"Stand by for News!"
If you have listened to radio anytime since 1933, you can probably identify with this classic opening to the news by radio legend Paul Harvey.
Paul Harvey, involved in radio for over 70 years, is now heard by more than 22 million people a week. He has a current contract worth $100 million with ABC news to produce two short segments daily. He is the ultimate pitchman for the sponsors of his segment, being awarded Salesman of the Year.
Yet his willingness to endorse and be a spokesman for a product has not diminished his public image or esteem. He has been awarded Commentator of the Year, Person of the Year, Father of the Year, and American of the Year. He has been elected to the National Association of Broadcasters Radio Hall of Fame and is on the list of America's most admired men.
So what does Paul Harvey have in common with Know More Media?
Know More Media does not tell our authors what to write about. The only restrictions we really place on them is that they keep their content relevant to their blog topic and that they keep it "Business Friendly".
With this in mind, we are going to try out what we call our "Paul Harvey" pilot. Legendary radio announcer Paul Harvey and many other radio personalities have for years pitched products that they believe in. We always knew when they were promoting a product and we knew when they were not.
We think that blogging, in many ways, is more like the radio industry than the journalism industry. Journalists are generally uni-directional with their content. They publish, others consume. Radio personalities can engage in much more of a two-way conversation through phone, email or fax with their audience. Journalists have a very clear wall between content and advertising. A radio personality, on the other hand, will often provide the content as well as be the pitchman for that segment's sponsor. As the Paul Harvey Wikipedia entry states, "A large part of [Paul Harvey's] success stems from the seamlessness with which he segues from his monologue into reading commercial messages." We think blogging has a lot of the look and feel of Talk Radio and so we are going to borrow a page from these legends and test how they monetize free content.
"Page (pause....) two"
So, on occasion, we will allow our authors to do a "Sponsored Review" of a company or their product. It will still be in their own voice, with no involvement or input from Know More Media. It may be positive or it may be negative, but our promise to you is that these paid reviews will always be identified as "Sponsored Reviews". Every author will have the option to do the review or to decline to participate. If we ever found an author to be paid to review a company or their product or to provide a link and did not disclose this on the related post, they would be booted from our network.
"And now you know the rest of the story!"
Know More Media, "Gooood Day!"
"I am fiercely loyal to those willing to put their money where my mouth is." Paul Harvey
Posted by: Robyn Tippins | November 16, 2006 2:55 PM | Permalink to Comment