Here's a sad tale of business blogging gone wrong... really wrong: Blogging As You Go Belly Up (Aug. 15, 2005 issue of Business Week ). Paul Purdue, CEO of iFulfill.com, blogged away (here) as his company went down in flames and irate customers posted scathing comments.
Now comes a remarkable point-counterpoint in which blogging consultant B.L. Ochman (liberally quoted in the BW article) demands a retraction from BW reporter Stephen Baker. In the original version of the article (it's in the Aug. 15 print edition) he quotes her as telling Purdue to "create a scandal" to create buzz for his blog.
B.L. denies using those words... and gets a retraction here on BW's Blogspotting blog. Amazingly, the plot thickens...
If you scroll down after the short post by Baker ("Correction in iFulfill story"), you'll see several long comments left by an "anonymous" reader (signed as "[email protected]"). "Anonymous" accuses B.L. of giving iFulfill's Purdue poor advice... and of taking advantage of the fuss over the retraction to create buzz for her own blog.
I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
Suffice it to say that this is a fascinating example of the new interplay between blogs, mainstream media - and their readers. Blogger Glenn (last name?) comments on this particular episode:
"You just have to believe that there is something truly powerful going on here. It's the conversation, the instant notification, the response mechanism, the correction, the feed and the speed."
(Yes, I stole from the Blogspotting tagline: "Where the worlds of business, media and blogs collide.")
"Blogger Glenn (last name?)"
That would be Glenn Davies, Debbie. Thanks for the quote.
Posted by: Glenn Davies | August 23, 2005 at 01:38 AM