Nothing like the venerable New York Times to jump-start a public relations campaign. The newspaper provided Vonage with some invaluable coverage by doing an interview with chairman - and P.R. savvy - Jeff Citron. Here are the highlights:

- On how he felt after the stock dropped like a stone following its $17-a-share IPO earlier this year: “I was a little, I guess, confused." Confused? Citron's confused by how investors soured on the company's prospects in light of large losses, huge marketing expenses and increasingly intense competition from cablecos?

- Vonage is now in "good shape". Hmmm, I wonder how Citron defines good shape. If it's by the number of subscribers, I guess Vonage is doing okay given it will soon announce it has two million customers. But what about churn, which compels Vonage to spend more than $300-million on marketing?

- "We definitely believe the shares were undervalued" in explaining his decision to buy 188,000 shares for $1.3-million. After losing two-thirds of their value, Vonage was either under-valued or maybe just trading where it should. Don't give Citron credit for stepping up to make a "value" buy. It was a P.R. move to reassure investors, particularly those who still held their IPO shares, analysts and customers.

- “I want nothing. I’m just generally a very happy guy.” Nice way for the NYT to end the story but why wouldn't Citron be happy. He's made a mint off Vonage despite the stock's performance. He has also hit the entrepreneurial jackpot twice before - Island ECN and Datek. We could all be so lucky.

One more thing: Vonage shares closed Friday at $8.90, which means they have lost 47% since the IPO hit the street. Andy Abramson, who knows the P.R. and VoIP industries like the back of his hand, calls the NYT story "pure spin control". 21Talks also makes some good points, particularly about one analysts believes Vonage needs five million customers to be profitable. Russell Shaw describes the NYT story as pretty close to a "puff piece". Ouch!