WSJ - How the 1% Scrubs Its Image Online

[JamaicanMoose]

An article about online reputation management appeared on the Wall Street Journal today - https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-1-scrubs-its-image-online-11576233000

Prominent figures from Jacob Gottlieb to Betsy DeVos got help from a reputation management firm that can bury image-sensitive Google results by placing flattering content on websites that masquerade as news outlets

My biggest takeaway was how cheap the scrubbing services of the firm in question, Status Labs, are. $4,000 - $5,000/mo seems like a bargain.

 

[Ryuzaki]

What else can you tell us since the article is behind a paywall?

Yeah, four to five thousand seems to be about right from what I've seen. You'd think these firms would charge higher clout clients more money since the job will be tougher.

 

[Tiberian]

I created a Pastebin paste for the article here: https://pastebin.com/3b8fPjeY

One thing I'll note: This $4,000-$5,000 figure is per month.
This is much more in line with reputation management for public figures. I have to imagine it scales up even more for companies like Theranos that it consulted with.

Some fascinating points for those of you too lazy to read through the whole thing:

Afterward, articles about him began to appear on websites that are designed to look like independent news outlets but are not. Most contained flattering information about Mr. Gottlieb, praising his investment acumen and philanthropy, and came up high in recent Google searches. Google featured some of the articles on Google News.

The co-founders of Status Labs, Mr. Fisher and Jordan French, also ran a company called Wiki-PR, which edited Wikipedia pages for clients, according to a former employee. Mr. French left Status Labs in 2015 following a dispute, according to that former employee and a press release from Mr. French. Status Labs was founded in 2012.

This reputation management style is the same strategy that was posted about on WickedFire and also on BS. I wouldn't be surprised if they got ideas from those threads.

 

[Philip J. Fry]

Thanks for the article

I would advise people to steer clear of companies and individuals like this. A reputable reputation is best when it concerns the general public. You want to be seen as doing good for society, not maintaining inequality.

Thank you.