DIARY: Red-faced ACNielsen turns iMail bosses a deep shade of purple

<p>Just when life was getting unbearably dull in Hong Kong, along </p><p>comes a cat fight to liven up the scene. The spat between the venerable </p><p>ACNielsen and the spunky iMail, the tabloid that replaced the Standard, </p><p>has apparently spread beyond local shores thanks to the instant </p><p>gratification email offers slighted reporters. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Here's a chronology of how the claws have been drawn so far: an iMail </p><p>editor puts in a request to ACNielsen's PR department to receive </p><p>releases at the same time as its broadsheet competitor. Instead, what it </p><p>gets is an eyeful: an email missive is accidentally copied to the </p><p>tabloid which ACNielsen's PR folks have sent to their chieftains, </p><p>explaining in very colourful terms why iMail has been excluded. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>As far as the research firm's PR department is concerned, iMail is </p><p>"second-tier media"; read that to mean that it shouldn't expect the </p><p>"exclusive deals (ACNielsen has) with SCMP and AWSJ for a few of our </p><p>initiatives". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Ouch. But that's not the end. The sting in the tail: "I don't know </p><p>anyone who actually reads the rag. What's the point of giving us heaps </p><p>of PR when no one sees it anyway? It's purely a matter of quality versus </p><p>quantity here." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>We hear there were plenty of red faces at ACNielsen. And plenty of </p><p>purple ones at iMail. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>