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A Friendly Tip For Flacks: Don't Annoy Bloggers

You know bloggers have arrived when they start whining about being overwhelmed with useless PR pitches. That's exactly what happened yesterday at Americablog and Eschaton.

Americablog's John Aravosis is particularly annoyed because he is constantly bombarded with pitches looking for free media on his site, but too few of the folks who contact him are willing to drop a few bucks on blog ads:

Now, you might argue, "But John, you're just like a journalist, we shouldn't have to PAY you to write about us!" And that would be correct. I am like a journalist, sometimes, and you don't have to pay me to get me to write about your story. But like a journalist anywhere, your story has to be a real story before I'm going to write about it. And the notion that I'm going to do you a favor by writing about a non-story, when you've never before given me the time of day [in advertising], is laughable.

And in any case, that's what advertising is for: non-stories. In politics, there's one sure-fire way to get your story/non-story in the paper: buy an ad. It's no different on the blogs. You don't expect favors from the Washington Post, why do you expect them for us?

I liked Aravosis' post because it showed yet another difference between old and new media. We journalists just whine privately about PR folks who won't invest any time in researching our publications before sending pitches; bloggers lambaste the flacks for all to see.

Regardless of their political leanings, PR folks in the public affairs realm would be smart to spend some time digesting the "New Tools Campaign" created by the New Politics Institute. It makes a solid case for why candidates and causes should not only be advertising online but also be engaging blogs -- and one good way to engage the blogs indirectly is to reach their readers by advertising on the sites.

Posted by Danny | 11:44 AM

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