Following is a roundup of 10 interesting PR- and media-related stories found online last week:

Five Characteristics of a Successful PR Professional: "In order to be successful in the modern world of PR, there are certain essential characteristics that one must possess to fight adversity, capitalize on opportunities, maintain a positive image, encourage word of mouth, and build strategy." Here are the top five: 1) thick skin, 2) resiliency, 3) attention to detail, 4) creativity and 5) building strong relationships. (PRBreakfastClub)

The Risks Journalists Take: "The recent death of New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid in Syria is another reminder of the risks journalists take to get the story." The danger of the profession comes in several forms, including the lack of emergency medical care. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 46 journalists were killed last year as a direct result of their work, many in the Middle East. Local journalists are at the forefront of the risk-taking. (WNYC)

Why That Reporter Isn't Calling You Back: Why isn't that reporter calling you back? Here are five possible reasons: 1) your pitch isn't engaging or newsworthy; 2) you're pitching the wrong person; 3) you're from out of town; 4) your pitch doesn't have a local angle; or 5) you have a bad track record. (PR Daily)

Is Any PR Good PR?: A self-described "customer experience, social media and community guy" wrote a blog post about getting good and bad attention. He disagrees with the statement "Any PR is good PR." "Again, while negative tactics and negative interactions may work in the short term, if an enterprise is interested in developing relationships with its customers, instead of merely short-term transactions, bad P.R. will eventually cause an organization to lose those customers." He also offers some tips for small businesses that get bad PR. (NYTimes.com)

Seven Tips for Writing a Great Press Release: Though we live in a world where social media and the Internet disseminate news quicker than a pen, press releases are still important. However, getting earned media through a press release is difficult. Among the seven tips offered here are to write an attention-grabbing title, make sense and focus on content quality (not depth of words). (Business 2 Community)

Six Lessons About Journalism From Social Media Week: Two panels from Social Media Week in Washington, D.C., yielded some ideas and exchanges worth remembering: 1) why Twitter matters, 2) candidates watch the watchdogs, 3) Google+ Hangouts are a work tool, 4) is Twitter really a "social" network, 5) promoted trends cost $120,000 a day, and 6) U.S. Congress is very social. (Poynter)

Journalism Teachers Should Give Format-Agnostic Assignments: "It has become a truism -- if one not repeated often enough -- that those of us teaching journalism are now preparing our students for jobs that didn't exist when we started our careers." Educators need to pay heed to the subtle ways today's journalists tell stories. This executive editor and medical journalism instructor has responded by making all of his assignments platform-agnostic. (PBS MediaShift)

Five Key Trends Supercharging Digital PR: Social media is moving from growth to saturation, which means digital public relations is rapidly changing. Here's what social media saturation and mobile growth mean for PR in 2012: 1) 24 hours' worth of screens per day; 2) think like PR, measure like "Mad Men"; 3) find your peeps (the new influencers); 4) the rise of "fanwomen"; and 5) more powerful small teams. (Mashable)

IRS Seeks PR Help: The Internal Revenue Service is willing to pay up to $15 million for some PR help, according to a 49-page solicitation sent to 12 agencies. "The IRS is currently evaluating pitches made last week from communications agencies to help publicize programs like the earned-income tax credit and small business retirement plans." While the IRS is known by almost all of America, a rebranding might be necessary. (WSJ.com)

DKNY PR Girl Reveals Herself: Aliza Licht revealed herself to the world as the woman behind DKNY PR Girl. She is the senior vice president for global communications at Donna Karan International. "Unlike the new breed of baby-faced social media editors, Ms. Licht took a more circuitous path to Twitter stardom." Here's a look at Licht's past, present and future. (NYTimes.com)

ProfNet, a service of PR Newswire, has helped journalists and experts connect since 1992. Writers can search the ProfNet Connect database of more than 50,000 profiles; send a ProfNet query by email to thousands of subscribers around the globe; or get timely experts and story ideas by email.