Bloggers that kill traditional PR

Last night I went to the movie reception of Bella, winner of the Toronto Film Festival, at the Bowery Hotel in New York City. Everyone was there! I was with Tony Bennet and some other actors from the film, inside the roped-off pitiful excuse of a VIP, for the duration of the ceremony. We were surrounded by photographers and reporters from People Magazine to TV and it was hard to hear anyone talk over all the commotion. The film will be out this summer and is premiering on Virgin Airlines!

I chatted with one of the share holders of Virgin for some time about blogs and links. He said while he does email online, he doesn’t read blogs or know much about them. I have met many people who don’t read blogs, but only until recently does everyone know about them. Most of the time news breaks on blogs before other media outlets and it’s a new way for people with a following to reach their audience without going through the traditional PR agency. While getting the attention of bloggers like Om Malik can make or break your business, other’s blog to improve their celebrity or political careers.

David Beckham, soccer player and husband to Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, blogs from his website so you can find out what’s going on in his life, who he’s working with and what current projects he’s involved in.

Today Hillary Clinton released a new “viral video” that reaches out to the Youth community on YouTube.

With video-blogs, blogs, micro-blogs and live-blogging the traditional press release isn’t important like it used to be. Traditional journalists are not fast enough to compete with bloggers. The world doesn’t need to take traditional steps to spread news anymore. I’m waiting for the day when the traditional press release dies and I would like to be one of the first bloggers to kill it. Since I have been working in public relations I can see how this idea would scare people in the industry because ultimatley what it would do is create a power shift to the bloggers. Many people don’t trust bloggers and argue we are too quick to publish.

I get comments on my blog from people claiming to be “real journalists” complaining on punctuation or my style. I don’t get mad at these people who are used to spending a week on a story, crossing their t’s and dotting their i’s. The distribution model has changed and they need to change with it instead of badgering my blog with their comments because that won’t do anything to change the industry. Getting a blog on WordPress or Tumblr will. Traditional media outlets like the New York Times are being forced to blog in order to keep up. Distribution and timing may be the key to a bloggers success, but harvesting a culture around your blog will get you closer to the pay-off point.

Update: See this nice blog reaction.