That said, the combination of Delta and Northwest is not a storyline that can be enhanced by clever publicity tactics.

When two of the "weakest links" of the U.S. airline industry come together to form one collective (and slowly integrated) weak link, then this fact can’t be glossed over by posting glowing testimonials from those people with vested interests in keeping this industry laggard afloat — at any cost to the public.

My point: the content on the microsite is a thinly veiled attempt to make these under-performing airlines appear like they are something that they are clearly not — when viewed through the eyes of a consumer customer.

IMHO, all the legacy PR professionals that still believe that their role is to put a positive spin on any scenario — including a long track record of poor customer service — are only fooling themselves and their naive customers into believing that intelligent consumers will be influenced by deception.

That said, I think more could be done by Delta/Northwest to use the site as a "living" vehicle to address misinformation and speculation versus simply adding links to news stories and press releases. Adding a Q&A or Issue Response feature (easily maintained like a blog) that would be constantly updated to address emerging would, in my view, be a useful addition.

The key value proposition for such sites, in my view (and as both you and JKash have also inferred), is the ability for organizations to more effectively exploit the web to channel specific content and messaging to specific audiences unhindered by traditional media filters (while, at the same time, ensuring that content is packaged appropriately for the mainstream media),  articulate complex issues in formats that are significantly easier to understand – be it through the use of flash, architecture, or links to supporting 3rd party resources, and be able to rapidly launch and update the site as issues emerge or change.

Likewise, our experience with dark sites and issues microsites has only reinforced the importance of including a social media overlay in terms of how the site content is managed (through a blog-based CMS, for example, how people access and receive the content (RSS, emial et al), and the importance of video and photo tools (Youtube, Flickr etc.) to amplify your message, but also to present beyond the traditional text-based confines.

This is an idea who’s time has definitely come.

I think the rapid-deployment microsite approach holds water, as the depth of information and audience-specific format beats a press release any day.

It would be interested to see what would happen if this approach (a CMS-based site) were to include blog posts or other social elements. Publishing easily digestible information is the first step; having the audience accept it is quite another.