Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Primedia B2B magazines try blogging

Back when I was vice president for online content at Primedia Business, I remember having an argument with another executive about online links. This guy didn't want the editors of our sites to link to other Web pages without written permission from those sites.
It seems funny now that someone would so misunderstand the very nature of the Web.
But it looks to me as if things haven't changed much at Primedia Business. Some Primedia properties have launched blogs -- a move I applaud (Thanks to RexBlog for pointing out the new properites.) But in at least one case, Primedia is misunderstanding how journalists should approach blogs.
Check out this "blog" from the editor of VideoSystems, for instance, which seems unaware of any information that it doesn't publish itself. There's a similar problem with the Chief Marketer email newsletter, which links only to Primedia sites (Note: I find this less offensive, if no less shortsighted. A newsletter does not imply that it seeks its information outside, whereas a blog by its very nature links to other sources.)
On the other hand, look at the special blog that Millimeter is planning for an upcoming trade show. I love the instant-analysis that blogging can provide, and a trade show is the perfect place to show off that capability. Here's hoping the Millimeter editorial staff does the sort of high-caliber work I expect of them.

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