A Business Model Saying No To Blogs
I don't believe that blogs will save the world. I'm not even sure that a majority of organizations need them. But Melcrum, an UK/US research and information company, seems to have a business model that would greatly benefit from being more blog friendly.
Melcrum provides free e-newsletters that are quite good. More often than not, I find items I wan't to link to at another blog I'm publishing (in Swedish only). The latest newsletter, for example, includes tips on how to make an impact as a new comms leader. It's deeply interesting to my clients, I think.
But Melcrum won't let me link to it. The newsletter can't be found on their site and the article has no direct link.
Melcrum is not the only publisher making this choice, they're just a good example since I experience this every month. I can understand why they do it. I can't be sure, of course, but I guess it has something do to with exclusivity. Nonetheless, the result is bad - for me and for them. If I still want to point to their findings I have to write a complete summary. 10 times out of 10 I choose not to. For them, that means business opportunities lost.
They will undoubtedly survive. I'm not that important. No blogger is. But the lot of us...? When all they have to do is to facilitate linking, or start a content feed of their own? When all they have to do is to include blogs in their business model?