Steve Rubel

Steve Rubel is a public relations executive and professional blogger. While with the firm CooperKatz & Co., he advised clients on using blogs in their business strategy and started his own blog, Micro Persuasion, in 2004. The focus of his blog is the effect of blogging on the public relations industry.

Rubel moved to the Edelman public relations firm in February 2006, to help it use blogs more effectively. The firm later came under criticism when one of its clients, Wal-Mart, helped pay for a couple to blog their cross-country RV trip on which they parked at local Wal-Marts. The blog, "Wal-Marting Across America", was quite favorable towards Wal-Mart, but the extent of the financial support was not fully disclosed (any RV can park overnight for free at Wal-Mart, but the company also paid for renting the couple's RV, along with gas and other fees). As the firm's blogging expert, Rubel was a focus of some of the criticism, but he said he was not personally involved in the project.

After starting at Edelman, he later became their chief content strategist, where he was responsible for creating and cultivating best practices in content strategy from inside and outside the firm and for piloting new and innovative programs such as media partnerships that blend paid, earned and owned disciplines.

He is currently the chief media ecologist at Edelman and is responsible for studying the changing media ecosystem and helping clients forecast the impact on their communications and marketing strategies. He serves as an advisor to Edelman's senior management and our full client roster and work on thought leadership marketing initiatives.