The Bloggers shall not take over! George Patts Y&R and Wunderman need your help!

This was the headline in a recently published AdNews article (AdNews is the top selling advertising magazine in Australia). It is really disappointing when bloggers are highlighted in this traditional media that they are painted as these people who want to take over and gain world domination.

There are a number of problems that I am going to address with article.

1. Us vs. Them
Bloggers are sick and tired of the US vs. THEM debate, we do not want to battle against traditional media. Blogs in a number of areas helps provide news about niche topics. E.g I am really interested in Social Media therefore I love AdNews and B&T for my general news but when I need more specific news on this topic then I will go to bloggers.

2. Bloggers are only news sources
The main argument was that the Top 100 bloggers link to traditional sources more than other sources, there are a number of other things that blogs can offer; a forum for discussion, putting forward ideas, expression outlet.

It does happen the other way as well, just this week B&T wrote a news story about a blog post that I did weeks ago.


3. Journalist are more professional
Here is a great example of point 2 and 3. Have a look at the way journalist for The Age Asher Moses treated blogger Laurel Papworth over her photos with the Uluru, Big Pond saga, can you now tell me who was professional in this situation?


4. Post it note
There is a rip off of a previous campaign, if you had read Bannerblog (Top 5 Australian Marketing Blog, ) you would of seen this before printing?!?!?!? There are plenty better examples

5. Read edit

6. Choose another subject
They could of chosen a number of other things to talk about. Why didn’t they talk about the way that bloggers fit into the new media environment, the best strategies to getting into contact with bloggers, tools that can be used to find the good sources of information in the blogosphere.

7. Video business models
How could you possibly write an article about video business models and not include the Google Ad Words, Seth Macfarlane (Family Guy Creator) and Burger King collaboration, talk about that business model that has been the most recent advancement in the area.

Why am I getting so fired up?
Because AdNews is a reputable source of information and they have shown a lack of criticalJulian Cole thinking into the mechanics of what is really at play in the landscape, not only that but they have brought up a debate that we as marketers and advertisers were never engaged in Bloggers vs. Journalist, (who cares about this, the real question is what is the future going to look like with them working together?)

Edit: After talking with Ben, I realised that point 5 was actually a little too personal, therefore I have excluded it. Sometimes I get a little too fired up.