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Jeremy Zawodny's Ridiculous PR Proposal

One too many press releases from hell landed in his inbox and blogger Jeremy Zawodny is mad as hell. Zawodny is seeking a source for a tech PR blacklist because he gets "so damned much spam (I mean "pitches") that I'm starting to think that life would be better if I just blocked email from all the big names in Tech PR."

I'm all for outing flacks who send unsolicited attachments, blast out press releases, and spam reporters and bloggers. And anyone who reads this blog knows that I often do. But Zawodny's proposal is about as ridiculous as Russell Beattie's recent anti-PR rant.

The bottom line is that PR has an image problem and it needs to be fixed or the profession will lose what little credibility it still has.

Get a life
This is an age old problem that journalists have bitched about forever. Fat lot of good it's done, since a lot of clueless flacks are still practicing. Bloggers, new to PR press lists, are seeing first-hand what all the complaining has been about. And guess what, there'll still be good flacks and bad flacks next year and the year after that.

A good spam filter will let you get rid of the worst offenders Jeremy. Deep breath.... Move on.

public_relations, PR

Categories: Blogging and Moblogging, Internet PR, Media Relations, Press Release From Hell, Public Relations, Worst Practices

BL Ochman | Jul 20 05 2:02 | TrackBack (1)

Comments

I can understand what Jeremy is going through but I guess this is what differentiates a BLOGGER and a JOURNALIST. On smallbiztechnology.com I get bunches of pitches but that's how the "game" works. PR pitch me and I write for my audience.

I would suspect that a blogger has a different mindset and is not used to being "pitched" dozens and dozens of times as the NY Times, WSJ or any other media/journalist would be pitched.

I don't see myself as a blogger but as a tech journalist and editor.

Posted by: Ramon Ray at July 21, 2005 10:22 AM

This discussion about whether bloggers are journalists has gone on ad nauseum. My opinion is that we are journalists. And PR people come with the territory. And no, I don't want to debate whether bloggers are journos. :>)

Posted by: BL at July 21, 2005 1:34 PM

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Keep their pitches where you can see them from For More Information...
"Outernet marketing conduit" BL Ochman called the proposal "ridiculous". And it's caused a bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth from others in PR. Jeremy Zawodny's proposal to create a blacklist of flacks who effectively spam bloggers has certainly rai... [Read More]

Tracked on July 20, 2005 6:14 PM

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About BL Ochman

Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the Ethics Crisis blog for SRF Global Translations

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