NMK, a not-for-profit organisation that provides information and training for the digital media sector, is currently looking for three new people to join its team. NMK does an excellent job of tapping into digital media expertise and disseminating it through seminars, workshops and conferences, as well as through its website. I’ve certainly found the courses and events I’ve attended to be very useful, and good value too.

The vacancies are for a Community Manager, a PR and Product Manager and a Web Editor. The current editor of the NMK website, Deirdre Molloy, will be taking up the reins as editor of Chinwag and it looks like she”ll be continuing to blog over at Innovation Eye.

Launch event dates for BBC Innovation Labs 2006/07 have recently been announced, with events taking place in each of the four regions that the programme will cover: Scotland, North England, London and South England.

Through Innovation Labs, the BBC invites independent new media companies to pitch ideas in response to a brief set by BBC New Media commissioners. The brief hasn’t yet been announced, but when it is you’ll be able to see it here. Up to 10 projects in each region will be selected to attend a five-day Innovation Lab, where the teams work alongside the BBC and other mentors to develop their ideas. The Lab culminates in each team pitching their final proposal to the BBC commissioners to try to secure funding for further development.

The list of winners from the pilot phase includes some very interesting projects, so it’s well worth keeping an eye on developments in this new round of Labs.

Business Blog Consulting has some good tips on how PR professionals should approach pitching story ideas to bloggers. I’ve heard people argue that pitching to bloggers is completely different to pitching to journalists, but the key to successful pitches to both audiences is in two of the tips featured: relevance and personalisation.

To make a good pitch to a journalist you need to know and understand the media outlet, be sure that the story is of relevance to the journalist’s areas of interest, and reflect this in your pitch. The same goes for bloggers – you need to be familiar with the blog, be sure that what you’re proposing to send to the blogger will be of interest, and engage with them on an individual level.

One way that any reader can build a relationship with a blogger is through leaving comments on posts. For PR professionals, whether or not it’s appropriate to do this will depend on whether it fits with the overall strategy being followed, but if you do take this route it’s essential to be transparent about who you are.

Head over to the Business Blog Consulting article for more practical advice.