Holmes Report Articles Misses Really Big Picture on Internet and Blogging

Paul Holmes, editor of The Holmes Report, writes in the current issue:

"For those who expected the Internet to change everything, and to do so overnight, the big shock must be how little things have changed. Yes, every newspaper now has its own website, and the pressure to break news in real time has led to some lowering of standards. But new, Internet-only media have been slow to evolve. Online magazines like Slate and Salon donít differ dramatically from their offline counterparts (not surprising, given that Slate is owned in part by Microsoft) and the Internet has produced precisely one big-name reporter: Matt Drudge." (The entire lengthy article is posted on MicroPersuasion.)

In fact, the Internet has changed everything. It is 100 percent more difficult for a company to hide bad news, scandals, and consumer rip-offs. The Internet has created international price competition and changed the way companies must do business. A small company providing good service has the opportunity to be more successful than a mega-giant thanks to e-commerce on the Internet.

Even before bloggers, e-mail -- available to everyone with access to the Internet -- allowed opinions to spread virally around the world in minutes. And once opinion, rumor or news is out there, companies may have to fight for years to counter public opinion that previously had no mass voice. Bloggers often start or add to the chorus and their reach can be tremendous: from the Internet to traditional outlets.

Calling Matt Drudge a journalist is certainly a huge stretch. And to say the Internet has produced only one big-name reporter is malarkey. In many cases, it is the name of the blog and not the individual writer who is now an opinion maker. Instapundit gets millions of readers a week; as do Boing Boing, Gawker, Wonkette and several others.

These bloggers, and many others, are trolled for material by journalists of every stripe. Bloggers are quoted in news articles and on TV news. It is very head in the sand not to acknowledge that this is the real sea change.

Important digital journalists also abound: Steve Outing, Dan Gillmor, Romanekso, and many dozens more.

And don't forget the impact the Internet, and blogs, are having on the US presidential campaign. MoveOn.Org can mobilize 30,000 people to an event in under two weeks with nothing more than email. Both parties have raised millions of dollars on the Internet. You'd really have to have your head in the sand to say that the Internet isn't influencing politics!

I take issue with those who believe every corporation should have a blog, or that every CEO should be the blogger. Blogs aren't for every company any more than having a newsletter is a necessity for every single firm.

In articles written and published widely over the past two years, I have given many dozens of examples of companies using blogs in their marketing mix. My article, "What Could Your Company Do With a Blog," has been one of the top 10 articles on MarketingProfs site for many weeks. http://www.marketingprofs.com/4/ochman5.asp

Blogs work for these companies because they offer an outstanding and cheap content management system; the ability to publish instantly without the help of an IT department or programmers; and because they allow interactivity with customers.

Holmes also writes, "as an (sic) not particularly representative example, the news that John Kerry had chosen John Edwards as his running mate was broken by an aviation industry blogger who noted the new decals on the candidateís plane."

Among the other stories that broke in blogs have been:
- the capture of Saddam Hussein, first reported first by bloggers
- lies about Kerry's supposed intern affair, countered in blogs before mainstream press
- bloggers forcing the resignation of Trent Lott when mainstream media was ignoring the issue

Holmes makes several very god points about blogs, but he misses the big picture ñ the Internet has changed everything and blogs are one of the reasons.

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