Tech journalists?
The Buzz Report: Inside tech journalism: the NDA game – CNET.com — A reader sent me this column where Molly Wood at C-Net seems to be moaning and groaning about the unfairness of it all. The unfairness of big corporations doling out information and how the “real” jounrnalists go along with te program and honor NDA’s (non-disclosure agreements) as they should. Meanwhile, the gossip sites are scooping the real journalists. Huh? Wha? This is bad?
My question is why is anyone signing an NDA? It’s a marketing tool and when you sign one you have become part of the marketing plan, a stooge for the company you should be covering. My feelings on NDA’s are well-known. I only admit that insofar as reviewers are concerned, if one person does it to get an edge they all have to do it.
I say none of them should do it. Who do we really serve? It should be the reader, not some computer company with a tightly choreographed roll out with the writers being nothing more than the chorus line of high kickers. So I don’t know what the hell this woman is thinking. I’ve never actually seen someone brag about honoring NDA’s. I’d be embarrassed to admit signing one.
After that breech of ethics comes the holier-than-thou comments.
But at this point, the only ones who are still following those rules are the journalists whose job it is to give you complete reviews of new products, so that you can make well-considered buying choices. Here at CNET, for example, the way we review products is to obtain a loaner review unit from a company, which is always returned, and test it for our reviews. We are never, ever paid to review products, and the review unit deal with vendors relies on a well-honed, ages-old system of honoring embargoes in exchange for access. But thanks to the new model of leak, rumor, and slow-in-coming confirmation, that system is becoming increasingly untenable. And you’re the ones who are missing out.
She’s proud to be a part of the corporate establishment?! That she’s a mere minion of large corporations? That she puts the interests of large corporations before the interests of her readers?! Wow. That is shocking.
And I love her comment that real journalists give “complete reviews of new products.” Yeah right. That’s pure BS. That’s exactly why I stopped subscribing to tech magazines. First, the vast majority of their reviews are mere press releases.
Second, their “actual” reviews are not designed to find any real truth. For example, when PC Magazine used to benchmark a new video card and compare it to other cards, instead of creating a single test system and installing the various cards in it, to make everything equal, the “testers” would simply get a PC from Dell with one video card, a PC from Gateway with a different card, and a system from IBM with yet a different card. Each of these three systems would have different memory, CPUs, hard drives, etc. There was no way you could validly say one video card was better because the underlying tests were so utterly unscientific.
It was the amateur online hardware gaming community that brought real science to benchmarking. With “real” journalist it was only an opportunity to advertise various systems.
I read a recent example of this, where the a camera-review site was commenting on how Nikon’s “accidental” posting of info on the D50 and D70s – which was quickly removed from Nikon’s website – allowed the “news” sites to draw an audience anxious to learn about the new cameras, while the NDA-signing camera sites couldn’t mention the fact that they already had pre-production versions of the camera for review, or were waiting for one.
It was Jeff Keller at http://www.dcresource.com/
His post from March 31, 2005
An IDG News Service story confirms a rumor that I haven’t mentioned here: that there will be a Nikon D50 digital SLR. The manual for the D50 was “accidentally leaked” (which seems to be a popular sport overseas) and soon the web was ablaze with talk about this new low cost 6 Megapixel D-SLR. Naturally we’ll have more on this camera when it is officially announced.
Even when the cat is out of the bag they can’t talk about it, even when they suspect it is a marketing ploy of the company who made them sign the NDA.
“Step away from the NDA”. 🙂
The Nikon example is exactly why the ‘old fashioned” methodology of embargoes is so much better. This is the way it used to be done before Silicon Valley came along and discovered that tech journalists would do anything they are told and had them sign NDA’s just as if they were vendors! With an embargo once the information is revealed all bets are off and you can go ahead with the story. So with the D70 you could write it up.
Here’s the kicker to this story. I notoriously hate NDA’s and refuse to sign them. I tell companies that I will honor an embargo and 100-percent of them say it’s good enough for them! Incredible. Essentially the NDA is just like the dummy contract offered to authors in the publishing world. If the writer is stupid enough to sign it, then great! Great for the publisher that is.
To Ima regarding card testing. THAT is so totally untrue that it’s laughable. PC Mag has careful lab procedures and what you describe had to be pre-1985 (if ever). Catch up!
John, you didn’t read my post very well. The testing I described was put in the PAST tense. For example, “WHEN PC Magazine USED TO benchmark ” or “With “real” journalist it WAS only .”
I also wrote that it was the novice tech sites that started the trend toward actual legitimate testing. Accordingly, it’s quite clear that I realize that tech magazines have finally caught up with reality.
However, since dumping tech magazines, I find no need for them.
This reminds me of when the game publishers tried to get the press to only use “provided” screenshots. The idea being that journalist’s hardware might render the game incorrectly. This became laughable after the shots seemed unrealistically flattering. For instance, it is well known that Blizzard used the practice of “packing” in their early Diablo II ads. Basically, the shot shown is impossible to achieve in the game – there is way more on screen than can be done in the actual software you buy. Would it be fair to use such a shot in a review? (is it even fair in an ad?) As a result I think this trend died for fully released games.
I wonder if she’s ever run into a corporation who used the NDA to keep unflattering reviews out of the media. And that’s fair and honest?
Translation by http://www.gizoogle.com/
A hustla S-to-tha-izzent me this column where M-O-Double-Lizzy Wood at C-Nizzay seems ta be moan’n n groan’n `bout tha unfairness of it all. The unfairness of big corporizzles dol’n out 411 n how tha “real” jounrnalists go along wit te program n honor NDA’s (non-disclosure agreements) as they should like a motha fucka. Meanwhile, tha gossip sites is scoop’n tha real journalists . Death row 187 4 life. Huh? Wha? This is bad?