12 Commandments from Contributed Content Gatekeepers
April 26, 2022
5:46 am
This month we studied guidelines from contributed content gatekeepers. Dozens and dozens of them.
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Analysis: A Tale of Two Fortunes
April 22, 2022
8:20 am
This is a tale of two Fortunes — “new” Fortune and “classic” Fortune, each with their own needs and culture. You’ll want to approach accordingly.
Deep-Dive: Tim Keary, VentureBeat
April 13, 2022
2:02 pm
After becoming a VentureBeat freelancer last month, Tim Keary wrote 41 stories in 42 days. With rare exception, the articles focused either on a product announcement or a funding round. Dozens of companies saw their news covered thoroughly — in a context useful to buyers.
Contributed Content Pitch Opp: The San Francisco Standard
April 6, 2022
4:00 pm
If you have a San Francisco-based story to tell, you can tell it yourself in the San Francisco Standard, now in its second year.
Q&A: Bruce Rogers, Forbes senior contributor
April 1, 2022
2:48 pm
A former VP and chief insights officer at Forbes, Bruce Rogers continues to serve his alma mater as a senior contributor. He says he receives ten pitches a day. Before you add the 11th, give yourself an advantage and enjoy this Q&A…
Q&A: Steve Lohr, NYT
March 30, 2022
7:31 am
If you’re younger than 43 years old, Steve Lohr was reporting for the New York Times before you were born. Imagine all the stories he has written… the interviews he has conducted… and all the pitches he has seen.
Community.co to Launch Premium Tiers For Forbes Councils… and More
March 21, 2022
12:31 pm
Haven’t heard of Community.co? Oh yes you have. It’s the company that helps Forbes deliver the Forbes Technology Council and eight companion councils. You also know it as the partner behind the Fast Company Executive Board…
A POV on Insider/Business Insider
March 21, 2022
8:41 am
Earlier this month a subscriber asked us for a POV on Insider/Business Insider. What makes them tick? Our response initially was intended only for the subscriber — but we changed our mind about that.
Beware Hostile ‘Climate’ Edit
March 21, 2022
7:14 am
Protocol launched a climate vertical last week. Axios launched a new Climate Truths Deep Dive series, chronicling “how climate change affects nearly everything…” Insider this month launched a multi-part article series on Financing a Sustainable Future.
Profile: Stephanie Neil, Automation World/OEM Magazine
March 7, 2022
5:08 pm
Stephanie Neil. Two hats. One job. You may know Stephanie as a senior editor at Automation World, serving since 2015. Since 2018 she has served as EIC of OEM Magazine, which explores…
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FRIDGE NOTES
‘Bloomberg Tech’ Now Open for Registration
January 6, 2025
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.
Congress to Investigate the Omnicom-IPG Deal
December 20, 2024
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.
SWMS Predictions for 2025
December 10, 2024
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.
Talk About Confidentiality…
December 10, 2024
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.
Introducing ‘SWMS Sound Thinking’
November 22, 2024
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
Business Insider Reporters Starting to Go on Camera
November 19, 2024
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.