These three newspapers, arguably the most powerful dailies in the U.S., came together to publish an open letter to the Chinese government asking it to reconsider kicking out select journalists from the country. But the real audience for this letter isn’t the Chinese government; it’s the American public. Avoiding hyper and hyperbole, the letter takes …more
Elisa Zallio, Jr Account Executive, Hoffman Europe (London) What’s writer’s block? Writer’s block is a condition more common and annoying than a seasonal cold. Anyone who writes has faced it, some just once in a while — *cough cough* Stephen King *cough cough* — while others seem to be constantly living it — looking at …more
Orson Welles wasn’t exactly known for his brevity in storytelling. “War of the Worlds” ran for only one hour, but the radio broadcast seemed so real that it caused panic throughout the nation. We’ve discovered that you can tell a story in seven seconds. Here goes —
A zillion college graduates are about to descend on civilization with shiny apples in hand. My daughter Grace is among the throng though I suspect she’ll take a pass on the apple (always the rebel). Regardless, the demand versus supply equation doesn’t work in the graduate’s favor. Finding that elusive first job puts a premium …more
The news release was born on Oct. 28, 1906. Fast forwarding to 2015, organizations distributed roughly 762,000 news releases on wire services. Our back-of-the-envelope math figures 30 hours went into each news release at $200 per hour. The punch line — Organizations spent around $4.5B on the creation of news release back in 2015, a …more
I recently made an online purchase from Canterbury of New Zealand which makes great stuff even if you don’t play rugby (I don’t). After placing the order, I realized I had forgotten to plug in the discount coupon. I went back to the site and figured I would take a shot with the online …more
Tomorrow marks the 10-year anniversary of Ishmael’s Corner. Nice round numbers suggest reflection, so here goes. Building a readership is hard work — not exactly an alert-the-media insight, but one that has stayed with me over this 10-year trek. The periodic sense of toiling alone begat the line: “If a post falls in the forest …more
I played “Dear Abby” earlier this month offering guidance to college grads on how to differentiate in their resumes and cover letters. It generated a fair amount of feedback, including a comment — actually comment does it a disservice; let’s call it a “treatise” — from my friend and colleague James Strohecker, a senior marketing …more
As colleges get ready to unleash their 2018 graduates, the economic principle of supply and demand comes into play. To put it bluntly, the supply of college grads far exceeds the number of open entry-level jobs. As someone who literally couldn’t give himself away for free — after graduation I wrote to over 10 advertising …more
