Sean Michael Kerner is a B2B tech reporter, and according to his LinkedIn profile, is an “Internet consultant, a strategy and developer/writer and sometimes entrepreneur.” While Sean no longer writes for eWeek, he recently picked up freelance work at Business Insider and still writes for Enterprise Networking Planet, eSecurity Planet, ServerWatch and ITPro Today.
Security researcher Brian Krebs this month published an analysis that only he could create. It’s an exhaustive explainer on recent DNS hijacking attacks, purportedly conducted by Iranian hackers. How does a tech PR pro get the attention of this man? We asked around. Below is a compendium of what we heard back, both on and off the record.
Threat-and-breach coverage is by far the biggest topic in security editorial. It’s got the Armageddon thing going for it, which always breeds high numbers of page views and social shares. We once heard a veteran security PR pro refer to covering security as “the crime beat” and he’s not far off.
I’d love to say that every single time I’ve worked on a major announcement or campaign, things went perfectly – but that’s unfortunately not exactly how things go in PR. One of the most crushing let-downs is when an exclusive falls through. How do you react? What do you tell your client?
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.
