The launch of a blog by PepsiCo on the ScienceBlogs network polarised both bloggers and readers. The criticism lead to the blog’s eventual removal, but not before severe damage was dealt to the network’s cadre of bloggers and its reputation.

On 7 July, ScienceBlogs, a popular network of science bloggers owned by Seed magazine, launched Food Frontiers, a nutrition blog by PepsiCo. The announcement caused uproar in some quarters of the ScienceBlogs community, with many star bloggers choosing to leave the network and others adopting a cautious approach.

Some members of the science blogging community insist that it was not fair to allow PepsiCo to buy a place on a network where other bloggers have had to earn their place on reputation.

Blogger Martin Robbins pointed out three key issues surrounding the introduction of a paid corporate blog: identity, respect and advertorials.

“To its bloggers and readers, ScienceBlogs was always a meritocracy built by top science bloggers. In doing that, they turned ScienceBlogs into a powerful and prestigious brand, and that brand in turn attracted more writers and readers.”

“It should be immediately obvious that selling a seat at this table damages the brand, whoever it is. It's like watching King Arthur hand-pick eleven knights of the Round Table, and then sell the twelfth seat on Ebay... And the effect of that is doubled when King Arthur himself doesn't bother to tell the knights until some rich kid in Gucci armour wanders in the room asking where the bar is.”

The Food Frontiers blog subsequently underwent several cosmetic changes before eventually being removed from the network.

In an email to contributors of ScienceBlogs, Adam Bly argued that “the conversation should include scientists from academia and government; we also think it should include scientists from industry. Because industry is increasingly the interface between science and society.”

But David Dobbs, who left ScienceBlogs as soon as the PepsiCo blog appeared, disagreed with the way the affair had been handled and vowed not to return.

“That [ScienceBlogs] would make such a mistake to start with signals, to me, so profound a disregard for both the bloggers and the principles of good journalism that I can’t see returning there.”

Dobbs told the ABSW his decision would have been the same no matter how the PepsiCo blog was introduced.

”To my eye they crossed a clear line. Even if they labelled the thing with stickers saying it was advertorial and so on, the Food Frontiers blog was clearly being presented as if it were another blog that should be given equal credence. They were giving it page position and table-of-contents position in what, at Scienceblogs, is clearly editorial space.”

“[ScienceBlogs put] Food Frontiers in the blogroll. It laid it out like every other blog. It gave it every single mark of a real blog – and then pretended a couple of stickers would make the difference… I know it fooled readers, because so many commenters wrote in wondering what was wrong with letting PepsiCo have a blog too. Readers were immediately missing the key distinction, which is that PepsiCo bought an editorial slot.”

“Seed's presentation and rollout was clumsy. It served the dish poorly. But the dish was still poison.”

The Food Frontiers blog continues in its previous guise on PepsiCo's website.


 
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