Former Bloomberg and Protocol reporter Joe Williams is not your typical pitch target. He does write a weekly Substack newsletter called Billable Hours, in which he writes about enterprise tech topics. But time has marched on…
When between jobs, otherwise inaccessible tech editors have the time to explain how they view their own work. When they do, tech PR must take note.
Protocol lasted nearly three years. Such a shame. It was a publication that absolutely, positively should have succeeded. Why didn’t it? The official explanation: economic headwinds. Other factors might have been at play.
One year ago Tom Krazit Tweeted: “…some personal/Protocol news: I’m now the Enterprise Editor for Protocol | Enterprise, overseeing coverage and planning for a big expansion. We are hiring for five (5!) new enterprise reporters to work with me and @JoePWilliams31…”
Each June we study Similarweb data to see which Tier 1 brands are on the march. This year, far and away, it’s Protocol and Fortune.
PR pros often wonder how to measure the influence of a particular publication. Similarweb measures audience size and that’s great. How do you measure a publication’s relationship with its readers?
Apart from the new targets, there’s much to grasp about Protocol’s new investments in enterprise tech edit. In the biggest picture, Protocol owner Axel Springer is investing in Protocol across the board.
As TechCrunch is to funding news and hot startups, Protocol is to enterprise computing. Last year you couldn’t say that, especially after go-to reporter Joe Williams departed for Bloomberg. This year you totally can. Protocol recently hired three enterprise reporters and seeks two more.
Protocol has not only hired a boatload of top journalists in its first 18 months, but also has recruited almost 200 contributors whose work appears in a thought leadership vertical called Braintrust. If you represent thought leaders, you’ll enjoy this Q&A with Protocol associate editor Kevin McAllister — your pitch contact — and Protocol president Tammy Wincup.
PR pros can learn a lot about Protocol Enterprise as a brand — and about the art of interviewing — by watching the Mar. 9 Protocol Live web event, in which senior Protocol reporters Tom Krazit and Joe Williams interview executives from Google and industrial IoT startup Webee.
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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.
