Recently, WHAS-11 News featured Dr. Whitney Jones, founder of the Colon Cancer Prevention Project, in a special report.

In 2008, the Kentucky legislature passed a law that would pay for colonoscopies for Kentuckians without health insurance. But without funding, Kentucky may miss out on the opportunity to provide preventative screening for the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. The Colon Cancer Prevention Project, based in Louisville, aims to eliminate preventable colon cancer deaths and suffering by increasing screening rates through education, advocacy and health systems improvement in Kentucky and surrounding communities.

Check out the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j9iVsO_Rno

-Charissa Acree

For years Facebook was the domain of college students. As the first wave of this new Web 2.0 generation began to permeate the workforce they talked late-20/early-30 somethings like me into joining as well. Before long Facebook and Twitter became common language just like that little search engine did a few years back…Google, I think it was.

But what’s this…the Federal Government is now getting onboard? According to a recent blog from WIRED Magazine our friends in Washington are fully embracing social media as a means of reaching the masses.

Government Agencies Make Friends With New Media

Web 2.0, meet dot-gov. Dot-gov, this is Web 2.0. Or at least that’s the plan, now that the General Services Administration inked landmark agreements with several new media companies that clear up legal issues surrounding liability and government sunshine rules — thus easing their use by government agencies’ websites.

This announcement marks a big step for agencies that are trying to become more transparent and connect with citizens, but find themselves saddled with antiquated websites. Now that the bureaucratic brush has been cleared, government agencies will be free, for example, to embed videos and create photo widgets that citizens can embed into their MySpace or Facebook pages

More…http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/03/government-agen.html.

-Steve Bryant

Last updated March 16, 2009 10:33 a.m. PT

By DAN RICHMAN AND ANDREA JAMES
P-I REPORTERS

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will roll off the presses for the last time Tuesday, ending a 146-year run.

The Hearst Corp. announced Monday that it would stop publishing the newspaper, Seattle’s oldest business, and cease delivery to more than 117,600 weekday readers.

The company, however, said it will maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation’s largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product.

“Tonight we’ll be putting the paper to bed for the last time,” Editor and Publisher Roger Oglesby told a silent newsroom Monday morning. “But the bloodline will live on.”

In a news release, Hearst CEO Frank Bennack Jr. said, “Our goal now is to turn seattlepi.com into the leading news and information portal in the region.”

Steven Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers, said in the release the Web site “isn’t a newspaper online — it’s an effort to craft a new type of digital business with a robust, community news and information Web site at its core.”

He continued: “The Web is first and foremost a community platform, so we’ll be featuring new columns from prominent Seattle residents; more than 150 reader blogs, community databases and photo galleries. We’ll also be linking to the great work of other Web sites and blogs in the community.”

On Jan. 9, New York-based Hearst put the Seattle P-I up for sale and said that the paper would stop printing if a buyer were not found within 60 days.

Despite community concern, no buyer emerged. The P-I lost $14 million last year.

The P-I closure leaves Seattle with one daily newspaper — rival and business partner The Seattle Times. Demand for news has not fallen but the revenue model has changed faster than American newspapers can keep up. Thus, falling advertising revenue and the migration of readers to online has rocked newspapers large and small. The Rocky Mountain News in Denver closed in February. The Seattle P-I is the second newspaper to shut down in 2009.

Other major newspaper companies are reducing staff, eliminating bureaus and freezing pay in an attempt to get expenses in line with falling revenue.

http://www.seattlepi.com/business/403793_piclosure17.html

-Gary Gerdemann

Today’s Louisville Courier-Journal contains a great letter from Dr. Whitney Jones of the Colon Cancer Prevention Project.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009903160323

Dr. Jones is Chairman of the Colon Cancer Prevention Project, which is seeking help obtaining a grant that will fund more colon cancer screenings in Kentucky. Few cancers are as easily preventable as colon cancer. Colon cancer kills more people each year than AIDS and breast cancer combined, and is the number two cancer killer in Kentucky.

Removing precancerous lesions (polyps) from the colon prevents the development of colon cancer. Even if colon cancer has already developed, finding it and treating it before symptoms arise results in a greater than 90% treatment success.

Find out more at: www.coloncancerpreventionproject.org.

-Scott Jennings

Louisville PR firms make national list

Business First of Louisville

Three Louisville-based public relations firms are among the top 157 public relations firms in America ranked by net fees collected in 2008.

The list was compiled by O’Dwyer’s Public Relations News, a New York City-based public relations industry trade publication.

New West LLC was No. 97 on the list, with $2.8 million in net fees collected. That was down 34 percent from 2007, according to the list.

According to Business First research, New West is the Louisville area’s largest public relations firm ranked by 2007 net fee income.

New West employs 23 people.

One spot behind New West was Peritus Public Relations LLC, which had $2.7 million in net fees collected, up 41 percent from 2007, according to the O’Dwyer’s list.

According to Business First research, the 15-employee firm is the Louisville area’s second largest public relations firm ranked by 2007 net fee income.

Guthrie/Mayes Public Relations ranked No. 138 on the list, with $1.2 million in fees collected, down 12.7 percent from 2007, according to the O’Dwyer’s list.

According to Business First research, the 12-employee firm is the Louisville area’s third-largest public relations firm ranked by 2007 net fee income.

The top firm on the list, New York City-based Edelman, had collected $449.2 million in fees in 2008, up 13.1 percent from 2007. Edelman has 2,997 employees.

The full list can be viewed at www.odwyerpr.com/pr_firm_rankings/independents.htm.

The article can also be found at http://tinyurl.com/d38xwq.

Nearly a third of Americans wouldn’t miss their local newspaper if it stopped publishing. This is not encouraging news for an industry under pressure from the economy and alternative information sources. As a former newspaperman, I start each day with at least two newspapers and browse content online from up to six others in a normal workday. The lessons I learned working the late shift on the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal have stuck with me across the decades. While newspapers need to adapt to changing times, we will all be worse off without them.

See the full study here at http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1147/newspapers-struggle-public-not-concerned.

-Gary Gerdemann

In just three short years, Peritus has grown to be one of the Top 100 PR firms in the nation. The firm recorded a 40 percent growth rate during 2008, jumping from 135 to 98 on the 2008 O’Dwyer’s Ranking of PR Firms in one year. The full list can be viewed here.

We are honored to be recognized as one of the nation’s top firms and owe our success to our wonderful clients that have made this happen. It is our privilege to serve you and we look forward to helping you continue to grow.

Since we’re on the topic of “manly” places to live - when you get to Louisville, you can check out one of the most “manly” things to do. The Travel Channel just premiered the new show “21 Manly Man Adventures” and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail came in at #12.

12. Kentucky Bourbon Trail
Kentucky produces 95 percent of the world’s bourbon, which happens to be America’s only native spirit. Sign up for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and, sure, you’ll learn about the history of the drink and the process by which it’s made — but, most importantly, you’ll taste a whole lotta bourbon.

Make sure to check out the show which features a flight of Bourbon at Proof on Main (inside 21c Museum Hotel) as a great way to cap off a day touring the distilleries.

http://tinyurl.com/d3qj7e

-Danielle Rudy

Try Nashville, Tennessee, which tops the list of “manly” locales in the United States. Indianapolis isn’t far behind at #9, while Louisville falls further down the list…

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090309/MOMS/90309009

-Scott Jennings