Between moving to Toronto and starting a new job, I somehow lost interest in this blog, as I'm sure anyone who ever read it also has. Maybe I've been too busy. Maybe I just don't have anything interesting to say.
At work lately, I've been doing a lot of blog tracking as a form of media analysis. Apparently blogs are much more influential in mainstream media than I give them credit for. We had a training session the other day on how PR can work with bloggers and it was evident that working with bloggers is becoming as important as working with reporters. However, one common thread running through all this was that it seems that both reporters and bloggers need to be spoon-fed a packaged story complete with quotes, pictures and all the information they need to start writing. They don't want to have to follow-up or confirm information. They don't want to have to call you or dig for the news element in a story. They want a one-stop shop or they're not interested. Their time, they say, is far too valuable to be wasted on pursuing vague story pitches or clarifying incomplete information.
Whatever happened to chasing the story? There seems to have been a serious shift in media since my days as a reporter. You have to give reporters the whole story, complete with catchy headline and hard-hitting quotes or they won't even bother.
While I'm on the topic of blogs, the main reason I was inspired to write anything at all today was because I came across an interesting quote in one of the more prominent blogs we monitor. The blogger was commenting on the new blog written by the CTO and was chastising him for not posting more regularly. Being a sporadic blogger myself, the following quote stuck with me:
"You can’t be afraid of making a commitment when you launch a blog. You’ve got to nurture it, tend to it, give it some love and attention and, most important, write on a fairly regular basis. Otherwise, it loses some of its energy and people will stop visiting. So, let’s get writing."
To be honest though, I didn't create this blog with the intention that it would have profound influence on the masses. I don't even really care if anyone ever reads it. I created it as a motivation for me to write. So far, I guess it hasn't been that successful. Apparently, in one month, the only thing I'm capable of producing is a blog post about...blogs.
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2 comments:
Who are these reporters? They make me want to puke. Just about as much as email interviews make me what to puke. BLehhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Did you know that we make up the quotes in our press releases? We literally put words in the CEO's mouth? Also, did you know that when a reporter emails us with questions for some exec to answer for their story, the PR team gets together and writes them together? Seriously, it's so fabricated to make sure our messages get out... It really makes it hard for me to beleive anything in the news, particulary in the business sections. ugh.
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