Ad Age Engages Industry Bloggers

It's been quite some time since Advertising Age acknowledged the existence of industry blogs by acquiring Todd Andrlik's Power 150 list and making it their own.  Since then, the mainstream media outlet has taken criticism from active participants in social networks (I.E. bloggers) who weren't very impressed that Ad Age hadn't engaged them beyond expanding a ranking system on their site.  Mack Collier, a marketing blogger who has advised companies like Dell on their own blogging efforts boldly stated that Ad Age had "hoodwinked bloggers":

"Ad Age would now have a vested interest in promoting Ad/PR/Marketing bloggers. The publication could now use these bloggers as sources for articles, or even interview some of them.

...But now 4 months later, the only thing that I can see that Ad Age has done to leverage the Power 150, is to create a nifty 'badge' that any member of the Power 150 can add to their blog. And yes, this badge links back to Ad Age's site."

Fast forward 6 months later and I find myself in a round table meeting at  the Advertising Age office in NYC.  I wasn't alone.  Respected industry voices such as Rohit Bhargava, Matt Dickman, Ann Handley, Geoff Livingston and others were there as well.  And at the head of the table, sat Jonah Bloom—Ad Age's editor for all things digital.  I won't go into the conversation as you can read about it here, but I wanted to point our some other items of interest.

In addition to the round table, many of us were recently sourced for a story about having a "Chief Blogger", this was in response to the news of Kodak appointing one.  If you read that article, you will notice that Ad Age is using pictures that they took from that round table session.  And one last thing.  I am participating in a new group blog on Ad Age titled "Digital Next".  I join other industry voices such as Troy Young, Colleen DeCourcy and Ian Schafer.

And this brings me to what I think is the real story here.  I was really tempted to title this post, "Ad Age Engages New Voices" as I don't think this is about bloggers as much as I think it's about broadening the editorial net to include alternative sources of information.  Right now, traditional media is facing intense competition for people's time and attention.  Why?

Google

Even the highest level CEO, CMO or executive knows how to use their favorite search engine to find relevant content on the Web.  This means that in addition to the industry publications they trust, it's likely that they will come across very relevant content that isn't produced by the "professionals".  In the long tail—what gets the most traffic comes up higher in the search engines.  While much of the content produced by the "non professionals" isn't high quality—some of it is, and search engine rankings confirm that opening the gates to niche information and additional perspectives.

So I'm validating the new Advertising Age strategy to engage "bloggers" through this post itself.  They knew I would write it—they knew I would link to them.  But that's not why they are doing this (though I think it's a positive perk).  My guess is that Ad Age has come to realize that the practitioners in this space—the active participants who are speaking from actual experience vs. theory have something of value to bring to the table.  And they may just be coming to terms that their audience is ready to hear some new voices.  At least that's my opinion.  But that's why you come here right?   

Comments

[Daniel Riveong]

David,

Thanks for blogging about this. This is a large endorsement that blogging is becoming a more regular part of the entire media spectrum with both "traditional" journalist engaging bloggers and vice-versa.

So when is AdAge going to come to the San Francisco Bay Area?

Daniel

[Sean Howard]

I know one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt after reading your article.

I have to wear that sweater more often.

:)

I think you hit it on the head. Google is certainly leveling the field in a lot of ways. I was impressed with how Marketing Profs is approaching half of AdAge's subscriber count.

Interesting that Ann's strategy has been to involve other voices (niche expertise) since day one... Part of the reason for her success, perhaps?

[Geoff Livingston]

That roundtable was hot. I thought we had some fantastic discussions, and iI hope at some time they make that audio feed available to us.

Great meeting you, too, Dave.

[Ann Handley]

Damn. I wish I thought of starting a group blog.

[RichardatDELL]

David,
thrilled to see you have a roll in this... as you should. You know this beat inside out. You know the industry well. You have a great blog and stature in blogging. Most importantly, you bring talent and a solid point of view (not to mention a hat I keep seeing you in).

I am reassured to learn of your involvement as I gave Ad Age a tough time about their approach to blogging in in one of my first posts as a blogger. Its here: http://richardatdell.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html

Congratulations, and good on you David

[Valeria Maltoni]

You go, Ann!

[David Sanchez]

David, I hope your aspiration and transparency remains neutral after your AdAge encounter. You are a public figure and work on a prominent, conglomerate owned shop. Partial Neutrality and bias is a prime factor for my self returning here. ciò non è un concorso orinante! Cheers!

[Todd And]

Ad Age did a really nice spread in the print edition. You can see a photo of it on my post at http://tinyurl.com/3uapn5

[Gavin Heaton]

LOL Sean & Ann.

That puts MarketingProfs about two years ahead of the game?

[Mack Collier]

Sean made a brilliant comment and there's something worth noting about Ad Age's strategy vs Marketing Profs.

Ad Age appears to still be trying to find a way to leverage popular bloggers to increase exposure for themselves. Ann has always tried to identify what she felt were good writers, because she wanted to improve the overall product that Marketing Profs and Daily Fix offered. I can tell you that I had very little if any 'name recognition' among bloggers when Ann offered me the chance to blog for Daily Fix in early 2006. I can also tell you that a great deal of whatever level of influence I have now, is based on my being associated with Daily Fix.

Ann has created a way for both Daily Fix and its writers to grow together. That's why DF and MP are both booming in popularity.

[Hjörtur Smárason]

Sounds like a good move. It's great if new voices are being heard. Like you said, there is a lot of quality stuff out there that isn't getting the attention it deserves.