Found on Gawker:
—–Original Message—–
From: Michael Becce
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2003 3:23 PM
To: tips@gawker.com
Subject: link exchange
Hello.
I am working with Tony Perkins (Founder/Editor-in-Chief of the Red Herring) on the AlwaysOn Network (AO) – www.alwayson-network.com. We wanted to explore the possibility of having a link posted on the AO site for the same on yours. Please let me know how to pursue. Thanks.
Michael Becce
President
MRB Public Relations
Red Bank, NJ – New York, NY – San Jose, CA
www.mrb-pr.com
MRB is a Founding Partner of the AlwaysOn Network – www.alwayson-network.com. MRB was named “Top 100 Tech-Savvy Small Businesses” – Small Business Computing. At MRB, we don’t just work with the press — we work for the press. MRB has prepared stories in association with 20/20, Associated Press, Business Week, CNBC, CNN, Forbes, Fortune, Newsweek, PBS Specials, Time, The Today Show, Wall Street Journal and many others.
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Dear Michael,
This is first time I’ve ever seen a blogger hire an actual PR firm to solicit links from other bloggers. I’m not saying it’s definitively a bad practice, but it seems a bit like having your mom run around the playground, asking all the other kids to be your friend. “Little Tony may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier,” she says, “and even his father and I admit he’s a pretty ugly kid, but he’s such a nice little boy! There was that one time he started a magazine that hyped a bunch of his venture capital investments, butoh, let’s not talk about that! Whaddya say? Play with him for five bucks? No? Ten?”
But I’m open-minded. So I’ll make you a deal: when Tony starts writing extensively about the Hilton sisters, Tina Brown, Lower East Side restaurants that haven’t opened yet, Harvey Weinstein, the smoking ban, Williamsburg hipsters, Andr Leon Talley, Radar, Pat Kingsley, Manhattan skyscrapers, OR Colin Farrell, I’ll link to Always-On.
Best Regards,
Elizabeth Spiers
