Fake newspapers. Much ado about nothing?
Are there fake newspapers online? And who manages them? Are they to be criticized or praised? Side considerations on journalism, communication, lobbying and online reputation of managers. Francis Walsingham's letter
Dear director,
I'll tell you frankly: you're exaggerating. You're getting stuck on an issue I raised. Damn me and when did I feel like sending you that little letter .
But as web experts and communicators also told you – I see from your last piece -, everyone knew everything: that is, that there are fake newspapers with real marketettes, as you old-fashioned journalists say, that is, sites that are not newspapers but content portals on companies and managers . A cauldron in which press offices, communicators and external relations workers drink and wallow.
I honestly don't see where the scandal is. Or do you think it's just you journalists who have a monopoly on information? Especially since information in fact is now very little: everything (or almost everything) is communication. You are the one who has a romantic, i.e. dated, idea of the profession.
Updated. In fact – as I see – they rightly called you ignorant of the web.
Simply take note that there are not only newspapers on the web, there are sites with content on companies and managers; we could call it in some ways service information, a service that is also useful to interested companies and top managers.
And these sites – a dozen?, hundreds?, who can say? – legitimately contribute to having a weight (certainly less than the large newspapers and newspapers) in the online reputation of companies and their directors and presidents.
I don't understand where this is the case.
Okay, you'll tell me: last night on described in detail in my previous letter and which your collaborator Claudio Trezzano further explored.
I checked and it's true.
So what? So nothing. Do you think that a certain number of sites, which have little or no indexing, have a positive impact on the online reputation of company executives? Come on.
You just have to realize that – being of a certain age, but still younger than mine – you are tied to outdated, obsolete patterns.
But sorry: is the president of a Serie A football team the publisher of the major sports newspaper or not? Everyone knows it, and therefore those who read the Gazzetta dello sport know that it is owned by the president of Torino, Urbano Cairo.
Is a small but well-made web newspaper dedicated to technology edited and directed by a consultant to the undersecretary of the Prime Minister who is responsible for technological innovation? Yes: it is very clear to professionals. Long live transparency.
By your logic, lobbying firms shouldn't put newspapers online or join newspapers and magazines as partners . Instead it happens, as in the case of Utopia, and it is healthy for information: because in this way glasnost is maximum, evident and welcome. The more voices, the better.
And as I demonstrated to you , a leading communications company like Comin & Partners played with you journalists about the Merlyn fund 's share in Tim and nobody, or almost nobody, said a word.
Maybe it gives you hives, but the fences have finally fallen between journalism, communications and lobbying, so journalists and newspaper editors are appropriately collecting awards for digital communication.
An evolution that is good for your profession, even if you perhaps cannot understand it.
I explain to you. These professional and ethical innovations allow your profession to survive. In fact, you journalists only have to hope – given the cemetery of paper newspapers – that companies, bodies, associations, orders and institutions do not index their sites well (even if many large companies already do so) on search engines, because otherwise even web newspapers would risk becoming superfluous, given the lack of authority and credibility that you journalists have on average: those who search for news and information on the web will finally find only the official press releases of companies, bodies, associations, orders and institutions. Anyway, more or less, you limit yourself to rehashing the press releases.
Meditate well, dear director.
Take a few days off, maybe you need it.
Best regards
Francis Walsingham
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If you're joking, ok: I laughed out loud. If you are not joking, as I think, I will answer you in the next few days. If I have the time and desire. Maybe after having also heard the Reputation Manager version. ( MA )
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/finti-giornali-tanto-rumore-per-nulla/ on Thu, 23 Nov 2023 15:00:10 +0000.