Jason Unger

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I get tons of press releases every day. Most of them are filled with junk; a couple are actually worth reading.

Then, every once in a while, there's the one press release that's so astounding you wonder what these marketing people are thinking.

This press release was forwarded to me today, and I have no intention of posting anything about it — whatsoever.

I've cut out most of the important information, so unless you got it too, you won't know who it's from.

Subject: hot new product - pseudo press release
*** BIG NEWS — CAN YOU SHARE WITH THE WEB PERSON WHO POSTS NEWS/PRESS RELEASES ON YOUR SITE????? ***
We have a brand new line of xxxxxxxxxxxx - cutting edge!

Pretty cool, actually. Under the guise of a press release, can you post this info in your news area on the homepage?

The relationship between journalists and marketers in the technology industry — one where the advertisers are the ones who we cover — can often seem very gray.

Case in point: Jeff Gerstmann, the editorial director of Gamespot recently fired reportedly because of his poor review of Kane & Lynch, a game heavily marketed and advertised on his site.

(Gerstmann spoke with Joystiq, standing behind his review of the game.)

Not that long ago, PC World's Harry McCracken quit his job after new CEO Colin Crawford killed a story called "Ten Things I Hate About Apple." McCracken got the last laugh, however, when Crawford was re-assigned and Harry came back onboard.

This quandary — covering the people who advertise with our publications — is unique to "disposable-income" publications (technology, entertainment, style, etc.). Mac Slocum and I have discussed this at length, and it's something that seemingly will always exist.

I'm in a relatively good situation — the CEO of my company has made it well known (to both advertisers and employees) that he does not get involved with editorial decisions. But the reality is that we often get requests for more coverage from advertisers, saying that we're "ignoring them" or the like.

As journalists, we're here to provide quality content to our readers. If they didn't believe in our editorial independence, they wouldn't come to us for information.