THIS IS FROM MORRA’S VERY FINE AND ALWAYS THOUGHTFUL WOMEN AND WORK BLOG, IN A POST ENTITLED: "With all due respect Cindy." Comments are closed on this post so I’m quoting her post here and then posting a response.
MORRA: "First off, I don’t have a Typekey account, so I am going to do a trackback instead.
Cindy Samuels, who is brilliant, is wrong on this post:"
“One of my favorite bloggers sent me a note asking my opinion about a service that pays bloggers to write about client products. It’s not secret, the writers disclose their contracts. Even so, I told her that as an old newsie, I thought that, unless she was desperate for money, she shouldn’t go near the idea. WHY?”
AFTER THE QUOTE, SHE ADDED"Journalists do endorsements, why can’t I? Not that anyone’s asking, of course."
Morra, who unlike me really IS brilliant, asks a fair question. But I don’t think reputable journalists endorse products. They don’t do commercials and use their own language to sell products. If they are busy selling in the context of their coverage – or we are, in the context of our blogs, then why should anyone believe us about anything? How do they know which things are paid for and which are not? When is a blog a blog and when does it become solely a marketing tool?
I may be showing my age, since I was trained as a reporter long ago, but I shudder to think of the consequences of putting PAID ad copy into a post. Let’s keep this conversation going – I respect Morra too much to do anything but think harder about this…..