Should You Leak Stories to Media, A-List Bloggers, or the Little Guys?

At the end of Scoble Week, I point to yet another post from one of my favourite tech bloggers.

Having gained a lot of digital ink by leaking his departure from Microsoft to a bunch of bloggers, Robert Scoble questions the value of holding out the juiciest stories for the top journalists covering your market.  The buzz can build steam if it starts small, he argues.

And, for some announcements, he's right.

(Graphic by Hugh MacLeod.)

There are times when having a slow build ("slow" in blogging circles tends to be pretty fast) works to your advantage when you're trying to get a story out. The pick-up of your story by a cadre of mid-level bloggers can have the effect of lifting your announcement to the attention of other bloggers and media.

But, having seeded the blogosphere with rumours about your big announcement, don't expect the journalists to automatically run with the story. If they perceive that you've left them out of the loop, they may do the passive aggressive thing, and let your story sink to the middle or the bottom of their editorial line-up.  After all, it will be yesterday's news by the time they get the story out.

There's no one magic solution to media relations (or blogger relations).  It's all about working your relationships, maintaining your integrity, and falling over backwards to help everyone cover your story when and if the story makes a big splash.

Update:  Embracing New Media - Chris Thilk talks about the frustration bloggers feel when a company they cover won't talk to them.

Tags: robertscoble, technology, journalism, media, buzz, leaks, blogs

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Comments

[Tom Foremski]

Yes, you are right, the mainstream media can let a story sink if it feels it was left out of the loop. Journalists, anywhere, even journalist bloggers hate having to follow up someone else's story, especially if they can't add to it, or god forbid, they can't stand it up on their own contacts but have to give credit to another journalist :-)

[Eric Eggertson]

Just watch a dog pissing every 10 feet to mark his territory, and you've got the instinctive reaction to a story idea. It's not that the journalists don't think the story has any merit, but they want to be able to put their mark on it.

[Dave Forde]

Interesting question, if you look at some of the popular blog posts that have come out in the last few months bloggers get them out days before traditional media. It took a lot of the media publications 2 - 5 days to catch on to Robert's story.