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President Obama held his first press conference since July today during the White House daily press briefing. After Obama took questions from the media, press secretary Robert Gibbs appeared, and took the time to mock Sarah Palin.

Palin was caught with talking points written on her hand during this past weekend's "Tea Party" convention.

Gibbs wrote a grocery list on his hand, which he referred to during the briefing.

"I wrote eggs, milk and bread...I crossed out bread, just so I can make pancakes for Ethan if it snows, and then I wrote down hope and change just in case I forgot that," he said.

Havas Q4 2010 Earnings Release

Havas (Euronext Paris: HAV.PA) today reported a Q4 2009 revenue decline of 4.4%. The drop is less than the previous three quarters of 2009, where revenue declines all exceeded 8%. Revenue totaled approximately $648.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2009.

Revenue for all of 2009 fell 8.1 percent to $1.99 billion. The company said digital business increased revenue share "from 9% in 2006 to over 16%" in 2009.

In addition, the company's corporate communication businesses, "for the first time in the year returned to positive figures" in Q4 2009. The company didn't break out any specific figures.

Havas' PR holdings include Euro RSCG Worldwide PR and Abernathy MacGregor.

President Obama appeared at today's White House press briefing and took questions from the media, beginning with Fox News' Major Garrett.

Many members of the media have complained in recent weeks that the administration is attempting to bypass press conferences, in favor of releasing information via one-on-one interviews and social media channels.

This the President's first press conference since July. As Fox News' Garrett notes, Obama has held 27 total press conferences in his first year in office, compared to 19 for George W. Bush and 45 for Bill Clinton.

TVNewser has more.

There are millions of mobile applications out there, and getting good press is often key to helping different apps stand out from the masses. However, many mobile app developers don't have a large budget for PR. That is Fusion Group PR's pitch, as the agency is aggressively courting the mobile applications industry.

The agency announced a new pricing model for application developers today with prices as low as $750 a month for a "basic media outreach program."

"We recognize that many of these companies often cannot afford traditional PR retainers, yet PR services are critical for each product launch. The mobile apps marketplace is crowded, so developers need help attracting users via press coverage and social media," said James Little, co-founder, Fusion PR Group in a statement.

It's questionable what an agency can do for an application with that small of a PR budget. However, Fusion PR Group does have experience in the space, having worked with EA Mobile, AOL Games and Yahoo! Games.

[Editor's note: Fusion PR Group is a separate agency from Fusion PR.]

[Image via Techpin]

PR and marketing professionals are sounding off on research firm Forrester's decision to make all analysts blog on Forrester.com as opposed to their own personal blog. The caveat being if the content on their personal blog is of the same topic as their area of coverage as an analyst.

Waggener Edstrom Social Media Director Tac Anderson writes:

The problem with Forrester's decision is the heavy-handed nature it is taking in implementing it. All three Forrester bloggers talked about the new blog platform being developed and the new capabilities it would have. This is the real missed opportunity. Forrester's goal should be to create such a powerful platform with its new blog and with the Forrester name that employees would jump at the opportunity to leave their personal/professional blogs in order to have access to this great platform.

Laura P. Thomas, Strategic Projects and Global Landing Page Manager for the Small and Medium Business Digital Division at Dell writes:

I think it is very cold of them to simply refer to their employees thoughts as "our IP," as they did in a tweet, but I believe there are advantages for the employees to blog on the company site.

Former Forrester Analyst Peter Kim says:

I think there's a more difficult point here for Forrester - some condition in the company's current culture drove an insider to leak the information to SageCircle. This signals internal dissonance and the uncomfortable but likely fact that malcontent employees need to separate from Forrester.

Forrester analysts Cliff Condon, Josh Bernoff and Augie Ray have all sounded off as well.

In his first byline for the Huffington Post (and first blog post ever?), Goldman Sachs Head of Corporate Communications Lucas van Praag uses the platform to counter a New York Times story, "Testy Conflict With Goldman Helped Push A.I.G. to Edge."

In a byline titled simply, "Goldman's Response to the New York Times," van Praag begins by stating "theories" in the article are "contradictory and many of the supporting 'facts' don't stand up to serious scrutiny."

He then goes on to specifically address 10 NYT assertions, as he calls them, followed by Goldman's rebuttal.

Reuter's Felix Salmon is a fan of the tactic:

A blog entry is pretty much the perfect medium for reacting to a story in the press: you can link to the story in question, quote various bits, and respond to them at whatever length you like. What's more, from a PR person's perspective, a blog entry is unfiltered: you don't have to rely on partisan journalists to communicate what you're saying in an accurate manner.

We're curious to get your take on the post and this tactic. Have you employed it with success?

We're happy to announce the return of our "From The Recruiter's Desk" columnist Lindsay Olson. Lindsay is back from maternity leave and will resume posting two columns per month.

Olson's latest column look at a debate that has been bubbling up in PR circles as of late: what is more important, a "digital" or "traditional" resume?

The digital resume has been a hot topic of debate with the rising popularity of social and professional networking sites. People ask me all the time if they should be replacing their traditional resumes with a new, digital format. My answer: yes and no.

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Is it the policies or the PR--or lack thereof--that's deteriorating Israel's image? At a recent conference, marketing guru Eyal Arad warned that the nation could become the South Africa of the 21st century.

Yesterday NPR explored the PR ramifications of what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the "Goldstone effect," named after the UN commissioner who reported war crimes on both sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict last year.

It's agreed that Israel should have cooperated with the investigation, allowing for a stronger hand if they wanted to fight the results of the report.

Now PR experts debate the next steps. Noam Lemelshtrich, dean of communications at IDC Herzliya wants the modern user-generated approach, letting Israelis take to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to spread a positive message. Arad wants a more top-down governmental approach. Listen to the audio for more:

ASU Walter Cronkite School; McGuire on Media: Twitter is not killing journalism, journalists are killing journalism

New York Times: Google to Add Social Features to Gmail

FastCompany: Why Brands Should Strive for Imperfection

Telegraph: Toyota's carmaking is not matched by its PR

New York Times: Do-It-Yourself Super Ads

"Answering business questions is key," says Raquel Krouse, the newly minted Senior-Vice President, Director at Prophesee, the social media division of IPG (NYSE: IPG) agency Initiative.

"There are a lot of tools out there that run reports. But what does that mean to your business? Our analysts provide that. They enable you to make sense of the data," says Krouse, when asked how Prophesee is different from other social media-centric agencies.

Previously Vice-President, Practice Lead, Social Media at IPG's Emerging Media Lab, Krouse recommended various IPG agencies to current and potential clients. She has always been impressed by Prophesee in part because they will not settle on one tool when it comes to social media monitoring. "They don't believe there is one tool that will answer every business question," she says.

Krouse will dive in with Initiative clients including Hyundai/Kia, Vivio and Best Western.

We asked her about PepsiCo Global Director of Digital and Social Media Bonin Bough's recent comments, that the strategy of using a TV spot and then making that spot into an online or Facebook strategy "does not exist anymore."

"I disagree, social media is a way to extend the reach of other campaigns, but it has to be dimensional-ized and changed," she said, adding that she "loves" the work Bonin and PepsiCo have done.

"I think he is saying that one-way communication doesn't translate into a two-way space. The way it is, he's right, but if you ad interactive elements to it, there is way to expand the story."

In our last PRNewser poll, we asked the following question:

Agencies: what do you do when a potential client wants a "free tactical plan" before making a decision to hire you?

PR professionals: what do you do when in the interview process the hiring manager asks you the same question?

• 55% said they would work up a plan, but keep it somewhat generic.

• 30% said they would politely decline, point the person to past case studies or client references, but let them know they don't consult for free.

• Only 16% responded that they would work up the best plan they could.

Which brings us to this week's poll:

New Jersey-based agency Beckerman Group announced the opening of its Washington, D.C. office today.

Senior Vice President for Crisis, Litigation and Legal Services Naomi Decter will lead the new office. Decter was previously a partner in the D.C. office of Brunswick Group.

"Beckerman has been working with DC clients and media for years...as our firm continues to expand, we are focused on attracting the best talent in the marketplace to lead our expansion efforts," said founder and CEO Michael Beckerman in a statement.

RELATED: Beckerman Acquires Wise PR