Part III: Inside The Public Relations Web

Ronnie Lippin has handled press for Eric Clapton since the late 1970s when she headed up publicity for Slowhand’s old RSO record label. In 1986, she and her husband hung out their own PR shingle and now The Lippin Group has offices in Los Angeles, New York and London. Along with Clapton, their clients include Michael McDonald, Jeff Bridges, Brian Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Fourplay, Toni Estes, Boney James, Rick Braun and Teri Thornton. Not long ago, Ronnie, along with Lippin Group comrade Jean Sievers took on management responsibilities for Brian Wilson.

Along with handling publicity for Brian Wilson, you recently took on the responsibility of being his co-manager. Do you have an Internet strategy for Brian’s upcoming tour?

Jean Sievers (who works with me here at The Lippin Group) and I are co-managing Brian. We’re very excited about the Internet and it’s a big part of our efforts at this time. Brian’s new CD, Live At The Roxy Theatre was just recorded.

Our Internet strategy began with the reacquisition of Brian’s own name (someone else had registered it). Now that we have control of brianwilson.com, we are in the process of building the site into a fullfledged e-commerce, interactive experience. Brian’s new CD will be available on brianwilson.com before it reaches retail outlets.

Among the things we’re planning for brianwilson.com is streaming audio, scheduling chats, maintaining bulletin boards, announcing tour dates, arranging for some strategic hot links and more.

As far as the tour goes, we have some amazing plans. We’re still working on details but we are considering proposals from several organizations to link with other sites, do online promotions, stream bits of music, offer tickets, etc. The possibilities are, quite literally, endless. And all this is in addition to traditional international retail distribution (which is something we’re working on right now).

If you were to name one detail or aspect of the press agent’s role that has been changed by the emergence of the World Wide Web, what would it be?

If anything, I think that the press agent’s responsibilities have increased with the popularity of the Internet. We have always tried to be ahead of the news, setting trends and advising clients on strategy.

Now, with the Internet delivering messages (both good and bad, accurate and inaccurate) instantly and internationally, our role has become more important and there is increased pressure to get our clients’ messages out in a timely manner, sometimes more “timely” than we (or our clients) might have wished.

Closing thoughts?

Well, this was my first e-mail interview and there’s an advantage to the Web right there. I got to edit even before you did!