[SWMS contributor Rhiannon Pacheco writes:] Forbes senior editor Alex Konrad has announced the launch of a new weekly newsletter called “The Midas Touch,” debuting Sun. Mar. 7. Alex shared with us rich detail on the newsletter’s focus — “the world of VC and startup fundraising” — and on how PR pros can pitch stories.
Add Fast Company to the growing list of publishers launching readership communities. The Fast Company Executive Board now offers a waitlist in advance of its formal opening next week. FC is building its Executive Board in association with The Community Company, a virtual professional services firm that manages councils for Forbes, Rolling Stone, Newsweek and Bizjournals.
The Wall Street Journal is about to ramp up The Experts, the contributed content operation affiliated with Journal Report. WSJ is open to vetting new “panelists” (contributors) in each of six areas: energy, health, leadership, retirement, small business and wealth management.
Forbes this month deepened its investments in C-title community with CxO, a platform designed to congregate points of view from CEOs, CFOs, CHROs, CIOs and CTOs. There’s new opportunity for pitching and relationship-building.
Consumer health reporters are harder to spot than they used to be — thanks to Covid-19. New strains, new vaccines — already scarce health journos have been tugged in every direction. We’ve got a core group of ten, including many from Tier 1.
Most PR pros know to analyze their targets’ work before pitching. Few make the time. Even if they did, what exactly would one look for? Here’s an exercise anyone can do, and it can reveal quite a bit about how they might cover your news.
[SWMS contributor Leah McLean writes:] My career has been in tech from the start and for the last six years in the cybersecurity industry. The last two years I’ve been keenly determined to get to know the CISO – what makes them tick, keeps them up at night, how they think, their views towards the many technology vendors and solutions…
TechCrunch Extra Crunch is about to relaunch EC-1, a series of in-depth, multi-part profiles of emerging, private tech companies. TC EC debuted EC-1 profiles in 2019, publishing five in all before Covid-19 began wreaking its havoc. TechCrunch has decided to try it again in 2021.
So you have a compelling “thought leadership” concept, eh? Can you draw it? If not, the pitch may not be imaginative enough. Enjoy our interview with Forrester Research founder and CEO George F. Colony and his tale of the “Technology Iceberg.”
[SWMS contributor Rhiannon Pacheco writes:] While there are thousands of consumer tech-focused TV shows, print media outlets, podcasts and influencers, they tend to primarily focus on physical gadgets. Getting media coverage for apps can be challenging.
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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.
At this time last year, Eric Newcomer and his two podcast co-hosts — Max Child and James Wilsterman — each formed an “AI startup fantasy team” and picked five AI startups to seed their rosters. We’re now in year 2 and it’s time to draft again. The podcasters wonder… which startups do they dump? Which do they add? The player whose startups accumulate the most total value by Nov. 1, 2028 is the winner, so there’s plenty of time to make adjustments. Here’s a link to the AI fantasy team podcast — you may need a password. Not sure.
