I would have brought you some interesting LinkShare news yesterday, but I didn’t hear about it until today. I had to call LinkShare’s PR firm to get the information. You’d think that when a company wants press coverage it might send a press release to the editorial department of a media organization – not to the sales director. You’d think.

I’m not trying to single out LinkShare as the only company that makes minor media missteps. They are just top of mind since this incident occurred this week and we’ve been attempting to correct the situation for more than a year.

Of course, I do my own homework to get information as I’ve learned not to rely on the companies themselves or their PR firms. I have Google Alerts set for a variety of companies and topics. I check the wires daily for news releases. I read other blogs and lots of news coverage. But sometimes things slip through the cracks and that’s why these companies should be more vigilant about contacting media outlets if they want to spread the word.

I’m totally perplexed that so many businesses in the online marketing space have absolutely no idea how to deal with the media. And I’m not just talking about working with Revenue magazine. I have a huge network of journalist friends and former colleagues at nearly every major media outlet around the U.S. They tell me the same thing - over and over and over again. These folks that make their living doing online marketing, don’t have a clue about marketing as it pertains to marketing their own businesses, products and services to the media.

Most of these online marketers believe that media outlets all operate on a pay-for-play basis. I suspect this attitude is prevalent because the online marketing space is one of partnerships, deals, reciprocal links, revenue sharing and commissions. It’s also part of a larger Internet space where anyone can write a blog, have a website and publish content. Coming from this vantage point these marketers seem to conclude that professional media operates the same way. That is not true.

I can understand that mind set from smaller Internet marketers since many grew out of one-person work at home businesses. I expect them to be slightly less savvy when dealing with the media. But mostly, it’s the bigger merchants, the networks and other larger organizations that I expect to have given more thought to their press relations and overall media strategy. I guess that’s why I’m even more disappointed when they fall horribly short. And most inevitably do.

So, in an effort to share my more than 20 years of knowledge about working with media (I’ve work at a variety of media outlet including daily newspapers, weekly trade publications, online news sites, monthly magazines, a television station, radio stations, and now here at Revenue) I recently submitted a proposal to Affiliate Summit 2008 in Las Vegas. The proposed panel would include several experienced media professionals (including myself) offering proven strategies for successfully working with the press. I think it would be very useful and in my opinion is very much needed.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that proposed session makes the cut (the Affiliate Summit advisory board is a tough crowd) and that our session will have a chance to educate online marketers attending Affiliate Summit.

If not, I’ll use the space on this blog from time to time to get on my soapbox about this topic and also share some tips and tricks for leveraging the media. In the past I’ve cobbled together some do’s and don’t for dealing specifically with Revenue, but I expect future posts would look at the larger media picture.