PR spin? It’s spun up!
Claire Cain Miller’s article in The New York Times, Spinning the Web: P.R in Silicon Valley, ignited the blogosphere this week. Just last night, in catching up on my reading, it seemed I couldn’t find a post without a reference to her article.
And there’s good reason for that: It’s an insightful, well-researched report that demonstrates solid, well-founded, journalist skills that produces information for which people just might be willing to pay.
At least, certainly, they are willing to talk about it.
Social media heavyweights like Michael Arrington and Robert Scoble were quick to join the conversation. Alas, I didn’t see a reference on Mashable. Sorry Claire, you can’t win them all, but in addition to doing your job well, you’ve definitely scored a PR victory for The New York Times.
For all the debate about PR and its merits and drawbacks, one different observation I made was that The New York Times framed the issue. This wasn’t a story broken by the bloggers or Twitter that the Times then picked up, rather it was the Times that lead the charge.
Okay, it wasn’t breaking news. No sex. No drugs. No violence. But it was still attractive and my point is to say, it’s the kind of in depth reporting that I believe has brought healthy revenue for outlets like The Wall Street Journal and The Economist in a time when the rest of the industry seems to be struggling.
Bottom line? Traditional media still matters. Claire proved that this week.
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Photo credit: Flickr, Archangel12 (CC BY 2.0)
