In a posting yesterday on blogger Steve Rubel’s micropersuasion weblog, the author exhorts the fact that Bacon’s, the media database company, has invited him as a “top journalist” to provide his contact information ostensibly so that PR pros can pitch him stories. He appears flattered, proud and a bit surprised that he — a blogger — has been annointed by Bacon’s as a member of the fourth estate.
Yet, the day before, Rubel touts the fact that the agency paying his salary — Cooper & Katz (run by two of the finest folks in our business, Ralph Katz and Andy Cooper) — has won the Vespa Scooters account. Doesn’t Steve’s online promotion of Vespa go counter to his new role as a journalist? What is it, Steve: PR guy or journalist? I wonder if you can have it both ways.