Crain’s Business Manchester ran quite a special story this week on blogmail.

The story focussed on disatisfied customers of property Dylan Harvey recovering their money with blog mail.  The pressure exerted by leaving comments on influential property sites that it uses to gain investors that told of their trouble with Dylan Harvey proved enough.  The  unhappy customers were able to recover their money without resorting to legal means, hence the title.  The link above will give both sides’ views.

The special thing is not so much the power of PR, using blogs to influence but where the story was placed: front page of Crain’s.

How often does that happen now?

Tai Chi and cows, can you believe it?  One farmer apparently performs in front of his cows and yield is up 10% apparently because the bovines are more content.  Of course it might all be down to any one of a number of farming reasons other than being prepared of making a fool of yourself (or local hero).

I cannot see that Tesco is going to pay him more for his notoriety.  The point of the exercise is unclear except for some showmanship and attention seeking perhaps.

Still the lesson is that original and silly stories sell.  This has been on TV, radio and national press.  The value must be tremendous.

The lesson is that there is a lingering misconception in some quarters that news is high brow or standards are slipping.  There has always been a place for low brow.