1. Before we get into a meaningful conversation about CornerBarPR.com®, let's talk about you. How long have you been in the PR Business, and how did you arrive?

I was going to be a farmer, but that did not work out for various reasons. I became an economic analyst. I've worked on a market and news magazine, done time as a wire service senior editor. In 1982, I started Barger Consulting, which was your typical PR consulting. That has since evolved into Strategic Communications and Value+Editing, which helps to improve copy, but more important, helps to improve the thinking behind the copy.

2. Tell us about CornerBarPR – how it began and what it does.

It got started back in 2001. Brenda Clevenger, my partner, and I were colleagues. Brenda had been publishing FinderBinders of listings of media contact information, printed on paper and mailed out periodically. She figured that this was something she should be able to do online. One day over breakfast we decided to work together on the project.

Brenda and I were both members of IABC and PRSA, and have a lot of those conferences under our belts. At the end of the day at a conference, everyone goes to the corner bar to talk about the conference as well as complain about the idiots back at the office. Thus, the concept of CornerBarPR was born. We wanted to have a site with attitude that would be like those after-the-conference meetings.

The website is a sassy, attitude-filled destination for people to come back to time and time again. There's the content for everybody – the articles. And there are two products. Contacts on Tap are U.S. media contacts – we have 86,000 media contacts. Journalist names, contact information and contact preference. The other product, through our affiliation with Eworldwire, is our distribution services of electronic media releases.

3. I love what it says on the About the Bar page – "We are the sole providers of refuge for the overworked, underappreciated risk-takers who produce miracles daily, regardless of budget, deadline, or outrageous client demands." How do the services CornerBarPR provides help the overworked risk-takers?

We're priced so that the little or the independent practitioner can take advantage of our services. And really, our primary customer is the small practitioner, the independent, the small PR department, the not-for-profit. Typically, the small practitioner uses media lists accumulated over time, or uses a print book, or goes to the library to do research because he or she cannot afford the cost of the more expensive media services that the big agencies can afford. We give a 15 day free trial and offer a not-for-profit discount as well as lots of other neat discounts for our customers.

4. CornerBarPR.com – and Workinpr.com – are taking advantage of the still relatively new world of web commerce, a huge change in the way we do business. What do you see for the PR world ten years from now?

You’ll never stop intellectual development – everyone’s trying to keep up, and it’s increasingly difficult to do so. I have a friend who is devoted to podcasts. For me, the form is too slow. I think there will be a wide divergence in delivery mechanisms and how people get information. There will be more personalization in the methods of getting information. There will an unbelievable depth and richness, and we will be able to do things in so many different ways. In five years, the new "social media release" will look quaint to us. Cellphones will be little computers. In five years –, voice command and interaction will be ubiquitous. I predict an avalanche of technology.

5. What will stay the same?

Bad Practices. We’ve allowed it to develop that anyone can say they’re a PR person whether or not they have the skills or experience. I don’t think that will change.

Ethics. The ethical component is crucial to the success of the PR profession, and that will not change.

Good Practices. Good Practice will continue to be good practice – public relations work that is objective, measurable, evaluated for success or lack thereof, and directly supports the client organization.