An Area Blogger Affects Change at Winston-Salem Journal

Looks like this story has made the roundtrip from Blog to Blog to PR Newsletter.

"...Most of the time, probably not, but it's interesting to watch when a blog post actually catches a company's attention. That occurred earlier this year, when a North Carolina blogger, Jon Lowder, made a quiet complaint about his hometown paper, the Winston-Salem Journal, and compared it, unfavorably, with a newspaper 30 miles to the east, the Greensboro News & Record.

Part of the post read, "I live in Winston-Salem. I have the Winston-Salem Journal delivered every morning. But I don't feel like I know anyone there… I get all the N&R blogs via RSS. I don't get their paper… yet. But I still feel closer to the N&R."

There are a million and one wistful comments like this on the web, but somehow this one got traction. For one thing, it was quoted by NYU's Jay Rosen, the author of the PressThink blog, a widely read site.

For another, both the Winston-Salem Journal and the Greensboro News & Record responded to Lowder's original blog post. Indeed, the News & Record's top editor posted a brief reply.

More remarkable still, though, was what happened at the Winston-Salem Journal. Not only did the paper respond to the post and supply contact information, but it went and created an RSS feed just days after Lowder's original post."

There's a powerful marketing/customer service lesson here that shouldn't go unnoticed. Learn some more about what a blog can do for your organization.