Why do people read blogs? Because they believe the newspapers even less than they used to, I guess.

I thought of this today as the news broke that the Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch, has been channelling money through European companies in order secretly to buy thousands of copies of its own paper at a knock-down rate, thus misleading advertisers about the Journal’s true circulation.

When the News of the World was revealed to be an organisation with criminal activity at its heart, many people thought, “well it was that sort of paper.”   But the Wall Street Journal?

And what does this have to do with blogs?  Basically it is just one more factor that makes all sources of info equal.  If you set up a blog that talks about your specialist area each day, you are as likely to pick up an audience as the largest paper.

The Wall Street Journal scheme included a formal, written contract in which the Journal persuaded firms to join in by agreeing to publish articles that promoted its activities. All reputation for editorial quality went out the window.

According to the Guardian, when the story emerged the senior WSJ staff did nothing except make the whistleblower redundant.

The scam ran by having “sponsors” pay for publicity by buying copies of the Journal at 5¢ each and distributing the bought copies to university students. The “sponsors” gained a prestigious link to the Journal, and the Journal boosted its circulation figures.

Worse, the Audit Bureau of Circulation ruled that the scheme was legitimate even though the people buying the papers were not reading them, nor even seeing them, and by 2010, it was responsible for 41% of the European edition’s daily sales – 31,000 copies out of a total of 75,000.

A Dutch company called Executive Learning Partnership alone were sponsoring 3.1m copies.

After this the WSJ got into all sorts of other deals involving ”leadership videos”,  seminars, and “special reports”.

But ELP complained that the Journal was not doing enough, and threatened not to make a payment, which would mean that the Journal could not officially record the sales and their circulation figures would suddenly dive by 16%.

So it went on, getting murkier by the day.  You can read all the amazing details on WSJ circulation scam claims senior executive

But I return to my main point: most main news sources are no longer trusted – people pick and choose what they want.  With a spot of work you can become the central news service for your niche market, and pick up readers that way.  And promote your own business alongside that.

If you want to talk about how it is done, call me on 01536 399 013.

Meanwhile you can follow all our stories on Twitter @HHMailings, and on the HHM blog www.blog.hamilton-house.com

Tony Attwood

Hamilton House Mailings Ltd reg number 2444392 VAT 354907535GB.  Phone 01536 399 000.