Tom speaks to the disruption of PR by blogging and search. He couldn’t be more right. I speak to many PR people on the impact of blogging on communications. Most view it as an overlay to traditional communications. It isn’t.

While there is a clear case for viewing blogging as complementary to PR, you can really only hold that point of view from the shoes of a PR person. When standing in the shoes of a CMO, it is a very different view. As you look to optimize spend for awareness and lead flow – and juggle priorities such as shortening the sales cycle – you become acutely aware that PR is yet another budget area that should be cut in favor of new communications tools.

Tom focuses heavily on the economics of the new mediums: “You can get a company message out to your potential customers far more cheaply and far more effectively through the blogging medium.” While these are significant factors – especially the fact that your message is unfiltered – others to consider include the utility of the medium. If I want to reach my audience, I just blog. It takes about a tenth of the time to blog as it does to craft a release, liaise with an agency, pitch media…. Other factors include the ability to quickly repurpose content (our eZine at LogLogic is essentially a packaging of blog content – we get lots of positive feedback); and, the ability to quickly activate a dialog.

Blogging represents a dramatic shift in the method and economics of reaching audiences. Similarly, Search has an equally dramatic impact on audience reach and awareness. Combined, they are very disruptive forces to traditional media and analyst relations.