Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal included an article that caught my attention. Titled “New Google Hire Takes Aim at Apple,” the piece – can’t bring myself to call it a story – recounts how a Google employee ( Tim Bray) recently poached from Sun used his personal blog to say nasty things about Apple’s mobile phone …more
It’s standard practice for journalists to put a “face” on a crisis. It’s called humanizing the story. Which brings me back to the Toyota debacle which I addressed yesterday in the post “Open Letter to Toyota Customers Hits Pothole.” As you would expect, the reporters crafting follow-on stories to the Toyota crisis are indeed striving …more
The Wall Street Journal recently kicked off an advertising campaign. An anchor ad caught my attention, which you can see below (note we took liberties with the typeface to improve legibility of the scan). View a larger version here. Notice anything about the body copy? There’s no mention of the “B” word. Maybe they expect …more
This is a story within a story. A journalist named Paige Williams had the story. She just needed a publication to publish the story, a not-so-minor detail. After multiple rejections and finally selling the piece to The New York Times, only to have the opportunity go south, she took matters into her own hands. Specifically, …more
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
The Wall Street Journal nails the story “Huge Pipeline Delivers Bonanza to Towns on Route.” What makes it compelling? Let’s start with timing. After slaving on this 1,679-mile wonder, the last leg is now being laid and welded. The end is literally in sight. With a helping hand from REX’s PR department, Journal writer Ann …more
No doubt by the time the U.S. wakes up on Wednesday morning the Twitterati will be out in force reacting to PaidContent’s story that the Wall Street Journal is giving up embargoes (apparently the new year’s diets went out the window in February). In short, the Journal won’t accept embargoes for stories, but will take …more
I have to give credit to BusinessWeek’s Executive Editor John Byrne. He got the engagement religion and has never wavered in prostelyzing the message. While the BusinessWeek pages — both print and the digital variety — serve as the pulpit for most of Byrne’s communications beyond the BW corridors, he penned a op-ed for The Christian Science …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
