It was a pleasure to see Tom Waldrop, director of Intel's worldwide press relations. And it was interesting to hear Tom chat about the early days of Cnet's News.com, which is more than 10 years old.

Tom said that many in Silicon Valley weren't sure how to deal with News.com's writers, were they really real journalists?

We forget how reading news stories on the internet, from a media company with no print publication, was a strange thing to do. And it wasn't all that long ago.

Tom said that very soon people realized that the online news stories were just as good as the printed news stories from the established publishers. And the News.com journalists became an accepted part of the Silicon Valley media community. And Intel was also an investor in Cnet, which provided very important validity to the fledgling online news companies.

It's interesting to hear that story because I hear the same questions from many companies today, how do we deal with bloggers and with the blogosphere? Are bloggers journalists?

Howard High, a senior exec in Tom's team at Intel, introduced me to a meeting of the Semiconductor Industry Association in June, saying that when I left the Financial Times to become a blogger, that's when Intel knew it had to take blogging seriously and try to understand what is going on. It was because I was the first journalist to leave a prominent position at a major newspaper to become a blogger. [I didn't think of it at the time, but...]

So, are bloggers journalists? I tell people, "If you read something that looks like journalism, on a consistent basis, then it most likely is journalism." Yes, some bloggers are journalists.

I'm sometimes introduced as a former journalist, when I'm really a former FT journalist. It's always a slip of the tongue, but it is also an indication of the confusion over the new new media, and how to deal with it.

I'm still a journalist and I still work and write as a journalist, on pretty much the same topics and companies and people that I wrote about at the FT.

I still get pitched by the same people and companies; and I am invited to the very same media events as the print press. So, yes, I am a journalist and engaged in the traditional journalistic pursuits of scoops, exclusives, analysis and people.

But I often dress in a suit--so as to reassure people that bloggers are not a wild and unruly sort--they are just like you and me :-)

Next up at 11.11am--Churchill Club 20th anniversary event: The call of the Rooster...