My colleague Kristen Smith is gearing up to teach our PR writing class for the first time, and she asked for my advice on what to do with the class. Some things are obvious and haven't changed in decades, but I don't think most of the PR textbooks do much with the Web and social media (and I haven't taught it in a while so please feel free to add a comment if you know of a good PR writing text). I mentioned, for example, that she'll need to talk about SEO when teaching about writing news releases, even if the textbooks aren't doing that yet.
Later it occurred to me that I already have a great resource on hand* for her and for students: David Meerman Scott's 2nd edition of "The New Rules of Marketing & PR." I used the first edition of this book when I taught a special topics ad/PR class on social media, and the students loved it. The second edition is out now, and it could very easily be used in a PR writing class.
The early chapters clearly explain how the Internet and social media in particular have changed PR and marketing -- primarily in that organizations can now reach individuals directly and cheaply. The second part of the book runs through different platforms -- blogs, social networks, Twitter, audio, video -- that can be used.
Part III introduces the idea of "buyer personas," in which the PR person pulls together research to draw portraits of different kinds of buyers and then to figure out how to talk to that kind of person, using the language they would use. That concept isn't anything new to PR, but somehow writing that little character sketch seems to make target publics more concrete to students.
The book includes a chapter on Search Engine Marketing, but in it Scott makes the point that "this entire book is about search engine marketing." As such it would make a great supplement to a PR textbook that focuses on more traditional writing (brochures, news releases, annual reports, etc.). I would definitely recommend it to someone teaching a PR writing course.
So, Kristen, check your mailbox. You can borrow, but not keep, mine.
*Disclosure: David knew that I used his book in class and asked me to write a blurb for the 2nd edition. You can find me on the bottom of page iii.

