Today we’re happy to bring you a guest post by Lindsay Goldwert, a senior program executive at a global tech PR firm. Before she leapt to the dark side, Lindsay worked at the

As a communications vet who’s worn both the “journalism” and “PR” hats, she provides us with a very unique take on the delicate dance that we call “media relations.” Enjoy!

I have a confession: until very recently I was a working journalist–and I was very cruel to PR people.

Who could blame me? Tasked with writing and producing “life & style” content for the New York Daily News’s bustling website, I could not be bothered with endless email pitches that had nothing to do with my beat. I got snippy when people called to ask me if I had received their e-mail, yet every time I cleared my inbox it managed to fill up again within the hour.

By mid-morning every day, I already had a slate of content to work on–most of it stories that bounced off the day’s news. Yet PR people still called me (always when I was on deadline) to ask whether I might have time for a desk-side client interview or a three-hour lunch event.

Didn’t they know that, as a digital reporter, I never left my desk? Soon, I didn’t just ignore emails from PR people — I deleted them en masse without reading them. Eventually, I got so frustrated with the ill-timed telephone calls that I just stopped picking up my phone altogether.

Sound familiar?

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Women’s Wear Daily goes so far as to call her “Condé Nast’s most powerful gatekeeper”; she spent more than two decades at the company performing PR duties for such names as David Remnick and Tina Brown and mentoring much of the industry’s younger talent. Before joining Condé Nast she worked at ABC News alongside Barbara Walters and others.

Brown says “She’s more than a publicist. She’s a consiglieri. No one can see all the angles like her”. Tough to find greater words of praise for anyone in the business.

Earlier this week an internal email revealed that Perl would be leaving as a result of Condé Nast’s decision to hire the Rubenstein agency for all media relations concerns. This move comes about because the company looks to further establish itself in “the scripted TV and feature films arenas”. Robert Green, executive producer of Huffington Post Live, will be the company’s new senior vice president.

No word on next steps for Perl, who has “no intention of retiring.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Earlier this year, the three carriers each claimed to be unable to provide seating to his wife Vilma, who died in Europe while awaiting a return flight to New York. The couple planned to go home to the States after a European vacation so Vilma could resume treatment for diabetes and kidney disease; she weighed approximately 425 pounds at the time of her death.

The couple flew to their native Hungary via Delta and KLM “without incident” in September after Vilma apparently boarded two planes “with the help of an airlift…and a seatbelt extender”. Husband Janos now claims that airline reps in Europe “asked about return flights so [they] could make proper arrangements” and that he purchased two separate seats on the way back to accommodate his wife.

And yet, the couple’s lawyer says that the very same KLM Airlines forced the pair to de-plane in Budapest “due to an issue with a seat back” and urged them to drive to Prague, where a second pilot ordered Vilma from his plane after “they put her on the seat and they couldn’t belt her in”. The two then drove to Frankfurt only to be denied service by Lufthansa reps, who voiced concerns over passenger safety when Vilma “didn’t fit in a three-seat gap”; she died of kidney failure in Hungary two days later.

A Delta rep told ABC News that the airline simply couldn’t seat Vilma “Despite a determined good-faith effort”; the husband’s attorney claims that his client “wants to know why his wife had to die because the airlines simply didn’t want to be inconvenienced.”

We’re not sure the story is so simple.

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While we frantic gifters try to find the best deals among the glitter and bold print and endless exclamations of “Sale!”, ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer decided to run a different kind of campaign geared toward holiday shoppers. This campaign focuses less on spending money and more on investing it — Sawyer wants each of us to commit to spending at least $64 of our holiday spending budget on American-made merchandise. If we all actually did this, World News says we would create 200,000 new jobs — a new spin on a gift that keeps on giving!

In case you don’t have the time or patience to read the labels on every potential present (who does?), ABC compiled a list of made-in-America gift ideas, organized into categories like sports and games, clothing and accessories, toys, etc. There’s even a form you can fill out to tell ABC you’re “in” that includes space to share your story and upload a corresponding photo or video of your patriotic gifting–a few lucky participants may even find themselves featured on Sawyer’s show. Fifteen minutes of fame, job creation, and holiday cheer? Now that’s a campaign!

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

• He lives in New York
• He works in finance
• He doubles as a political consultant
• He has trouble maintaining serious long-term relationships

After a Buzzfeed post revealed the offender’s name, he disappeared, only to pop up again with what amounted to an apology combined with a press release promoting Christopher Wight, the Congressional candidate whose campaign he managed until his abrupt resignation this week:

I wish to offer the people of New York a sincere, humble and unconditional apology. twitter.com/ComfortablySmu…

— ComfortablySmug (@ComfortablySmug) October 31, 2012

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Jon and Sayli Gibbs had been excitedly awaiting their big day, which was scheduled for September 1st at Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa. Then, just a week before the wedding bells were set to ring, they received a notification that President Obama had scheduled a last-minute rally for the same venue on the same day–and their guest list quickly got a whole lot bigger.

Luckily, both the rally and the wedding went off without a hitch, as the rally ended roughly an hour before the wedding began, but even so, the president seems to have felt guilty for putting the couple’s special day in jeopardy of being overrun by a bunch of politically-charged ralliers. When Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs returned to their hotel after the celebration, they found not only a beautiful silver dish and mint julep cup bearing the presidential seal, but a handwritten note from the commander in chief himself.

In case you can’t read the note in the photo, it says, “Congratulations on the wedding! Michelle and I wish you a great life together.” We guess if someone is going to crash your wedding, it might as well be the leader of the free world. Especially if he comes bearing gifts.

Take a look at the video courtesy of ABC News. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Meredith Xcelerated Marketing (MXM) has named Steve Kerho senior vice president/chief strategy officer. Kerho most recently served as senior vice president of strategy, media and analytics at Organic, inc. Also at MXM, Doug Rozen has been named senior vice president/general manager of MXM’s mobile unit, The Hyperfactory. Rozen most recently served as senior vice president, global lead at Aimia Inc. Kerho will be based in Los Angeles, Rozen in New York. (FishbowlNY)

Nathaniel Brown has been named vice president of corporate affairs and communications at News Corp. Brown most recently worked as MTV’s senior vice president of corporate communications and had been with the network since 2010. Prior to his time at MTV, Brown held the same position at XM Satellite Radio from 2005 to 2008. (FishbowlNY)

Marc Grabowski has been named COO at Nanigans. He had been VP of media sales for North America at Yahoo!. At Nanigans, Grabowski will lead the sales, marketing, business development, and operations teams. Highlights of his tenure at Yahoo include driving its acquisition of Interclick and leading Genome sales, mid-market sales, and reseller relationships. (AllFacebook)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

ABC News will launch a nine-week hour-long program called Good Afternoon America, an extension of GMA, starting July 9. Josh Elliott and Lara Spencer will host with special appearance by other GMA newscasters. The show will air at 2 p.m. ET.

And NBC News anchor and TODAY show weekend anchor Amy Robach has moved toABC News.

The magazine cover takes on renewed significance. [via AdWeek]

Katie Couric at the University of Virginia commencement: ““Some said I lacked ‘gravitas,’ which I’ve since decided is Latin for ‘testicles.’” [via TVNewser]

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Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg announced this morning that the social network will now have a feature allowing users in the U.S. and U.K. to spread the word to friends that they are registered organ donors. And if they’re not, there are links that will take visitors to sites where they can enroll.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Comic book author Alonzo Washington is on "TheGrio 100" list.

At an event yesterday, The Huffington Post and AOL introduced The Huffington Post Streaming Network (HPSN), a live network that will broadcast 12 hours per day starting this summer. HuffPo founding editor Roy Sekoff will run the network which he says will be a mix of CNN, The View, and YouTube.

The New York Times has launched “Business Day Live,” a live video show that will focus on the top business headlines of the day. It will air each weekday and appear on the outlet’s homepage.

The Wall Street Journal has also launched a new program, “Off Duty,” a lifestyle show based on WSJ Weekend that will air each weekday at 6 p.m. ET on the outlet’s YouTube channel. It will be hosted by reporter Wendy Bounds. This adds to the list of shows that the WSJ already has, including “Lunch Break” and “Mean Street.”

A former Harper’s Bazaar intern is suing Hearst for unpaid minimum wages. According to the lawsuit, accessories intern Xuedan Wang worked unpaid between 40 and 55 hours per week between August and December of last year. The plaintiff and her lawyers hope to build a class-action lawsuit. [via Reuters]

Bloomberg head Lex Fenwick has been named CEO of Dow Jones & Co. He replaces Les Hinton, who left the post in July. Fenwick joined Bloomberg in 1987 and was tapped to head up Bloomberg Ventures in 2007. [via WSJ]

TheGrio.com has revealed “TheGrio 100,” its list of “history makers and industry leaders” making waves in the U.S. today. Among those on the list are the mayor of Jacksonville, FL, Alvin Brown, Google’s Torrence Boone, and marine biologist Daniell Washington.

Clickthrough for more of the week’s media changes.

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NY Times' Jill Abramson

Le Huffington Post made its debut on Monday in France with Anne Sinclair as editorial director. Sinclair, a former TV anchor, is the wife of infamous former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, aka DSK. At the press conference Sinclair reassured the audience that there would be no conflicts of interest between her new role and her private life. (via New York Times)

ABC News‘ partnership with Yahoo! has spawned two new Web shows about politics that launched this week. The shows are extensions of long-running blogs from George Stephanopoulos and Jake Tapper. George’s Bottom Line debuted on Monday and Political Punch with Jake Tapper appeared on Tuesday. (via TVNewser)

NBC News established a new eBook imprint called NBC Publishing. The unit will release enhanced eBooks with videos inside, and the launch follows the media company’s success in the eBook business. (via GalleyCat)

Jill Abramson, executive editor at The New York Times, will make her grand entrance at the Davos World Economic Forum this week. She will be joined by NYT publisher Arthur Sulzberger, who is hosting a dinner on Abramson’s behalf. She will also lead a panel of women leaders in a discussion. (via Capital New York)

Newt Gingrich is continuing his attacks on the media. Last week Gingrich critiqued CNN for questioning him about his second marriage at the start of the South Carolina debate. After the Florida debate this week Gingrich complained that NBC did not allow the audience to clap, saying “Media doesn’t control free speech.” (via FishbowlDC)

Diane Sawyer was criticized by James Spann, chief meteorologist at Birmingham ABC-affiliate WBMA, for her report on the Alabama tornadoes on Monday evening’s World News. Spann took issue with Sawyer’s claim that there was no tornado warning, saying “This event was forecast days in advance.” (via TV Spy)

Click through for more media changes.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

ABC News president Ben Sherwood said in a statement that, in 2012, there will be other promos in addition to the one above and called attention to coverage of the campaign in Variety today.

Compare that, for instance, to the MSNBC “Lean Forward” campaign that launched in October. Besides the ad that we posted at that time, other MSNBC ads, like the one after the jump starring Rev. Al Sharpton, who relates a childhood memory of eating blueberry pie to the Republicans, take much more creative license when explaining what the network has to offer.

Which campaign do you think works better?

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

USA Today‘s editor John Hillkirk has stepped down to be senior editor of the paper’s investigative projects. And Rudd Davis, who joined the company last year as VP of business development, has been named president of the paper’s travel media division. [via Businessweek]

Muck Rack, which covers news from Twitter, has relaunched with the addition of Muck Rack Pro. Free for reporters and available by subscription for publicists, the service helps to organize and manage media lists, complete with social media info from networks like Google+ and Facebook.

The revamp of CBS’ The Early Show continues (sort of) with the announcement of a new name. Starting January 9, the program will be called CBS This Morning, which is what the show was called from 1987 to 1999. Were the ratings better with that name?

Crazy Don Imus took to his microphone to talk smack about the Fox News PR team. They took it in stride. [via TVNewser]

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ABC News

It’s been noted already across the media that Yahoo! and ABC News partnered more than a decade ago, but the partnership was dubbed “brand new” during the announcement this morning. Yahoo News has more unique visitors than any other website, The New York Times says.

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The Guardian is here. There’s a new website, Nick Davies is joining from the U.K., and Ana Marie Cox is on board from the U.S.

Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, supports the launch of another Sunday U.K. paper to replace the now-defunct News of the World. However, readers shouldn’t expect Sun on Sunday until 2012 and Mail on Sunday has not gotten past the planning stages just yet. [via The Guardian]

Speaking of News Corp., James Murdoch will be recalled to testify before a parliamentary panel after discrepancies were found between his previous testimony and new evidence in the phone hacking scandal. And shareholders have filed an amended lawsuit against the company claiming it knew about “widespread misconduct.” Yikes and double yikes.

New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton is now the national editor for the paper.

Abigail Pesta, Marie Claire editor-at-large, has joined Newsweek and The Daily Beast as editorial director for Women in the World, which has an annual summit and foundation. The group will be adding editorial content across The Daily Beast website. [via The Observer]

For more of the latest media moves click through.

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