keep up the good work, marcus

Earlier in this string, there is a rather negative post from someone purporting to be a representative of Federated Media. Despite our best efforts to track down this mystery poster, we have been unsuccessful. The post did not, as far we can tell, originate from our company, and we certainly would not condone it if it did. This is certainly not the way FM operates.

FM loves and supports independent authors, be it in our network or outside of it - it’s why we exist and what every single person in our company is fired up about. We applaud your work on the site, Marcus, and thank Jodi for alerting us to the post and giving us a chance to respond.

Kim Kochaver
Director of Marketing
Federated Media

Anyway, for those strong words ‘cheat without any ethics’, I guess you can consider giving your lawyer a call right away.

Federated Media Says:
Hi,

My name is Mark, I happen to be the account executive for an ad rep firm for Federated Media. I find this post VERY much misleading and shows you are a cheat without any ethics. In any case don’t start making a post about your traffic making it look like you are the number 1 design site out there. I represent the Graphic Art channel for Federated Media and our clients are Mocoloco, Core77, Not Cot, and many more. They do not even generate the numbers you do and believe me you are no where close to being the level that they are. So be honest and stop doing posts like this, it’s very unproffesional.

screw those guys. when you say :

“Many, many publications (both print and online) cut and paste press releases. They just move the words around a bit so no-one notices. At least Dezeen is up-front about it: we ALWAYS state which passages have come from third parties.”

it totally true! how many mags/sites do i read that have the exact same BS corporate release pasted in them? tons!

any why not? they spend the time and are most intimately farmiliar w/ the project, so let them. it’s for us to wade through their hype!

anyhow, i <3 Dezeen so keep it up bro.

much love from Cali4nia.

p.s. here’s a music site i run : http://www.bijoubreaks.com
peep it!

There’s no need for the folks of Federation Media to dispute Dezeen’s hits and my hat to you for displaying your stats for all to see. I agree with Lisa who said “I think its great you publish all the comments here, regardless if some are negative. Says alot about your integrity”

Continue doing what you do and promoting the design world. You have provided another outlet for exposure to up and coming talent as well as established names.

We love your work

Bill - Publisher
thecoolhunter.net

Nick, what’s your definition of lazy exactly? I work day and night to keep this blog going. Right now I’m in Stockholm on a work trip, it’s 2.30am, and I’m sitting here in my hotel replying to you. And I’m LAZY?! Nobody pays me to do Dezeen. And nobody has to pay to read it. So what’s your problem exactly?

But since you raise this:

1. Many, many publications (both print and online) cut and paste press releases. They just move the words around a bit so no-one notices. At least Dezeen is up-front about it: we ALWAYS state which passages have come from third parties.

2. Much of the information we publish comes direct from designers or architects, who probably spend hours trying to get across what their work is about and would be insulted for their efforts to be described as “press releases”. What’s wrong with allowing them to describe their projects in their own words? What is to be gained from rewriting it?

3. As I said earlier, Dezeen is run by just two people. If we were to spend time rewriting designers’ statements or press releases, we’d only be able to publish a fraction of what we do, and we’d be slower off the mark with breaking stories. Is that what you’d prefer?

4. Dezeen is an information service, pure and simple. If at some point in the future someone wants to find out about a particular project, then Dezeen will give them the complete low-down from the horse’s mouth, rather than a filleted, journalised, opinionated view. Surely that’s a useful thing? And since we ALWAYS state the source of our info, nobody’s being fooled.

5. I have spent over ten years of my life writing for numerous publications, and have won around a dozen awards for my investigative journalism, criticism and editing. But I set up Dezeen for very different reasons: because nobody else was providing the raw information I needed to do my job in a way that was accessible and immediate.

6. We don’t publish everything that is sent to us. 90% of what we receive never makes it onto the site. We often remove elements of press releases etc that we feel are misleading, sycophantic, bollocks, etc. But we also credit our readers with enough intelligence to work out for themselves what is unbiased fact, and what is PR puff.

Dezeen does not have any pretensions of journalistic greatness. But if you have writing ambitions Nick, you are welcome to take the information we freely provide and do a better job yourself. Good luck.

Marcus
Dezeen