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Putting a Face on a Company

Check out the headline in The Wall Street Journal last month. “Apple Teams with Jack Ma” The headline didn’t say “Apple Teams with Alibaba.” Why? And don’t say because the word “Alibaba” wouldn’t fit in the space for the headline. It turns out that both words take up seven characters. I think it’s because the …more

The Top 10 Storytelling Posts for 2016 (Part II)

Breaking the Top 10 storytelling posts for 2016 into two parts, I published the first part last week. Here’s the second part, again reflecting the varied facets that make up today’s communications in the business world. In spite of the massive changes in our industry, media relations and PR storytelling still matter, an apt way …more

Toyota Crisis: Hell Hath No Fury Like a Car Maker Scorned

Scorn makes for good storytelling. It brings out emotion and ultimately unscripted drama. Look no further than the bevy of reality TV shows cranking out the profits to understand the appeal of NOT knowing how the story will turn out. With this in mind, I suspect we’re going to see and read a helluva story …more

Communicating with Fresh and Compelling Language

We associate the “sound bite” with television. Capture your idea in an entertaining 20 seconds and increase the likelihood of making the 11 p.m. news. The same concept exists in print journalism. At the risk of oversimplifying, given a choice between dull or exciting, reporters will take exciting every time. One of my all-time favorite …more

Borrowing from Crocodile Dundee, "Now That’s an Anecdote"

Like most business publications, the Journal has been covering the maneuvering related to the Supreme Court addressing the question on intellectual property: When can a business method be patented? As you would expect, stories have revolved around attorneys and CEOs informally pleading their cases that just so happen to align with their own interests. Not …more

Classic Storytelling Still Requires Local Characters

Boy meets girl. David topples Goliath. Money. Overcoming hardships. Goliath meets girl. All the basic themes of classic storytelling work in any culture and in any language. But this doesn’t mean you can develop stories in your home market, fling them over the fence to far-reaching countries and expect them to resonate with the local …more

Iron Reporter: Wall Street Journal Versus NY Times On A Russian Train

Siemens recently took its new high-speed train for a spin with reporters on board. The story provides the perfect fodder to resurrect “Iron Reporter,” the forum in which we contrast how two reporters tell the same story. Today’s challenge pits Andrew E. Kramer from The New York Times (“Siemens Fills Need for High-Speed Trains in …more