Comments on: Dueling Blacklists: Bloggers v. PR Firms

By: zak mathiew

zak mathiew — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:28:33 +0000

Hello !
Hello !
I Zak and finished the Computer Course from NIIT and searching for the job.
—-
Zak
Pr Jobs

By: ???????

??????? — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:15:59 +0000

kgz Een plaatje zegt alles, toch ? kyn Het volledige rapport is hier te vinden. Lees natuurlijk f de blogposting. k w
Thanks for interesting post! myv
?????????????? ????? 7o

By: ???????

??????? — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:15:59 +0000

kgz Een plaatje zegt alles, toch ? kyn Het volledige rapport is hier te vinden. Lees natuurlijk f de blogposting. k w
Thanks for interesting post! myv
?????????????? ????? 7o

By: Christina

Christina — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 08:22:40 +0000

Mack,
I would be most interested to know what makes a good pitch (and what makes the others so awful). You mentioned you’ve blogged about some examples. Can you point me in that direction?
Thanks.

By: Nicki

Nicki — Sat, 17 May 2008 11:43:07 +0000

I am a freelance writer who works for small and start-up firms through Elance.
We write press releases that are well-received by print media.
How can we better serve our clients who wish to send releases to bloggers?
Our clients do all the sending–at the prices they can pay, we cannot research any mailing for them.
Nicki D. Harper (HarperCo)

By: Jennifer Mattern

Jennifer Mattern — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:01:10 +0000

“And that’s the key here, PR firms need to pitch bloggers a helluva lot more than bloggers need to be pitched by PR people.”
Not true. When I was the Technology Editor for a large content network, I remember the writers / bloggers under me getting pitches from major companies and their PR reps.
That advanced news would lead to tens of thousands of visitors (sometimes in a day) that they otherwise couldn’t have touched being just another blogger picking up the story after all the “big dogs” already reported on it.
A lot of bloggers would give a limb to get pitches that help them break a decent story (traffic often makes or breaks a blog – reputation, converts to regular readers, revenue, etc.).
But to get those gems, you’ll put up with a lot of garbage. It’s not going to be handed to you on a silver platter every time.
That’s just reality – coming from someone experienced on both the blogging / publishing and PR sides of the fence.
Frankly, I think it’s funny how bloggers hate PR reps until they want something from them (review copies, event access, interview access to company reps, etc.). Not like we’ve ever seen that before, right?
Love or hate, we all better just learn to deal with it.

By: Rick Calvert

Rick Calvert — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:01:09 +0000

First off thanks for the link and the post Mack. Second I did mention in my post that Lifehacker in particular had a valid reason to be annoyed at being spammed at her “personal” email address.
I put it in quotes because her “personal” email address is published on the internet and the moment you do that you relinquish your privacy. That doesn’t make it right for folks to spam you but you should expect to get spammed when you do. Only a fool would think otherwise.
Walk around with 100 dollar bills hanging out of your coat and you are going to get robbed.
I was arguing a larger point and the ensuing complaints from other bloggers crying about receiving too many press releases. If a blogger considers them self to be some sort of citizen journalist or even wanna be professional then they have no room to complain about receiving too many PR pitches. That is what comes with being a professional journalist.
I just asked a dean at a major journalism school about this today. I explained this little blog drama and told him I thought that reviewing press releases was part of the job for a news organization. His reply was “absolutely”.
I just asked someone who works for one of the major wire services just how many releases they sent out a day on behalf of various companies and agencies. His reply was “thousands”.
Now just imagine you are the New York Times. How many releases do you think they receive a day?
Tens of thousands. Hopefully I will have a real number on this tomorrow.
Granted they have resources to deal with all of those pitches along with the breaking news, and various personal interest stories, investigative journalism and opinion pieces on a daily basis.
The point is, we as bloggers love to play at journalism for some of us it is a very serious hobby, to a part time job, to even a real job.
If you want be treated like a professional then act like one and quit crying about how its hard work.
Yes it is hard being a successful blogger. It is also a hell of a lot of fun. So rub some dirt on it and suck it up or go home.
/rant off

By: seana mulcahy

seana mulcahy — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:45:44 +0000

First off great post. I don’t know her but think she needs to get over herself. Anyone who is worth their salt in this business sure as hell knows what emails, screen names, phone numbers et al to protect. Let’s face it if you are a blogger you want readers. You don’t want to be communicating with yourself. Being solicited means you’ve gotten quite the following. If you do then kudos to you but don;t f&^k it up by sending antagonistic tweets.

By: mack collier

mack collier — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:31:37 +0000

BTW I think this tweet by Gina perfectly sums up the situation:
” I love that pissed-off PR people are threatening to never email me again, as if that’s not my dream come true.”
And that’s the key here, PR firms need to pitch bloggers a helluva lot more than bloggers need to be pitched by PR people.

By: maabalto

maabalto — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:29:18 +0000

As a new member to the PR world, I’ve found this blog and comment exchange extremely beneficial.
Someone else asked and I concur. Have a set of best practices been established? I know that ultimately it will come down to the individual I am trying to engage, but some basic rules would be very helpful.