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peter.roj.as

yeah, I finally started a personal blog

Some thoughts on what that TechCrunch intern did and how this is not normal for tech bloggingFebruary 5

I’ve been blogging for a long time now — going on nine years now, even if I’m not doing it professionally anymore — and if there’s one thing that bugs me is the contention that blogs can’t live up to, or even exceed, the editorial standards of newspapers and magazines. In fact, I’ve written for magazines, newspapers, and blogs, and I can say that I’ve seen far more ethical lapses at magazines than I’ve ever seen at any of the blogs I’ve written for.

Which is why I think that Arrington did the right thing by going public about a TechCrunch intern’s acceptance of — and apparently demand for — compensation from companies seeking coverage on the site. It was important to draw a very clear line in the sand there and make it clear that this sort of thing is unacceptable and not business-as-usual.

And to me that’s the crucial thing here, that this sort of quid pro quo is not common in the tech blogosphere. There’s a lot of cynicism out there about blogs, but I think that a lot of us forget that the core quality that defines any publication is credibility. It takes time to accrue it, and the way you keep it is by being honest with your readers and transparent about your relationships. And part of being credible means going beyond transparency and recognizing that there are things you simply don’t do. My basic rule when I was running Engadget was: Don’t do a

Update on Ogilvy/Zync/AmExJanuary 13

I’d like to think that CES was the most interesting thing to happen to me so far this year, but more than a few people have emailed/IM’d/tweeted asking to find out what happened after I posted that pitch Ogilvy sent on behalf of AmEx’s Zync card, so I figured I’d post an update.

It actually didn’t take long for representatives from both Ogilvy and AmEx to call after my post — it was maybe half an hour before my phone started ringing — and over the past week I’ve had some really good conversations with people from both companies. Everyone I spoke with was apologetic and made it clear that this was a deviation from their usual way of doing things, and I accept both their apologies and that this isn’t usually how they operate (in fact the reason I posted this email is because it seemed so out there).

Anyway, I wasn’t looking for an apology, but it was nice to get one and I sincerely hope they understand that my intention wasn’t to cause anyone any grief as much as it was to try in some very small way to reduce the amount of dumb marketing being done these days. It was pretty encouraging to hear from a lot of people working in marketing and PR who told me they agreed with what I’d written and also felt that there were smarter ways to do this stuff.

Ogilvy engages in tone deaf social media marketing for the AmEx Zync cardJanuary 5

Yesterday I got an email from a social media marketer at Ogilvy about a new card that American Express is introducing and how they’d like to strike up an “exclusive relationship” with me. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant by that, but I’d done some work for AmEx in the past — I spoke to some of their executives about the future of mobile a few years ago — and so I figured I’d at least see what was up. I wrote back (and this is all I wrote back), “Could you give me an overview of what you’re describing?”

The email below is what I received in return. If you can get past all the buzzwords (“for 20somethings by 20somethings”, seriously?), basically the deal is that in exchange for the “privilege” of signing up for the Zync card I get to give AmEx free consulting (because paying me would make me lie to them, apparently) and then host a party where I can market the Zync card to my “network”.

So let me get this straight: I get to sign up for a product where they make money (in terms of card fees), where I give them advice and insight that AmEx used to think was worth paying for (but now is not because that would make me dishonest), and then to wrap it all up I get to pimp out all my closest friends? I can’t believe AmEx would be stupid enough to give Ogilvy money for this program, I hope they convinced them to accept payment in Zync card accounts and tweet-ups.

UPDATE: I should make it clear that it’s not about gettin

Just updated WordPress…August 8 2009

…and testing to see if it’s working properly.

A big day for newsJuly 22 2008

So kind of a big day for me: RCRD LBL rolled out a redesign of the front page that better highlights all of the awesome music we’re putting out there AND Ryan Block just announced that he’s leaving Engadget to work on a totally new project with me. This is about as good as I think my life can get, I’ve never been more excited or happier about the stuff I’m working on. The redesign of RCRD LBL caps off Phase 1 of the site; we’re going to be rolling out a TON of new features and new sites over the next nine months or so in Phase 2. I can’t say as much about what I’m working on with Ryan, but I will say that I’m really looking forward to launching it in the near future (but not TOO near).