The Voce Nation had the opportunity recently to sit down with Mike Bazeley of the San Jose Mercury News and co-author of the SiliconBeat blog to eat pizza, swap stories and share opinions and insights about journalism, public relations and what can best be described as a rapidly evolving media landscape. In fact, if there was one major theme that colored the entire discussion it was that traditional roles for both the editorial and communications sides of the business are evolving - quickly.
Mike and his SiliconBeat co-conspirator, Matt Marshall, are part of a growing group of reporters that are redefining the role of contemporary journalism as the mediasphere and blogosphere collide. Unfortunately, at the moment, being out in front comes at a cost, mostly it’s time. Mike and Matt are pulling double-duty working in their full-time reporting roles at the Mercury News, but also researching and regularly posting original content on SiliconBeat. In a very short window of time, SiliconBeat has become a rather popular news source for the Valley tech community and with that popularity follows an expectation (err, demand) that a standard of quality and consistency will be upheld - which is a good thing, but all good things come at a cost, or so the saying goes. It makes us think that as more publications look to integrate big publishing practices with small ones, it seems inevitable that journalist roles will evolve and full-time “bloggers” will have to be seriously considered as part of a regular reporting staff.
PR roles are evolving too, both in terms of how we work with the media and how we counsel clients. In fact, we spent a lot of time going back and forth on the new tools communicators have available to them to reach audiences. For example, syndication technology (RSS) has lots of potential, but most companies are only scratching the surface with respect to its application. Mike even attested at one point that if for no other reason than to avoid the black holes that are journalists email inboxes, companies should explore syndication of their press materials. We of course also talked about blogging too, the good and the bad and all the stuff that falls in between, and the new role PR is playing within companies as corporate and employee blogs continue to proliferate. While no hard conclusions were reached, a lot of good questions were raised and everyone walked away from the discussion with a better understanding of the issues and trends shaping the media landscape, oh, and full stomachs too…
Filed in 
I think it’s interesting that journalists affiliated with reputable newspapers like the Merc can “report” without the eyes of an editor. They basically can take what they learn, read, hear and then post unfiltered.
Does this mean more inaccurate news will get out there? Does this change how we prepare our executives?
On a positive note, I love the fact that Mike will take content that is not appropriate for the Merc and spin it for his blog. The executive from Adobe example was great — and it’s a great way for us to build the “street cred” of some of our clients while not having to pitch the stories we know are lame and not appropriate for the Merc.
Posted on April 21st, 2005 at 10:30 am
Blogs really are social journalism in a way, they help reach people otherwise not informed about something and for a reporter can help generate a new community of sources, it is not about one-way communication….different stories have different roles, a newspaper vs. a blog had a different need, one more trend focused and the other more “unique” focused….sometimes a blog posting can be less refined and more “raw” and simple…
Posted on April 21st, 2005 at 10:37 am
My take:
1. Blogging can be a full time job.
2. The general public in the blogosphere is an educated and value added group. Their feedback can be beneficial to all companies.
3. Blogging is a growing representation of a companies face and values.
Posted on April 21st, 2005 at 10:42 am
The “wow” factor for me is the huge professional/social networking aspect to blogging. There’s no secret handshake involved to growing your network - a blogger just has to have something impactful (is that a word?) to say. It takes time, sharp wit and an even sharper pen to grow trust and those relationships you build are priceless.
Posted on April 21st, 2005 at 10:43 am
RSS & Media Relations
I came accross this nugget on the Voce Nation blog, in relation to a meeting they had with Mike Bazeley of the San Jose Mercury News and co-author of the SiliconBeat blog Some more proof on why companies should adopt…
Posted on April 21st, 2005 at 5:31 pm
Bazeley Visits the Voce Nation
Cross-posting here to a write up I did on the Voce Nation blog about a recent visit with Mike Bazeley of the Mercury News.
Posted on April 21st, 2005 at 8:54 pm