Fluff v. Substance in the Pharma Blogosphere

Back on August 14, I reviewed the nature of the posts to Brandweek's NRx blog after Peter Rost took over (see "What's Brandweek's NRx Strategy?").

I characterized each post as being one of the following three types:

1. Shameless self-promotion,
2. Pharmaceutical industry related,or
3. Fluff about off-topic issues having nothing to do with the pharmaceutical industry.

That analysis covered only the first 24 posts made by Rost. To be fair, I should continue the analysis over time to see if anything has changed. It has!

The second group of 24 posts that Rost made AFTER my critical analysis is very much different than the first group of 24 (see chart).

Most notably, Rost has cut back on the self-promotion and doubled the percentage of posts that are about the pharmaceutical industry (from 21% to 42%). Posts about off-topic issues ("fluff"), however, also have kept pace with posts about the pharmaceutical industry. In other words, fluff and substance are running neck and neck at NRx.

In the beginning, Rost was drawing a lot of attention to himself, QA (his other blog), NRx, and his new book (Killer Drug). Now that sales of the new book have waned, so has the promos from Rost.

What about the equal time devoted to fluff?

That's always been a trademark of Rost and probably what brings many readers to his blog and ups his rating in technorati and other blog search engines.

One has to wonder about the quality of readers who gravitate to a blog with topics such as:

• "Scientists report: Redheads going extinct."
• "The best Toyota Prius advertising ever."
• "Secretary fired for blogging wins both lawsuit and book deal."

Nevertheless, mixing personal observations and other "fluff" into the conversation is a tried and true staple of many bloggers. Apparently, readers like the entertainment value of knowing that redheads may be a "dying breed" (pun intended).

There may be a trend to add more fluff to the barbee at blogs in this space. Just recently, for example, Steve Woodruff over at Impactiviti Blog wrote a "fluffy" piece about the Mack v. Rost debate (see "Blockbuster Pharma Blogger Mega-merger Announced!"). Both Rost and I liked the post and wrote about it. No doubt all this increased Steve's readership because he followed up with a flurry of other posts that were on topic about his business.

[I have often noted a spike in readership when I post something edgy. It doesn't last and I question the value it brings to your blog in terms of sustained increased readership. My interpretation is that these are merely one-time curiosity seekers and not readers who will stick to you. If the goal of your blog is to generate customers for your business, these are not the kinds of readers you need, IMHO.]

Rost pointed out that "most regular news are (sic) boring, so we bloggers sometimes have to jazz things up a bit. After all, less than 10% of people 30 and under read a daily newspaper, but they do read blogs" (see "Impactiviti reveals the biggest merger in pharma blogging.")

The "non-Swede" (Woodruff) noted in a comment to Rost's post: "I'm feeling more comfortable now taking on controversial topics, letting some opinions fly, and hacking around a bit. Why not? The beauty of blogging is that it's not just 'objective content' - the message AND the messenger are wrapped up together!"

Frankly, I enjoyed Steve's post, mostly because it involved moi as a major character. It counts towards my 15 minutes of fame. But, I have to wonder what other people thought.

I agree with Steve that the "the message AND the messenger are wrapped up together!" I also agree with Rost that "regular news is boring."

But I prefer the technique employed by Ed Silverman at Pharmalot, who "jazzes" up his posts with iconoclastic images, quips and other indications of his personality inserted WITHIN the story.

In other words, there are two ways to "jazz" up your blog: WITHIN on-topic posts or WITHOUT (ie, separate off-topic whimsical posts).

The WITHIN camp tries to make the news more relevant, interesting and BIASED (ie, the messenger is wrapped up in the message), whereas the WITHOUT camp may be wasting the time of half of their readers (or half the time of all their readers) by devoting blog bandwidth to off-topic jokes, IMHO.

One word of caution: being edgy in your blog and basking in the increased flow of readers is addictive! Once you start down that slippery slope you cannot easily control yourself. At first, your edgy, off-topic posts account for only 5-10% of your total output. But, eventually, you may find that the "fluff" amounts to more like 40-50% of your bandwidth. Then, you know you have entered the Rost Zone of the Pharma Blogosphere!

DISCLAIMER: Bloggers -- myself included -- have a perfect right to run their blogs as they see fit and write about anything they see fit.

Impactiviti Blog Joins the Club and Gets Sense of Humor!

I love Steve Woodruff, author of Impactiviti Blog. I really do!

So I hope he doesn't get angry when I point out that, until recently, his blog did not give a hint of his sense of humor.

As recently as January, 2007, Impactiviti Blog stuck to its knitting, which frankly was to showcase Steve's expertise in the area of pharmaceutical training. That's how Steve really makes his money, you know:

"Impactiviti provides traditional fee-based consulting, as well as something unique - free consulting with training clients on their needs, followed up by targeted recommendations" (see About Impactiviti). [Plug for Steve. So, Steve, what will it take to get my Pharma Marketing Blog on your blogroll?]

Several of us bloggers also started out that way. For example, I started my other blog, Pharma Marketing Blog, to help promote my newsletter and other services for pharmaceutical marketing experts.

While Steve was sticking to his knitting, the Pharma Blogosphere experienced its BIG BANG and many new, edgy pharma blogs were born. That's when I started this blog to keep track of it all and to give me an outlet to talk off topic and engage in some gossip about these new bloggers.

Many serious bloggers, like Steve, found themselves being left behind as the bang reverberated throughout our sphere. To keep up, some bloggers had to get edgier and talk off topic about issues that had little if anything to do with their knitting.

One other blogger that comes to mind is Cary Byrd over at eDrugSearch, a blog/website whose mission is to help consumers find cheap drugs from reliable Canadian sources (listen to my Pharma Marketing Talk podcast interview with Cary: "Can You Find Reputable Canadian Drugs Online?" Listen to the audio archive here.).

Many bloggers in this space have gotten onto the "MacRost" bandwagon and boosted their visibility by creating clever photoshop collages, keeping track of book sales and blog ratings, and generally devoting at least a portion of their blogging bandwidth to the Mack v Rost saga.

Some other bloggers -- notably Jack Friday over at PharmaGossip -- have remained aloof from the brouhaha.

Finally, someone -- Steve Woodruff -- has gotten what this is all about: total world domination by the Mack-Rost machine! Steve even came up with the idea of a "Blockbuster Pharma Blogger Mega-merger" between Mack and Rost. That was his "Biggest Pharma Blogger News Ever to be Unveiled," which I helped him promote here on this blog yesterday (see "Biggest, Most Gigantic, Absolutely Monumental Blogger Announcement Ever!").

Frankly, I misjudged Steve. Here I thought he was a serious guy, sticking to his knitting. Lately, however, he's gotten more interesting and his Impactiviti blog quietly moved into the circle of the Inner Planets of the Pharma Blogosphere. [Another plug for Steve. I ask again, what will it take to get my Pharma Marketing Blog on your blogroll?]

When Steve made his "Biggest Ever" announcement, both I and Rost, thought he was being serious. I thought he might be announcing a merger of his company with a big name outfit or maybe The Neilsen Company, which owns BrandWeek and other properties of dubious merit. I even wished him success and hoped we'd all get some good news from him.

But what do we get? A bogus, but very humorous, Pharma Giles style post about a "mega merger" between Rost and Mack that Steve dubs "J.P. MacRost."

"Now blogging under the name J.P. MacRost," jokes Woodruff, "the two have become 1 expansive psyche of blogging bluster, threatening to overwhelm the entire pharma blogosphere with their combined fulminations, self-promotions, and appeals to readership numbers.

"In fact, they are about to announce their new combined site, The Pharma Egosphere, where the new MacRost will continue to seek world domination through blogging bloviation."

This is not your father's Impactiviti!

Steve even did some Photoshopping of his own and came up with a screen image of what the Pharma Egosphere might look like:


Close, my friend, but no cigar!

Rost, now that Steve has outed us, we have to come clean and tell everyone what our plan has been all along.

While I work out the details of the announcement with Rost, stay tuned for

The REALLY Biggest, Most Gigantic, Absolutely MOST Monumental Blogger Announcement of ALL Time!

Biggest, Most Gigantic, Absolutely Monumental Blogger Announcement Ever!

Seems that writing a post to a blog in the Pharma Blogosphere is not enough these days. It now has to be preceded with a post that announces the post!

Not only that, but it has to be spun as the "biggest", "most important" thing since sliced bread! Of course, a certain Swedish Spinmeister perfected the technique.

About 50% of the time, however, the announced post does not live up to the hype.

The latest such announcement comes from Steve Woodruff over at Impactiviti Blog.

Are you as excited as I am?

What is Steve going to announce? He already revealed that he's NOT Swedish. That's pretty big news. Maybe his company is going to be acquired by The Neilsen Company.

Seriously, I hope it is good news for Steve and not something like another pharmaceutical whistleblower -- this time in a training department -- revealing shady practices to the world via a blog.

All I know is it better damn well be the BIGGEST or the next time someone claims they will have the "Biggest Pharma Blogging News Ever to be Revealed" nobody will give a crap!

Record Number of New Subscribers Anxious to Read My Review of Killer Drug!

Thanks to some free promotion from spinmeister Peter Rost, a record number of new subscribers have signed up to receive their free issue of Pharma Marketing News.

This month's issue, which will hit the eStands at 8:00 AM this morning (subscribers only) features a review of Rost's new book Killer Drug plus the novel, Big Pharma.

Contributing to these reviews are the following bloggers:

• Jane Chin of Pharm Rep Clinic (she reviews Big Pharma)
• Steve Woodruff of Impactiviti (salient portions of his review, which you won't find quoted by Rost, are included)
• Pharm Aid, who has been following the weekly sales on Killer Drug
• Plus... a few anonymous commenters to this blog

The subscription is free: SUBSCRIBE HERE and get this issue delivered to you FREE!

See a synopsis of this month's issue: August Issue of Pharma Marketing News: Wasting Money on DTC, Time to Rethink How to Engage Physicians, Whistleblower Novels

As you can see, it's not all about Rost!

'Round the Sphere: Coffee and Gossip

I like learning the personal interests of bloggers in the Pharma Blogospehere.

Just recently, for example, I learned that Steve Woodruff over at Impactiviti blog is a coffee connoisseur!

"...I can say that I have just had the best coffee I'VE ever enjoyed in New Jersey..."

Not being a resident of NJ, I can't say whether or not this is faint praise. But the place where he got his coffee is in Lambertville, which is just across the river from me. Since I am just now running out of my Bucks County (PA) Coffee -- the best coffee I have ever enjoyed in PA! -- I thought I'd head on over to Lambertville for dinner and pick up some of that NJ coffee along the way!

Meanwhile, Peter Rost is continuing to burn up NRx's bandwidth with off-topic posts and shameless self-promotion. Other bloggers than myself, including Pharm Aid, are getting fed up with it:

"Since coming to Brandweek NRx, I have received so many self-promotional e-mails from Rost I almost started filtering him," says Pharm Aid, "...but then thought better of it. I've decided to blog about his self-promotion..." You can see the latest post here.

Rost himself continues to "interview" bloggers in this space -- preceded, of course, with a grandiose announcement. His latest interview is with "Jack Friday," aka Insider, at PharmaGossip (see "THE MAN BEHIND PHARMAGOSSIP").

"Jack Friday is a British male, in his 50s, and he has spent his career in the pharma industry," says Rost. "In fact, he’s worked for both Schering-Plough and GlaxoSmithKline, and he still makes his living working for the drug industry."

Boring! Tell us something we all don't already know!

I find it more interesting that Jack Friday is a diehard Chicago Cubs fan.

BTW, Jack states "I know I can trust [Rost] to protect my identity."

Ha! Have you read the Question Authority "TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT AND PRIVACY POLICY"?

Oh, I forgot. NRx is not Question Authority...NOT!

'Round the Sphere: Moore (sic) Movies, Avandia Avalanche

Several new Moore SiCKO sightings, news, and video clips have been posted by bloggers in the Pharma Blogosphere^TM.

PharmaGossip posted several links to reviews in the press as well as a video clip (trailer) from the movie (see "SiCKO - what the papers say").

Most reviews are pretty positive. I haven't seen one inch devoted to what the movie says about the pharmaceutical industry. Moore seems mostly concerned with hospitals and insurance companies as the bad guys.

I am still trying to get a screening for us pharma bloggers (see "Mr. Moore Don't Ignore: Please Invite Me to a Screening of Your Movie") and have made some progress on that front that I will be able to talk about later.

Drug Wonks, those "Tricky Wonkers" who attempted a "Wonky PR Trick" pre-debut, has been quiet apres le debut -- I guess all the positive media reviews (even from conservative FOX!) is too much for these PR wonks to spin in the opposite direction!

For a treasure trove of SiCKO blog links (mostly outside our sphere of influence), take a look at this Google Blog Search page.

INNERSTATE: Is it DTC Advertising?
SiCKO wasn't the only movie on pharma bloggers's minds this week. Centocor's 58-minute disease awareness documentary INNERSTATE was also a hot topic in the Sphere.

After finally seeing the movie, Pharm Aid was enthusiastic about it:

"Johnson & Johnson has a long history these kind of broader issues-based campaigns. Since the J&J product, Remicade, is never mentioned in the film and no treatment option is pushed (contrary to Avorn’s comments that this is a “commercial”), it’s not clear if J&J is thinking of InnerState as an issues campaign or if this is more traditional product push."

Unfortunately, as I pointed out on Pharma Marketing Blog and as Ed Silverman pointed out on Pharmalot, INNERSTATE may actually be a commercial. True, the movie itself never mentions Remicade (Centocor's product), but, according to evidence submitted to me by SEIU Local 32BJ, Remicade product information -- a medication guide -- was distributed at a showing of the movie in the King of Prussia Mall in PA in April. I also received the INNERSTATE DVD in the mail containing this product information along with the movie. IMHO, this makes the entire campaign a DTC promotion rather than an unbranded disease awareness campaign, which is how it has been generally described in the press and on other blogs.

Of course, SEIU Local 32BJ has a bone to pick with J&J and has sent letters to FDA and PhRMA claiming that Centocor is in violation of FDA regulations and PhRMA DTC guidelines. However, as I explained to the union's representative, I do not believe Centocor is in violation because it included all the necessary fair balance information.

Anyway, you can find all sides of the story here, including a lengthy statement from Michael Parks, Centocor's Director of Public Relations, and Executive Producer of INNERSTATE. This level of engagement with bloggers is unprecedented and earns Centocor kudos from me.

Avandia Avalanche
As expected, many pharma bloggers have precipitated an avalanche of posts about Avandia, which is being characterized in the press and on blogs as the Vioxx II.

While I love to see a big pharmaceutical company squirm -- especially a British pharma company -- as much as the next American guy, I offered GSK some advice on how to handle the situation. See "Advice to GSK on Handling the Avandia Avalanche: Don't Do What Merck Did".

Steve Woodruff from Impactiviti Blog added his own piece of advice in a comment to my post:

Make a Public Pledge

Something along these lines: "According to the information we have right now, we are convinced that Avandia is a safe and effective treatment. However if, in collaboration with the FDA and clinical researchers, we come to the conclusion in the future that this (or any) drug that we offer has risks that outweigh its benefits, we will immediately withdraw it from the market."

- Take a strong stand based on current information
- Show openness to the implications of new (well-founded) information
- Follow through on the pledge no matter what the cost

This kind of no-nonsense stance, joined to responsible disclosure and clear communication to the marketplace, will go a long way toward countering the negative view of "Big Pharma" - particularly when there are Vioxx-type side effect problems...

Be sure to visit Impactiviti Blog for more insights on GSK.

Meanwhile, Drug Wonks has an interesting perspective on why the Avandia story is breaking now. See "Sneak Attack on PDUFA," which should be stored under "it ain't over until the fat (diabetic) lady sings."

Riding in Peter Rost's Wake

When will I learn?

Never underestimate the value of riding in Peter Rost's (Question Authority's) wake as he jets through the Pharma Blogosphere^TM.

Last week I wrote:

"Corruption regarding the sale of a plant in India has very little relevance to "me", which is what is really important. Maybe that's why not many other blogs are picking up on this latest whistle blower story." (see "Whistle Blower Blowout")

It seems my comment was a bit premature. Rost now lists quotes from several bloggers who are paying homage to his latest revelations regarding whistleblowing in India, which is aimed against Pfizer.

"I guess John is eating his words about right now," says Rost.

Well yes, I was wrong about other blogs following in Peter's wake, which they have now done in droves, and for good reason: Quoting Rost and linking to his blog -- riding his search engine visibility coat tails -- is a sure way to increase traffic to your blog.

Rost also reciprocates and links back to other bloggers, which is a nice gesture of camaraderie and a reward to faithful followers; it's the ultimate in "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" Internet visibility strategy. We've all engaged in it and I am doing it right now. Some, however, may say that my scratching digs a bit too deep!

Back in the day when the Internet was young (1995), it was common practice for web sites to solicit links to one another. Web sites even set up a special page for these links and expected linked sites to reciprocate.

I don't believe in the "reciprocal link" strategy to build visibility, although I understand that links are an important part of Google's search algorithm and we are all slaves to that master.

Where's the Added Value?
But bloggers also link to other bloggers for reasons other than getting higher visibility in search engines. The best reason for linking to other bloggers is because you have something to add to the conversation that the other blogger started.

Most of the bloggers who linked back to Rost's latest whistleblower posting merely re-iterated the story and referred back to Rost for details. Some suggested that Pfizer should have rewarded Rost and prevented all the bad publicity he is now generating.

But from what I see, few other bloggers had anything substantive to add to the conversation. You know, some more information about pharma's foreign subsidiaries, Pfizer's world domination, common business practices in foreign countries like India, etc.

No blogger I know of offered a critical analysis or helped us better understand the issue. I could have used more views on the topic -- not more links back to Rost -- in order to understand what appears to be a complicated case.

Trolling through all the blogs that cited Rost, the best I could come up with that added something new to think about, was a comment made to an Impactiviti post by Dr. Jane Chin:

"When industry conducts itself in a manner worth cheering, you’ll find that its cheerleaders may once again emerge.

"Riding on the laurels of saying (but not practicing) 'we want to do the right thing', using the rising cost of R&D as the perennial reason for rising cost of drugs, and expecting consumers to admire drug companies for doing drug companies’ expected jobs of producing life-saving or life-improving drugs are no longer enough to keep me defending the industry."

Food for thought, which is what other bloggers failed to deliver in this case, IMHO.

'Round the Sphere: Wonky Kryptonite, Ethics, and Videotape

You know, of course, it is impossible to review al the important stuff going on in the expanding Pharma Blogosphere^TM. The best I can do is offer my own eclectic glimpse into trends, fun stuff, and major rants.

Thanks to Steve Woodruff of impactiviti, therefore, for putting together PharmaCentral (see "Flaky" PharmaCentral Launched!), a portal "designed to give you fingertip access to a number of targeted blogs, so that you can more easily and quickly find updated commentary on a variety of topics." Basically, Steve has organized public feeds from blogs into categories based on the focus of the blog. A number of "flakes" or windows into the feed content of blogs appear on a single page.

My suggestion: Use Pharma Blogosphere and PharmaCentral in concert -- the former gives you insight and commentary plus reviews of the blogs in the space (not to mention ratings by readers -- more on that later), the latter is an unedited glimpse into recent posts from blogs.

Steve's blog (impactiviti) is about pharma sales training, in case you are interested.

ASIDE TO STEVE: What ever happened to the discussion of sales training going too far (see Steve's post "How Far is Too Far?"). This question was prompted by the Zubillaga Affair (or Zube Affair, or ZubeGate; your choice) and sales training PPT, which seems to prompt sales reps to make off-label head to head comparisons of 2 drugs on sales calls. Steve asks: "The defense was made that this was a 'for information only' training piece, and the information was not to be used for detailing. Well, maybe. Here’s the question I’d like to have your comments on - where does a company draw the line between giving out information like this to sales reps, even if there is a “not for detailing” disclaimer? Where does this stand with the compliance/ethical practices of your company? How far is too far?"

Can we expect any answers to these questions any time soon? Inquiring minds want to know.

Drug Wonks Have Sense of Humor -- Who Knew?
Finally, Drug Wonks (aka "PR Wonks," Whoops! Did I just violate Rulemaker Giles' Rule #4?) post a light, humorous piece! Here it is in its entirety:

Real Kryptonite Found: FDA Puts Black Box Warning on Related Products

The FDA announced today that all supplements and products derived from kryptonite would have a black box warning. Dr. David Graham had pressured the agency after noting that the presence of kryptonite would pose a serious and life threatening danger to Superman, Supergirl and other survivors of the planet Krypton. Graham had been pushing Congress to expand it's drug safety program to move beyond "merely planetary surveillance activities" and into galactic exploration of pharmacovigilance matters. The FDA said in a press release " this pilot project is part of our effort to develop a global and indeed galactic risk management program." The agency had planned to establish this program in partnership with Luthor Industries and the Justice League of America but was attacked by members of Congress for being too "cozy" with special interests.

I guess everyone has heard of the discovery of Kryptonite on planet Earth reported recently in the press? If not, this tongue-in-cheek piece may cause you to scratch your head.

More Ethics Anyone?
There's a new kid on the block -- or, should I say, new orb in the Outer Sphere: Hooked blog, which was launched back in February "accompany the recent publication of [the author's, Harold Brody] book, Hooked: Ethics, the Medical Profession, and the Pharmaceutical Industry. Hat tip to Jack Friday at PharmaGossip, who continues to discover new planets!

I wonder what Paul Marinelli, the author of the blog Pharma Ethics, My Foot! thinks of this new blog? Sounds like they should duke it out. BTW, where are you Paul? We haven't seen a new post to your blog since...February! Hmmmm...coincidence! Could Harold Brody and Paul Marinelli be alter egos of the same person! C'mon Paul! Write something scathing please (Rule #4 be damned!).

I'm a little conflicted about adding Hooked to the list of Pharma Blogosphere members. After all, Hooked is obviously geared to promote a single product: the author's book, which BTW I will definitely BUY and READ!

Brody, however, is engaged in an interesting project whereby a blog is designed to update the contents of a book and the author offers interaction with his readers:

"My major goal with this blog is to allow updates on the book's contents. The topic--the relationship between medicine and the pharmaceutical industry--is hot right now, and practically every day, new developments occur and new information is published. I wanted to have a platform to inform interested readers of those developments that seem to me especially pertinent or important, and that might modify some statement or fact given in the book."

But why the book? Why not just the blog? Will the blog out live the book, which may never make it it to a second printing? Too many questions for me to answer this early in the AM.

The AZ Videotape
Peter Rost is at AZ again! The latest brouhaha is the "Secret AstraZeneca Audio Tapes" (see here and here and practically everywhere in the Pharma Blogosphere; hope I implemented Rule #1 adequately).

So far, we've seen the lies and the videotape. Where's the sex Peter?

OK, so it's an AUDIOTAPE, not a Videotape! Sue me! The real question is where's the sex?

Frankly, I haven't been keeping up with all these revelations and have not listened to any of the tracks that Peter has uploaded. I notice, however, that he uses a third-pary storage site called Box where he deposits all his media file (see, for example, Track 7). You get 1 GB of storage free! If Peter keeps up this pace of revelations, he will soon have to upgrade!

Hey, Judge Mack has just had a tattoo done and wants to show you! Click here to see it.

"Flaky" PharmaCentral Launched!

Far from "flaky" is Steve Woodruff's new PharmaCentral PageFlake index to the Pharma Blogosphere. Here's what he has to say:

The concept is built on what John Mack has done by creating the pharma blogosphere site, who gets credit for pulling a bunch of links together, and promoting the whole idea of pharma blogging as something of a "collective effort."

What I've done is to try to make it easier to visualize and access the blogs, with a further attempt to categorize them by emphasis.

Check it out at: http://www.pageflakes.com/pharmacentral/

Today is the first day it is publicly accessible. I would very much like to have your feedback on a couple of things in particular:

• whether you feel your blog is properly classified in the tabbed categories (note: each blog will be assigned to only one category)
• whether you think the categories need to be altered to any extent to improve the classification
• whether you feel, over time, that other blogs should be included (note: I plan to include those that have a track record of at least 3 months of solid content, and that focus pretty specifically on pharma/biotech)

[Peter Rost - your blog does not have a publicly accessible "feed", so I did not include Question Authority. But your newsworthy posts get so much attention at the other blogs that you seem omnipresent anyway!]

I made this portal because, while it is very valuable to go to each individual site, it's time-consuming and inconvenient. Feed readers are great (I use Google's), but the interface isn't ideal. PageFlakes enables a more compelling visualization and ease of access. Readers can come to one site and jump off to articles of interest from there.

By having an umbrella site like this, I hope we can all gain additional exposure, and help a growing number of other folks to keep up on the latest commentary.

Let me know your thoughts!

I really like the "flakes." If my experience is any guide, I'd say this is a work in progress -- maybe the classification needs some work. It's really difficult to classify blogs in the Pharma Blogosphere and I'm sure Steve will get some criticism. After all, you can please some bloggers some of the time, and all bloggers some of the time, but you can you can't please all bloggers all the time!