Blogging Puts PR in a Spin

Jay Rosen, who is an Associate Professor at New York University's Journalism Department and author of the PressThink blog, believes the rise of blogging is posing a major challenge to the PR industry. Rosen argues that because PR is "totally about control," the PR industry will struggle to cope with the proliferation of sources of information and opinions available on the Internet. Journalists, Rosen says, have become "quite reliant on public relations people," while "bloggers don’t really care" about them. Two weeks ago, Richard Edelman, the CEO of Edelman, wrote with alarm about bloggers' disdain for PR people. Earlier this year, his company released a report on some of the implications of blogging for companies, while Issue Dynamics has created a blogger practice group.