There’s something about the shadow of business that causes people to actually strive for a rigid and vanilla tone in their communications. That’s why the following automated note from Twitter (forgot my password) caught my attention: Hey there. Can’t remember your password, huh? It happens to the best of us. Please open this …more
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
Apple’s decision to pull out of Macworld is a little like Simon Cowell taking a pass on “American Idol.” Sure, the show will go on, but in what form? Naturally, the news caused a stir in the blogosphere, with one of the better posts coming from Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Fortune. Although unlike Elmer-DeWitt, I don’t view Apple’s rationalization …more
Cloaked with a veneer of secrecy that leaves readers to wonder “Who the hell wrote that article?” The Economist takes pride in baffling the garden-variety PR person. Its editorial decisions can at times seem quirky for the sake of being quirky. I mean, do we really need 499 words devoted to ornithology and a bio-acoustic monitor that can distinguish …more
