July 10, 2008 marks the day I published the first post on Ishmael’s Corner (below). Dusting off the post, I assumed my first attempt would come across as pompous or worse. Actually, it’s OK. Not great. Not a Pulitzer Price winner. But it does a decent job in explaining the blog’s aspirations. Keep in …more
The news release turns 110 years old on Oct. 28. I’ve already rehearsed my line for the party, How fitting that a train wreck — a three-car train from the Pennsylvania Railroad went off the rails and into a creek on October 28, 1906 killing more than 50 people — prompted the invention of the …more
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
There’s often a gap, no make that a huge gap, between what the media values and what the PR function “sells.” It’s no wonder the relationship between journalists and communicators can border on contentious at times. In the graphic below, you can see two variables that go a long way toward aligning with the media’s …more
Any company would prize 20 column inches plus a photo on the front of The Journal’s Marketplace section. That’s exactly what UPS enjoyed in the article titled “UPS Thinks Outside the Box on Driver Training.” The piece makes for a good mini case study on the type of storytelling that plays in the business media. Note …more
Literally thousands of PR blogs dot – some might say clog – the social media landscape. When I started Ishmael’s Corner in 2008, I concluded the last thing the world needed was another digital pulpit spewing about embargoes, e-mail blasts to reporters, and the like. Instead, this blog has strived to address storytelling in business …more
Robert Scoble, the poster child for escaping corporate cubedom for the virtual pulpit, penned a post titled “What do the freaking tech bloggers want?” It’s a convincing view. A bit longwinded perhaps, but if “Scobleizer” is etched in your masthead, you get a pass to periodically pontificate. An earlier Scoble quasi-rant emphasized that through customers, not the PR function, is the …more
Businesspeople tend to associate storytelling with fiction. Yet, the same elements that make a book such as “Moby Dick” a compelling read — good versus evil, care for the characters, humor, etc. — have a place in the business world. Whether it’s a potential customer evaluating your product or a journalist probing your latest news, communicating information …more
