This week in the Tech PR War Stories podcast, David and I reflect on upheaval at CMP, which laid off 20% of its workforce last week and shuttered some print publications. I suggest that this is the beginning of the end of print publishing in the IT media market and note that the economics of online publishing in that area are now weighted toward using freelance and blogger contributors instead of full-time staff.
David points out that technology companies are becoming more aggressive about launching their own online and even print publications, and that some of the senior editors who have lost their jobs in IT media will move over to work for vendors. We agree that these custom publishing operations are legitimate targets for PR people to place their clients. Now that everyone can publish easily to the Web, the definition of a “media company” is becoming fuzzier.
In Cheers & Jeers, I praise Oovoo, a new videoconferencing service that sent customized video messages to journalists and bloggers as part of its launch campaign. My jeer goes to Dell Computer, which sent a cease-and-desist notice to Consumerist.com, an action that ultimately backfired on Dell. But at least Dell was contrite in blogging about the mistake and even linking to underground photos of unannounced Dell products. My, how times have changed!
Listen to the podcast here (right click to download): 15:05