While PR bloggers engaged in a snarky debate last week over the new Social Media Press Release (SMPR) - a new variation of the 100-year-old format with video clips, images, podcasts, links and other enhancements - Buzz was standing face-to-face with an executive editor with The Sun in Baltimore actually talking about the SMPR. In fact, the editor brought up the subject in the first place, praising it as a valuable tool that could help him do his job. Take that, you SMPR critics!

The new press release format, introduced last year by Todd Defren via The PR Squared blog, has Buzz's full support. He's been singing its praises for many months now, beginning with this initial Buzz blog posting last June on the Sawmill Marketing Public Relations Web site.

Anyway, here's what the editor - the primary end-user of an SMPR - had to say later that morning during a panel discussion sponsored by the Maryland Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America:

"If there's video available for a story, we want it," said Steve Sullivan, executive news editor/multimedia."Is there audio? We want it. We also want links to sites and links to databases that we can search."

Guess what? He's not getting it from the old-fashioned "For Immediate Release" press releases that so many PR folks like to send out. It's as simple as that. He needs more than words.

"It's also important for follow-ups," said Sullivan, whose job as multi-media editor includes spicing up the stories posted online by adding elements such as video and images. "Our Web site is organic so we are trying to keep it fresh so people have a reason to come back to see what's new."

Sullivan is familiar with the SMPR through Sawmill Marketing Public Relations, having participated on a technology panel last October where Buzz (aka Sawmill partner Jeff Davis) demonstrated the concept to a group of PR pros from the Baltimore Public Relations Council.

So yeah, the Social Media Press Release might be a bit cutting edge and too early for some, but it's catching on and getting some use. But instead of arguing with each other, the skeptics should focus on those receiving the SMPR to see what we can learn as this new concept evolves.