I first began pitching newspapers to post richly visual, highly interactive news releases online a little over four years ago.

The concept made so much sense to me, and seemed to hold so much potential for building readership and revenues, that it was inconceivable to me that they wouldn't do it.

They haven't. It's been four years of pitch-in-a-ditch. A complete and utter strike-out.

Two major newspapers use our online technology to enable builders and public relations firms to submit news releases to appear in print, as paid adicles. That's all the progress I have to show for four years of effort.

At the rate at which newspapers are adapting to change I'm not going to make any more progress in another four – or fourteen – years. I'm a patient man, but I'm as likely to listen to newspapers whining for four more years as I was to go along with Nixon's Four More Years pitch. Not likely.

I'm confident that readers, writers, editors, builders, management firms, real estate professionals and audiences yet to be discovered will be delighted with what we're building at HousingNewswire. Rather than waiting for newspapers to wake up to the opportunity, we'll take advantage of it ourselves.

If you make your living communicating, you need to read and absorb the 95 Theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto. You don't have to agree with them, but you do need to read them and think about them.

Many real estate public relations people, and the writers and editors who pass on (in more ways than one) their messages, don't seem to have understood these (or any other) Cluetrain theses:

1. Markets are conversations.

3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.

4. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.

6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

16. Already, companies that speak in the language of the pitch, the dog-and-pony show, are no longer speaking to anyone.

19. Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be their last chance.

20. Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At them.

21. Companies need to lighten up and take themselves less seriously. They need to get a sense of humor.

25. Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships.

26. Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are deeply afraid of their markets.

27. By speaking in language that is distant, uninviting, arrogant, they build walls to keep markets at bay.

Most housing news releases fray the nerves of anyone who has to read a few of them.

We're posting the Cluetrain theses on the door of this blog to start a conversation about how to make those releases speak in a human voice.

Warning: I often lapse into a non-human voice. My excuse is that I'm a "recovering lawyer" and haven't fully regained my ability to speak or write English. Writing the way I do is part of the price I have to pay for 3 years of law school and 5 years of practice.

Housing news releases, whether sent by snail- or e-mail, have been non-public documents that yearn for but seldom receive public exposure.

We're about to change that, and make news releases available to everyone everywhere the instant they're sent. You can see the start of that process at HousingNewswire.com, which exists in skeletal format only today. The site will be live and interactive within a few weeks.

Housing news releases are a lecture, often a very dry and boring lecture that no one wants to hear. We'll change that too, and make a housing news release the start of a richly illustrated conversation that people look forward to. Compare this news release with the ones you're used to seeing (click on any release) for a sample of what's to come.

Housing news releases have been static documents that can't be changed once they've been sent. We'll change that too, and make it easy to update a news release in real time.

Housing news releases have been unaccountable, with no one having any real idea of how many times they've been viewed and what kind of response they generated. We'll change that too, so that anyone can see how many times a news release was viewed and how people interacted with it. Look at this news release and click View activity on the left nav bar to see what I'm talking about.

Some public relations people have a strange disregard for how the public views their product. Their clients will either demand that they change their approach, or send them to sleep with Lucca Brazzi.