Robert Scoble posted an update from his trip to Keystone Resort in Colorado today. I was interested as we had a bit of conversation in an earlier post about how he would approach travel freebies when offered.
In the end, it reads as if the company was after cut-price blog consultancy from Robert Scoble and co. rather than coverage of their product. The headline is a less-than-cryptic "It’s snow fun at Keystone".
Turns out that most of what we’re doing here is meeting with PR, marketing, and other executives from Colorado Ski Country.
I feel for him. I have been on many visits which sounded great but were spoiled by pushy marketing people.
Indeed, trips rarely count as a success when the PR comes out as the main item of the report.
However, there was one thing I wanted to follow up. According to Robert, Kate Osborne, the PR at Keystone
Says she’s treating the bloggers the same way she’d treat the New York Times. With one exception: the New York Times pays for everything she sets up. She says that most of the professional press insists on paying their own way. To me, this is a HUGE difference between the bloggers and the professionals.
I don’t agree. If we look at the global picture, I think the big difference is between a very few top quality newspapers and everybody else. True the New York Times pays its way. So do one or two others (the best expenses I ever received were from Conde Nast Traveler).
But the majority of newspapers round the world just don’t have the budget to shell out for hotels, spas and flights to Sydney or Moscow. In short, they lap up freebies.
I really don’t think bloggers are that different from most newspaper people in that respect. And, anyway, the willingness and ability to wave a corporate credit card at your own hotel bill shouldn’t be seen as the definition of a professional journalist or influential blogger.
Tags: travel, travelpr, blogs, blogging, scoble
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