PR Consideration - Don't Let Blogs Spoil A Launch

Steve Rubel revealed the fact that Om Malik broke a story on his blog instead of on his publication's website regarding Technorati's funding news. Steve makes a good point as to why Om chose to break the news on his blog. Perhaps he feels that it'll circulate faster in the blogosphere than it would as an afternoon story on the Business 2.0 website. Or maybe he is going to use feedback to his blog story as a way of finding a new angle to the bigger story he plans to write for Business 2.0. It's an interesting idea and in the end, I think it's exciting when news breaks on a blog. The situation also got me thinking about the PR ramifications of Om's blog. I've got to assume that there is a PR team in place to help Technorati announce it's funding news. According to Om's post, he researched the news by first sending a note to Technorati and after they declined to comment, he went to the lead investor who confirmed it. So who was or will be burned by this story? Or was Om and his blog the target all along? I'm inclined to think that this news leaked out and although it found a good landing spot on Om's blog, there is a team working hard to adjust their launch strategy and preserve the news value of the funding announcement. PR consultants out there should take this into consideration. If you're preparing a traditional launch - long leads, analysts, short leads, wires, onlines, etc. - you better factor blogs into the mix and calculate the chance that someone gets tipped off and posts a story about the news they've uncovered.

Comments

[Melissa Jane]

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[Saschia]

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[Jeremy]

Typepad wouldn't let me add the address as a hyperlink, so you have to cut and paste the Red Herring article that was about Blinkx having to launch early: http://redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=10770&hed=Next+Wave:+Too+much+publicity?.

I'm using X1 right now, and I absolutely love it. Great product. I'll have to try out Blinkx and do a taste test comparing the two.

[Evelyn Rodriguez]

Maybe this wouldn't work for every product/service category. But the fact that Technorati - after all, this is the World Live Web's search engine - announcement was scooped on Om's blog seems fitting. It almost would have been odd if Technorati actually had gone through the traditional launch process you describe.

You do raise some good points as to how this affects other types of companies that I'm still musing on.

[Matthew Podboy]

Thanks for the info, Jeremy. I remember reading about blinkx on Om's blog (and by the way, I've been trying it for a few weeks now and am enjoying it so far) but I didn't know that his post disrupted their launch.

[Jeremy]

Om did the same thing to Blinkx - they were at the Business 2.0 offices, he liked their technology, so he blogged about them. It forced the company to launch earlier than they wanted to.

Here's the