The blurring line between tech press and tech PR

Nitasha Tiku of The New York Observer writes about New York PR maven Brooke Hammerling and how the line between public relations and journalism is blurring in the tech beat.

Tiku writes, “In Silicon Valley, where the tech industry has no rival, agencies like Outcast, Spark, LaunchSquad, and Atomic tend to dominate as gatekeepers between the press and startups. But none of their New York branches own the space, leaving an opening for Brew.

“Journalism professors used to coach cub reporters to treat PR reps like the enemy. They’re what stands between you and the truth. But if the ethics 2.0 lesson that was Michael Arrington’s ouster from AOL was any lesson, the lines are blurring. Between investor and blogger, between ‘source’ and ‘friend’. ‘When she’s out in the Valley, she stays with [veteran tech journalist] Kara Swisher,’ said Curbed’s Lockhart Steele, one of Ms. Hammerling’s best friends.  At a recent mentoring session where Ms. Hammerling explained the ins and outs of getting press to the new class of TechStars, Ms. Hammerling mentioned that she sometimes has coffee at the home of AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka, even if they argue about a story. Every reporter The Observer contacted spoke in admiring tones of how Brew PR didn’t waste their time.

“‘People are people. They can be friends with whoever they want to,’ said Mr. Frommer, noting that Mr. Arrington is friends with investor Ron Conway. ‘I’m sure he probably gives Ron Conway’s invests a little more attention, but no one’s going to value a friendship more than their professional reputation … Friends are nice, but I’m number one, so I’m not going to jeopardize.’

“Judging by Ms. Hammerling’s willingness to aggressively engage with everyone from reporters to investors on behalf of her employees and clients, she’s not willing to jeopardize those relationships either. ‘Her ideal state would be to not be upset, but she takes her work very personally, so her work is her life,’ said Ms. Pokorny. ‘If she goes out of her way to take the time to get you all the information that you will ever need, then to write some really horrible, disparaging thing that’s really off message, you’re gonna have to have an explanation for that. A lot of PR people will just accept the explanation the reporter gives … Brooke will say if you can’t fix it I will go to your editor and then while you’re responding to her, she will go to your editor anyway.'”

Read more here.