Here's an interesting post from the other side of the PR/blogger divide: it's a well written, well reasoned post by a beauty blogger about her experience dealing with PR for cosmetics and other personal care products.
After starting her blog in 2007, she says she was besieged with free product -- full-size samples of everything she could possibly want. She describes being fairly journalistic about methodically trying the products and reviewing them. But more came in than she could handle and she gave a lot of it away to her friends and readers.
Then, the recession hit, and the companies a) got chintzy with the samples and b) wanted more out of sending a sample than the possibility of a post -- they wanted guaranteed good coverage.
It's a good post and worth reading for a firsthand account of how the other half lives. My value-add will be the PR perspective:
There are effectively no barriers to entry in blogging -- anyone can be a waitress one day and "fashion and beauty blogger" the next (or both at the same time).
Pre-Internet, the barriers to being a recognized and influential writer were fairly high, which made it possible for PR to figure out who to deal with and what they were getting out of the arrangement.
Now, since anyone and everyone can position themselves as "influential," PR has a lot more trouble to deal with. Accept anyone's claim to legitimacy and you end up giving away your products, or set up barriers and get blowback like this.
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