2.07.2008 - 02:20pm ET

(CSRwire) SPRINGFIELD, MA – February 7 , 2008 - CSRwire.com, the leading global Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire, will now be offering CSRwire ProfNet, a service which provides CSRwire's passionate and professional members with a direct connection to journalists looking for comments on CSR, sustainability and 'green business' topics.

The new service is part of an expanded partnership between CSRwire.com and PR Newswire, who founded the industry-leading ProfNet expert network.

Subscribers to CSRwire ProfNet can find out what CSR-related stories are being developed, and by which reporters. CSR experts on corporate governance, business ethics, socially responsible investing, human rights and philanthropy connect directly with journalists who are working on relevant stories, in addition to interacting and sharing ideas and information with each other. Subscribers can monitor the interests of thousands of news organizations and cultivate new professional and media relationships.

"At CSRwire.com, our mission is to raise awareness for corporate citizenship initiatives worldwide. This partnership is in direct support of our mission. We are excited to be able to leverage ProfNet's technology and proven capabilities into the CSR community that we work with so closely and so passionately," said Greg Schneider, Chief Operating Officer of CSRwire.com.

The rapid pace with which CSR best practices are evolving creates a unique opportunity for knowledge sharing and collaboration among experts. Experts can use CSRwire ProfNet to discuss CSR measurement, reporting, communications and other important business issues specific to CSR. In turn, the CSR community gains exposure for their organizations by promoting their spokespeople and experts to the media.

"CSR programs are becoming more and more of a driving force behind many business initiatives," said Juliet Herman, Director of ProfNet, PR Newswire. "Those in charge of these initiatives within organizations need a forum to share best practices and to engage with environmental, social, or other subject-matter experts. ProfNet was created over a decade ago as a forum for connecting communications professionals, experts and the media, and was really one of the first truly social networks of its kind. It is therefore perfectly suited to become the platform for a CSR community network."

Organized by industry or subject, "ProfNet Opportunities" are posted on the ProfNet website on a subscriber's individual page or sent by broadcast e-mail. Subscribers review opportunities with detailed topic and contact information and respond when there's a fit.

"Although CSR is a growing trend among smart businesses, it is still a relatively new practice and as with anything new it is always beneficial to collaborate and share best practices with peers," added Schneider. "ProfNet has connected leading academic, business and non-profit experts with the media successfully for more than a decade and it is precisely what the CSR community needs to elevate these increasingly important issues."

Effective immediately, ProfNet is now transmitting daily media opportunities on CSR-related topics to the tens of thousands of communications professionals representing experts in the ProfNet database. In addition, CSR experts can create profiles within the ProfNet database for access by media and other experts. Journalists who are subscribed to ProfNet search the database using keywords such as environment, green business, and sustainability to find these profiles and connect with experts directly.

To learn more about CSRwire ProfNet expert, please contact CSRwire at profnet@csrwire.com or 802-251-0110.

About CSRwire

CSRwire is the leading source of corporate social responsibility and sustainability news, reports and information. CSRwire members are companies and NGOs, agencies and organizations interested in communicating their corporate citizenship, sustainability, and socially responsible initiatives to a global audience through CSRwire's syndication network and News Alerts. CSRwire content covers issues of Diversity, Philanthropy, Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) Environment, Human Rights, Workplace Issues, Business Ethics, Community Development and Corporate Governance. CSRwire is a member of the United Nations Global Compact – The world’s largest gloabal corporate citizenship initiative.

About PR Newswire

PR Newswire Association LLC (http://www.prnewswire.com) provides electronic distribution, targeting, measurement and broadcast services on behalf of tens of thousands of corporate, government, association, labor, non-profit, and other customers worldwide. Using PR Newswire, these organizations reach a variety of critical audiences including the news media, the investment community, government decision-makers, and the general public with their up-to-the-minute, full-text news developments.

About ProfNet

ProfNet (http://www.profnet.com) is an online community of academics, government officials, business people, non-profit executives, and other subject matter experts. Through ProfNet, journalists, and many non-media professionals such as meeting planners, bloggers, corporate researchers, publishers, analysts, and authors can connect with these experts for story sources, speaking events, to keep up on trends and initiate relationships. ProfNet Opportunities (formerly ProfNet Queries) enables reporters to send short descriptions of the stories and the type of experts they are seeking to the tens of thousands of experts in the ProfNet database. ProfNet Opportunities are available in 13 categories with the recent addition of Corporate Social Responsibility. Reporters can also sign up to receive, via email, Expert Alerts, short story ideas summarizing an expert's perspective on a timely issue or trends, and Daily Topic Alerts, a round-up of experts on a particular timely issue or trend culled from the Expert Alerts. Currently, the ProfNet expert database has more than 25,000 experts profiles.