PR v Bloggers – is there a clash of interests?

Until last week the whole world of Web 2.0, its technologies such as RSS and its phenomenon like social media seemed to be just a fast growing area of communication that had possible implications and benefits for the b-2-b world. Albeit some as yet, hard to define. Then on a PR newsgroup an old world debate on the merits of ‘paid for editorial’ was joined by the editor of an industrial journal who opened up the link to a blog where the UK PR industry stood accused of alienating one of the UK’s most prominent bloggers. But first lets take a step back to the world of industrial print. Many b-2-b titles, particularly in the industrial sector long ago ceased to offer truly independent news and typically exist to sell advertising space padded out with editorial content to at least maintain the impression of being a journal. The falling advertising revenues have had implications in terms of both staffing levels and editorial content. To the UK PR industry the staff appear to be few in number and mainly focussed on selling space, because for many journals every bit of space is sold or sponsored. Only today an e-mail arrived from the Managing Editor of an engineering journal to inform he was now handling both news and advertising for my clients, proof if any were needed that the old demarcations where journalism was independent of advertising has gone. Advertisers who see their money bank rolling the publication want to see their products favourably mentioned on editorial pages and the PR agencies they employ, after years of objection, generally now recognise the new reality that most of the news about their clients is dreary stuff and will only get published for payment. Originally disguised as a charge for a ‘colour separation’ fee, but more accurately an editorial charge, one can understand the cynicism and cause for frequent debates on the subject. The other side of this, is that as press releases are now sent by e-mail and no longer printed accompanied with a nice glossy photograph, it is easy to distribute them widely and this is where the prominent UK blogger got alienated – some one sent him a press release. In turn he used his blog to curse the PR industry and marketing in general and give rise to speculation that his well-connected peers would cause a huge backlash. His blog rambled on about the parasitic nature of PR people following a mention onPR Blogger in what got referred to as the ‘brothel’article thanks to a photo supporting his rant of a door sign reading – ‘This is not a brothel there are no prostitutes at this address’. They have since published a piece saying bloggers couldn’t care less about client’s products and should be left in peace and not sent spam PR. So there we have it – sensitive bloggers v spamming PR types who treat bloggers as prostitutes. Maybe the PR world has become hardened by the world of print publishing.