Dinosaur du jour
: I really should stop giving attention to big, old media Flintstones who bang their clubs on their heads and insult bloggers (also known as the public) to get attention. But I guess I can’t resist revealing the idiocy of these blind fools.
The doofus du jour is Randall Rothenberg, once-was ad columnist for the NY Times now biding time in AdAge and as “director of intellectual capital” for Booz Allen (that is, he plays editor of a magazine nobody reads for an overpriced consultancy desperate for attention). There’s no link on the AdAge site (I’ve been trying to get to editor Scott Donaton to bug him about this) and it’s significant that I’ve seen no one else quote the column (guess fewer people read you than read blogs, Rothenberg) so I’ll retype a few of the dingleberries for your entertainment:
Having reflected on blogs for the better part of two year, and having participated in the sport for a short two months, [note that he doesn’t have the balls to give us the address – ed] I am prepared to report that blogging is little more than hype dished out largely by the unemployable to the aimless.
Rather like columns, eh?
Who in the world has the time to read this crap?
He also doesn’t have the balls to list examples of crap. It’s just all crap, it seems. As if crap can’t be printed on paper.
Do some bloggers have sway? About as much as your average op-ed columnist.
I don’t get the insult there. It’s news that a mere blogger crapping crap onto a screen can have the influence of an honored print columnist.
A few even have meager, self-sustaining ad support.
And how much do you make from your column, Randall? Care to compare the take to Josh Marshall’s or various of Nick Denton’s blogs?
And, sure, blogs contributed to the outing of the false “60 Minutes” report on Bush’s National Guard service. But a million monkeys filing second-by-second observations on Web sites would undoubtedly stumble on the real author of Shakespeare’s plays.
I leave that one to you, dear readers. Comment among yourselves.
Blogs are this year’s fad. Decentralizing the power of the press is certainly a signal development. Will a million unemployed press barons emerge? No–only the few who have something important and original to say. In the case of blogs, McLuhan got it wrong: The medium isn’t the message. The message is the message.
Turn the mirror on yourself, commentator. You do no reporting for this dump. If you had, if you talked to the advertisers and agencies I’ve talked to recently, you’d find smart people who realize that this is about a new conversation with the market. They are eager to figure it out. Did you help them one bit? Did you impart any new information? Did you give them any evidence of your pissy position? No, sir, the only thing you’re right about is that the message is the message and you don’t have one.
: ON THE OTHER HAND…. I’m catching up on my AdAges and in the previous week’s issue, Rance Crain (aka the boss) writes a smart column on blogs, the election, and marketing.
So marketers want consumers to be in control, do they?…
Be careful what you wish for. What most marketers haven’t come to grips with is just how much consumers are now calling the shots. They have the ability to change the way ad messages are being received — and even come out with their own counter-messages….
The blog creators are influencers — people who pride themselves on knowing all kinds of arcane, insider details about the product, hence giving themselves credibility with consumers.
What’s clear is that advertising no longer has the luxury of being a one-way monologue….
If blogs are liberating consumers, they are having an equal impact on voters. More and more people are turning to blogs for their take on political events of the day, and traditional journalism is taking the hit….
The journalistic bloggers bypass professional journalists. Will consumer blogs bypass professional advertising agencies? As I said, be careful what you wish for.
