Cincinnati dumps new Procter & Gamble blog

In a surprising move, The Cincinnati Enquirer has dropped its blog about powerful local employer Procter & Gamble, barely five months after it launched under a new P&G beat reporter.

"We love to experiment at the Enquirer," business news editor Carolyn Pione told Talking Biz News, "and we thought it might be a way to help a new reporter learn his beat, but we found we didn’t get a lot of traction with the P&G community in terms of helpful story ideas and dialogue. I think it was a sign of the digital age for newspapers, where we try a lot of different things and see what works and what doesn’t and move on.”

Personally, as a blogger whose readers sometimes overwhelm me with great ideas, the death of the P&G blog is a head-scratcher -- and a big disappointment. When they are well-executed, single-company blogs have potential to give beat reporters unparalleled access to readers and sources.

The P&G blog was written by Keith Reed (left). Some readers just didn't understand the basic concept. "I'm puzzled as to why an online newspaper blog is devoted solely to a corporation based in the city," Mike Walton of Virginia said last month, in a series of comments on the blog just before it went on hiatus. "It seems like a very odd -- and cozy -- relationship."

But other readers simply disliked what Reed wrote. And it appears the reporter got increasingly frustrated with that criticism, which may have factored into the blog's demise. "This blog is a joke and a disgrace to journalists,'' one anonymous commenter said.

Reed's response: "I'm assuming, since you talk about what reporters do, that you're one yourself and thus are speaking with authority about how we do our jobs. Outside that, I'd be interested to know what, exactly, qualifies you to make your assessment, given the AP and other media reported the same thing I did here. Oh, I know, they're not reporters, either. I forgot, you're the expert!"

My sympathies to Reed. Believe me, it's tempting to attack critics when they slam you right on your very own blog. I can get away with that because I'm not a traditional beat reporter: I'm an advocate, with strong opinions. But the Keith Reeds of Gannettland are in a tough spot: They're asked to create blogs that attract new readers -- then get jerked around if they become too provocative.

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[Logo: P&G; Reed photo: Enquirer]