Strumpette managing editor Amanda Chapel resigns role as PR industry watchdog

I've been a huge fan of Strumpette "a naked journal of the PR business" and Amanda Chapel, the nom de plume of Strumpette’s managing editor, since the site's beginnings. Strumpette is a site that dares to challenge the status quo, that isn’t scared to tell it like it is, and that takes on the vested interests in the PR business. In doing so, Amanda shows what’s wrong with much of PR as it is practiced today.

Amanda is a terrific writer. Some of her posts are so sharply written that I needed a band-aid after reading. Each post made me think. As I told Amanda, her writing influenced my book The New Rules of Marketing & PR and I was honored to recognize her in the acknowledgments.

In Amanda's retirement announcement, she says: “BUT now I am tired; and now regrettably, I seem to spend all my time revisiting the same battles previously won. I spend all my time trying to keep the Web's rising tide of small literal minds at bay. As you can imagine, it's overwhelmingly tedious and exhausting. All while the largest association of our profession is spending BIG MONEY on a veritable reenactment of 'The Masque of the Red Death'!"

I've traded emails with Amanda's handlers several times and have enjoyed the one-on-ones too. I do hope that Strumpette itself will live on and I look forward to hearing what’s next for those who worked Amanda's magic.