Seems RIA, the little web site that could, is causing a bit of a stir in the world of Chiacgo food journalism. The backstory: I have started (more and more) to break restaurant news on RIA and on Twitter. I do this because (more and more) I find that if RIA puts out our clients' information ourselves, we can amass an audience of diners, build their trust by putting out only valid and relevant announcements, and in time actually get the whole story out about a client, not just the bits and pieces journalists feel like writing about.

Over a short period of time, we've developed a large and loyal readership that is interested in receiving the alerts we send out on behalf of our clients. They seem to appreciate hearing about news that wouldn't normally find it into print, like maybe the special private dining packages one restaurant is offering for the holidays or possibly the New Year's Eve package of a restaurant that isn't "hot" enough to make it into print but is still a good, tasty restaurant.

Our readers get fun roundups about our clients, like this one about maple syrup and this one which we collected after the first big snowstorm of the year.  There's no bias in which of our clients gets included in the round-ups, anyone who answers the question is added to the list, offered up in alphabetical order. 

But is it just our clients on that list? Yes, but our service is offered at an artificially low price in order to allow restaurants who wouldn't normally have any access to PR to get some attention. Truthfully, I'd like the cost of our service to be even lower; we've even tried some lower-priced offerings in the past, but I just couldn't pay the bills and deliver what was needed at the lower price.  We'll get there.

That we have developed this ever-growing audience that wants to receive all the news a restaurant can put out is, I think, good for our restaurant clients.  After all, we're in business to help them stay in business. It is certainly great for us in our role as publicists, albeit we hardly act like publicists any more, because we no longer hit brick walls with so many of the stories clients really want to get out there that the media doesn't wanna write.

But it seems problematic for some media — they are now starting to wonder aloud if it is somehow untoward or they are finding it necessary to go on record why they chose to attribute news to, gasp, a publicist. Or should I say flack, or maybe huckster.

I dunno, sometimes I feel like people assume that because I am a publicist I have the moral compass of an axe murderer — one who makes you pay up for services rendered.

The thing is, in the new economy, most savvy PR people have already understood what Chris Brogan wrote about in his book Trust Agents. Trust Agents are people who are driving the social web — the ones that can generate buzz without having to use a journalist or story to do so (Thank you, David Tamarkin, for those very accurate words). Trust Agents aren't old economy marketers — pushing, pushing, pushing — they are today's online influencers whose currency is trust, reputation, and relationships.

Which leads me to my point — that those of us who, in today's transparent world, are in PR, marketing and the like actually have to act with an incredible amount of integrity on social media. I, myself, am keenly aware of the unavoidable fact that a journalist who makes an overblown statement is simply a journalist who makes an overblown statement. A publicist who lets one slip is proving, once again, we're just a bunch of screechy poodles who should never — ever — be trusted.  EVER!

David Tamarkin's blog post sort of proves my point there, I think you'd agree.  Or maybe you don't, because there's a lot of layers to reveal.

One such odd layer is that it was later discovered that his whole arm chair philoso-phistication was outta whack because this journalist, this journalist (read down), and this journalist (sorry, her blog doesn't permalink so you'll have to search to December 16 yourself) all did the same thing I did — give a big Woot! for The Bristol. (They really are nice guys, people do right to wish them well.)

And I am curious to know what you all think that means. I, maybe having enjoyed too much bûche de nöel myself, am still not too sure.