Bench PR revisited

Summary: Timely reminder that analysts, journalists and PR agents are interchangeable and serve a similar function, including promotion of Microsoft Linux (SUSE)

SEVERAL weeks ago we noted that SUSE/Attachmate had hired a PR agency for some spin and intervention with the media.

Yesterday we saw an Attachmate employee publishing an article as though it's unbiased journalism but we also found out that an IDG "journalist" relocated to the firm that services Attachmate. To quote:

BENCH PR has appointed Lisa Banks, ex IDG journalist, to work on the agency’s growing list of IT clients. She has been appointed to the position of senior consultant.

Banks was a journalist at IDG Communications until December 2011, writing for CIO, ComputerWorld and TechWorld. She will work from BENCH PR’s new Adelaide office.

Journalism and PR are similar industries in the sense that they usually sell influence and only pretend to be objective. IDG is an example of it because it gets bribed through advertising and IDC contracts.

SUSE coverage is in part artificial, resulting from pressure from PR agencies. We too get contacted by PR people sometimes, but we pay them no attention. As another new bit of background:

Attachmate plots new future for Novell Attachmate Corp.'s purchase of Novell Inc. was finalized on April 27 of this year. Attachmate aimed to breathe new life into Novell’s franchises and assured partners and current users of Novell products that they would receive their continued support.

SUSE was separated structurally, but it still controlled by Attachmate and the Bench PR contact with Attachmate explicitly covers SUSE (we showed this before). Whenever reading about SUSE in the corporate press, bear in mind it's possibly fake and paid for. ⬆