I wonder if 2010 will be the year that mainstream marketing starts to understand the reach of online publishing. A recent exchange I had doesn’t bode well for it:
“Hi Kyle,” barked the PR guy on the other end of the line, “[COMPANY NAME] accidentally emailed us your request to try out a [GADGET NAME]”.
“Um, OK,” I said.
“We represent [DIFFERENT COMPANY NAME] and were wondering if you’d like to look at a [ANOTHER GADGET NAME] too”.
“Um, OK,” I said.
“You could probably do a round-up in Spiffy Widgets Magazine,” he said eagerly, completely misunderstanding how technology journalism actually works.
“Well, actually, I just write for the web site,”
“Oh,” he said, a little sadly, “Do you think you can get something into print?”
“Not in Spiffy Widgets Magazine,” I said.
“Do you write for anyone else?” he asked, a little desperately.
“Yes, I do. Web Thing Monthly, Shiny PC, Computer and Video Insides…”
“Yeah, yeah,” he interrupted. Then, sighing, said, “OK, we’ll get a handset out to you by the end of the week. Bye, Kevin”.
“Cool. Do you need my address?”
Click. Brrrrrrrrr.