The customer is king in an economic downturn … except at American Express. AmEx has decided to prune its customers that fit under the bad-guy category with a unique offer. Remember in the good old days when the Russians were still a player and your local bank gave you a blender when you opened a savings account. AmEx is …more
No, I’m not talking about Matt Kenseth winning the Daytona 500. Instead, consider what brings the vast majority of folks to the racetrack. It’s the possibility to witness a high-speed wreck. I’ve come to call the type of story that offers up the possibility of a wreck – defining “wreck” as an element of the story …more
The San Jose Mercury News ran the feel-good story “From Strawberries to Startup” on the front page above the fold. No doubt, the Merc’s editorial decision-makers – and for that matter publication bosses from around the country – figure the onslaught of negative news starts to numb the readership. Check out the Merc‘s front-page headlines …more
One of the last places you’d expect to see the art of storytelling is where a publication sells its advertising. Even one of the bastions of high-brow reading, The Atlantic, – home to Malcolm Gladwell and other marquee-name storytellers – offers a fairly mundane sales pitch: The Atlantic is America’s leading destination for brave thinking and bold ideas …more
When we last addressed Mr. Jobs he was taking a pass on Macworld. More recently, unless you’ve spent the last week in the proverbial cave, you’ve seen the cavalcade of stories on Steve Jobs taking a leave of absence from Apple. The common denominator in the stories revolves around understanding his replacement, Tim Cook. It’s revealing …more
I came across an enlightening piece called “Becoming a Storyteller, Not Just a Reporter” (you might need to scroll down to reach the article). While the entire piece is worth a read, the following advice caught my attention: Don’t limit your inquiry, or your thinking, to the basics of journalism: Who, what, when, where, why, how. Think …more
