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We've talked here and elsewhere about the "company is the medium is the message" (channeling Marshall McLuhan). Companies have an opportunity (actually an obligation) to leverage the Internet to become their own publishers or networks, to talk directly to their audiences. Nowhere is this more perfectly illustrated than in the beer kingdom, one of happiest places on Earth.
The Wall Street Journal reports today on the Brew Blog, run by James Arndorfer, which covers the barley and hops industry. The hitch is Brew Blog is not an independent blog; it's run by Miller Brewing Co., and it frequently covers its rival, Anheuser-Busch, the maker of the so-called King of Beers, Budweiser (not to be confused with the outstanding Czechoslovakian pilsner of similar name).
Arndorfer, a former Ad Age reporter, breaks news all the time, forcing trade and mainstream publications to chase him. (Lucky bugger has one of the best jobs in the world, IMHO). He ticks off Anheuser-Busch in the process, but that's the hallmark of a good reporter. Even so, a PR rep for A-B pitched Brew Blog a story tied to Budweiser Super Bowl ads.
Paul Pendergrass and Pete Marino, communications consultants for Miller, came up with idea and recruited Arndorfer in 2006.

"They are trying to aggressively go around the gatekeepers" in newsrooms and the trade press, says Stephen Quigley, an associate professor of public relations at Boston University. "It's something you couldn't do five years ago," before the proliferation of blogs.

It's a simple concept that more companies are starting to embrace.
It's more effective that an CEO blog because, frankly, most of those are stillborn without an executive who's passionate and engaged in the medium.
And, as Miller proves, if you do it right, you end up on the front page of The Wall Street Journal and very high in today's Google search rankings, a PR coup.

Memo to Anheuser-Busch: I blog. I have 24 years of journalism experience. I like beer. I grow my own hops, and I brew beer. You know where to find me.

About 10 years ago at the height of the early day-trading frenzy, a colleague of mine on a sister publication inserted himself into a day-trader chat group rant about a story his paper wrote. (If you're from CMP's Electronics Group, you know to whom I'm referring). He did so rather aggressively, and it blew up in his face. They piled on him for days. Mercilessly and personally. And he battled back. He left his job not long thereafter.

In pre-internet days the line was “never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.”

In digital times, it's pick your words carefully and never pick a fight with someone who has a popular blog with the ability to spread things virally in moments.

This lesson seems not to be understood widely.

Nicholas Carson of Valleywag calls out a flak who sent him a draft press release. This isn't the first flak-smacking. Chris Anderson published a blacklist in October. There are blogs that publicly humiliate flaks and their mistakes. It's all very 21st century...to bitch-slap someone publicly rather than handle the situation like an adult, but then again technology overwhelms us and we tend to lash out.

But then again, some of the mistakes are really bad, as Carson's post indicates. What's worse is throwing gasoline on the fire by responding.
These kinds of things wreck careers, as my former colleague found out a decade ago.

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