Techcrunch is the kind of publication that makes newspapers and magazines turn pale with fear. The daily blog on all things tech is read as gospel by millions of followers (I’m one of them). Not surprisingly, that makes it a target of PR firms wanting some publicity for their clients. Last night, it looked as though some of those firms touched Techcrunch’s last, raw nerve.

Over the past few days Techcrunch has posted a couple of tweets taking on public relations people for promising embargoes, then breaking them. Presumably that means a PR firm promised Techcrunch an advance look at some news in exchange for the promise of delaying its public release. Who knows what happened, but Techcrunch last night tweeted on Twitter “I declare war on PR firms. More nonsense today. We’re publishing a list.” And then later: “we are literally under attack from the PR world. This is going to make a fascinating post.”

Since we don’t dwell in the tech space much, we’ve never had the opportunity to make them angry, so I’m fairly sure we’re not on that list .  But this episode certainly raises an interesting series of questions for media and PR firms. My rule of thumb is always to take the high road when dealing with reporters and bloggers. Don’t over promise, never lie and make sure you’re an honest broker with all your contacts. My experience tells me that is the path to good relationships. Sounds like some PR folks got a little over anxious and burned a very important contact. Not good.

I don’t mean to absolve Techcrunch here though. The declaration of war was way over the top. The sweet sanctimony and self-importance makes me roll my eyes. Public relations people, like myself, are vital for news organizations to do their jobs. Techcrunch is a leader in its space, without a doubt, but I wonder if the Wall Street Journal or the Economist has ever declared war on PR firms in general and posted a blacklist. And besides, even if Techcrunch is angry and put out, it doesn’t need to say it out loud… as I told my nine-year-old the other day: you don’t need to vocalize every single thought that comes into your head. That’s bad PR.

By the way… for those of you who don’t know about Twitter and how it can be an integral part of your next communications program, check this out.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 at 12:04 pm and is filed under Social media and blogging, Dooley Communications, old media vs new media, blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.