The Possibility of Myhoo (and Other PR Blog Jots)
BuzzMachine
Jeff Jarvis reports on the speculation of merger between MySpace and Yahoo, in which MySpace would be sold to Yahoo for 25 percent of the latter. Jarvis thinks this may be a brilliant tactical move on Rupert Murdoch’s part, as he could unload MySpace for many times what he paid for it at a time when Facebook is beginning to breathe down its neck. “For Yahoo, this would focus them, I believe, as a social media company. They’d be out of the search business. They’d still have services — email, Flickr, Del.icio.us, chat, personalization, rss — but those should become aps in a larger social world of MySpace and beyond. Their content could also become modules to be distributed socially.”
Grassroots Blog Challenge
PR Squared
Referencing an article calling out AT&T for refusing to market or promote their new $10 subscription plan (a product of their merger with Bellsouth last year), Todd Defren issues a call for the blogosphere to take up the cause themselves. He hopes that other bloggers will point consumers in the right direction towards the cheaper plan, which he argues is far too difficult for them to find on their own if they are unaware it exists in the first place. “I wonder what would happen if the blogging community noisily took up the case: if the blogosphere demanded that AT&T adhere to the spirit of the FCC decree, not just to the letter of the law. Anyone up for a meme? I suggest ATT$10 as a T’rati tag.”
Citizen Journalism and Election '08
The Flack
Peter Himler discusses the “Off the Bus” program, sponsored by The Huffington Post, which seeks to send citizen journalists out on the campaign trail with presidential candidates. Peter is thrilled that the media coverage is being thrown open to the public in this manner, but wonders whether it is necessarily appropriate to give press credentials to any blogger who wants them. Where do the media directors of the campaigns draw the line? “From a PR perspective, however, I wonder about the scalability of the credentialing process, and more specifically, who gets them and who doesn't. By laying down the gauntlet early, do Jay and Arianna hope their now-branded band of bloggers will be given access to the hallowed halls traversed by campaign insiders? (The bet is they don't need it.)”
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