For better or for worse, Phillyist isn't my day job. A quick glance at my bio will tell you that I work at a local communications firm. That means I do a lot of things, but most pertinent to this week's column, I do press outreach. I want people in the media to talk about my firm's clients. Not just newspapers and television stations, either. We want people to blog about our clients.

As bloggers and citizen journalist-types increasingly gain the upper-hand over traditional media, it's ever-more surprising when I hear, for instance, that Target "does not participate with nontraditional media outlets." Although an argument can be made that any press is good press, ignoring bloggers in this day and age just opens you up to the kind of press that makes people who say things like "any press is good press" look like big fat liars.

That's why I was so surprised when Editor Jim and I received an email on Friday afternoon stating that an upcoming preview screening of a potentially-controversial documentary starring an often-controversial comedian would be closed to online media outlets, per the studio's instructions. We inquired into the reason for this decision and were told that the studio didn't want any blogging about the film this early; they want to keep the film "under lock and key." The inference to be made here is that the studio is concerned that bloggers can tank the movie before it's even released—because who'd turn down positive advanced press? (We don't want to burn any bridges, so we're not going to mention the name of the person we spoke with, the name of the film, or the name of the studio.)

And so, this week's Monday Manners takeaway is a simple one: don't disrespect or discount bloggers. Don't tell them they're not press and deny them access to press events. Don't expect them to keep their mouths shut when you do so. Don't shut out online media, and then, when you discover that traditional media outlets aren't coming out to cover your event, scramble to get bloggers to come. Bloggers have lives too, and they're not going to drop everything for your last-minute invitation. Don't mock bloggers. You're only giving them more fuel—and more power. No matter what your personal feelings on new media are, we are a force that can't be stopped. So can it really hurt to be nice to us?

Image Credit: "The Art and Science of Blogger Relations" by Flickr user b_d_solis.