Even Rodin, the French sculptor who created iconic images like The Thinker, (left) might have a hard time getting his opinions published in some media outlets today. That is, unless the artist also possessed a writing style with a strong viewpoint that was provocative or counterintuitive with a catchy, conversational tone.

Those were some of the pointers from the editorial panelists at a recent PCNY event on pitching opinion pieces, bylined and contributed content. Other desirable criteria include articles with compelling angles that are well sourced and grounded in facts. Self-serving or promotional pieces don’t make the cut. So if a sculptor like Rodin was intent on seeing his name in print or online, he’d be well advised to write about the fine arts category, not focus exclusively on his own masterpieces.

The panelists represented a broad array of digital and print outlets with varying degrees of difficulty for outside submissions to break through. These included: CNN Digital, Bloomberg View, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, Ad Age and The Muse. Of course the industries these media brands cover aren’t targeted or limited to art. They encompass categories ranging from politics and economics to technology, marketing, media, careers and lifestyle.

Each editor painted a brief picture of their outlet and provided tips for prospective guest contributors.

CNN Digital: The Opinion section of the site “hosts a wide range of views across the spectrum of politics, religion, arts and other areas”, explained Richard Galant, senior opinion editor. They only publish one or two outside submissions per day, and they want original, exclusive hooks to ongoing news stories.

Bloomberg View: Editorial board member Frank Wilkinson described the two-year old site as “a startup within a large news organization”. He said their op-ed page only takes selected outside contributors since they now produce more opinion related content in-house. Their core focus is the intersection of economics, finance, government and cultural issues, and they look for densely researched pieces.

Business Insider: The site has evolved, according to managing editor Jessica Liebman. There are now 15 sections, like technology, finance, retail, politics, sports, lifestyle, military and defense, with plans to add energy and healthcare. Their current focus is having quality contributors and selected bloggers post about newsy or fun topics.

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This week we posted on Weber Shandwick‘s decision to publicize its new content-creation wing, Mediaco, and what that means for the future of PR. This morning we had the opportunity to speak with Steve Rubel, chief content strategist at Edelman PR, to go over how his firm is addressing this newest chapter in the ongoing “PR vs. marketing vs. advertising” debate.

How does the Weber Shandwick announcement relate to recent “creative” moves by Edelman?

There’s a lot of hype in the never-ending hunt for shiny objects in marketing, but the bigger picture here is that the economics of the industry have changed – demand side platforms (ad exchanges) have made advertising more efficient, which caused the price of CPM (cost per impression) and ads themselves to plummet. This is good for the industry but bad for publishers, because media outlets squeezed by tech developments can’t make the leap to other revenue streams like subscription, video, etc.

This has led to a greater willingness to open their platforms to branded/sponsored content, thereby empowering marketers to make good on their longtime desire tell their stories their own way on some of world’s largest websites (Ed. note: see The Washington Post). That is the big change here.

Some people say this is all old news. How do you respond to that point?

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Paid content–it’s not just for blogs anymore! The Washington Post, currently known as the sad husk of one of our nation’s most influential and respected newspapers, just launched “Brand Connect“, which its editorial team describes as “a platform that connects marketers with the Washington Post audience in a trusted environment”. In other words, paid content. Sponsored posts. Native advertising. Brand journalism. And it’s not in a special advertorial section–it’s on the paper’s home page.

We could all see this coming, of course: print ad revenue at the Post has reached record lows. Sure, we still encounter the occasional impressive Game of Thrones promo printed with ink on honest-to-God paper–but print advertising should probably consider intensive therapy at this point.

You may ask why this is news, because lots of other publications do the very same thing.

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Welcome back, dear readers! We hope everyone had a great holiday and survived the crazy season in one piece despite hectic travel schedules, extended visits with the in-laws and borderline alcoholism.

The first of the many, many stories we accumulated over the break is an interesting one: a list of 2013’s 27 “World Champions” of the global branding game, brought to us by Citi and Business Insider.

According to Citi, these 27 brands have beaten all others when it comes to creating “significant and enduring business models over the long term”–and we covered quite a few of them in 2012. Our thoughts on some of the winners after the jump:

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With the media echo chamber focusing on the same top tier tech companies, startups have a harder time getting noticed. But at least now your client’s company doesn’t have to be from Silicon Valley to gain media traction. New York’s own Silicon Alley has attracted increased attention from tech reporters, due in part to the success of startups such as foursquare and Fab.com. As Devindra Hardawar, national editor for VentureBeat, said, “Now what’s happening in New York has become fascinating.”

Hardawar appeared on a panel at a PCNY event on Tuesday that also included NYC-based editors and reporters covering the tech and startups beat from GigaOM, Mashable, Business Insider and WNYC’s New Tech City morning radio show. The event was a follow-up to a June PCNY panel centered on mobile–and this time the topic was breaking through in the complex tech and startups space.

Recent stories the panelists wrote or produced should give PR pros some hints about the angles that hook them. Ki Mae Heussner, staff writer for GigaOM, focused on content hackathons as the future of textbooks. Alyson Shontell, an SAI editor for Business Insider, wrote about the size of startup companies’ user bases and whether ten million is the new one million when it comes to users. WNYC’s New Tech City radio host Manoush Zomorodi produced a segment featuring reporters learning to code. As Zomoradi observed, “their visits to different code training venues added texture and flavor” to reflect the reporters’ experiences.

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If you, like us, reside somewhere between Barbados and Sail Rock, Maine (and even if you don’t), you’ve almost certainly spent the last two or three days following Frankenstorm/Zombie-cane/”October Surprise” Sandy, which finally started bombarding our nation’s most important coast with winds, rain and transit closings last night. While we wish all residents well and don’t want to jinx anyone, we do have to say that the storm looks a little disappointing at the moment, especially given the massive buildup (kinda like The Dark Knight Rises).

Anyway, in more important news, our nation’s top two newspapers–The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal–decided to act in the public interest by dropping their premium paywalls “until the weather emergency is over”. Goody! Casual readers may now peruse more than ten Times articles before receiving a virtual spanking.

Don’t worry if you don’t happen to like either paper, because Business Insider columnist Henry Blodget already scored the day’s best Sandy headline:

“Hurricane Storm Surge May Flood New York With Toxic Poo”

And now, for no reason, here’s a brave Washington, D.C. man jogging through the storm wearing only shoes, shorts…and a horse mask. Just because.

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Today in Yes, We Know This Video Is a Couple of Weeks Old News: We just checked out Casey Neistat’s nearly viral “Instagram I Love You” short, and we think he may be onto something (other than the fact that Rick Ross is kind of a badass).

In summary: Neistat thinks Instagram has the potential to dominate the social media scene by combining the best of Facebook and Twitter without either of those platforms’ most annoying traits (an overabundance of useless data, text without pictures, etc.).

Here’s the most important lesson we took from the short: Instagram beats Twitter and Facebook by empowering its users to tell a story instead of simply sharing random things they “like” or taking photos of their faces from every possible angle (sorry, Bieber). The fact that Instagram users are more “engaged” than Tweeters backs this theory up.

So who, besides Rick Ross, does Instagram right? And what are the keys to making the most of one’s account?

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Last week we joined a group of voices in questioning whether Breast Cancer Awareness Month and its primary sponsor, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, have lost a bit of focus in recent years.

Aside from the political squabbles that arose over the conflict between Komen and Planned Parenthood, many observers argue that what started as a movement to benefit the millions who struggle with breast cancer every year has descended into a celebration of consumerism marked by the official (and unofficial) promotion of products and services ranging from underwear to alcoholic beverages to streaming adult video (the website Pornhub.com, which features exactly the kind of content you’d expect, plans to donate one penny to Komen for every 30 views of one of its…breast-themed videos).

The question at the middle of this debate: How much of the money donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure and associated charities goes directly toward real-world cancer research–and how much of it goes back into subsidizing the PR efforts of Susan G. Komen and its many related for-profit partners and properties?

A report filed last week by Business Insider concerned one of Breast Cancer Awareness Month’s most prominent promoters: the NFL. While the article isn’t quite damning, it does provide ammunition for those who argue that the NFL and other companies involved in the “pink” campaign may not be as generous as they seem.

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L’Oreal is a beauty company—a very visual brand with a heavy female demographic. This would make them a prime candidate for brand expansion via Pinterest, right?

Maybe not. Rachel Weiss, L’Oreal’s vp of digital strategy and marketing, recently told Business Insider that she had all but stopped using the white-hot social “pinning” service and re-focused her branding efforts on Facebook because she “got bored” with Pinterest. As evidence: this L’Oreal page definitely feels a little neglected.

Interestingly, Weiss emphasizes a shift in her company’s strategy from product-centric to brand-centric. Rather than promoting specific products, she says, L’Oreal wants to ensure that its brand is there at every potential touchpoint to guide the consumer—in the retail location, in the salon, online, or on mobile.

She claims that Pinterest is not ready to help facilitate this sort of branding strategy. Essentially, she argues that Pinterest is not yet as business-friendly as Facebook and says that L’Oreal is “waiting to see what Pinterest comes out [with] as a platform for brands”. She’s not sure exactly when this will happen but thinks that the service’s managers will have to “move into brand play” in order to expand its influence.

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This may come as a shock, but the most powerful PR folks in Tinseltown don’t work for the Church of Scientology.

Today Business Insider provides us with a fascinating list of the biggest names that you’ll never see on the big screen—and it turns out that Entourage was fairly accurate! (We mean this in terms of publicists being 24-7 workaholics who are always on call, not in terms of actors being talentless douchebags who make lots of money while doing very little work and facing no consequences for their consistently bad behavior.)

The people on this list earn their often-considerable salaries by working their asses off and thinking of their clients’ interests above all else; in other words, by being consummate PR professionals who understand very well that image is everything. They may be seen as low-key deal-makers, but here’s a telling quip: “When we asked each of the 20 publicists on our list for further information, almost every single one replied: ‘Who else is on the list?’” Always on the job, indeed.

The most interesting thing about the picks, which were based on client star power, work portfolios and insiders’ nominations, may be the variety of clients handled by various publicists–success clearly demands a keen understanding of pop culture in its various guises, from high to lowbrow and all things in between.

Some takeaways:

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