All Together Now: Bloggers Are Real Media!

Thank you, City of Long Beach, CA, for giving us all another reminder that the world has changed and that there's this new thing called the Internet and a new medium called "blogs" and that together they are "new media."

The story: An aviation blog called "The Cranky Flier" got a good little story: that JetBlue was frustrated with the pace of renovation at Long Beach Airport and would consider pulling its flights out of there as a result. The source was none other than JelBlue CEO Dave Barger, who gave the blog an interview.

So did the City of Long Beach get the hint and send Barger some chocolates and a revised schedule for airport renovations? No! They played "shoot the messenger":

Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster said: "We should not take blogs as professional journalism."

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

Some blogs may be little more than the ravings of a lunatic, but some blogs are published by the New York Times, and there is every kind of blog in between.

Mayor Foster, you need a media relations rep who can tell you the difference (or you need to figure it out for yourself!) and you need to heed the words of the airline CEO (YOUR CUSTOMER) and not blame the journalist who brought you that valuable customer feedback.

In fact, maybe you should send him some chocolates as well -- and given the flexible ethics of the online media, he might even accept them!

Hat-tip: PR Junkie.