This Thursday, socialTNT presents our first of two chats with John Markoff, Senior Writer covering Tech in Silicon Valley for the New York Times. In todays “3 Q’s in 3 Min” John tells us specifics about his beat, key differences between NYT and WSJ, and ponders the future of social media.

If you like tech and read the New York Times, there’s a 99.9999% chance you’ve read John’s column; he’s been with the Times since 1988. His resume includes The San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Examiner and two seminal tech magazines: Byte and Infoworld. Broadly speaking, if you have a Hardware or Security client, John’s probably on you list–but don’t pigeon hole him, he writes about what he likes. For a tech geek like myself, the thought of meeting Markoff was a little intimidating.

That anxiety was even more amplified when I realized that getting into the San Francisco Bureau of the New York Times is pretty much like entering Fort Knox; I reckon there is more security getting through to the NYT than there is trying to get into the US Secret Service’s office on the same block. First off, it’s in a nondescript building with a Starbuck’s in the lobby (Yeah…THAT one!). After sneaking past a guard, entering a top secret code on a touch-pad and going through TWO sets of double doors, I really expected to be escorted to John by security guards. Instead, I was greeted by the man himself, who cordially welcomed me into the offices of one of the world’s top daily publications.

Let me state this for the record: John Markoff was one of the most pleasant reporters I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Talking to him before taping reminded me of my favorite college professor: approachable and full of wisdom. I guess that’s why our warm-up interview stretched into a full hour!

For me, it was crazy to hear about the rough-and-tumble days in Silicon Valley, you know: back when Infoworld wasn’t sure if there was enough news to validate weekly coverage. Over the span of his carrier, John has encountered many a chance to analyze the changing ways we communicate, so discussing social media came naturally. He’s currently really into IM and Google Reader, but feels Twitter is just too much.

Fun Facts about John:

• He lives 5 blocks from me on the edge of San Francisco’s beautiful Noe Valley
• Has two Mac’s (one is a black Macbook!) and a PC running Vista
• Is on Facebook and LinkedIn
• Felt Twitter was information overload
• Occasionally writes on Bits, the NYT’s tech blog.
• Moonlighting as an author, Markoff has written several books including one about the take-down of infamous hacker Kevin Mitnick (for the complete details of THAT truly outlaw era in computer history, see this wikipedia article), and another book attributing the 60′s counterculture to the rise of personal computing

Compare this interview with John from 2003 about online media and blogging with the answers he gives in today’s video, and you’ll know that with Tech anyone’s guess can be a winner.

Where do YOU see the future of tech going?

Join us next week for part two where John walks us through the history of PR pitching and gives a few tips to those looking to get into the pages of the New York Times.

[Due to technical difficulties with YouTube, I was unable to post this piece with video until late (pay back for yesterday's post on future of online video?). Sorry guys.]

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Once again, it’s time for our regular Thursday feature, “3Q’s in 3 Min.” In the spirit of citizen journalism, SocialTNT puts bloggers, reporters, PR pro’s or anyone with something to say about social media in front of the camera for a short, three minute interview. In addition to helping PR peeps pitch these individuals more effectively, the videos are meant to encourage dialog between reporters and PR practitioners on the future of media .

This week, Silicon Valley Watcher‘s Tom Foremski discusses the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, the changing media landscape, and the state of PR in the new ecosystem. For those two of you not familiar with Tom, he was the first (on record) to call for the end of the traditional press release.

More about Tom and the video after the jump…

Tom’s blog post from February 27, 2006, entitled “Die Press Release! Die! Die! Die!” called for a deconstructed press release to include these elements:

• a brief description of the key elements of the story
• quotes from CEO, C-Level spokespeople, customers, and analysts
• financial data
• links to other news stories or references

His sentiments were echoed through the community, inspiring Todd Defren to post a template for a Social Media News Release (SMNR) on May 23, 2006. (Rest of the history of the SMNR can be found here.)

Tom moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1984 and founded the international news agency, West Coast News. Fifteen years later, in 1999, Tom joined the Financial Times as a US Technology Correspondent and Columnist. In 2004, Tom jumped the print ship to try his hand at blogging full time. According to compete.com, Tom’s Silicon Valley Watcher received roughly 18,000 unique visitors in the month of August. Besides calling for the death of the press release, Tom is also notorious for uncovering the real life identity of LonelyGirl15′s Jessica Rose.

I had the opportunity to meet with Tom in his San Francisco flat earlier this week. Before the on-camera interview, we sat in Tom’s living room and chatted a little about recent industry news. A book case full of art books lines one wall, its shelves populated by miniature robots ranging from the 1950′s to a recent purchase from Kid Robot. On the top shelf sits a pair of vintage dioramas with scenes from the comic book Superman and some Doctor Who figurines. Children’s art and family pictures are scattered throughout the room, but my eye is drawn to a brightly colored poster hanging above the bookcase promoting The Haight-Ashbury Street Festival. Tom says he knows the artist personally–not surprising since he once published the neighborhood newspaper for the famous SF neighborhood.

Fun Facts About Tom:

• He has a pet bearded dragon
• He’s on Facebook and LinkedIn
• He has two children

After our warm-up chat, we go outside to Tom’s backyard patio for the shoot. Please forgive the shakiness of the camera. I promise to have a tri-pod soon. At SocialTNT, we like to go above expectations; instead of three questions, this week’s video features a whopping FOUR questions! The fourth question is the meatiest!

Check it out:

Do you agree with Tom? Is PR really in a state where change is an added bonus, not a necessity? Will PR ever be forced to evolve? If so, when?

Please feel free to comment on these questions or anything else Tom touched on in the remarks below.

Once again, thank you Tom for taking the time to share your insight with the SocialTNT audience!

Tomorrow, we continue with Part 2 of yesterday’s post,”It’s a Conversation, Stupid!”

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