BrandweekNRX: Pharma pundit apologizes to BrandweekNRX

Industry consultant John Mack is doing something unusual - he is apologizing to Brandweek. John Mack, you may remember, is the critical blogger who all but suggested that Brandweek should fire me and said my employment was "destined to last only until Brandweek sees the numbers from its own reader research," and who also wrote that "BrandweekNRX's readership will drop."

This is what Mack writes on his blog today:

First, let me apologize to Peter Rost and Brandweek for starting a rumor that Brandweek is distancing itself from the NRx blog since Peter Rost has taken over (see my original post here).

It seems I was mistaken that the logo was changed by dropping the "BrandWeek" portion (see Fard Johnmar's interview with Jim Edwards, former NRx blogger, here). And on the Brandweek.com site, Brandweek NRx is prominently mentioned. However, it is still difficult to find that link by clicking on the Neilsen Company name at the bottom of the NRx site.

Perhaps Brandweek is laughing all the way to the bank. Rost claims that "BrandweekNRX beats every record in pharma blogging" and that the blog gets 6,000 unique visitors per day! Whether or not this is a lasting trend or just a spicy spike in curiosity seeker readership remains to be seen.

But in spite of his apology, John can't resist the temptation to give BrandweekNRX another jab. He continues:

Rost lists the TOP TEN pages that readers of NRx have looked at. Leaving aside the home page, about 50% of these pages are devoted to either Rost's self-promotion of his book or of Brandweek NRx "breaking" stories. Only 2 pages out of the 8 (excluding the home page), or 25%, involve stories about the pharmaceutical industry.

John claims there are three types of stories on BrandweekNRX; Articles "about the pharma industry," "shameless self-promotion" and "fluff." And he thinks there is too little of the first. So here is our response:

1. Based on John's definition of self-promotion, this post is self-promotion. And WSJ writing about the Murdoch take-over is self-promotion. But we think BrandweekNRX readers are interested in learning what our harshest critics are saying, including Mack, so we write about this anyway.

2. Based on John's last paragraph, BrandweekNRX should be upset that its reader chose to read what Mack calls "self-promotional" posts. After all, this was a top ten list of most read posts. Our reply - it would be far from us to question what our readers want to peruse.

3. But Mack is right about one thing. BrandweekNRX isn't just interested in reporting the news, but also in creating news and being part of the news. This is the allure for readers coming here.

Of course, we also understand if other bloggers try to generate traffic, by taking aim at one of the market leaders in pharma blogging and we welcome the attention.