Christopher Trela, OC Editor, PR Pro and Press Club Prez, Lauded for Savvy Press Release Use

F O R   I M M E D I A T E  R E L E A S E


From the desk of Christopher Trela
Newport Beach Independent editor

NEWPORT BEACH (March 12, 2013) – Newport Beach Independent Editor Christopher Trela's strict adherence to Public Relations Society of America guidelines was highlighted by a website widely read by media and public relations professionals in the greater Los Angeles area, Trela announced today.
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Media Bistro's FishbowlLA (www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla) coverage also reported that Trela received a unanimous 8-0 vote of confidence in his leadership as president of the Orange County Press Club by the Orange County Press Club Board of Directors, which is composed of media, academic and public relations professionals. There was one abstention.

Trela's “very careful” handling of “all such editorial matters” is likely what won him the board's ringing endorsement, which was cast after he had left the room so as not to influence the vote, reports FishbowlLA.

A special emergency board meeting had been called regarding Trela's savvy, word-for-word rewriting of press releases under his own byline on his news site. As FishbowlLA's Richard Horgan reports, that is not plagiarism according to a
Poynter Institute article by the president and CEO of the Public
Relations Society of America that Trela remembers reading. Trela is a member of that august group of journalism watchdogs
.

“After lengthy discussion, the Board of Directors of the Orange County Press Club acknowledged . . . president Chris Trela's . . . highest journalistic standards,” states part of a board statement carried by FishbowlLA.

It was Trela's deft handling of online postings based on press releases about shots being fired in the Fashion Island parking lot, a doctor's murder in a Newport Center medical office and Newport Harbor's annual Christmas boat parade that spurred the press club board's unprecedented attention and endorsement.

Trela, who has handed the reins of his ArtsPR firm to a colleague while he serves as the Newport Beach Indy editor, has proposed enacting some “Best Practices” to help others balance duties as simultaneous journalists/PR professionals like him.

You can click here for Trela's full triumph via FishbowlLA, although, honestly, the high points have already been covered in this press release so why even bother?

ABOUT CHRISTOPHER TRELA
Christopher Trela is a longtime, Orange County, California-based contributor to such publications as OC Metro, Coast magazine, Westways and the Daily Pilot. At the same time over the years, he was a public relations specialist with Pacific Symphony, the Orange County Fair and the Newport Beach Arts Commission, later founding his own ArtsPR firm. He joined the Orange County Press Club board in 2008 and was voted club president in 2010. In November 2012, Trela succeeded Roger Bloom as editor of the Newport Beach Independent after the publication's founding editorial chief took a new position with the Orange County Register. The “Public Relations Renaissance Man” is also an adjunct faculty member with the
Lawrence and Kristina Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University in Orange, California, where his online bio includes this quote from him: “It's great having the perspective of a journalist when you're doing PR because you know what journalists are looking for in a story.”

ABOUT THE ORANGE COUNTY PRESS CLUB
On and off life support since its founding in 1837, the Orange County Press Club is once again stronger than ever as it “exists to support, promote and defend quality journalism in Southern California.”

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