OK, I’m going to try and keep this short.
The IT industry is a fast growing one. It means lots of IT companies have surplus money in their marketing department. A fair amount of this money is spent on fancy press events and gifts for journalists. These gifts can be USB sticks or t-shirts but they can also be cameras, MP3 players or cell phones.
And, you know what? It works. Not many journalists will grunt in disbelief when they get such little payolas; quite the contrary: they will accept them gladly and there will be a significantly bigger chance of them coming to press events of companies known to give away goodies.
However, it doesn’t matter much because the traditional IT journalism is already pretty crooked. A paper IT magazine depends on advertisers. I assure you they will not bash some company’s products more than absolutely necessary if they depend on their money. You know all those big laptop reviews? The best overall and the best buy product won’t be from the same company. It’s better to please two big advertisers than one. It’s the way things work in the industry. It’s not some big conspiracy - it’s a series of nudges from all sides and the IT journalists and IT publications will bend ever so slightly, but they will bend and eventually invisibly bow to the will of their advertisers.
That’s why people read blogs. Most blogs don’t depend on anyone. Bloggers can write whatever they think is true. If I write a review of 100 laptops, I can put one company on the first 10 spots if it’s my honest opinion, and I can put another company on the lowest 10 spots if I think their products are horrible. Not all bloggers know what they’re talking about, but among the thousands out there some relevant blogs emerge and people start reading what they write because they sense the guy/girl behind the blog actually knows what they’re talking about.
And as bloggers gain influence, big companies like Microsoft are starting to treat them as they would treat any influential publication - they will try to bribe them. This is normal behaviour. This is to be expected. Here’s a laptop with your Vista - no strings attached.
But there are strings attached. Once you receive an expensive gift from a company, it’s going to linger in the back of your mind, and you’re going to give another chance to that crappy Zune, and you’ll write it might not be as bad as you initially thought it was, although deep inside you know it’s not true. And so the bribe paid off.
So, bloggers, if you’ve received an expensive gift from a company, ‘no strings attached’, I urge you to kindly thank the company in question and return the gift. It will make your mind clearer - I promise.
*Update: Scott Beale of Laughingsquid decided to auction the laptop on eBay and donate the money to The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Good call, Scott, I guess others will follow suit.
I’m not understanding why it is considered a bribe. Shouldn’t bloggers have the opportunity to check things out before they make judgements? And there are many, many bloggers who conduct product reviews for a living, so why is the person you linked to being singled out? Besides, what’s wrong with free stuff?
All journalists should have the opportunity to check things out for reviews. I have nothing against receiving betas, preproduction units, prototypes, early versions, and, of course, full versions of the products (which are usually returned after the review). But a Vista coming with an expensive laptop, “no strings attached”? Come on.
By the way, in many countries there are laws against this type of thing, limiting the exact value journalists can receive as gifts in a year.
About the link, I didn’t single it out, it’s just an example. I’m not condemning the guy over at laughingsquid.com at all, he was just the first to write an article about Microsoft sending him a free laptop.
And what’s wrong with free stuff, you ask? Well, there is no free stuff. Nothing comes for free.
It’s not wrong per se, but it’s a slippery road to travel, because a bloggers only true asset is his credibility, and if that is lost, not much remains.
@Mikael: exactly. Established PC magazines play by different rules, and that’s the exact reason why bloggers have something more to offer than them: a fresh, free, unbiased view.
I am a longtime computer journalist - 30.5 years - and I have taken my fair share of graft - shirts, mugs, pens, lunches, dinners, etc. - from computer companies. But never, not once, did any of this ever influence anything I ever wrote. Or if it did, the effect was microscopical - infinitesimal, unmeasurable. Granted, I worked at some of the best publications, where this kind of bribery was well-discussed and where there was no need to find the Best or Top 10 of anything - Datamation, Electronic News, BusinessWeek.
I am curious to know how many of these influence-immune bloggers you hold up as paragons of journalism actually have access to 10 laptops for review purposes, much less 100 of them. I can’t believe any blogger - and especially one with no ads on his or her blog - has that much influence that they’d be sent 10 or 100 laptops or any other product for review. And how would this person, all alone in front of their keyboard, find the time to honestly and seriously review so many complex products? Wouldn’t they need a staff, and wouldn’t such staff require payment, which would mean revenue, aka ads?
Something in this picture of yours does not add up.
@John: I think you’re reading too much (or maybe I’ve emphasized it too much) into the blogger/journalist distinction here. I don’t think it’s that important for this particular case.
I simply feel that some gifts are simply too much. As I’ve said many countries have laws against this sort of thing (don’t know about the US) so I’m actually quite puzzled why so many people don’t see a problem with a journalist or a blogger receiving a laptop as a gift from Microsoft.
Shirts are fine, btw. I have dozens of shirts with IT companies’ logos in my closet, as probably any IT journalist has. But if tomorrow you got a copy of the new Photoshop in the mail together with a top-notch DSLR “just for reviewing purposes - no strings attached” - wouldn’t you think it’s a bit too much?
Btw, I have a feeling (maybe it’s just a feeling) you’re underestimating the power and influence of the top blogs in a certain field. Some of them are earning millions, and have more readers than any of the “established” IT publications out there. And many of them actually have a staff behind them.