Just read a really interesting story by Jason Horowitz over on The New York Observer called ‘Publicists Lauded for Flackery; P.R. Gods Get Freedom From Press.‘
It spells out how Richard W. Edelman, president and chief executive of the public-relations firm Edelman, sees blogs as setting them free from the tyranny of mainstream media.
Speaking at PR Week’s annual public-relations awards:
“It used to be I would schmooze you and I was your flack,” said Mr. Edelman, whose firm netted about $260 million in 2005. “Today, if we want to get a message into the public’s conversation, we just make a post on a blog. If The Wall Street Journal goes after a client, we don’t have to accept that anymore. Let’s post the documents we gave The Journal; let’s show the interviews the newspaper decided not to show. “You’re not God anymore,” he said.”
It is amazing to me that while blogs are lauded as a new and potent defense against spin doctors and marketing hype (and rightfully so) that the world of spin doctors has been similarly set free.
Now that’s a powerful shift in our collective reality.
