Bloggers and the Church-State Wall

In the media biz there is a strict "church-state wall" that separates the editorial and advertising sides of the house. They work together, but one cannot influence the other. If there's an ad for a consumer product in the same newspaper that has an article about a recall for it, that's life. In the US, this is designed to protect the freedom of the press.

In the online world, the story is no different. Editors and ad sales teams maintain very strict boundaries. In most media companies there's enough people and infrastructure in place to make this rather easy, though bumps do occasionally occur. Consider, for example, the recent tussle between PC World CEO Colin Crawford and Editor Harry McCracken over an editorial critical of Apple, a major advertiser.

However, for bloggers who accept advertising (podcasters and vloggers included), there often is no boundary. The publisher, sales director, editor, IT director and chief groundskeeper are the same person. Yet, lots of bloggers run ads - either on their own or with the help of a third party like Google or Federated Media.

Some more successful bloggers, like Michael Arrington, have surrounded themselves with execs to run ad sales. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote about this late last year. TechCrunch has figured out a system.

For the rest, most remain very ethical. So bloggers haven't run very afoul so far. However, you can be sure that many are hard pressed to write negatively about an advertiser who's generosity is allowing the family to go out for a nice dinner or two. Our desire to be credibile seems to be what keeps us honest.

Now the same thing can be said for me - or any employee blogger. My blog is ad free to avoid potential conflicts of interests. However, you might wonder how much of what I write here on my personal site is influenced indirectly by Edelman's clients or their interests. That's fair. Nothing is write is influenced directly, I assure you. Still, you might wonder how who I work for shapes my thinking.

Edelman has hundreds of clients, including many of the largest global brands in the world. My employer, like many other large companies with bloggers, is hands off. However, I personally try to steer clear of writing substantively about our clients because, no matter which way I go, someone will lose - the readers, me, my employer or the clients. Further, when I write about a client in passing, I will always mention that they are one (assuming I know about it - we're a big firm!).

This is how I walk the church-state line here - or at least attempt to. We're all making this up as we go and there will be bumps on the ride.

Still, this entire issue is only going to get more complex. It seems to me that there is an opportunity to establish an informal network of bloggers that acts as a buddy system of ombudsmen. What's your perspective?