Brainchild of America's Smartedge.com, the facility is being popularly knownas the journalist's `Direct-PR Connection'. But what is it exactly? A freee-mail tool for technology journalists, says Richard Santalesa, who has madethis tool happen. Santalesa is both a journalist and a technical consultant.The system works something like this. If you're a technology journalistworking on a story, you can just send across one e-mail with your queriesand the mail will reach 3,000 PR professionals. Imagine the variety ofresponses you'll get at the end of the day.

Explains Santalesa in an electronic interview: ``E-mail irrevocably changedthe way we in the press reach and communicate with PR sources and companycontacts. As an editor and journalist for over ten years, the bulk of mydays in the pre-Internet era were spent with a phone glued to my ear as Itracked down contacts, requested products and played marathon sessions ofphone tag.''

But now things are different. ``Today I reach for my keyboard first, and thephone only for specific tasks. As a result, I've built a sizable database oftechnology and computing-related PR contacts, and I'm sharing them with thejournalism community through Direct-PR.com,'' he adds.

Elaborating further on Direct-PR, Santalesa says: ``Direct-PR is a moderatedmailing list. You email your question, message or query to Direct-PR, and itcopies out to 3,000 PR professionals. To help PR people on the Direct-PRlist filter and organise the e-mails, each message includes the phrase`Direct-PR' in the subject heading.

To begin with, if you want to send your questions to Direct-PR, mail toTopPR@Direct-PR.com. Then the message is checked to verify whether it'scoming from a bonafide member of the press. Next, it's sent to the entirelist of PR professionals and internal company PR contacts. And best of all,you can use the Direct-PR as often as you like, for free.

However, the e-mail tool, that is in place right now, is not the be all andend all of everything. Enhancements are being planned already, saysSantalesa. ``Ideally I'd like to create an enhanced web form so you canspecifically target the PR people getting your messages, based oninformation they've provided. For instance, I hope to at some point serve upa ``log-in'' area for PR folks to come in and update their records withcompany information, phone numbers, preferred e-mail address, areas ofspecialty, etc.''

But is there anything at all for Indian journalists in all this, or is it anall-American product? Replies Santalesa, ``It's open to bonafide journalistsanywhere in the world, and in fact journalists from Europe and Asia havealready sent out requests through the list.'' He adds that while the bulk ofthe PR firms represented on Direct-PR.com are located in the US, the globalnature of today's tech industry means that they make a point of respondingto overseas messages, either directly, or by forwarding the message to alocal office.

And the objective behind establishing such a system is two-fold, saysSantalesa. First, helping journalists working on stories, and second, makingthe communication process between journalists and company contacts moreefficient. What is the feedback till now? ``I think we're on the rightpath,'' he says.

Talking about the people behind this novel concept, Santalesa says that asof now, ``it's just me''. Direct-PR.com is a one-man operation at thispoint, he adds. Though he has a college student assisting him on a part-timebasis.

So far so good. What is intriguing, however, is that the facility isavailable only to IT writers. Why not other streams as well? RepliesSantalesa, ``The simple answer is that since I'm a tech journalist andeditor, I started out with the area I know the best.'' But, he assures thatDirect-PR.com may certainly branch out into other categories going forward.It all depends on how successful Direct-PR.com is over the next few months.