SWMS Deep-Dive, Part 3: The Toxicity of Retention Editing
February 13, 2024
3:48 am
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Analysis: What’s Coming In AI Coverage, Feb.-Apr.
February 7, 2024
8:50 am
What can tech PR expect in terms of AI coverage in February, March and April? As part of a valet consulting request, a subscriber asked us to do some thinking on that. Below is what we came up with.
More Narrative Formula Examples
January 25, 2024
5:42 am
Perhaps you saw our Nov. 30 analysis of narrative story formulas that continually appear in Tier 1. The idea would be for PR pros to contour their story pitches to fit one of these formulas, since publications are writing these kinds of stories anyway.
Cheat Sheet: App Reporters
January 23, 2024
4:06 am
Nothing is more frustrating than landing coverage for a new app — or worse, the new version of an old app. Apps themselves are old technology — Apple introduced the iPhone almost 17 years ago.
SWMS Dossier: Belle Lin, WSJ CIO Journal
January 17, 2024
8:04 am
If tech journalism had its own 30 Under 30 list, Belle Keni Lin certainly would be on it. The 28-year-old WSJ reporter started her career as a marcom intern, first at Dropbox and later at Fleetsmith, an IT software company later acquired by Apple.
Cheat Sheet: Forbes Staff Reporters & Editors
January 15, 2024
4:24 am
We’re told by Alex Konrad that the Forbes masthead can be found in each print issue. If you don’t have one handy, here’s a cheat sheet with the names, beats and contact info for 45 Forbes staff reporters and editors.
SWMS Diagram: The Tier 1 Edit Process
January 12, 2024
4:35 am
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that when you’re pitching Tier 1 reporters, you are pitching their bosses at the same time. That’s why it’s helpful to understand the entire editorial process in the publications you’re pitching — not just the persuasion part.
Cheat Sheet: Tier 1 F2F Event Contacts
January 2, 2024
11:39 am
Events grew like crazy last year, and 2024 promises to be the same. So it’s time we offer a cheat sheet on whom to approach and pitch in selected Tier 1 event operations. Unlike reporters, event influencers have no content to review.
Three Challenges for Fortune In 2024
December 27, 2023
8:26 am
We’ve probably overcovered Fortune this year relative to other publications, but only because the 94-year-old publication outperformed everyone else in the industry. That was then. Fortune may struggle in ’24 to replicate 2023’s success. Here’s why.
Cheat Sheet: IoT Targets
December 17, 2023
12:37 pm
When indie IoT journalist Stacey Higginbotham ceased publishing Stacey On IoT in August 2023, PR pros mourned. Technical and personable, Stacey was in a class by herself. Still, we have found 17 targets worth pitching.
YOUR ACCOUNT
FRIDGE NOTES
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.
The ‘AI Fantasy Draft’ From Eric Newcomer
November 13, 2024
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.