Morgan McLintic on PR

Proxy blogging - Alastair Campbell's fake blog

As I noted at the beginning of the month, the Alastair Campbell blog was a fake. The Times has scooped a full confession from the author who explains how she managed to get inside details to add to its authenticity and to copy Campbell's writing style from a leaked email. It seems several organizations were taken in and even emailed the author, Anna Corp, a 30 year-old woman, requesting he speak at events. Corp terms her fake blogging as 'proxy blogging'.

I know this was a joke, and all credit to Ms Corp for her convincing writing style, but isn't this rather akin to impersonation and deception? What strikes me as so odd in her self-penned confession is the complete lack of remorse or regret. 'It's been fun,' she claims. Well, sure, those in the public eye are open to mockery and characterization, but it's normally done with the audience's knowledge. Impersonators are funny because you know it's an impersonation. This is different. Clearly a lot of people felt this was really Alistair Campbell (just look at the comments as proof). I'm not sure 'proxy blogging' is the right term, perhaps 'identity theft' is more accurate.

Now imagine you are Alastair Campbell (or if that's unpalatable, anyone else who is 'proxy blogged') - what can you do to stop this? As Campbell's PR agent, how would you prevent this? This was a joke but it could be more serious, such as the impersonation of a CEO by a disgruntled ex-employee. Someone with an ax to grind. I'm no fan of anonymous blogging, but it strikes me that 'proxy blogging' could be far more damaging.

To her credit though, Corp does make a good point that more politicians should blog in order to reach disaffected audiences. Perhaps having your own blog might also prevent others developing a proxy too?

BusinessWeek on Blogging

The impact of blogging on businesses makes the cover story of BusinessWeek. Need more proof?

News of Spin Bunny's death was premature

Looks like the Bunny is back after its tangle with the lawyers.

Jeremy Pepper interviews Lord Chadlington

Jeremy Pepper is pulling out all the stops at his blog at the moment. Today he kicks off another new series called the Clueless Train where he intends to keep PR bloggers true. Regardless of the specific issues, I'm sure the exchange of opinion will make interesting reading. But more specifically, Jeremy has interviewed his most senior scalp so far with Shandwick founder, and Huntsworth Group mastermind, Peter Gummer, aka Lord Chadlington. This is a big name for a PR blogger to interview and shows how committed he is to the program, and bodes well for future interviews. Some good lessons from 'Chadders' (as I'm reliably informed he's called in parliamentary circles) - Never Give Up.

Couldn't agree more. Good to see some edge in the PR world. And nice to see Jeremy following Lord's advice.

News-o-matic - Tech PR news via del.icio.us

I'm piloting a new blog section called News-o-matic. It's a list of links to relevant news, blog posts and sites which communicators in technology might find interesting and useful. The list is generated using the social bookmarking site, del.icio.us. For those that haven't tried del.icio.us, it's a site which enables you to 'tag' or bookmark web content with relevant phrases, so you can easily find them later. It's just like your browser bookmark in that sense. The difference is that others can see your tags, and you can find theirs. So I might bookmark Morgan McLintic on PR with the tag: PR. Others would then be able to find the site by searching on the PR tag.

Taking that a step further, del.icio.us allows you to set up an RSS feed for a particular tag, or for all of your bookmarks. This means if someone adds a new PR tag, it'll show up in your RSS reader. So far, so good.

Several bloggers are now setting up specific tags which are relevant to them - Silicon Valley Watcher uses the tag svw, Steve Rubel is using micropersuasion. So if you want to draw their attention to something on the web, you tag it with their name and it'll pop up in their RSS reader or del.icio.us bookmarks. The advantage of this is obviously that it cuts down on email, if the content is fairly self-evident, such as a fake blog or a news piece.

Having set up the RSS feed for a particular tag, you can convert it into HTML to create a list of links, basically a bookmark list. That's what News-o-matic is doing. I've set up a tag - MMonPR - and taken the RSS feed from that to create a list of links. Posting new links to that list is as simple as bookmarking it in del.icio.us. Obviously that's much faster than creating a separate post when all you really want to do is point to some content.

This also means that you, my dear and helpful reader, can flag relevant news stories which will appear on this site for others to see. It'll also mean that they appear in my RSS reader so I will notice them (as Steve is doing above) and investigate further. Obviously the potential for abuse there is huge, so my apologies in advance if irrelevant or inappropriate content cycles through. That's why I'm testing it at the moment, but thought you might find it useful. I'd welcome your thoughts below or via email, and am indebted to SVW and Steve for the idea.

Bloggers may be interested to know that the RSS to HTML engine I'm using is called Feed2JS.

Phishing via bogus blogs

CNET: Malicious virus writers are attempting to lure people to malicious blogs using enticing e-mails and instant messages, according to a new report from Websense. Once a person arrives at the blog, which can be posted on a legitimate host site, the victim's computer becomes infected with software designed to steal sensitive information, such as passwords and bank account information.

But blog readers can relax for the moment. The report claims that at present there are about 210 active bogus blogs. In a blogosphere of about 9-10m sites, that's about 0.002%. I'd say that's a pretty negligible risk.

Spin Bunny shuts down

Spin Bunny, the UK PR gossip blog, has shut down following a gagging order from an undisclosed UK PR firm. Seems the authors are unwilling to contest the gagging order in court in order to protect their own anonymity, so have opted to close the site.

Spin Bunny seemed to have a particular ax to grind about my agency, LEWIS, as I've highlighted before. Even in one of its final posts it took another swipe having become confused about the company's date of incorporation (1989) and its entrance into PR (1995). The intervening years having been Chris Lewis' freelance journalism career which laid the foundations for setting up the PR firm. While I don't agree with anonymous gossip mongering, I was enjoying the odd joust and Chris' latest retort using lyrics from a comical 80s pop group. Seems though, that the authors aren't willing to step up and put their name to their words, which is a little disappointing. One of the drawbacks of blogging is that it allows people to hide behind a pseudonym where there's no real need to do so.

So, bye bye Bunny. It was fun (kinda).

In today's newsreader

CNET: The future of bloggers - Wharton legal studies professor Dan Hunter puts blogging right up there with the printing press when it comes to sharing ideas and disseminating information. "This is not a fad," says Hunter. "It's the rise of amateur content, which is replacing the centralized, controlled content done by professionals."

CNET: US blogger thwarts Canadian gag order - Canada's long-standing practice of barring news organizations from disclosing what's happening in certain court proceedings is being tested by Internet bloggers.

Blogrunner's The Annotated Times: An aggregator blog which pulls together articles from The New York Times and ranks discussion of them. Interest here, here and here following Steve Rubel's post yesterday.

Trust MEdia: How real people are finally being heard - nice white paper by Edelman and Intelliseek is proving popular. I'm impressed from my first look. Download your copy here.

Why are PR bloggers so anal? - wonders Pete Shinbach, bemoaning blogging being on the menu of PR blogs most of the time. Meanwhile Has the blogger backlash begun? - asks Mike Manuel at Media Guerrilla. Good questions.

Changing the subject... Pew released figures claiming that 6m Americans had tried podcasting. But then took it back: Pew research director Mary Madden believes the numbers of people actually using the Internet to broadcast and/or download pods is smaller than the 6 million figure cited in the organization’s latest study, however. (from Newsfactor)

Jeremy Pepper releases not one but two articles in his excellent PR Face2Face interviews. This time with IABC bigwigs.

And last, but by no means least, Constantin Basturea et al announce that preparations for Global PR Blog Week 2.0 have begun.

Blogging from East to West

BBC: Sweeping article about the impact of blogging in China and Iran. Also covers its use in politics and the impact of blogging on the media (Rathergate etc). It's not all MSM vs the bloggers though:

James Connell, deputy technology editor of the International Herald Tribune, says: "I would encourage my traditional media colleagues to look upon blogs as a positive thing and not a negative thing.

"OK, a few people have been fired and blunders have been exposed, but this could have happened without blogging.

"Anything that makes debate more inclusive and more lively, and anything that makes it easier for the average person to say: 'hey that's not right' to the entire world, is a positive thing."

Fake blog - Alastair Campbell

This has gotta be a fake blog supposedly by Tony Blair's former press secretary, Alastair Campbell.

WaPo reviews Yahoo! 360

Washington Post is unimpressed with Yahoo!'s latest social networking, IM and blogging service - Yahoo! 360. My initial thoughts are below, and my first foray is here. If you want an invite, let me know or you can trade invites here.

Yahoo! 360

Mike Manuel (Media Guerrilla) was kind enough to invite me to try out Yahoo! 360 (thanks Mike). There are already lots of detailed reviews available (here and here via Dave Winer) and I've only had a brief spin round. Here's my humble attempt.

First impressions are that it's a collision of Typepad, LinkedIn, AIM and Flickr. So it's a social networking, photo sharing, instant messaging, blogorama. None of the functions are as sophisticated as the more dedicated sites. For instance, the blogging is basic (no control over image uploads, comments limited to 360 members, no RSS yet etc), the IM offers no voice or video, the photo sharing has no tags, and the networking allows no endorsements from others. But that's also its strength - all of those dedicated sites require separate log in, unique interfaces to master, repetition of basic personal information etc. If you want an introduction to these technologies, this is a great place to start, and I'd imagine for many it will fulfill most of their needs. It can only accelerate adoption of social networking and blogging in particular.

It also has some fun features like a Blog blast, which looks like a way to spark conversations with site visitors by providing an interactive panel at the top of the blog. If that encourages participation, then it's a great idea. And let's not forget it's beta. If you want an invite, let me know.

Commercialization of podcasting

The BBC quotes Dave Winer on the commercialization of podcasting: "No matter how you look at it, commercialising this medium isn't going to make very much money," he says. "Podcasting is going to be a medium of niches, with 'audiences' measured in the single digits, like e-mail or blogs.

"Maybe in a few years, maybe six or seven digits. But it will have to sustain interest beyond the hype balloon."

But speaking of podcasting, I should mention the excellent Hobson and Holtz Report, available at For Immediate Release again. I'm kindly mentioned in passing in yesterday's show (thanks guys), but Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson are really setting the benchmark for PR podcasting. They've had some interesting guest interviews and are producing shows of remarkable consistency, quality and frequency (twice a week - for an hour each time). Anyone who has tried video production or even podcasting, will know how much time it takes and will appreciate the investment that Shel and Neville are putting in - all those behind-the-scenes tampering with sound levels, stitching in other sources, typing the notes, dealing with file corruptions and technical oddities which crop up. The result is great though - and as with all these technologies, you only learn by doing, so I'm sure it's paying dividends.

And more on are bloggers journalists?

Wired: Much of the news and blog coverage surrounding the Apple Computer lawsuit has centered on the rights of bloggers versus those of professional journalists. While this is certainly an issue worth exploring, and something the courts will no doubt face in the coming years, this is not what the Apple suit is about...

What it really comes down to, however, is what exactly defines a trade secret, which is what Apple contends was stolen and leaked to three online Mac-centric zines. And whether you are a reporter, essayist, blogger or pamphleteer, judges have shown that they are more interested in promoting business opportunities than protecting the rights of journalists. In the Apple case, it doesn't matter whether you are a Joe Blogger or a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. The results would have been the same.

More on: are bloggers journalists?

CNET: Bloggers should be classified as journalists and given First Amendment protections based on the function they perform, not the form of their transmissions. Properly understood, the First Amendment applies to all those who report with journalistic integrity--offline or online.

In a prescient 1993 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that an author had standing to invoke a reporter's privilege when the court ruled that "what makes journalism journalism is not its format but its content." The same principle and rights should apply to bloggers--if they are producing similar content and using similar journalistic techniques as the mainstream media. Ironically, many of the "established" media outlets have also migrated online, with some even running their own blogs.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., is the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee.

More on Flickr and fair disclosure

The acquisiton of Flickr by Yahoo! still baffles me. Not the deal itself which was widely rumored and seems to be a good fit. No it's the nature of the announcement. It was made via a post on Flickr's blog on a Sunday afternoon. The content of the post is largely aimed at Flickr subscribers who are a loyal bunch and understandably don't want the service to change (the 207 trackbacks show the depth of feeling). But there has been no press release about the nature of the deal itself for Yahoo! investors or The Street.

Speaking to sources at Yahoo! PR yesterday there was no intention of making a formal announcement. This is for a deal rumored in the region of $30-35m (I heard as much as $50m today too). And I'm not the only one wondering whether this constitutes fair disclosure. Andy Lark, Sun's former PR supremo and now transparency evangelist, has been researching it too. Speaking to lawyers, he believes that a blog post does not represent fair disclosure as yet. Though he speculates it may in future.

I met the charismatic Fergus Burns, CEO of Nooked today and discussed this issue. He wondered whether the acquisition had affected the share price, suggesting if it hadn't perhaps it wasn't meaningful enough for an announcement. That's also the impression I got from my contact at Yahoo! - it's just too small ($35m??). A good point, so here's the share price from Yahoo! Finance. And no - it seems there wasn't much impact (see Monday's trading).
 

But can we conclude then that the strategy was justified? The share price didn't move so we were right not to announce it formally? I think that might also prove the opposite. The share price didn't change since the deal wasn't properly communicated. The only message given out was aimed at customers not investors, so how could they understand the strategy or the impact?

Another interesting point of contrast is with the other major deal this weekend - the IAC/InterActiveCorp bid for AskJeeves. That was announced more formally and covered in the mainstream media broadly (New York Times, Washington Post). And the Flickr deal? Barely a mention in the mainstream media beyond the trades like CNET. Granted they're on different scales (the AskJeeves deal is $2bn), but perhaps the lesson we learn is that while blogs are great for audience interaction and feedback, they're just not the right mechanism for acquisition announcements. Not yet anyway.

Papercasting

Papercasting: File under 'Fantastically pointless but hilarious abuse of technology' - write your blog posts on paper, scan them and post up the images. Call it a 'plog' - job done. Great stuff.

Credits: CNET

Ask Jeeves bought for $2bn

The New York Times reports that Ask Jeeves, the fourth largest search engine firm, has been acquired:

IAC/InterActiveCorp, the Internet company headed by Barry Diller, is close to an agreement to acquire  Ask Jeeves Inc., the nation's fourth-largest search engine company, for about $1.9 billion, according to an executive involved in the negotiations.

IAC/Interactive owns a variety of Internet businesses. Its principle holdings are Expedia, Ticket Master, Home Shopping Network, Match.com and CitySearch. The advertising spending on search sites is a rapidly growing business, and experts said last night that Ask Jeeves is well positioned to benefit from that growth.

Remember of course that Ask Jeeves bought Bloglines recently.

While we're at the NYT, it also has an article about Apple's penchant for suing those who disclose secrets around its product launches. A notable quote here is that the Think Secret blog at the heart of the current legal storm gets as much traffic as a typical local newspaper:

One measure of Mr. Jobs's effectiveness as a company evangelist is the Web traffic on Think Secret, the Apple rumor site run by Mr. Ciarelli since 1998. During periods when Apple has product introductions, Mr. Ciarelli said that his site receives as many as five million page views a month. That is a level of Internet popularity roughly equal to that of a typical suburban newspaper.

More frigging with the rigging

Back from the UK and a chance to use the jet-lagged early hours to make some further adjustments to Morgan McLintic on PR.

I've started to use some more descriptive categories such as Media, Blogging, Agency Life to improve navigation. Until now it has all been archived under PR which is a good catch-all tag but not sharp enough - hope that helps. Also added a new clutch of books to the reading list Malcolm Gladwell's Blink and James Surowieki's Wisdom of Crowds following a recent Amazon.com raid.

I've also added Robb Hecht's PR Machine blog to the PR blog roll - some good info there [Hi - Robb]. Robb has commented here before, which reminds me, I've also made the comments more visible so that conversations and additions are more navigable.

Finally I'm also experimenting (rather belatedly) with Flickr - a few test shots from a company event in San Diego which happened to be the first in my iMovie albums. Independently later in the day they announced their acquisition - and I'd been reading the Flickr blog just hours before. Anyway, it's a great service, and they've done well to get acquired when the product is still in beta. Keith Nilsson, vice president of corporate development at Yahoo! said the company would look at firms in any stage of development provided the fit was right at an event I blogged in mid-February.

Yahoo! snaps up Flickr

Yahoo!'s corporate development team has been busy as it extends its services for photos, tagging and blogging, with the acquisition of Flickr. Announced via Flickr's blog (on a Sunday afternoon - there's nothing in Yahoo's press room at the moment). Is this the beginning of the end of formal press releases that a deal is launched through a blog post? Personally I think not, but it's an interesting strategy - one which has gone totally under the radar of the mainstream media thus far.

LEWIS launches RSS feeds for clients

Quick update on what's going on in the engine room of my agency, LEWIS. We've just launched a service called LEWIS Wire, which provides RSS feeds of the press releases issued for all clients. We've noticed that many clients haven't yet RSS-enabled their press rooms, but that reporters are increasingly looking for press release feeds. LEWIS Wire is just coming out of pilot testing, but there are feeds for each client or one for all the news issued by LEWIS in the US. We've also provided the code for clients to place the XML image onto their site.

Initial feedback has been good, but there's clearly a lot of education still needed around RSS (as today's BlogAds survey shows). Still I think there is an opportunity for tech companies to demonstrate they are in the vanguard and to differentiate themselves by being early adopters of RSS news distribution to help journalists. I'm sure RSS distribution will be a change as big as the one from post/fax to email, so there are advantages in embracing it swiftly.

Funnily, I thought we might put out our own press release about launching LEWIS Wire (which we'd put on our LEWIS feed of course), but it felt too much like the press releases about launching a website from the nineties. And besides, it's free and I expect many other agencies will do the same soon (if they haven't already).

Continuing an RSS vibe, we've also been culling a lot of the internal email we have by using internal blogs and feeds. For instance, we produce a daily digest of the news called What's Happening which goes out to an email list of several thousand (mail me here to sign up), which we've RSS-enabled here. Feel free to subscribe to that if you only have time to look at a few feeds each day.

And finally, a warm congratulations to my LEWIS UK colleagues for being selected as one of the 'Top 100 Best Small Companies to Work For' by The Sunday Times. There are several other agencies in the list (good to see), and a nice one for the trophy cabinet.

Right enough, or this will look like a plug when in fact it's meant to be an insight into what's going on. I've got some other RSS-based ideas, so I'll update on those once they come out of the skunk works.