For our first episode, Chuck [...]]]> Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Fresh Ground Podcast. Each week, we feature 10 minutes of insights from people driving change in today's competitive business and media landscape. We talk about the evolving worlds of media, public relations, marketing and business, with a special focus on creating more social organizations.

For our first episode, Chuck Tanowitz, principal at Fresh Ground Communications, talks with Saul Hansell. Saul is one of 74 people who recently accepted buyouts from The New York Times -- and who, along with Jennifer 8. Lee, is one of the biggest names on the list. In addition to his work covering technology and telecommunications at the paper, he also started the Bits blog and was one of the more regular contributors there. In all he spent more than 17 years at the times, 12 of those covering AOL, the company that he now calls his employer.

Saul and Chuck talk about media relations, the future of The New York Times and AOL, transparency, scaling content and the new role of journalism.

Some of the more interesting excerpts from Saul:

"AOL is just as much a journalistic organization as The New York Times, as Bloomberg, as NBC News, as all kinds of organizations new and old."

"In my experience as a journalist, [the relationship between companies and their PR agencies] is a deeply dysfunctional ... relationship that ... never served either the client or the agency..."

"The New York Times has a bunch of people doing great work and will continue for centuries to come..."

"I think all that kinds of media -- big and small -- give you voices to understand, and I think that one of the things that everybody is trying to figure out is [to] make sure that when you're reading something, you know where the person is coming from."

"AOL has a brand that needs to mean something, and it needs to mean trust if they're going to be in the content business..."

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