pr-media-blog.co.uk

I recently came across Jezebel, a blog which, as the raunchy name suggests, is aimed at women and focuses on celebrity, sex and fashion, ‘without airbrushing’. 

My first thought was – hmm, another feminist website. Turns out it’s much more than that. Churned out by Gawker Media since 2007, it’s clocking up on average nearly 1 million visits per day and has an impressive following on social networking sites and other blogs. Yesterday I noticed a twitter conversation about an intern position at the site, which went something like this, “Dear Jezebel, I will sell you my soul for an internship.” 

Why all the hype? I decided to monitor the blog to find out and have to say I’ve been very impressed. Most blogs aimed specifically at women have never appealed to me as they seem to focus on recipes or similar, not particularly exciting subjects. Jezebel, on the other hand, with a fiercely direct and analytical attitude, takes on not only women’s mags, but also newspapers (Daily Fail, as they call it, being one of the most favourite whipping boys) and offers tens of witty articles every day on pretty much every subject a modern woman might be interested in. How about: Daily Mail Finds Rare Childless Woman Who Is Not Miserable? 

The blog positions itself as the rebel, sick of the lies perpetuated by the women’s media, from airbrushing and shallow predictable celebrity interviews, to must-have products that journalist’s themselves don’t believe in.  

For this reason, from a PR perspective, however, Jezebel is almost an impossible win – they simply won’t read PR pitches and seem to have a grudge against the PR industry as such. Having said that, if you come up with a spectacular idea, perfect for the audience, I think you can chance it. Also, their FAQ section offers a very interesting insight into how a professional blog is run. 

A more general realisation though is that in today’s world where citizen journalism is on the rise, getting your news story printed is not the end of the story. Increasingly, it is then taken apart and analysed by ever more powerful and media savvy groups and blogs all over the world.  

All in all, Jezebel is a much-needed breath of fresh air in the tired space of women’s websites and magazines, which at the moment still follow the same traditional format – Wednesday’s launch of the Stylist is a prime example.  

“Black goes with everything and you probably don’t need any more assistance going broke!” shout Jezebel’s editors in unison. And the reason Jezebel is on the rise with an army of active commentators, whilst many women’s magazines are dying out – passion and edginess!   

What is the way to a woman’s heart or, of rather more concern to politicians, her vote?

Tory leader, David Cameron, has hired all-woman PR company, Pretty Little Head, to help him and his party crack this enigma - much to the disgust of Daily Mail readers, who have been less than enamoured with the idea.

The idea of tapping into a PR company, which claims to have expertise in helping marketers deliver “what women really want”, has Mail readers incandescent with rage:

“Well, he’s just lost my vote,” says Ann of Wimbledon, adding “I can’t stand people who think women need special treatment”. Ex-pat, Sue, booms: “We are not stupid, we don’t need to be wooed…”

So, has Cameron badly misjudged the female voter? An informal (and far from scientific, but bear with me) survey of more than 40 of my female colleagues revealed that 47% found Cameron more appealing than Brown as the next Prime Minister, with 57% admitting the Tory leader had become “more appealing” in the past 12 months. So far, so good for the Tories and their PR campaign. But a crushing 92% said that politicians showing a feminine side was irrelevant in winning their vote. 

Apart from other Mail readers’ comments along the lines of “why can’t politicians think for themselves?”, is there a fundamental problem about style over substance? As Oliver Blanchard’s Brand Builder blog states: “No matter how you look at it, successful branding always starts with a product”. He goes on, “No matter how cool your packaging is…if your fragrance isn’t appealing you aren’t going to get many repeat customers.”

Does Cameron believe that looking good and showing empathy with the female population is more important than talking about actual policies - his party’s core “product”?

Last word to another ex-pat Mail reader, Karen, who says: “You silly man, most women are intelligent and don’t need pandering to.”

Probably a good tip for most men.