Western English Trade Association

PR hitches a ride on the Web dressed in jeans and boots.

Ready or not, country is cool again. Or perhaps we should say that the clothing is hotter than ever.

Vanguard set out to prove it through work for the industry consortium, the Western English Trade Association, a conglomerate of manufacturers ranging from Wrangler to Stetson to Rocky Brands.

Since 2005, Vanguard has employed a national, interactive PR and marketing program to get the word out that western apparel can be chic. Some of the components:

An online magazine, GetYourselfWest.com, covering everything from what's hot in denim to country music to where the next rodeo's happening.
A monthly sweepstakes giveaway of Western fashion, promoted through Internet public relations and Web news feeds.
An online store locator, searchable not just by location but also by Western apparel brand names.
A coast-to-coast media campaign around National Day of the American Cowboy, featuring televised Western fashion shows on network affiliates from Sacramento to Chicago to Atlanta.

The result – thousands of visitors to GetYourselfWest.com every month, helping fulfill our mission to grow sales and customer loyalty in new markets, notably among youthful urban residents who traditionally have labeled cowboy boots and shirts as "hick."

The Vanishing Newspaper Is the daily newspaper dying? Or just catching its breath for a new competitive sprint in a different format? The Pew Charitable Trust's annual report on American media says people appreciate journalism perhaps as much as ever. But mass communications is reaching a pivot point in accelerating changes. Moms Mad for the Web Parents are among the highest users of the Internet, significantly outpacing couples and singles without children, according to a variety of sources. Online Journalism Booming While newsrooms are shrinking alarmingly quickly, many major daily newspapers are seeing mushrooming growth in online readers, according to Editor and Publisher magazine and the Nielsen research company. As of 2008, some newspapers have seen a doubling in numbers of online readers in just a year.