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Covid-19: Where To from Here?

Will Covid-19, better known as the coronavirus, change how tech and business reporters spend their time? Yes, and the changes have begun. We’re querying tech and business editors and will update this article throughout coming days. Here’s what we’ve learned from the front lines so far.

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Lindsay Ciulla: Build the PR Team That Works for You

[Please welcome back SWMS contributing editor Lindsay Ciulla, a senior VP with (SWMS subscriber) Weber Shandwick Worldwide. –Ed.] Well friends, in what feels like the blink of an eye we’re somehow halfway through the first quarter of 2020 — in a decade that (at least when I was growing up) promised flying cars and travel via teleportation.

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Alex Shapiro: In-House PR FOMO Reality Check

[We asked PR vet Alex Shapiro to contrast the worlds of agency and in-house PR. He knows both. Enjoy the read. -Ed.] For agency PR pros, the grass may seem particularly greener right now on the in-house side and there’s no shortage of hot companies hiring. We’re all told the job market’s hot, and that can often feel true for the revolving doors of PR.

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Matthew Lynley: What Makes for a Great Communications Pro

[We asked Matthew Lynley, a former journalist with VentureBeat, TechCrunch and the WSJ, what makes for a great comms professional. Here’s what he had to say. — Ed.] Companies with massive budgets can hire a PR team the size of a small army. But hiring more people doesn’t make the company better at PR.

 
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Mitch Wagner: ‘Get to the Point — Fast’

[We asked veteran tech reporter Mitch Wagner to deconstruct two of his recent news stories, explaining why he wrote them the way he did. Mitch has done so — you will enjoy his contribution. –Ed.]

A tech journalist today needs to get to the point right away. As a tech journalist, I have an ideal reader in mind every time I write an article. As I write, I’m always asking myself how I can best serve that reader with the news they need to know, fast.

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Anton Molodetskiy: Don’t Fear the Phone

[Enjoy this true story from SWMS contributor and PR pro Anton Molodetskiy -Ed.] You may think that journalists would rather talk to a telemarketer than answer your phone call, but the phone is still a key tool for both reporters and PR. I learned this hard way a few years ago while managing outreach for a B2B startup coming out of stealth.

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SWMS Playbook: Challenges and Solutions

We recently conducted a video meeting with a subscriber who sought SWMS POV on the following media relations questions. With the subscriber’s permission, here are the questions and our responses. Hope you find them useful.

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FRIDGE NOTES

SWMS Predictions for 2025

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…

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’

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