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(http://www.inluminent.com/weblog/) places photos of scantily clad
women next to his musings about small business marketing. Sex sells.
There is one common characteristic about blogging that all blog
authors have to deal with. Blogging is demanding. It has to be updated

regularly if one is to keep readership. This places a burden on the
blogger to find topics that one can write about. Some believe blogs
should be updated throughout the day, but they aren’t. A blog like

Marketing Sherpa (http://sherpablog.blogspot.com/ ) posts a few times a
month but usually good information that one needs to know.
This site is unusual, however. Most could not afford to be so
dilatory and maintain an audience. One thing that blogging does not do

is replace journalism as we know it. Journalism is a process of gathering,
checking and distributing news that is above blogging. Journalists still
provide a gatekeeper effect and credibility that opinionated bloggers do

not. In fact, I believe editors should not allow reporters to have blogs on
topics they cover to prevent charges of bias. (Columnists are different.
They are expected to express opinions.) Journalism provides accuracy

and deadline frequency. A blogger can do the same, but it is not the
same unless there is an established process for receiving, checking then
publishing news like Slashdot attempts to do (http://slashdot.org/ ).

Blogs took off, by all accounts, when software was developed that
allowed one to publish without coding. Today, blogs allow entry in the
form of basic word processing that is published immediately to the blog
without interim steps.

Blogging and PR
In conventional blogging, anyone can write anything at any time.
However, this is not suitable for public relations purposes. In PR,

practitioners need to maintain relationships with the key audiences that
help their organizations survive and succeed. Secondly, PR practitioners
are spokespersons for others and not for themselves. They do not have
the freedom to speak out about company and marketplace issues without

checking with those who have direct control over these areas. Hence, a
practitioner should consider carefully before writing something that
comes to mind without a semblance of accuracy and proportion to the

statement. It is possible for a PR practitioner to adopt an outrageous
voice that is followed enthusiastically by target audiences, but if the
individual is shown to be in error time and again, credibility becomes an

issue, as employment does.