You may know John Kell as the author of Fortune’s weekly newsletter, CIO Intelligence. You’d be right, but John’s work also shows up in Fast Company and Business Insider. Few other freelancers have such impact.
Fast Company EIC Brendan Vaughan had a busy week this week, chairing the publication’s tenth annual Innovation Festival. On Sept. 11 Brendan made time for the following SWMS Q&A, in which he discussed the role of AI in innovation…
No one interviews more CEOs than Jon Fortt. Now in his 14th year at CNBC, the TV co-anchor and podcaster enjoys interviewing founders too. Jon likes to explore the minds of responsible people — fully responsible, for everything. That’s where the lessons are.
Think back to what you were doing in 1992. Jim Aley was writing features for Fortune. Eight years later he was editing them for Business 2.0. In 2024 he edits them still, serving as deputy editor for the recently relaunched Bloomberg Businessweek.
You may be familiar with Timothy B. Lee’s work from The Washington Post, Vox or Ars Technica — he worked at all three. Today Tim is a Substack author well into his second year of “Understanding AI,” a fast-rising analytical newsletter on the hottest topic around.
To know Eric Savitz is to like him. Friendly and smart. Versatile. The man spent 27 years in edit, the next six in PR and then returned to edit for another five. Who else has done that, or could?
You need to be logged in to view this content. Please Log In. Not a Member? Join Us
You need to be logged in to view this content. Please Log In. Not a Member? Join Us
At 27, she is one of the important Tier 1 journalists in the business. Important certainly to SWMS readers, because no one writes more CEO profiles than Brooklyn resident Jane Thier.
Ken Yeung has returned to VentureBeat to cover AI as a contributing writer and editor. Tech PR veterans may remember Ken as a VB staff writer in 2015 and 2016. Now he is back. Knowing all about the fast-paced culture VB founder Matt Marshall has built.
YOUR ACCOUNT
FRIDGE NOTES
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.
