Anyone in a tech PR security role is likely familiar with Security Ledger, the security web site published by tech edit veteran Paul Roberts. Hired by the IDG News Service in 2002, Paul went on to work for InfoWorld, eWeek, The 451 Group, ThreatPost and CSM Passcode.
TechCrunch this week introduced TechCrunch Extra Crunch, a premium subscription tier that brings extra content and services to the publication’s most passionate readers. Tech PR gets new opportunity to pitch startups without needing a news hook. (See related analysis.)
Does TechCrunch Extra Crunch present extra pitch opportunity? The one-word answer is yes. But in the vast majority of instances, tech PR pros will pitch the publication just as they have since its founding in 2005.
The Block “is not an enthusiast site [for crypto],” says new editor-in-chief John Biggs. “We’re not rah rah rah all day long like other sites.” The 12-year veteran of TechCrunch is now a full-timer at The Block, a thoughtful crypto publication that’s coming up on its first birthday.
Is “social good” a good topic to pitch? Mashable does have its “social good” section. Fast Company’s Ben Paynter and VentureBeat’s Kyle Wiggers do write frequently on the topic. This week we added six additional reporters to our SWMS social good cheat sheet, as well as a twice-weekly newsletter from Vox.
More than 1,000 media people lost their jobs yesterday. At BuzzFeed the toll will range between 225 and 250. At Verizon Media Group — home to Yahoo, AOL and TechCrunch — it was more like 850. What’s happening and what does it mean for PR?
Does Business Insider hurt itself reserving select articles only for BI Prime subscribers? Probably not. Of all the types of articles BI publishes, only three tend to be gated, SWMS research shows. Unfortunately, those types include most stories PR folks would pitch.
Dow Jones this week introduced WSJ Pro Artificial Intelligence (WSJ Pro AI), the sixth in a series of WSJ Professional Editions designed for business executives and technologists immersed in a particular field. Unlike the other WSJ Pro verticals — focused on cybersecurity, central banking, venture capital, private equity, and bankruptcy — the AI vertical is free.
Add Substack to the list of platforms frustrating to PR — Product Hunt, Stack Overflow, Reddit, Quora — that command attention but aren’t pitchable like publications. Founded in 2017, Substack is a publishing platform for indie newsletter authors. It’s cool and we’ll get into why, but Substack’s web site is more or less a metaphorical black box.
Here’s a selection of 2019-related links and notions you may find predictive of things to come. Explored are three cool tools that automate the creation of rough drafts, the rise of graphics at the WSJ, and the specter of global financial chaos that could transform the world of business and tech media.
YOUR ACCOUNT
FRIDGE NOTES
Registration is now open for the ‘Bloomberg Tech’ F2F event, being held Jun. 4-5 in San Francisco. With the current early-bird discount, a ticket runs $1,500. There is no better way to build relationships with Bloomberg’s notoriously elusive tech reporters.
Well, for now it’s Jim Jordan… but such news illustrates the kind of world we seem to be headed for. Adweek has the details, subscription required.
No “predictions” post will appear on this site. That said, quite a number of subscribers have asked for a Zoom/MS Teams presentation on what 2025 will bring. A conversation is precisely the right tool for the job. After the election — and with AI transforming publishing and life — “2025” is best discussed among peers, not predicted. So if you’d like to have a confidential group exchange on what stands to unfold, and why, and how comms pros can come out on top in spite of it all, drop a line and we shall schedule something.
According to Adweek, Omnicom CEO John Wren and IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky were in merger talks for eleven and a half months before the transaction was announced this week. Amazing that it didn’t leak.
Should PR pros stop visiting X, with all its lies and hate? It’s only going to get worse. Or are tidbits from targets too important to walk away from? Click here to watch tech edit vet David Strom and I disagree (at high speed) about this, as one compelling visual after another pops up on your screen. In 2025, SWMS will officially launch “SWMS Sound Thinking,” designed to be “argumentative insight in six minutes or less.” Each segment will explore a timely and controversial topic of interest to tech comms pros. This prototype runs 5:25. Hope you enjoy it — feedback vital and welcome! –Sam
New EIC Jamie Heller has asked her reporters to start going on camera — for the BI TikTok channel — to explain the big, deep-divey story they just published. Other publications do this — especially archival Fortune. BI is now on that too. Game on.
