Is a blog as good as a press release?

Former Merrill Lynch and Oppenheimer analyst Henry Blodget of Internet Outsider - which is where Henry pretends to still be an analyst, even though his legal settlement with Eliot Spitzer prevents him from actually becoming one again - has posted a long rant about Google announcing a proposed settlement in a “click fraud” case. Among other things, he seems upset that the search company disseminated this info by posting something on the official Google blog. Here’s what he says:

“To make matters worse, the company released its “statement” about the settlement on its blog. A $90 million payout on a critical issue at the forefront of every Google observer’s mind… and the company has an anonymous associate general counsel type up an “update” on a freaking blog. Google needs some new PR people, and it needs them now.”

Anyone agree with that? I’m not sure I do. I may not believe that the traditional press release is dead, but I would agree with Steve Rubel that blogs are serving the same function for many companies - and rightly so. Why shouldn’t Google put out news by posting something to the blog? I assume the company is still complying with disclosure in other ways, such as filing to various securities-related newswires and so on. And smart reports for wire services are watching the Google blog and filing stories about what they put there.

Want to keep up with Google’s statements on something? Subscribe to their RSS feed. I’m not sure why Henry thinks this is such a huge deal, unless it’s that blogs are somehow a joke and “real” companies do things the old-fashioned way, by sending out press releases and email spam and so on. How is posting on a blog any different than putting a press release on your website? Plenty of companies do that and no one complains.

Update:

Henry has expanded on why this bothered him. Still don’t see it, Hank.

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Tagged as: Blodget, blog, click+fraud, Google, press+release

Viewing 14 Comments

Brian 2 years ago 1 point
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Plenty of companies do that and no one complains.

Good to hear. We release stuff 'the old fashioned way' but a great deal of 'stuff' we do is simply not worth the time and energy it takes to do a PR right, but we do want people to know about it. Thus, the blog.

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/pd 2 years ago 1 point
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I think the beef he has there is that legal counsel have opted to blog their settlement decesion -rather then the larry/serge group put out a pr statement.

The real question should be- if the ceo/coo were to blog would that be the same as a press release ??

In fact jonathan (sun) does most of that himself via a blog !!

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http://peterdawson.tyepad.com

mark evans 2 years ago 1 point
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he would have been better off focusing on the settlement amount, which is far more troubling financially and strategically than how google decides to release information. blodget is bang on when he points out google dismisses click fraud on one hand only to fork over $90M a week later.

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http://evans.blogware.com

Mathew 2 years ago 1 point
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Aw, come on -- what's $90-million? Pocket change :-)

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Neal Lachman 2 years ago 1 point
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Dear Mark,

I don't know you, but you state that you write for the G&M. That means you are a journalist/reporter. The first job of a journalist/reporter is to report FACTS and not gossip or guesses. You are accusing Henry Blodget of still acting like an analyst, and that too in terms that he is violating his settlement.

You have clearly NOT researched well enough. Read the post of his titled "Why I don't own Google" and the disclaimer which he links to. You can find the post in the left menu on www.internetoutsider.com

I hope you will correct your accusations and not play on the person anymore.

Regards,

Neal S. Lachman

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Mathew 2 years ago 1 point
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Neal:

Thanks for your note. As it happens, I'm not a reporter, I'm a
columnist -- which means what I write is my opinion on various topics,
much like my blog is. And it's my opinion that what Henry is doing on
his blog is almost exactly what an analyst does, although as you
mentioned there is a disclaimer (which I have mentioned in the past).
I'm not saying that's right or wrong, I'm just calling it as I see it.

Mathew

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Neal Lachman 2 years ago 1 point
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Mathew, sorry for calling you Mark ;-)

I think you should be careful with the power of your column and blog. When you are opinionated about a subject it is one thing, but when it goes about something criminal or in violation you may be putting things in people's mind. Even I'd love to know your opinion about FTTH and BWA, but you are neither a judge of character nor a policeman.

Furthermore, you are a technology specialist, not a financial expert or a SEC regulator or lawyer. This means there are no professional grounds on which you can actually judge Blodget. Thus, all you do is giving an opinion that has nothing to do with your profession, but which can harm a man badly.

Please, rethink.

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Mathew 2 years ago 1 point
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Neal:

I am not a policeman, as you mentioned, nor am I a regulator or a
lawyer. But I have been researching and writing about technology and
the stock market -- including brokerages and analysts -- for 15 years,
so I think I'm entitled to my (allegedly) imformed opinion. I doubt
that the SEC is going to read my comments and suddenly slap Henry in
handcuffs and drag him away to Riker's Island. But I appreciate your
concerns.

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/pd 2 years ago 1 point
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Hey Neal, how come your the spokes person for Henry ?? Can't he comment here-- on this forum, for himself ??

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http://peterdawson.typepad.com

Dave Forde 2 years ago 1 point
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The world has CHANGED press releases serve a very narrow target, but blogs now open up a company to a wider audience, and now have the ability to 'engage' their customers, employes and share holders (if a public company). If one of the companies goals is to gain more customers, then what a better way to get a sense for the company, its values, level of service but to read their blog which allows for a "two way" conversation to happen with a post + comments.

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Neal 2 years ago 1 point
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/pd I think Mathew should then post the last response I wrote in the email thread.
I didn't post my note to this blog as a comment, I had emailed Mathew. I was not playing Henry's spokeperson, I just can't stand it when people accuse others. I have let it rest.

I came to this blog because i saw a trackback link on Henry's blog, and it struck me odd that Mathew started with an insinuation/accusation. I have copied below the text of my last email to Mathew.

> I emailed again with permission to publish. Go ahead.
> I acknowledge your informed opinion, and my prime concern is not the law,
> but people's opinion. Anyway, Henry is a big boy, he can stand up for
> himself if he'd feel the need to. What I am truly concerned about here is
> that there is a difference between an opinion about something and an
> opinion
> about somebody. But let's rest it here.
>
> Regards,
>
> Neal

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http://www.nealsperspective.com

Mathew 2 years ago 1 point
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Sorry, Neal -- I should have posted that one too.

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Neal 2 years ago 1 point
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Mathew, don't worry. I know you didn't leave it out intentionally.
Good luck with this blog. You have quite some interesting topics and posts.

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pasparty 2 years ago 1 point
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