest-growing advertising sector and can accelerate our growth through a number of new content, promotion and advertising initiatives."

We were considering reaching out to some CNET writers for comment, and then saw this Twitter post from CNET social media reporter Caroline McCarthy:

No, I don't have any insider details for you, so you might as well not ask in the first place.

Well then, that settles that.

PRNewser was present, camera and all, at PRSA's blogger social event in New York last night.

About 50 or so bloggers, agency folk and freelancers filled up Art Bar in the Village to talk shop about all things social media, PR and beyond, while enjoying the open bar and food.

Pics after the jump.

PRWeek San Francisco bureau chief Aarti Shah gave her take on the recent Lifehacker blacklist debate today via a feature story.

Shah elicited comment from Wired.com senior editor Dylan Tweney, Jason Falls, social media explorer at Doe Anderson, Todd Defren, principal at Shift Communications, and social media and marketing consultant Susan Getgood.

Tweney presented his rational thoughts on why he won't blacklist PR people. "I don't have the luxury of blacklisting people...because if they have news, it doesn't matter whether I like them or not, or whether they've been good at pitching in the past. I'll [still] need to hear about it."

PR Communications: Are Media Database Companies Complicit In PR Spamming?

Chris Garrett: Building Your Online Brand With Social Media Tools

FishbowlNY: Bonnie Fuller to Announce New 'Media' Venture 'Shortly'

PRWeek: NBC's entree may bolster local networks

If you haven't heard yet, or felt the wrath of having your firm's domain name outed as a PR spammer, Gina Trapani the editor of Gawker Media's LifeHacker blog has created a wiki to show other bloggers how to block pitches. Trapani is tired of PR people pitching her at her personal address.

It turns out she mentioned her blocking methods before in a comment on Valleywag during the kerfuffle over the Chris Anderson/LongTail spammers list, but didn't draw as much response from the PR world.

On the front lines of this debate over How to Pitch a Blogger, and How to Block PR Firms is Todd Defren of Shift Communications, a shop with considerable tech and social media chops, and one of the domains on the list.

Defren figured out over the weekend that Trapini's personal email is listed on Cision, one of the major PR databases. He also posted a screengrab of the Cision page on Flickr to make that point, and graciously took it down at her request, then protested on Twitter: "@ginatrapani's request, removed pic of her Cision entry from Flickr. Wish she'd been as nice about messing with others' reputations."

As I was on phone talking with researcher at Cision to verify how exactly they collect contact info, the wiki was updated explaining the same thing: people at Cision add information to journalist profiles based on what they find on web searches, as well as opt-in methods.

We'll stay on this story as it develops, and stay neutral. Blocking is a little harsh but there are some terrible mail-merge style pitches getting spewed out there. For now ironically, one of the best place to go for web2.0 How-To remains Defren's PR-Squared blog.

If you're a blogger and you want to see if Cision has your information, call 312-922-2400 and ask for research. I just did, and added my phone number. Bring on the pitches, but read PR-Squared first.

Fox News: Public Relations Nightmare: Barcelona Forced to Import Drinking Water

Chicago Tribune: Sam Adams knew value of good PR

Folio: Magazine Publishes 100-Percent User-Generated Issue

PRWeek: Word association for your brand

Our interview requests to People's Revolution founder Kelly Cutrone, a fashion pr phenom now known for her appearances on The Hills, have so far not been answered.

Today though, we did receive a forwarded email from mediabistro managing editor Rebecca Fox from the agency, which stated:

TO ALL VISIONARIES:

For the past 12 years People's Revolution and our clients have been redefining, shaking up and moving the fashion industry forward. We have been around the world countless times and have met some of the most influential and creative people. Many names you would know, but there are countless others who are the visionaries - the cool kids of the street, the poets on the corner, the artist on the sidewalk, the graffiti packs of the night. It is people like you who are the inspirations for the Diors of the world.

People's Revolution and the Pao Principle have created a Portal where your thoughts, ideas and visions can be shared, expressed and ultimately manifest. It is time for you to make a more direct impact on the world.

Intrigued, we clicked through to the portal and found this question on the first page:

What did you last purchase: Why did you purchase this item?
It reflected "me"
Everyone else has it, why shouldn't I?
Someone told me to buy it
Saw it on someone I admired

Pardon the snark, but, OMG! I never knew I could make a more direct impact on the world by becoming part of a marketing experiment and telling a PR agency details about why I buy things. Surely, this is valuable information for People's Revolution, and we can't blame them for trying. However, we're not sure if we have any worthwhile info to share: "Um, I bought a pair of jeans last week. The old ones had holes in them."

Kaplan Publishing is looking for a Publicity Manager

BzzAgent is looking for a Director of Business Development (Chicago)

Hachette Filipacchi Media is looking for an SEO Specialist

The American Lung Association is looking for a Director, Media Relations

New England Aquarium is looking for a Communications Coordinator

A broad swathe of media power brokers attended Arianna Huffington's Right is Wrong book party last Friday in Manhattan.

The attendees were chronicled by Gawker photographer Nikola Tamindzic and included Rupert Murdoch, Mort Zuckerman, Tom Freston, Jann Wenner, Charlie Rose, and of course, our own Laurel Touby.

Out of all the night's pictures, only one was not captioned. We won't blame Nikola for not knowing his name, but here at PRNewser, we do.

That's Fenton Communications CEO David Fenton, who has the ear of Huffington for the moment. In a Washington Post feature on Fenton last year in recognition of his agency's 25th anniversary, Huffington was quoted saying, "There's no division between his life and his work. The work that he does is exactly what he is passionate about."

Fenton Communications claims a variety of lefty clients including George Soros, MoveOn.org and GreenPeace, but has worked on all sides of the political spectrum, including a campaign with Laura Bush to fight malaria in Africa.

The agency billed in the $6M range for 2007.