Until last week Roger Dassen was external accountant for Ahold, mother company of Holland's largest supermarket chain Albert Heijn and foreign supermarket Tops. He is also chairman of the board of Deloitte.

Last week he held his leaving party at Ahold (because he could not combine both jobs). In his weblog he writes that he has left the company with ‘mixed feelings'.  

This insight is considered to be news by a reporter from Holland's most influential business daily Het Financieele Dagblad. And according to him news should not be posted on a weblog. The reporter writes (on the frontpage) that above all weblogs are a marketing instrument and that spreading news through a weblog is "not a best practice".

 On the other hand, in a letter to the editor some days later Dassen is applauded for posting news on his blog. The writer DOES see it as a best practice. 

We at Hill & Knowlton (the Technology practice in Amsterdam) strongly disagree with this letter. If every CEO posts news on its blog, where does that leave us? Shouldn't corporate news be made accessible for everybody on recognized public places? For listed companies this isn't even voluntarily: they are limited by strict laws about how one should release news: compulsary publication. If you don't stick to the rules, your company will be (temporarily) taken off the market.  Also, it is only 'fair play' towards the journalists and public to release real news through the usual public channels, accessible for all.   

If I would get on a soapbox on the street corner and exclaim my news to passersby, can I say to others some time later: "Yeah, but I DID make it public, didn't I? You just were not there on the street corner." 

The same goes for blogs. As long as they are not being widely read by each and every journalist (real public places), blogs are not suitable for communicating news.  Blogs are great for other purposes like giving an inside look in the company or the CEO's mind and share opinions. But we as PR professionals should be reluctant in advising our clients to use their blog as a news media.