Archive: 2016

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FT Rejects Biz Storytelling, Beware of Moving Images and Infomercials Baffle FTC

The grab bag returns with three vignettes from the wacky world of communications.   Financial Times Rejects Business Storytelling The job description for columnists always includes the verb, provoke. In this regard, I suppose the column by FT’s Lucy Kellaway, “Stories Are Best for the Bible and In Novels” works. After all, I’m taking the …more

10 Charts from the Silicon Valley Index that Caught My Attention

Joint Venture Silicon Valley is incredibly thorough in putting together its annual index on Silicon Valley. Perhaps too thorough. Reviewing the 100-page document might be best described as a trudge. To save you the time of plodding through the pages, here are the CliffsNotes.   Where Invention Happens The combined patents generated in Silicon Valley …more

Applying Supply-and-demand Economic Theory to Media Relations

The relationship between journalists and PR is never going to be a perfect fit. Each party has a different agenda. But I do think it’s possible to diffuse what is too often considered a contentious relationship between PR and journalists. Specifically, framing the issue by supply-and-demand economic theory would go a long way to solving …more

Did Apple’s “Customer Letter” Work in Defending Civil Liberties?

In one corner we have the biggest, baddest and most valuable company on the planet, Apple. In the opposite corner sits the U.S. government getting more ornery by the minute. As you know by now, the government has asked Apple to unlock a phone used by a terrorist in San Bernardino. Apple has refused, believing …more

“Favorite” Stories on Contentious Relationship Between Journalists and PR

I’m talking at the Holmes Report’s Innovation Summit today on “Applying Supply and Demand Economics Theory to Media Relations.” Preparing for the talk reminded me that journalists tend to view PR as the enemy (or worse). Given the different charters of the two professions, one expects some friction. But this friction can give way to …more

PR as a Company’s Social Conscience

I spoke on the shape of communications in 2021 at a Silicon Valley IABC event last month. Any discussion of this unique alchemy called “Silicon Valley” typically involves innovation, valuations and iguanas roaming the hallways. For the PR function, our job has been to gather this raw content and make sense of it for the …more

Business Insider Is OK with Flawed Dot-connecting in the Name of Click Bait

People gravitate toward extremes. Extremes make for interesting reads, which is why the media devotes so much energy to skyrocketing darlings and train wrecks. Of course, the best story is the skyrocketing darling that becomes a train wreck. Meet Theranos. The media spent months building up the startup as the best thing since sliced rye.Then, …more