Monday, November 07, 2005

MSM lagging behind the corporate blog story

The mainstream media is still in "hey look at blogs" mode. I'm disappointed. I'm looking for more insight and anecdotes about how corporations are leveraging blogs, but I'm not finding it. It seems to be the same stories everyday about Kryptonite locks, Microsoft's Robert Scoble, etc.

The local newspapers in the U.S. are still slowly rolling out their: "what is a blog?" articles. Even the Financial Times felt obliged last week to state "...Weblogs, or blogs, ..." And the had the trite lead: "To blog, or not to blog? That is the question vexing marketing managers ...."

The Wall Street Journal* had a good piece on the value of blogs, but they, too, felt obliged to define them in the lead:

"IT USED TO BE rare for an established, mainstream company to buy an
individual's personal blog. Blogs are frequently updated online journals,
written by pretty much anybody -- professionals, hobbyists or regular Joes
reaching out to share their thoughts, information and photographs with
others.

The New York Times for the most part is hip to the blog story. They don't feel the need to define blogs in every article, when the context makes it obvious.
*Full disclosure, my company, Factiva, is half owned by Dow Jones, the publisher of the WSJ.

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