News Blinks & Pointers: May 9, PM ’05
- Marketers Don’t Want Ad Agencies As Partners : "Marketers don’t want partners. They want ideas. They want results. They want creative solutions to business challenges. The faster big global agency networks recognize that — and stop pining for some mystical, transcendent client relationship that bears no resemblance to their current status or worth — the faster they can define their actual value and compete for a spot on the roster." Scott Donaton – Ad Age.
- A Blog Revolution? Get A Grip?: Damn right! As for the blog revolution, Denton put it this way: "Give me a break. The hype comes from unemployed or partially employed marketing professionals and people who never made it as journalists wanting to believe," Nick Denton said. "They want to believe there’s going to be this new revolution and their lives are going to be changed." Heh, heh, heh… Brilliant!
- … and. "Some of my own favorite sites are ones that have no consistency beyond the wit and charm of the writer."
–Nick Denton - Firefox is vulnerable…
- They found the other Mars Lander…
- Huffington’s Blog Is Up… Be sure to read Harry Shearer’s Eat The Press…
News Blinks – May 9 ’05
- Tufte’s Powerpoint comments called "nonsense" – don’t think that’s entirely fair but the thnking here is good.
- Open source radio – Chris Lydon’s new web site is worth a look. "Public Radio International (PRI) and Open Source Media Inc. announce plans to launch the first radio program to embrace bloggers, Web enthusiasts, and the Internet transformation of media."
- Singapore threatens to sue blogger (via FT – SR) – "A*Star defended its libel threat, saying it had "the responsibility to protect its reputation and also that of Singapore"
- Presos from Blogtalk Downunder
- Yawn – now we’re trying to figure out who is important
- Concentrate now!
- Jay in Australia
- Congrats to all at Bite who celebrate their Tenth year.
Do Press Releases Matter…?
Stephens got an interesting view on this one. We do disagree (I think they do matter) – as he suggests we might – but not by that much. I view the press release as a technical device for notifying media of news from publicly traded companies. That’s about it.
They are of less and less value (think steeply declining curve) as communications tools due to the ubiquity of email, Internet, wire services, blogs, RSS… And, the era of authenticity we’ve entered into questions their tone – and resulting credibility. But the era of transparency we’re in also demands their utility. In my posts below on the Web vs. the Blogosphere you can pretty much replace the Web column with Press Releases.
What Stephen points to though is the need for all communicators to listen to their constituents. How many communicators take the time to ask those constituents how they want to receive news? One of the challenges for any communicator is reaching the full spectrum of buyers, influencers and messengers that make up an audience set. Stephen is a sophisticated influencer and messenger in the upper quadrant of connectivity and engagement. Others will be at in the lower left quadrant – not connected big-time and engaged on an adhoc basis. Technical requirements aside, blogs and press releases represent optimal solutions for different constituent profiles.
Participatory Communications is about just that, participation. I suspect Southwest Airlines effort to raise the visibility of its issues with regard to the Wright Amendment will be much better served by the Internet than by any press release. I love the fact they are inviting their community to engage in their efforts – especially given we have as much of a vested interest in them succeeding as they do. (What a great URL as well!)
Where I also agree with Stephen is that most press releases are crap. Yes, crap. But lets not burn the release just because they aren’t being executed well. Bad writing. Terrible legal intervention. Risk and conflict averse communicators. And no news angle/hook are doing as much to destroy the value of news releases as anything.
And here is where Stephen and I violently agree – language and framing matters – until communicators upgrade their efforts in this area then the relevance of the press release is the least of their worries. The real issue is their own relevance. Their relevance to their constituents. And their relevance to the business.
News Blinks – Friday May 6
- A preview of Arianna’s Blog
- Redmonkey on Apple vs. Suse
- Get a Backpack from 37Signals
- The Participatory Panopticon
- Our new heros, the designers
- Stephen O’Grady on Press Releases and more…
What Is The Blogosphere Part1
Some great additions to my little list from Pegasus News…
Web = Organized Blogosphere = Chaotic
Web = Predictable Blogosphere = Unpredictable
Web = Find Blogosphere = Browse
Web = Comprehensively shallow Blogosphere = Incompletely deep
Web = Broad Blogosphere = Niche
Web = Slow/Web-time Blogosphere = Instant/Blog-time**
See comments… as soon as the P/news site tracked me back, I updated my blog. Instant publishing. Mike’s point is a good one. Blogs are the real, real-time web.
