Perhaps what thrilled me the most about this book was its style. To me, Burns was masterful at marrying the story-telling flair of David McCullough with the newspaper history acumen of Mott, Emery and others. More so, I enjoyed learning several fun facts and exciting stories about many of the newspaper titles I see for sale at rarenewspapers.com or even hold in my own collection.

The Boston Gazette, according to Burns’ C-SPAN presentation on his book, is the most influential newspaper this country has ever known. He says the Gazette got us into the Revolutionary War, sped up the course of the war and may have even determined the outcome of the war. A good chunk of Infamous Scribblers is dedicated to supporting this thesis.

“Almost certainly the war would not have ended with an American victory in a period of seven years — from first shot to signed treaty — had not the newspapers constantly reminded the colonists of the cause they shared, thereby inspiring the valor of soldiers, and the patience and support of civilians,” Burns said.

He points out that newspapers were the only form of media at the time and served as the great unifier of our nation during a time when America “needed unity as much as we needed ammunition.”

On 18th century journalism: “As a rule, newspaper publishers of the time did not chase after interviews or hustle to the scenes of events with their juices flowing and pen fingers twitching. For the most part, they were denizens of the print shop, preferring that the news be spoken in their ears or slipped under their doors — that it be delivered to them, in other words, as spices were delivered to the grocer or bolts of clothes to the tailor.”

On reporting and publishing during the Revolutionary War: “The Revolutionary War was not an easy one to cover. For one thing, once the fighting started there was more news than ever but no more shipments of ink or type or spare parts for the presses coming into American ports. There were no more shipments of paper either, and, as for the quantities still available or smuggled into the colonies from a friend in the motherland or a trader in another European nation, there were higher priorities for it than journalism.”

Click here to read the entire blog post about the must-read book on American journalism history (includes a great video presentation by the author).

The Historic Newspapers Network launched today as an educational and social community for all those interested in the world of rare and historic newspapers – authors, historians, collectors, dealers, institutions, history buffs, educators, etc. You’re encouraged to join, contribute and collaborate.

The term rag linen, as used in the web address raglinen.ning.com, has significant meaning in newspaper history. Prior to 1870, newspapers were printed on very durable rag linen paper, which was made from the linen in clothes and ship sails. So newspapers from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars are actually in better condition than last week’s New York Times, which is probably already yellow and brittle because it was printed on wood pulp.

The durability of rag linen newspapers from the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s makes them an excellent collectible and primary source of historic research. After all, these are history’s first drafts. Follow the Historic Newspapers Network on Twitter @raglinen

Tanner Woodford, a visual communication design student at Arizona State University, chronicled every brand, logo, identity and symbol that he interacted with throughout the day to develop his brand clock, titled Interaction. I bought a poster copy to hang in my office and emailed him with a question: “Why are some logos faded/washed out while others are bold/brilliant? Was that to reflect a different interaction or observation with that brand?”

His response: “You’re actually the first person to ask me about that. You are correct. The fully bright logos are the ones I interacted with directly. The faded logos are the ones I observed, but did not directly interact with. For example, a bright logo would be my shirt, hat, personal computer, etc. A faded logo would be my friend’s water bottle, an identity on a billboard I’m passing, etc.”

It’s pretty clear that Tanner used a Moleskine for keeping track of the brands.

Please read Charlie Moran’s detailed Ad Age blog post about the Power 150 upgrade and feel free to comment. Because we crave your feedback, anyone who comments on this blog post, Charlie’s post, our Facebook group or sends me a related comment via Twitter @toddand before Sunday at noon (Chicago time) will be entered in a raffle to win Power 150 prizes (t-shirts and pens). I’ll update this post with the winners then.

Most of your questions about why PostRank was added and it’s impact on the list can likely be addressed by reading Charlie’s explanation.  Questions about the new metric will probably best be answered by PostRank’s “How It Works” page, but I’ve highlighted a graphic below from the PostRank website that lists several examples of engagement data sources that are included in PostRank.  Bottom line, we’re hoping this new metric helps keep the Power 150 relevant and useful.  More new features are in the works so stay tuned.

UPDATE: I picked two winners for Power 150 t-shirts and pens.  The two winners are David Mullen and Jim Murphy. Thanks to all those who commented.

Link

• Sandra Guy, technology columnist, Chicago Sun-Times
• David Pelzer, vice president, industry image and relations, Dairy Management, Inc.
• Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist, Weber Shandwick

For the luncheon attendees, I compiled a list of resources that serves as a primer on how to manage corporate reputations online.  In total, there are about 40 links below that point to more than 300 resources (many of the links contain laundry lists of additional resources themselves).  Feel free to suggest additional resources in the comments.

I think Gary Vaynerchuk’s two-minute video below is the essential foreword to embracing social media and managing your reputation online.

Must-read Books

• Radically Transparent – By Andy Beal and Dr. Judy Strauss (2008)
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR – By David Meerman Scott (2008)
• Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps… – By Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross (2008)
• Meatball Sundae – By Seth Godin (2008)
• Now is Gone – By Geoff Livingston (2007)

Must-read Blog Posts

• Sure-fire Strategies to Pounce on Negative Search Engine Results (Marketing Pilgrim)
• Online Reputation Management 2.0 and Our Mobile Future (Personal Branding Blog)
• 34 Online Reputation Management Tools (Duct Tape Marketing)
• Basics of Online Reputation Management (Online Marketing Blog)
• Google Reputation Management (Marketing Pilgrim)
• Using Social Media to Help Manage Online Reputation (SearchRank)
• 180+ Resources and Tips to Help Manage Your Reputation Online (JobMob)
• A Chronology of Brands that Got Punk’d by Social Media (Web Strategy by Jeremiah)

Examples of Corporate Social Media Usage

• Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples (Being Peter Kim)
• The Big List of Big Brand Corporate Blogs (Debbie Weil)
• 35+ Examples of Corporate Social Media (Mashable)
• 17 Ways to Use Twitter for Business (Duct Tape Marketing)
• Creative Business Uses of Twitter (BusinessWeek)

Presentations and Videos

• Social Media Strategies for Corporations
• Online Reputation Management
• Social Media Relations
• How to Build an Online Reputation – Andy Beal (VIDEO)
  
• Online Reputation Management and SEO at SES (VIDEO)
• New Media Tipping Point (VIDEO – DISPLAYED ABOVE)

Online Reputation Monitoring Tools

• Moreover (FREE)
• MonitorThis (FREE)
• BlogPulse (FREE)
• Google News Alerts (FREE)
• Yahoo News RSS Feed (FREE)
• TwitterMeter (FREE)
• TweetVolume (FREE)
• BackTweets (FREE)
• Monitter (FREE)
• TweetBeep (FREE)
• Google Blog Search (FREE)
• BackType Blog Comments Monitoring (FREE)
• Trakur
• BrandsEye
• Buzzlogic
• Radian6

Again, feel free to suggest other resources in the comments.  Thanks.