In November, Fortune magazine struck a raw nerve with bloggers when it ran a cover story called "Attack of the blogs."  

 

Depending who you read, it was either the work of a hack, or a surprisingly accurate depiction of the state of relations between business, the mainstream media and independent bloggers. 

 

In what looks like an anecdote Daniel Lyons could have written himself, The Boston Globe today ran a story about New York-based Warren Kremer Paino Advertising LLC's lawsuit against a blogger.  Lance Dutson is being sued for copyright infringement, defamation, and trade libel/injurious falsehood after he posted comments critical of the agency's work for Maine's Department of Tourism.  Here's the Globe's story, and here is Lance's site, www.mainewebreport.com.  Read both to get a more balanced view of the particulars.

 

Whatever side of the coin you're on when it comes to the effect blogs have on business, this much is true: they're a force and they're not going away.  If you don't believe me, just do a Google search on Warren Kremer Paino Advertising LLC. What pops up in the first result set?  Something positive?  Nope.  A couple more days of this and blog posts will be the only Google results for the firm.  

 

This is a tired theme in PR blogs, but..."note to business": you have to start working with blogs and bloggers (or at least paying attention to them), even if you don't "get" the technology or don't subscribe to the notion that blogs represent a tectonic shift in mass communications.  Spend the time to learn about blogging, or run the risk of suffering the kind of negative attention this particular advertising agency is working through today.     

 

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