Articles by gdugardier

It seems like France might be the first country to face this issue… You certainly know how blogging is popular in France, and fortunately or unfortunately we are sometimes experiencing some strange mixes that might be considered as out of the PR ethics boundaries, but you’ll tell me if you agree or not with this story.

We have a french blogging magazine, it’s an online one only, that was initially the initiative of several bloggers, who decided to scan the french blogosphere and share informations on their blog. Nothing really original, but a good idea. And certainly the first blogzine in France. Few months ago, this blogzine has been relaunched after having being bought by…. a PR agency… Some additional bloggers have been “hired” to blog there, and between them you have one professional journalist, also blogging in the same time for a national daily.

So first question: is it a good thing to see a PR agency acquiring and by the way “controlling” a media …? What about impartiality ? Then, second question, what about having bloggers that are at the same time professional journalist and blogger, say citizen journalist ? Can both coexist in the same guy ?

An other amazing thing happen recently: a blog has been launched to cover Apple Expo in Paris, some bloggers have been hired/asked to cover the show. And what happened ? Some of these bloggers, official member of this grassroots journalist team have been censured… Will you still be surprised if I tell you that Apple Expo is the client of the PR agency who launched this blog ? And is also the one who owned the media in the first part of my post…?

Things are going so fast in the blogosphere, it seems that boundaries are outpassed sometimes, we saw fake blogs, bloggers paid to blog, but in this case I am describing, I am afraid the situation is much more dangerous for the balance between each actors of the communication chain.

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Sometimes it happen that everything goes wrong and that the expected result is far from happening… That’s a story about PR, such a powerfull tool in communication as theonly one able to build such a credibility to a brand, but also the most dangerous as you never know till the article is published if the interview will happen, if the journalist will come, when it will be published, if it will be printed…

I am at the end of my worst PR day of the last decade… I am at tthe same time exhausted and feeling so free, as this hectic day is now behind… What is it about ? Ok, let me tell you the story.

I have had to organize a corporate press tour today in Paris for one of my client, an IT company leader on it’s market, 40% market share in the US, first competitor with 20 % of the market, so far behind, 1,4 billion dollars revenu, and the cofounder & COO to come in Europe for a one week press tour. Targeted journalist: high level business daily + national daily. Do you get the brief ? ;o)

Problem in France re this kind of press tour: we have 2 daily economics: La Tribune, Les Echos ( our Wall Street Journal) and that’s all. We have 2 main national daylies: Le Monde, Libération. That’s quite all that fits with the target for this day. Second problem: who said that the journalist of these publications are speaking english ?? You probably know the bad reputation we have in France with english….

Ok, so I’ve been able to set up those interviews, I had La Tribune, Les Echos, Libération but unfortunately not Le Monde, the IT journalist was on a trip planned 3 weeks ago, bad luck…. I’ve been able to find people speaking english, or at least a bit of english, and high level journalist of course also, chief editors and chief columnist….

The press tour was planned for today, so wednesday Paris time. Yesterday at 5pm: call from La Tribune: sorry, won’t be able to make it… sigh…. First cancellation….not a lot of solutions to replace the journalist…. While thinking about a way to sort this out, second phone call: Les Echos: sorry, I am so sick I can’t ever move, and no, sorry again, impossible to send someone else, every one has a story to cover… sigh sigh…..
My corporate press tour was definitely no more on his way to be a success… I tried to find another opportunity, gave a call to Reuters IT journalist, our french Associated Press, fortunately, someone was supposed to be free for the next day, I am saved, another opportunity !!!! Just a quick call to give early wednesday morning to confirm the thime frame, but should be ok… Great, there is a God for PR people !! Cool… Taking the chance when it’s around, I gave another call to an IT journalist working for an online IT publication talking about market trends, got him, ok for 11 am. Waooo….. Last time, but fine….We have a kind of compensation.

Wednesday morning, 9 am, breakfast at the Hilton with the Director of the European leading agency for this client and the COO-cofounder, I escape 2 minutes to confirm the time of the meeting with Reuters, everything is still fine, it will happen at 10 am, we can go back to the breakfast, then we go in the meeting room to prepare the last logistics things, the client is going back in his room to take something…. 10 to 10: phone call on my mobile, I miss the call, it’s the voice mail: it was Reuters, journalist call to say he won’t make it, another meeting to attend… Sometimes you really feel like a “poor lonesome cowboy far…far…away from home…”. The living nightmare… What have I done to the sky …. Why me… Ok, the client has arrived in the meeting room, I have 2 minutes to find someone else or I am dead…
Hopefully I found a solution, another phone interview thanks to my personal contact in the press, the two other meetings went well, the press tour finished at 3 pm, I am free, end of this unbelievable day….Back to the office, other stuff, and then back home…

So what happened…This press tour was destinated to introduce the CoFounder to the press and to share his vision on the market trends. Ok, interesting, but not “latest news”. That was the weakness and the main threat. We were dealing with dailies, and dailies have to cover what comes in the news: this is what happened in 2 cases out of 3, as the journalist of Les Echos was really sick… Other threat: not a lot of choice, as only few title where in the target, so no back up if something went wrong as, more over, we required high level journalist + speaking english… A lot of difficult conditions at the end…

Do you know what ? The next press tou has already been announced …

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