Do you feel threatened by blogs & their capacity to break news stories?
Not at all. Blogs are just another resource: a useful way to track the popularity of stories, pick up comment and find interesting angles on key issues. To be fair, Real Business is about comment and targeted stories, not a news hound. Perhaps someone like Reuters might have a different view.
How much do you use blogs to source news stories verses PRs?
PRs still generate a lot of leads for us. Although I am partial to a bit of stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com and www.strangenewproducts.com, the blogosphere is a secondary resource. For now.
Have you ever sourced a news story via Twitter?
Every day. You just have to follow the right people. And have a finely-tuned bullsh*t detector.
Do you prefer Twitter for personal or professional communications?
The lines between the two were blurred long ago. But there’s definitely an explosion in “professional” tweeting. Big Brother is watching you, after all. With the social networks logging our every key stroke, you have to be careful about the levels of personal detail you reveal.
What do you think will be the hottest tech issue in 2009?
I’m not sure if this purely “tech” but there will be a lot of noise surrounding “freemium” issue. Now that we’re in a recession, everyone’s scrambling to make some cash from their free services. Think of all the firms just spewing out online data (social networks, newspapers; email providers). It’ll be interesting to see how these companies go about making actual money from consumers as advertising revenue goes down the tubes. Especially when we’ve all got used to having a free ride so far.
What is the worst PR pitch you have ever had?
Ah, there have been so many. I just love it when PRs send me ginormous files that crash my inbox. Then, when my IT genius finally breathes life back into my computer, I find out it was all because of a picture of some suit (who is totally inappropriate for Real Business) that happens to be at billboard-size resolution. That’s always fun.
