The Great Blogola Debate
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The Wall Street Journal had an article examining what they call "Blogola" in relation to companies paying bloggers for coverage on May 15.
Anyone who thinks there is a Chinese Wall between the business side and journalism side of traditional media is profoundly retarded.
Back already?
If you didn’t read it all the way through, I’ll summarize: Bloggers, being largely unsophisticated, naive, and without accountability, are giving companies (in this case, TV shows) favorable coverage in exchange for money, trips, and products. This was contrasted with journalists that are required by their employers to not accept gifts over $25 to protect their objectivity.
To which I will reply with an old joke, cleaned up for general consumption:
A young man approached a young woman at a party and asked her if she would give him oral sex for $1,000,000. Knowing he doesn’t have the money, she says, "Sure". Then he asks if she’ll give him oral sex for $1. Now, she’s offended and replies indignantly, "What kind of girl do you think I am?"
"We’ve already established what kind of girl you are, now we’re just negotiating price," he replies.
Real-World Market Communications
In a former life, I was the Market Communications Manager for a mid-sized electronics firm, tasked with re-branding the company while it attempted to recover from near-bankruptcy and being within 30 days of closure. I contracted for a large ad buy with one of the largest publications in the industry. This earned us a visit from the editor of the publication, who told me privately that I could count on coverage for any product/service announcements or press releases.
Ask any PR/MarCom professional about this phenomena. I guarantee they’ll all have a story like this that sticks out. Even my mother, owner of a small gift shop, was offered positive coverage when she threatened to pull advertising from a large, local newspaper.
So, I’m going to say it bluntly: Anyone who thinks there is a Chinese Wall between the business side and journalism side of traditional media is profoundly retarded.
You say Po-Tay-To, I say Po-Tah-To
In this case, with bloggers being independent, they receive the "Blogola" directly rather than the corporation that owns the publication. The corporation that takes ads, skews coverage, and kills stories to protect revenues. The corporation that pays journalists a living wage to write around these restrictions. I’ve yet to meet a journalist doing their job for free.
Obviously, I have blogs that I’ve used to write paid posts. I also have some that have pre-paid advertisements. I’ve even dipped my toes in the textlinkads.com water. I go beyond the disclosure requirements of the paid-post brokers by disclosing in every post that it was bought and paid for. I refuse opportunities that require no in-text disclosure - just yesterday, I turned down a sweet one. I primarily take neutral opportunities, but I regularly take opportunities that require a Positive post when I felt I could do so honestly. I don’t slam my advertisers, but I’m usually doing business with honest people and haven’t been put in the position of making that decision.
These are my ethics. Others have a different set of ethics that still adhere to the letter of the TOS of the brokers. It’s their blog, their business, and if their readers don’t mind, who am I to judge?
My ethics are no different than a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, who discloses in his article about Dow Jones that Dow Jones owns the WSJ, and the reader can thus assume pays the salary of the reporter. It’s the same as a journalist for ABC News reporting on Disney, then disclosing that Disney owns ABC, and thus pays the reporters salary. It’s the same as an anchor for NBC News reporting on GE, then disclosing that GE owns NBC, and thus pays the anchors salary.
So, let’s not get holier than thou.
Finally, I am in no way holding myself out as a journalist. Nor do I see myself as a "diarist" blogger. I’m a businessman. When it comes to paid-posts, I see myself as an independent marketing communications/copywriting professional, working with my clients to provide value in the form of site traffic, product/service sales, and links for SEO. I’m even researching whether I should set up an umbrella company to consolidate my various projects and present myself to clients, or future offline employers, as a provider of marketing communication services, specializing in the use of social media.
So, there’s my disclosure for this post.
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