How USA Today Collaborated with Readers to Cover the iPhone

The launch of Apple's iPhone was certainly a momentous event. Like thousands, I thrilled in giving my local Apple Store employees high-fives as I ran through the store Friday to get my phone (I was as #38 on line). This was followed by 40 hours of agony as I tried to get it activated. Now, thankfully all is working.

This post, however, is not about the device or even the buying experience. Rather, it's about how one publication covered the launch of the iPhone by opening up the editorial process and the ramification of such practices for PR.

USA Today like everyone else was all over the iPhone, particularly as the weeks waned down to 6 p.m. June 29. In one of their stories, I spotted a small link that said: "We need your help." The link encouraged readers to respond to a Surveymonkey survey that gathered insights into interest into the phone. I filled out the questionnaire.

Within a few days I received an email from a reporter, Jim Hopkins, who was working on the next iPhone story. He asked survey respondents to watch the 20-minute iPhone video on Apple's web site and respond to a simple question - does it make you want to buy the phone more or less? Consumers aren't used to being asked these questions by journalists. He also gave us the opportunity to opt out if we wanted to.

I didn't respond but I was curious, so I remained on the email thread. In the next message he asked people who were willing to wait on line last Friday  to take photos of what they saw and e-mail them in for possible publication.

Like the BBC, USA Today has truly revolutionized how it reports stories. These changes go deeper than the publication simply turning its web site into a social network. The collaborative thinking appears to be ingrained in the culture and editorial process. And it all starts with four little words - we need your help.

For some reason the journalists have no trouble using these four little words with their readers. Sure, it took awhile, but Dan Gillmor's vision of reporters saying "my readers know more than me" often is now a reality at USA Today and elsewhere. Good for them.

I wish I could say the same for PR professionals. Very rarely do I get an email pitch that says win-win. Most are trying to ram a pitch into this blog, which I won't let happen.

Journalists are leading the way to becoming more open and collaborative with their customers. They view their readers/viewers as partners. USA Today isn't alone. Beth Comstock from NBC calls her audience viewsers.

Meanwhile, most public relations professionals haven't adapted. We need to start taking the same kind of open approach to what we do as the journalists have adopted. My CEO Richard Edelman calls this "open advocacy." Should we fail, some of PR's value will be eroded.

I am hopeful this kind of change can happen, bit I am beginning to feel the journalists are way ahead of us. That's good for them, but not for us. Time to hurry it up.