I was reading Andrew Keen’s blog on ZDnet today. The post is right on the mark when it comes to Google’s foray into custom publishing, but check out the negative nature of his post…”custom publishing racket”…”fake independent content.”
Boy, does this industry have a long way to go. I thought we were past the point of the “vanity” publication where the CEO wants a print magazine for his/her company just to get the cover shot.
Marketers should take offense at this in one of two ways: 1) because their content marketing/custom publishing vehicles contain first-rate content truly wanted by their customers, or 2) they are pushing out crap and should be offended by their own material.
Let’s face it, consumers are smarter than ever and are only going to consume valuable content. The other stuff won’t even be touched.
It’s all evolution, but I guess I thought we were beyond this.