Thread time! Meet AudienceBloom, a marketing/PR firm in Seattle. According to its site, AudienceBloom’s specialty is obtaining “brand mentions on major media publications” 1/pic.twitter.com/RUqFndTbB7
Show this thread
I wrote a thing. Forbes and Entrepreneur are letting marketers and PR agents write as freelance contributors — and they’re they’re stuffing their articles with flattering coverage of paying clientshttps://www.buzzfeed.com/jonchristian/jayson-demers-audienceboom-forbes-entrepreneur-pay-for-play …
-
-
-
As chance would have it, the CEO of AudienceBloom is also a prolific freelance journalist. He’s written extensively for Forbes and Entrepreneur, and even for TIME, Inc. magazine and the Wall Street Journal. 2/pic.twitter.com/0SinYsd6ET
Show this thread -
Exactly who are AudienceBloom’s clients? Let’s take a look at a testimonial that was abruptly removed from the firm’s site after I reached out with questions about this story 3/pic.twitter.com/LoERhJpXVa
Show this thread -
In his work as a journalist, DeMers has often lavished praise on Patel and his various companies, without ever mentioning a relationship. From the story: 4/pic.twitter.com/5ywKVPqQGp
Show this thread -
It turns out that DeMers isn’t the only AudienceBloom employee to moonlight as a journalist. There’s also these two guys 5/pic.twitter.com/VQTI5XFVaC
Show this thread -
Both of these other AudienceBloom employees have also written for all three of DeMers’ main outlets: Entrepreneur, Forbes and Inc. Also like DeMers, both have used their position as journalists to write a bunch of very nice things about Neil Patel and his various brands 6/pic.twitter.com/M1FO6iMvnP
Show this thread -
Now, I should point out that Neil Patel strenuously denied to me that he ever hired AudienceBloom for any purpose. Rather, he told me, he let AudienceBloom use his name in the testimonial as a favor
7/Show this thread -
When he told me that, Patel neglected to mention that he’d also recorded a video testimonial in which he described in striking detail specific services he said AudienceBloom had provided for him 8/pic.twitter.com/MzFKIPrrxv
Show this thread -
He also didn’t mention that he’d once published a blog post that goes into even more detail about work he said — at the time — that AudienceBloom had done for him 9/pic.twitter.com/PPKxi0PU07
Show this thread -
When I reached back out to ask Patel about the blog post and the video, they both disappeared from the web. But you can see backups here: 10/ https://streamable.com/s8qeg http://archive.is/WUdxh
Show this thread -
Anyway, things get even crazier. Three AudienceBloom employees also promoted other clients of the firm in their work as journalists. You can read about all that in my story up top
11/Show this thread -
-Entrepreneur said it won't work with these writers anymore, and took down the specific stories I pointed out — but left hundreds more online -Forbes said it won't work with these writers anymore, and took down a few of the stories I pointed out, but left hundreds more up 12/
Show this thread -
-Inc. removed the links (?) from some of the stories I pointed out, but left hundreds more online 13/
Show this thread -
-Neither Entrepreneur, Forbes nor Inc. have added editor's notes to explain this extraordinary conflict of interest 14/
Show this thread -
If you care about trustworthy journalism, this should bother you. These once-authoritative magazines have allowed their credibility to be strip-mined by obvious charlatans — like, seriously, why would ANY magazine need THREE contributors who all work for the SAME marketing? 15/
Show this thread -
I’ll leave you with a tidbit that didn’t make it into the story: I asked an Inc. editor point-blank whether she stood behind these three writers’ work. She declined to answer on the record 16/
Show this thread -
One more thing: if anyone has insight into what’s going on at AudienceBloom, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc. or any of the other entities involved in this story, my DMs are open and I’d love to hear from you, even if you aren’t comfortable being identified by name. Hit me up!
Show this thread -
Also: shout out to
@K_Essenpreis for this wonderful illustrationpic.twitter.com/lNZRDx6A7X
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.