tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28781451394850982502024-03-06T22:34:59.549-05:00PR & Social Media Back TalkInsights and attitude about PR, journalism and traditional and social media.Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.comBlogger960125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-33980102454687688312022-11-15T08:41:00.002-05:002022-11-15T08:41:15.981-05:00PR BackTalk is Moving<p>We've launched a new website and are moving the blog. To get our thoughts in the future, please click here: https://bit.ly/PRBackTalk. </p><p>Thanks for your readership and interest. We will continue to post articles about PR, social media and journalism.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-72201961276231975832022-09-12T12:33:00.446-04:002022-09-12T12:33:00.207-04:00Hyperlocal News Was Supposed to Thrive -- But Now It's Not. So What Happened?<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Several years ago, as regional newspapers began shutting down in droves, the smart money was that hyperlocal media would not survive, it would thrive. As we wrote in <span style="background-color: white;">"<a href="https://bit.ly/3wCj9hJ" target="_blank">The Prospect for Hyperlocal Continues to Look Good -- But Can It Capture the Ad Market?</a>" back in 2009!, the reason was "</span><span style="background-color: white;">because while there will always be sources for national news, people still want local news."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;">Many top national media wrote about the gleaming prospects for hyperlocal media. For example, Fast Company wondered: "</span><a href="https://bit.ly/3Q0qUF8" target="_blank"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; letter-spacing: 0.05937rem;">Can Anyone Tap the $100 Billion Potential of Hyperlocal News?</span> </a><span style="color: #5f5f5f; letter-spacing: 0.01312rem;"><a href="https://bit.ly/3Q0qUF8" target="_blank">Community-driven news services have been the next big thing online for years. Can The New York Times or AOL find the $100 billion local-advertising pot of gold?</a>"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;">So we weren't alone in thinking that hyperlocal would survive a meltdown among local media. After all, there are many competing sources for local and regional news but generally only one voice for hyperlocal media.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;">(By the way, it's worth pointing out that the subhead in the Fast Company article references AOL -- as an example of how much may have changed since 2009.)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We have a nonprofit client for whom hyperlocal is critically important to their work so we've been paying close attention. Over the past year, there's been a lot of cutbacks in hyperlocal media. The problem isn't interest in or support of hyperlocal media from readers. In many cases, the subscribers still want hyperlocal news but the economics outside the community remain terrible.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">That's in part because newspaper chains like Gannett borrowed billions to acquire hyperlocal media to generate growth only to find out they had taken on too much debt and needed to make cutbacks.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Lots of cutbacks. According to a <a href="https://bit.ly/3R4xUSH" target="_blank"><i>Boston Business Journal</i> article</a>, "Northeastern professor Dan Kennedy... referred to the
latest round of layoffs as a ‘bloodbath.’ The company has closed at least 19
Greater Boston weeklies this year and has replaced much of the local coverage
with regional stories."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The BBJ further noted "80 terminations across more than 50 newsrooms — but the
full picture of what local readers across the country lost has yet to emerge."<br /></span></p><p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: helvetica;">19 community weeklies closed = news deserts?</span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">That doesn't include layoffs at other hyperlocal papers, which has led to fewer reporters having to cover larger territories. That has led to fewer hyperlocal news and feature articles, which have been replaced by regional trend articles. A recent example: a look at the wobbly post-COVID locally owned restaurant market (as opposed to fast food chains) actually didn't quote any hometown restaurateur; instead, the article provided quotes from owners from several different communities -- some of them that may be an hour away. While the article was still interesting, it was not hyperlocal. The benefit for the editors is that that single regional article was published in different hyperlocal papers. That's how understaffed newsrooms can continue to publish news. It's just not hyperlocal news.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And that means that communities are not getting the kind of hyperlocal information they want or expect.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">They've been what's been called "news deserts," <span style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; text-indent: -24px;">defined by </span><span style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; text-indent: -24px;">the UNC School of Media and Journalism's Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media, as "<span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><a href="https://www.cislm.org/what-exactly-is-a-news-desert/" style="color: #175b7f; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="color: blue;">a community, either rural or urban, with limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level</span></span></a></span></span>." News deserts are a problem because it means communities aren’t getting critical information related to civic life, government services, etc.</span></span></p><p><span style="border-image: none; border: medium; font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -24px;">Once limited to rural communities, news deserts now include suburban communities and even larger cities where alternate weeklies have closed, affecting large parts of those communities.</span></p><p><span style="border-image: none; border: medium; font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -24px;">The reason this is significant is that hyperlocal newspapers support their communities, the businesses and the nonprofits, the students and the seniors -- it helps bind communities. </span></p><p><span style="border-image: none; border: medium; font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -24px;">Here's an example of how this plays out using Marblehead, the North Shore community in which we've maintained our global world headquarters because we've experienced some of the problem of a news desert.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We've been served by the Marblehead Reporter, a print weekly that has become thinner, with less hyperlocal coverage. Please keep in mind: we're not blaming editors or reporters; they're working under difficult conditions; but we do blame Gannett and hedge funds like the Alden Group that purchase newspapers and extract value while decimating the newsroom and the quality of the product.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We're also served by the Marblehead Patch, which seems to produce one actual news story about the community per day but does a better job of sending alerts than the Marblehead Reporter. The the email newsletter from the Patch makes it seem like there's a lot of new content but most of the newsletter features regional coverage. The Patch is good about fires, school closings, etc. -- which is useful information but we don't recall seeing a lot of articles that requires in-depth reporting about issues affecting the town. That would be information residents can't get elsewhere. (We can get school closing information from Boston TV stations, which post that information on their websites.)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">With fewer hyperlocal news articles, residents tend to feel less connected. It also means that the paper is less important because some readers figure they don't need to read it closely because there's less info about the town -- replaced by more content about other communities (that they don't have time to visit). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -24px;">As a result, Marblehead has three new initiatives to build hyperlocal media outlets. We hope they take hold but there are issues with all three.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -24px;">Marblehead Weekly News, which is published by <a href="https://essexmediagroup.com/" target="_blank">Essex Media Group</a>, which publishes the Daily Item of Lynn, Lynnfield Weekly News, Peabody Weekly News, and other local media. It is staffed by reporters who also work on other Essex Media properties. We've seen one print edition, mostly focused on the upcoming primary so it's too early to judge. One problem is that there's not a website yet for the publication, just a weekly print edition. So there's currently nothing available at MarbleheadWeeklyNews.com. There's also not even a listing for the Marblehead Weekly News on the Essex website's listing of its various properties. We're sure that will happen. The weekly also includes some sports and features on the "Historic Building of the Week"; in a town with a starling number of pre-Revolutionary homes, the first choice was a local movie theater. On the other hand, the Marblehead Weekly News has brought out the Police Blotter, something the Marblehead Reporter used to publish and seemed to be quite popular (because the items reported included a report of spilled Cheerios in front of the Post Office). But, so far, and it's early yet -- no real news coverage.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -24px;">Meanwhile <a href="https://marbleheadnews.org/contact-us/" target="_blank">Marblehead News</a> has an actual website. But it may not have a name because it posted an item in June 20, 2022 that it's crowdsourcing for a permanent name. Which is a good thing. We found it only because we were searching for Marblehead Weekly News and found them instead. Most of the news currently available on the site is campaign statements. Plus one article about the local movie theater -- we don't know who's handling its PR, but kudos! One thing that makes Marblehead News interesting is that two of the founding staff formerly worked for the Marblehead Reporter so we think that's a good sign because they know the town and they know journalism. But it's also a nonprofit that will try supporting itself by raising donations. Also, it seems like a part-time gig for them, and we don't blame them because they're taking on a risk by working on this at all. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The third new outlet is called the <a href="https://www.marbleheadbeacon.com/" style="text-indent: -24px;" target="_blank">Marblehead Beacon</a><span style="text-indent: -24px;">, which also launched in June 2022, and is run as a "citizen-based news site." As of press time (this article was written a couple of weeks before the updated blog and website were finalized), because the Massachusetts primary are a week away, the Beacon has a lot of content about local candidates. While we're hopeful about the Beacon, it is run by two businesswomen with limited journalism experience and other business interests along with a high school student who is handling technology (as one might expect). </span></span></li></ul><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -24px;">When we started thinking about this blog, we did not realize there were three news startups trying to provide a variety of print and online news for a community of some 20,000 residents. That's kind of a problem since we're media junkies who live in the community -- so we know they're not having significant impact yet. But we hope that will change.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -24px;">Right now, political candidates are getting the most attention but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Will the Marblehead Reporter respond, and if so, how? (We assume the Patch won't be able to.) And we don't know how closely part-time journalists will be able to cover the community news and issues beyond fires, roadwork/construction issues, etc. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -24px;">We're using Marblehead as an example but there may be similar efforts in other local communities. And we're not necessarily endorsing one of these outlets over another but we want them all to succeed in finding an audience and delivering news. Our point here is to continue a discussion about hyperlocal news sites and news deserts.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -24px;">Let us know what you think about news deserts and news startups in your communities. </span></p><p style="text-indent: -24px;"><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-16170091430973463902022-07-25T09:30:00.028-04:002022-07-25T09:30:00.200-04:00Five New Lessons about Crisis Management<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Given the state of politics, it's probably never been
easier getting into a crisis and never more difficult to get out of one without
alienating <i>someone</i>. Unfortunately, this became true for a client that
had been in business for a decade or so, and, for most of that time, had the
good luck of avoiding any crises. </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We provided counsel to them, and compiled the following
five lessons (some based on other observations):</span></p>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoPlainText" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Develop a crisis
plan before a crisis</b>. You may have built up goodwill and strong
relationships with your customers and your community over the years, and have
avoided a crisis – but that doesn’t mean you don’t need a crisis plan.
Crises can happen to good companies but it makes sense to develop a plan.
The plan should include a range of crisis scenarios – even though you
should expect that the actual crisis probably won’t exactly fit into any
one of your scenarios. But at least it starts the process of how to
respond. If you don’t have a process when a crisis hits, it’s harder to
know how to respond, and that’s when a potential small fire can start to
burn out of control. The other aspect of a crisis plan that’s is important
is developing an internal communications process so that when a crisis
hits, different layers are informed and understand 1) that the company
recognizes it’s dealing with a crisis; 2) that it is taking the crisis
seriously; and 3) that people inside the company have the information they
need to know to manage their jobs during the crisis. We’ve seen situations
where board members, for example, didn’t know what the plan was and were
second-guessing every time the company issued a statement.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoPlainText" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Make sure to
allocate appropriate resources</b>. One of the other aspects of a crisis
plan is to determine a task force of people who can focus on the crisis.
Another aspect is to understand the potential costs. According to a
colleague, one client felt the crisis would quickly die down so it asked
that its agency to stop work several times over a two-week period, to save
the budget, only to be caught short-handed as its crisis continued to
spiral. They kept a short-term perspective both in terms of budget and in
terms of working towards an outcome. Also make sure to have people monitor
social media, and decide what to respond to and what doesn’t need to a
response. And also to develop messages that appropriate staff can
communicate to key stakeholders that include employees, customers, and
others.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoPlainText" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Sometimes clients
are in a no-win situation</b>. It’s important to understand, that through
no fault of their own, clients may several possible paths – and none of
them may be ideal because one group or another will be left unhappy.
Social media reactions can make the in-crisis organization feel like
they’re between a rock and a hard place. In that case, organizations need
to consider: <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoPlainText" style="mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">What’s the worst-case
scenario and how can we minimize the likelihood? <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoPlainText" style="mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">What’s the best-case
scenario, and how can we make that happen?<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoPlainText" style="mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">If we can’t avoid
upsetting people on both sides, how can we minimize the impact?<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoPlainText" style="mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">What steps do we need
to take after the crisis is over to rebuild goodwill?<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoPlainText" style="mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Do we announce a
post-mortem showing that we’ve learned our lessons?<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoPlainText" style="mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Do we suspend any of
our operations – like advertising or even what’s on our social media
platforms?<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<li class="MsoPlainText" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>If you send an email
to employees, expect it to circulate. </b>This<b> </b>did not happen with
our most recent client crisis but we’ve all seen this before. So keep in
mind: Even a well-intended note to employees can be hard to craft, and you
should expect that any email will be distributed to outsiders or posted on
social media. Also keep in mind that if you communicate to employees in a
town hall setting, someone may tape the discussion. The point here is just
make sure that whatever you communicate to employees is something that you
won’t mind seeing in print or on social.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></li>
<li class="MsoPlainText" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Make sure to
communicate via the channels most relevant to the upset. </b>We have seen
clients who responded to traditional reporters but ignored social media.
Responding on social media may not be the right vehicle but it’s important
to look at options. Please know that whatever you post could be
misconstrued as easily, if not more so, than employee communications.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></li>
</ol>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><o:p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Please keep in mind that your experience, as they say, may vary.<b> </b>No-win situations are more likely given the politicized nature of decisions that used to be ones you didn't discuss with others. But that ship has long set sail. We're just saying that organizations may need to re-evaluate their plans, policies and responses based on this not-so-new reality. </span></o:p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-8550105912678309282022-04-25T09:00:00.000-04:002022-04-25T09:00:00.219-04:00New York Times Again Validates our 'Energy Crunch' Prediction<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Back on March 9, just short of two weeks into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we posted a prediction that there would be a lot of coverage of what we began calling the Energy Crunch, and the need for clean energy. We first started talking about the need to improve battery technology and battery life and said that there would be a lot of coverage of gas and oil not just from a climate or economic issue but from a strategic perspective. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">At this point, that may seem like a basic call, given Russia's role as a major supplier of gas and oil to Europe. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But the New York Times published an article about that topic on March 22nd, almost a month <span style="background-color: white;">after the invasion began and nine days after our prediction. The print headline: "War Spurs Europe to Clean Energy" while the online headline read: "</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;"><a href="https://nyti.ms/3iPPnyB" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Will War Make Europe’s Switch to Clean Energy Even Harder?</a>" Of course the Times had to do the actual research, conduct the interviews, cite sources -- when all we had to do was write, edit and hit submit. But we're proud that our prediction and subsequent validation shows we understand how the media works.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">At the same time, we do want to note the tragedy that Ukrainians are going through. Individually and as a firm, we have donated to various causes to help relocate and support people whose lives have been <span style="background-color: white;">permanently disrupted by Russia's invasion. We remain proud of several former clients that were either based in Russia and subsequently left that country or had significant number of employees in either or both countries and helped to get those employees out of the region. One former client, based in London, spent two weeks picking up Ukrainian families and driving them to places in Europe where they can be safe. </span></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-44406133226713220772022-04-18T09:00:00.001-04:002022-04-18T09:00:00.208-04:00Print Editions of 20+ Local Boston Community Papers Will Cease in May + 10 Observations about the implications<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">More than 20 local communities, particularly in suburbs west of Boston, will lose the print edition of their local weekly papers. The papers' print editions are shutting down in May due cost-cutting decisions by parent Gannett, the newspaper behemoth that took on a lot of debt after some recent acquisitions including with GateHouse Media.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The largest community to be affected is Newton, whose Newton Tab had 22,386 weekly print subscribers in 2021, according to a Boston Business Journal article, "<a href="https://bit.ly/37zdZt8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gannett kills several local print editions</a>." We take issue with the word "several" because that seems to indicate a handful while more than 20 is significant. <br /></span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The Boston Globe also covered this story in an article with a more-dramatic headline that better captures the situation, in our opinion:</span></div><blockquote><h1 style="line-height: 39.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 34.5pt;">‘It’s devastating.’ As
Boston-area weeklies close, towns ponder civic life without local news.<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h2 style="line-height: 27.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 19.5pt; font-weight: normal;">Gannett
plans to fold or merge two-dozen print papers in Eastern Massachusetts in shift
to more digital, and regional, coverage of local news.<o:p></o:p></span></h2></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We agree with that conclusion.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Here's a list of local papers whose print editions will close or be merged in May: </span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Newton Tab – making Newton, with 89,000 residents, the largest city in the state without a local newspaper</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Brookline Tab</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Dedham Transcript & Bulletin, which also covered Westwood and Norwood</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Sharon Times Advocate, which also covered Walpole</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Needham Times</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Weston Town Crier</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Wayland Town Crier</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Waltham News Tribune</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Bellingham County Gazette</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Saugus Advertiser & Melrose Free Press Observer will be merged into the Free Press & Advertiser</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Medford Transcript & Summerville Journal will be merged into the Transcript & Journal</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Arlington Advocate & Winchester Star will be merged into the Advocate & Star</span></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Keep in mind: these are not the only communities being affected. Gannett has been cutting costs, and staff for some time. Only three Gannett weeklies -- in Cambridge, Plymouth and Provincetown -- will retain dedicated staff. The others will share resources, as many Gannett weeklies have done for more than 18 months.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Here are some observations and lessons learned:</span></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Some of the community weeklies had strong print subscribers. Approx. 1/4 of Newton's 89,000 residents subscribed to the Tab. So the decision to shutter some print editions has nothing to do with the number of subscribers, even though subscriptions to the Tab fell 20% from five years prior -- that's probably similar to most other print subscriptions.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Western suburbs are primarily being hit but we suspect that the decision will be rolled out to other communities. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Longtime Boston journalist and journalism professor Dan Kennedy told the Globe, "To eliminate local beats at all but three of
their weeklies is really unconscionable. <b>The loss is really to
civic life. The loss is to accountability journalism that all of us need to
know about what’s going on at City Hall or Town Hall, the school committee,
even connecting with our neighbors</b>.”</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Gannett said its mission is to move print readers to digital platforms. But we know that print subscribers tend to be older but we don't know that they will successfully transition to checking out community news online -- and neither does Gannett. It means that a certain percentage of local residents will be disenfranchised when it comes to local news and events.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Some online sites do a better job pushing news out. The Patch is very good at sending daily updates via email, especially with local news. We've been less impressed with Wicked Locals from that perspective. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The loss of hyperlocal print editions makes it harder for marketers to reach local readers. On our staff, we tend to check out hard news on our local online community news sites, while ignoring lifestyle news because, for example, we expect to have seen any health and wellness news in the Globe, the New York Times or other national news outlet. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For those of us who stopped subscribing to the "dead tree" edition, but still care about our communities, it still takes extra effort to remember and click onto our "online news destination." Our guess is that instead of checking out community news each week when the paper edition reached our homes, we check out local news randomly, a couple of times a month at most. In other words, at a time when national and international news flow is overwhelming, most of us are not checking local news regularly but we did more when we had the reminder of the print edition.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Because of the constraints of shared resources -- i.e., reporters who cover a region, not a specific community, many online sites are cluttered with news about other communities. In this respect, the Patch newsletters don't do a good job; they aggregate news so that only when you click the link do you find out that the headline refers to some town that could be an hour away. That's not really helpful when you're interested in local news. By the way, that's not a rare occurrence; to us, it feels like that happens on a daily basis because there's just not enough news being generated from each of our home towns.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We also see that, because there's not a lot of new articles being produced, that many online news sites continue to list news that's several weeks old. So that when you click onto the site, it looks like lots of coverage but many stories are old and just haven't been displaced by new content. Please note: This is not to slam reporters. We know there are fewer of them and they have a lot more to cover. This is a problem that can be resolved by hiring more reporters. But it makes it harder for residents to find current news because there's not as much being written or posted. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> Marketers need to find new ways to reach communities. That may mean doing more than issuing a press release or submitting a potential hyperlocal news story. That may mean taking out ads in community newsletters or finding ways to partner with local businesses or organizations like chambers of commerce or local churches, synagogues and libraries, that also have newsletters to committed and interested members. But that will will likely require ad fees and additional coordination. This may not be feasible for nonprofits looking to get the word out about events, programs, etc. so we need to be more creative in approaches.</span></li></ol><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We're advising some clients about how to reach out to hyperlocal communities that are losing their community print editions. There are opportunities but they will require a willingness to try new things and more budgets and resources to support events.</span></div><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-22599745720211345522022-04-11T09:00:00.001-04:002022-04-11T10:41:16.959-04:0010 Components of a Success Thought Leadership Campaign<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In the past several posts, we've written about thought leadership campaigns, comparing them to product PR and identifying five ways thought leadership can benefit an organization.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In this post, we wanted to identify ten of the success factors for conducting an effective thought leadership campaign:</span></p><div><ol><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>An executive willing and able to provide industry insight</b>, even if it might be controversial. As we mentioned in the prior article, we helped a semiconductor startup take on Microsoft regarding industry standards. That only works if executives are confident in their position. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>An executive able to commit the time</b> necessary to brief your thought leadership team and to conduct interviews with them and with reporters, podcasters, and other influencers. We had secured a live CNN interview at a major trade show for one executive but he decided he didn't want to get up in time to be in position for the interview at 7AM so we had to decline. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Identify your objectives. </b>It's important to identify why you're conducting a thought leadership campaign. If it's because the company is looking to raise money, that will help focus on the topic and the audience segment to address. If it's to find business partners, that means a different set of topics and audience, etc. Of course, one of the goals is to build trust and credibility but how you achieve that will be determined in part by the topics you address.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Identify the right topics and expertise</b>. The issues you address can be a point of differentiation but pick topics that you can "own" and that are relevant to you and your customers. It can be okay if other companies are also addressing the same topic -- but you need to figure out a compelling perspective. (More on that in the next bullet.) We've had clients who were serial entrepreneurs so that their expertise and topics might be different from a CEO who helps grows companies but doesn't launch them. (Launching requires different skill sets from growing a company.)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Need a compelling viewpoint on industry issues</b>. The topic may be the same as what others are discussing -- that's how you know it's a good issue. But you need to make sure you have a compelling perspective on that issue. And that viewpoint can't be seen as self-serving because editors won't be interested and it could turn off potential customers. The viewpoint and insight needs to touch on issues that are important and relevant. And the executive needs to be able to discuss the insight in a compelling way -- and that may not always be possible. We once had a terrific client who, on one topic, couldn't give a compelling interview even though he was excellent on every other topic. We asked him about that, and he said, "Oh, I find that topic boring." We then never let him talk to a reporter about that topic; we used a different executive whenever that topic came up. You need to <b>educate (not sell) audiences </b>about your topics and you need to develop insights that help distinguish your company from others in your market. In addition to insights, we've found that using analogies can help audiences grasp clients' perspective. <b>Avoid jargon when possible.</b> Provide best practices and lessons learned.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Need to use that viewpoint to convey the organization's values and personality</b>. The viewpoint needs to match the company's values and personality. Many customers look for companies that are authentic and whose values mesh with their own -- and they get upset with anything that seems deceptive. By way of example, we recently got approached from an advocacy group but when we checked them out, we found that they weren't nonprofit (though their URL was a dot-org) and they weren't actually nonpartisan (though they said they were). Those were red flags, and we quickly and easily decided not to pursue the opportunity. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Set reasonable, achievable goals. </b>The term "reasonable" means different things to different organizations. It depends on the industry issue -- for example, the issue may be seasonal so it means in off months, there's limited activity. It depends on the executive's availability -- he or she might be able to devote only a couple of hours per month to briefings and to any actual interviews; in that case, you shouldn't pursue dozens on potential media interviews -- you should focus on just a handful. We also once had a potential startup client in stealth mode that wanted two articles in the Wall St. Journal before they actually announced anything. (We told them, respectfully, that if they were in stealth mode, it was for a reason, and therefore two articles before launch was unrealistic. They went elsewhere, and as far as we can determine, never secured a single article in the Journal.)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Set reasonable demands</b>. This is slightly different because by this we mean: expecting to blog twice a week may be a very aggressive timetable. We know that executives need to review content, and they may not have time to review content on a timely basis to meet the expectation of posting twice a week.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Identify the appropriate channels. </b>One client, for example, didn't have a social media presence. That's okay, we can (and did) set that up for them. But we've had clients, even recently, who didn't have and couldn't secure because they were already taken, social media IDs that made the most sense for the organization. Ideally, a thought leadership campaign will take content and reformat it to be distributed as a blog post, a bylined article in a publication, cross-promoted across social media, pitched to reporters and podcasters for possible interviews, pitched to conference organizers for a possible panel discussion, used as the basis of a webinar produced by the company, etc. However, not all channels may be appropriate so the team needs to look at what are the best channels. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Test and update your content and perspective</b>. It's important to test what content and which channels are most effective. We've found that LinkedIn is great for some clients but that might be true for your organization; we have one nonprofit client where Facebook is more important than LinkedIn or Twitter. Realize that could change over time, and that it's important to test what you're doing from time to time to make sure it's working, that audiences are engaging or sharing your content. Over time, issues evolve and it's important to make sure your thought leadership perspective evolves as well.</span></li></ol><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Ok that's enough for right now. We'll pick up thought leadership in future posts.</span></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-81255524269918017552022-04-04T09:50:00.029-04:002022-04-04T09:50:00.207-04:00The Climate Beat at the New York Times is, um, Heating Up & Times' Columnist Validates our 'Energy Crunch' Prediction <p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">One trend that we didn't highlight in our 20th anniversary list of predictions is climate change. The reason: because it's already something the media covers.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">That said, the New York Times is bulking up its climate desk.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The latest addition is David Gelles, a longtime Times business reporter, who wrote its popular "Corner Office" column that interviewed CEOs. Gelles will now <span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">help cover "the nexus between government and the private sector." </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">According to the Times, </span></span></p><p></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">David will examine the corporate influence on government action on all levels — federal, state and local — to reveal which corporate players are serious about mitigating climate change and which are just posing, or worse. He will report deeply to uncover actions and conflicts on the government side while also closely scrutinizing the role of companies, business interests and the financial sector."</span></span></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> In the past few months, the Times added:</span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; touch-action: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Somini Sengupta has shifted to head up its Climate Fwd newsletter, which the Times said is "one of the most important ways we connect readers with our climate content."</span></p></li><li><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; touch-action: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Ray Zhong, who formerly covered Chinese technology for the Times and is currently based in Taiwan, now covers climate science.</span></p></li><li><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; touch-action: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Former culture reporter Cara Buckley now covers "the more quiet, human stories about how people around the globe are living on a warming planet."</span></p></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">What's going on at the Times? A statement says, "</span><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">Climate change is an urgent concern of NYT readers, who turn to us as a definitive source of coverage about all facets of the crisis — from the news to the science to the policy and politics as well as ambitious investigative pieces and stunning visuals." So it is finding new ways to cover climate change.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">We expect other media outlets -- but not all -- to increase their attention and coverage of climate change. That does mean that companies should be looking at ways to tell an environmental story when possible.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">The need to cover the climate is an ongoing trend but it becomes more important given our recent prediction about an Energy Crunch. Back on March 9, we <a href="https://bit.ly/3J5BTKQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">predicted there would be more interest in renewable and clean energy</a>, based on several factors including the reliance of European countries on Russia for gas and oil. In a recent opinion article headlined, "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; text-align: center;"><a href="https://nyti.ms/36GU6jB" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How to Defeat Putin and Save the Planet</a>,"</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">Thomas Friedman: wrote:</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><blockquote><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Nothing has distorted our foreign policy, our commitments to human rights, our national security and, most of all, our environment than our oil addiction. Let this be the last war in which we and our allies fund both sides. That’s what we do. Western nations fund NATO and aid Ukraine’s military with our tax dollars, and — since Russia’s energy exports finance 40 percent of its state budget — we </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/opinion/why-is-europe-still-buying-oil-from-putin.html" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #326891; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: rgb(50, 104, 145); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;" title="">fund</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> Vladimir Putin’s army with our purchases of Russian oil and gas.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"> </span></blockquote><p>It may seem obvious but we feel national security and the need to protect our environment are converging and that renewable and clean energy will continue to be an important trend. </p><p> </p></span></div><p></p><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-70420382549599563912022-03-28T09:33:00.001-04:002023-03-27T21:36:15.226-04:00What Makes an Article Go Viral? The Answer May Make You Angry <p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> At one point social media was supposed to lead to more transparency, which would result in more democracy.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">That was the narrative, at least, framing the Arab Spring back in 2010 and 2011. The world's hopes were that pro-democratic protests -- including <span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">peaceful demonstrations, marches, occupations of plazas, non-violent civil resistance, acts of civil disobedience and strikes -- that </span>started on Twitter would lead to the overthrow <span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, and that that movement would challenge other authoritarian governments in the region.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Mubarak did step down as a result of the protests. But, unfortunately, social media did not lead to more freedoms in Arab countries or anywhere else.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: helvetica;">True, social media has impacted how most of us get and consume news. But the trend isn't pro-democratic, as evidenced by increased polarization, hatred and bigotry, and disinformation. Social media played a large roll with the Jan. 6th insurrection. So social media is decidedly not pro-democracy.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124;">We mention this because of a recent New York Times article entitled "<a href="https://nyti.ms/3IgmINm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">What Makes an Article Go Viral: Shares, posts and page views: we examine why an article spreads online</a>." The article says "</span></span><span style="background-color: white;">People share articles to strengthen social bonds." That certainly makes sense. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But that leads to a new question: why do people share the articles they do?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;">The answer comes from a </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1509/jmr.10.0353" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #326891; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: rgb(50, 104, 145); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">2012 study</a> of <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">over 7,000 Times articles that sought to understand sharing behavior. Researchers led </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124;">by </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Jonah Berger, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania: </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="color: #333333;">Found that articles evoking high-arousal emotions like awe, anger, surprise and anxiety were more likely to go viral. </span></span></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Those emotions are easily seen across social media. And of those four, we'd say anger, anxiety and surprise probably drive a lot of the posts we see when doomscrolling. </span></p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><p>Those emotions are the ones that keep us not only up at night but engaged on social media even when we know we should stop. Those emotions keep us glued. </p><p>They are not helpful, and most of know we should stop doomscrolling. </p><p>But understanding what drives us to doomscroll and what makes us more likely to share articles and content that makes us anxious and angry may help us control what we're doing. </p><p>Interestingly while Twitter and Facebook allow you to complain about posts, often times it seems like they don't respond -- and we've seen jaw-dropping bigotry that gets let up on Twitter -- there's a suggestion that by enabling users to complain but then doing nothing to delete those comments, social media increases your anxiety and anger. And that keeps you engaged on their site. That's pretty cynical.</p><p>But the answer, perhaps, is to just not engage. Have a specific time limit or reason to go onto social media, and then disconnect. </p><p>Honestly, we could all use less anger.</p></span><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-15056856771700042782022-03-21T09:00:00.001-04:002022-03-21T09:00:00.195-04:00Axios & CNN Validate Our Prediction that "Vibe" is Trending<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> Last week, we issued a <a href="https://bit.ly/3J5BTKQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">secondary set of three trends</a> we think will be important to note, in addition to the to the original 20 we issued back in January. Two of three are connected to the Russian invasion of Ukraine: media coverage about fighting disinformation and about the energy crunch (as a result of higher gas prices -- and both of those have been validated in media coverage that appeared after we published that blog post.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The third trend we identified was that the word "vibe" is trending. We don't exactly know why but we're seeing it and felt it worth discussing on our blog.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">As it turns out, CNN and Axios this week validated our prediction by using vibe within the same 24-hour period.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In teasing up it's SXSW coverage, Axios said: "<em style="--tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-font-variant-numeric: var(--tw-ordinal) var(--tw-slashed-zero) var(--tw-numeric-figure) var(--tw-numeric-spacing) var(--tw-numeric-fraction); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-numeric-figure: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-numeric-fraction: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-numeric-spacing: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ordinal: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-slashed-zero: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid currentcolor; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333335;">Situational awareness: </em><span style="--tw-blur: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-brightness: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-contrast: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-drop-shadow: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-filter: var(--tw-blur) var(--tw-brightness) var(--tw-contrast) var(--tw-grayscale) var(--tw-hue-rotate) var(--tw-invert) var(--tw-saturate) var(--tw-sepia) var(--tw-drop-shadow); --tw-font-variant-numeric: var(--tw-ordinal) var(--tw-slashed-zero) var(--tw-numeric-figure) var(--tw-numeric-spacing) var(--tw-numeric-fraction); --tw-grayscale: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-hue-rotate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-invert: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-numeric-figure: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-numeric-fraction: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-numeric-spacing: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ordinal: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-saturate: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-sepia: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-slashed-zero: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-transform: translateX(var(--tw-translate-x)) translateY(var(--tw-translate-y)) rotate(var(--tw-rotate)) skewX(var(--tw-skew-x)) skewY(var(--tw-skew-y)) scaleX(var(--tw-scale-x)) scaleY(var(--tw-scale-y)); --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid currentcolor; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333335; font-weight: 600;">Kerry is still at SXSW</span><span style="color: #333335;">, which continues all week. More on the <a href="https://bit.ly/3tW14Jn" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">vibes</a> and highlights of this year's conference below."</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #202020;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Meanwhile, CNN's Reliable Sources newsletter, an excellent source for media news, used the word in highlighting a New York Times opinion piece. Check it out <a href="https://cnn.it/36nCHMA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>: </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #202020;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">This NYT Opinion headline crystallizes the "vibes" of the moment:
"There Are Almost Too Many Things to Worry About..." (<a data-location="t35" href="https://e.newsletters.cnn.com/click?EYmlybmJhY2hAYmlybmJhY2hjb20uY29t/CeyJtaWQiOiIxNjQ3MzExMDQ0MjAwNTkyMjcwMjg5MzUxIiwiY3QiOiJjbm4tNDcyNWUwN2NiYzNmNjlkM2I3YzcyMmMyYWQ3MWY3YTYtMSIsInJkIjoiYmlybmJhY2hjb20uY29tIn0/HWkhfQ05OX2lfTmV3c19OREJBTjAzMTUyMDIyNTYyMjY4MSxjbjEsaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vMjAyMi8wMy8xNC9vcGluaW9uL3B1dGluLWJpZGVuLWN1b21vLXRleGFzLmh0bWw/ss358248703" target="_blank"><span style="color: #aa0000;">NYT</span></a>)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="color: #202020;">So we dug a bit more and found that New York Magazine wrote a story in Feb. headlined: </span><span style="background-color: #f9fafc; color: #57595a; word-spacing: 1px;">“</span><a href="https://newsletters.dailydot.com/click/26755776.1903/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhlY3V0LmNvbS8yMDIyLzAyL2EtdmliZS1zaGlmdC1pcy1jb21pbmcuaHRtbD9wcGlkPSZ1dG1fc291Y2U9RERJSSZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj0yMDIyMDIxOA/5fff429ba4110508da540b84B1cecbdf1" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: #f9fafc; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1089ff; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s; word-spacing: 1px;" target="_blank">A Vibe Shift is Coming</a><span style="background-color: #f9fafc; color: #57595a; word-spacing: 1px;">” by Allison P. Davis. Apparently, </span>“Vibe Shift” originated in <a href="https://www.8ball.report/?r=zifuc" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-shadow: rgb(0, 0, 0) 0px 1px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: black; font-feature-settings: "lnum"; font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: "lnum"; font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">8Ball</em></a><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: "lnum"; font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">,</em> a Substack newsletter by Sean Monahan, who is known for coining <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2014/02/normcore-fashion-trend.html" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-shadow: rgb(0, 0, 0) 0px 1px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: black; font-feature-settings: "lnum"; font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">normcore</a> fashion -- something that had nothing to do with Birnbach Communications president Norman Birnbach, despite some people's assumptions. Here's how Davis describes it: The concept behind </span></p><p></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A <em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: "lnum"; font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">vibe shift</em> ... is that In the culture, sometimes things change, and a once-dominant social wavelength starts to feel dated. Monahan, who is 35, breaks down the three vibe shifts he has survived and observed: Hipster/Indie Music (ca. 2003–9), or peak Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, high-waisted Cheap Mondays, Williamsburg, bespoke-cocktail bars; Post-Internet/Techno Revival (ca. 2010–16), or the Blood Orange era, normcore, <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/i-dressed-like-i-was-in-the-matrix-for-a-week.html'" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-shadow: rgb(0, 0, 0) 0px 1px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: black; font-feature-settings: "lnum"; font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">dressing like <em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: "lnum"; font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">The Matrix</em></a><em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: "lnum"; font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">,</em> Kinfolk the club, not <em style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; font-feature-settings: "lnum"; font-variant-numeric: lining-nums; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Kinfolk</em> the magazine; and Hypebeast/Woke (ca. 2016–20), or Drake at his Drakest, the Nike SNKRS app, sneaker flipping, virtue signaling, Donald Trump, protests not brunch.</span></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The idea is that we're now in a post-pandemic vibe shift, and that may be why the word "vibe" is seeing a resurgence not seen since the 1970s.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Will "vibe" survive the "vibe shift"? We think it will because it seems clear there's a lot of societal change.</span></p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-30045628734241773852022-03-14T09:30:00.133-04:002022-03-14T09:30:00.227-04:00Five Ways Thought Leadership Can Help Your Organization<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We recently wrote about the difference between thought leadership and product PR. But we want to provide additional insight into why thought leadership can help your organization.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Thought leadership is generally focused on educating the market on a key issue that's relevant to customers. It's not necessarily about pushing product or directly promoting the organization. Instead, it's about enhancing awareness and perception of the company.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">While we know that in the current environment, budgets are such that C-Suite executives are looking for bottom-line results, we also know that thought leadership can breakthrough the sales and marketing noise. For example, one time, a CEO asked us to pitch them. They had a very focused market, with about 100 customers. They had a strong sales team that was hitting a wall. At one point, the CEO asked us, "Why should I hire you, and not just bring on board one more sales rep?" Our answer, respectively given, was this: "You said you know who your customers are and in some cases, they don't return your calls or engage with your sales reps. One more sales rep would be just another person trying to sell customers who aren't interested. But with thought leadership, you might be to get those customers interested by showing how you understand their issues."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So, here are some ways thought leadership can help. </span></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Thought leadership campaigns need new content -- and that can lead to media coverage</b>. That content can be used to develop blog articles, bylined articles, presentation content and interviews. We've often pitched thought leadership content and generated interviews and requests for bylined articles.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Thought leadership builds credibility, relevancy and trust. </b>This is because thought leadership is focused on educating customers and the market, not on directly selling product. With the right content, your organization is relevant and earns trust among your target audience, which can include customers, employees, partners, etc.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Thought leadership programs can influence the industry. </b>For one company, our thought leadership content not only generated ongoing requests for bylined articles, with editors contacting us but our content was cited by other third parties and was included in at least one peer-reviewed article! Based on the thought leadership we created from content briefings with the client, the client was invited to address a Congressional committee dealing with the client's main issue.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Thought leadership can raise brand awareness</b>. Thought leadership can be connected to product marketing, and in several cases, our work to help educate the market on key issues resulted in significant awareness. In one case, we got a small tech client mentioned in coverage about a larger competitor because reporters responded to the key message we helped the client communicate. In a second case, we helped a security startup be included in coverage that previously only mentioned Microsoft and Cisco. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Thought leadership can help raise funds or get acquired. </b>When a semiconductor client came to us saying that the industry standard was wrong, and that their approach provided better results, we made that the focus of our communications, and our work not only got the media's attention, it helped get the client acquired after only 18 months by picking a battle in the media over industry standards that took on Microsoft. In other cases, clients have used thought leadership results to help them make the case that convinced VCs and others invest in the company. For nonprofits, we've also seen our work help raise money from benefactors.</span></li></ol><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In our next article, we'll address some of the components of a successful thought leadership program.</span></div><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-957294995717387532022-03-11T10:17:00.000-05:002022-03-11T10:17:50.073-05:00New York Times Validates Our Latest Prediction about an Energy Crunch<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> Earlier this week, we issued three additional predictions for trends the media will cover in 2022:</span></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Interest in batteries and energy.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Fighting disinformation.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The widespread use of the word "vibe."</span></li></ol><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">That last one has not been validated yet. And the one about disinformation, particularly about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is certainly validated all over the place.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But the interest in alternate power sources, like car batteries and renewable energy, has been validated by the New York Times in an article that gives a better description than we had. In "<a href="https://nyti.ms/3i1Yv2E" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">As War Rages, a Struggle to Balance Energy Crunch and Climate Crisis</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;">(print headline: "Energy Crunch Spurs Push for Fossil Fuels, but Climate Clock is Ticking"), the Times uses the phrase "energy crunch" to describe the current situation.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #121212;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212;">There is indeed pressure to drill and tap fossil fuels but as the Times notes, there's also more pressure to find alternate power sources in part because other oil-rich countries are problematic and may not be inclined to help the U.S. by boosting production.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212;">We think there will be continued interest in renewable energy and alternate energy sources because the likelihood is that gas prices will remain high through the summer.</span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #121212;">In the meantime, we will continue to track these three trends, especially our favorite of them, the use of vibe in articles and on social media. It's a bit happier than then other two, and the only one of the three not driven by the Russian invasion. </span></span></span></div><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-31205442244503096992022-03-09T11:20:00.007-05:002022-03-11T11:40:51.637-05:00Three Additional Trends for 2022: Fighting disinformation, the Importance of batteries + vibe is everywhere<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We don't usually add new trends to our list after we publish our annual set of predictions. But 2022 is turning out to be more unusual than we had hoped.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The good news is that -- right now -- Covid infections seem to be declining. The bad news is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Which is likely to get more horrific. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">One of the cliches of war reporting is the phrase "fog of war," meaning it's hard to report with the usual clarity in a war zone. Complicating reporting -- which is necessary and important for people outside Ukraine to understand what's happening inside that country, and to mobilize and frame a response to it is the disinformation, some of it inadvertent, most of it intentioned, around what's happening.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">As an example of inadvertent disinfo is a story about a Ukrainian grandmother who took out a drone by throwing a pickle jar from her balcony. Turns out the can of destruction didn't contain pickles. It contained tomatoes. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Examples of intentioned disinfo are too many, and we don't want to give them attention. That's part of the problem with disinformation or propaganda: repeating them increases the likelihood that the algorithms and search engines pick up the disinformation, making it harder to refute.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So, the first of our additional trends is not the rise of disinformation. We've been dealing with that for the worst part of a decade (if not longer). It's that we're seeing the impact of disinformation, and <b>need to find a way to fight against disinformation</b>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In Russia, where journalism has been outlawed, the New York Times and others have sent reporters home. CNN and the BBC are keeping bureaus open but are not currently reporting from Russia. That country has also cut access to social media platforms -- to which one late night host complained that he wished we could be cut off social media in the U.S., too. But Russians inside the country have no access to what's happening in Ukraine.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>We expect to see more coverage about the impact of disinformation and what the U.S. can do to minimize disinformation</b>. A key suggestion from a guest essay in today's Times: "<a href="https://nyti.ms/2oh10T5" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fighting Disinformation Can Feel Like a Lost Cause. It Isn't</a>," which suggests that we "<span face=""Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #241f21; white-space: pre-wrap;">Teach kids how to assess not only the reliability of the specific information they’ve found online but also who published it and for what purpose." That would be important not just for kids but for all of us.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #241f21; font-family: helvetica; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second additional trend involves <b>batteries, whether we're talking about batteries to power electric cars or battery life in general</b>. We expect more coverage of the next generation of batteries that need to be cheaper, charge faster, pack more energy, be cleaner, smaller, etc. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #241f21; font-family: helvetica; white-space: pre-wrap;">The major factor behind this interest is the move to boost production of electric cars while reducing the number of combustion engine cars on the road. China and the U.S. have issued expectations for when all new cars will be electric.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span face=""Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #241f21; white-space: pre-wrap;">There's also a secondary factor in a heightened interest in electric cars. Rising prices at the gas pump. As everyone now knows, </span><span face=""Source Sans Pro", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #241f21; white-space: pre-wrap;">Russia is a major supplier of oil and gas to the West, and that means the West is helping to fund an invasion it opposes and also means the West could be vulnerable to not getting enough oil if the invasion continues over the long haul. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #241f21; font-family: helvetica; white-space: pre-wrap;">So we expect to see more coverage looking at the impact of rising gas prices, alternatives to oil and fossil fuels, renewable energy, especially for cars.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #241f21; font-family: helvetica; white-space: pre-wrap;">Okay so this has been a rather heavy look at war-related trends.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #241f21; font-family: helvetica; white-space: pre-wrap;">There's another trend that is easier to take. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #241f21; font-family: helvetica; white-space: pre-wrap;">We think that "vibe" will be a heavily used word in 2022. We're not sure why. But we've been seeing the word every day in different news outlets and social media. In fact, it's been hard to avoid the word vibe. We did a Google Trends search, and Google does not show an increase in the use of vibe. But we feel it. The Times published 18 stories that included the word over the past week, including music and art reviews and style columns -- which makes sense. But vibe was used in an obituary, a climate article, a business article and several real estate articles. Even the Wall St. Journal published eight articles over the last week that included "vibe," and we wouldn't have thought the Journal would be so open to vibes but the word was included in articles about design, food, and music as well as a sports article, a look at hybrid work, campaigning in India (though this appeared in the Journal's whimsical A-Hed column), and a look at the fallout of war.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #241f21; font-family: helvetica; white-space: pre-wrap;">So Google isn't confirming this trend. But it feels right to us. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #241f21; font-family: helvetica; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let us know what you think. </span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-61426498793298413882022-03-07T09:00:00.001-05:002022-03-07T09:00:00.209-05:00The Importance of Thought Leadership & Why It Can Benefit Your Organization<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;">Thought leadership combines multiple elements including: </span></span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;">Executive profiles and interviews</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;">Bylined articles</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;">Blog articles</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;">Speaking opportunities </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;">Podcasts</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white;">Branded content </span></span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">From the outset, that could look like a standard PR or media relations program.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But the difference is that many PR programs are focused on highlighting an organization's products or services whereas thought leadership is often focused on key issues.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Thought leadership, on the other hand, isn't about selling. It's about advising. It's offering perspectives on issues that matter to customers so that when they do think about a purchase, they take a look at your organization because leadership clearly understands key issues that keep customers up at night.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The idea is if you provide advice -- as this blog article is doing -- without trying to "sell" the reader on your services, customers will see you as credible and thoughtful, and that may help them decide to work with your organization.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The real difference between a standard PR campaign -- and, keep in mind, touting your products and services is important, too -- and thought leadership is the focus on issues, not product. It's on educating potential customers about what they need to know.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">An example of the importance of educating potential customers came from one of our first clients, almost 20 years ago. We conducted a program that communicated information that addressed issues relevant to the customers of a small financial software startup. After a couple of months, t</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">he founder, whose still there though the company has grown and operates under a new name, told us what looked like negative news. He said that our work <i>did not </i>increase the number of customer calls but -- and here's the <i>good news </i>-- the calls that came in after our program were 90% more qualified than before. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">By helping the founder provide insight into a problem customers could not solve on their own or with Excel (the standard approach then and now), we helped customers better understand that there was a cost-effective solution for an end-of-month problem that kept them up at night.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Thought leadership in this case raised awareness, spoke to an issue that mattered to customers, and actually made the phone ring.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">If you're focused on issuing press releases about your new product, a new feature in your product, etc. -- which can be important, and we've worked on hundreds of those kind of announcements -- you may be able to help with lead generation. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But product PR generally does not help when a company seeks to </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">raise investment rounds or to get acquired. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For that, whether your organization is a B2B, B2C or a nonprofit, thought leadership campaigns can </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica;">showcase their expertise, capabilities, values and successes.</span></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We will be writing more about thought leadership over the next few months. In the meantime, let us know if you have any questions by emailing us at info@birnbachcom.com.</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-85349649082770794482022-02-28T11:43:00.004-05:002022-02-28T11:43:55.616-05:00Media in a Time of War<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> First, our hearts are with the people of Ukraine. We pray for their safety and for a quick resolution.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">While we're seeing harrowing footage of Ukraine, we think it important to acknowledge the bravery not only of Ukrainian people -- which is significant -- but also of the journalists who are reporting on the war from inside war zones.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We think it shows the importance of accurate information -- even with the "fog of war" -- about what's happening. It shows why it is important -- vital -- to have functioning, independent news media operating in Ukraine and the U.S. and elsewhere. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">When the only media available is state-owned, you have what appears to exist in Russia: only propaganda. You don't have a necessary check on power that media can provide, whether local towns and communities, cities and states or countries.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Some social media has been helpful but there are lots out there that may be bots and others intentionally or not, posted misinformation.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We generally stay away from politics but we wanted to make a point about the need for credible, researched and edited journalism. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Again, the news about Ukraine is upsetting, and we have as an agency made a donation to a respected NGO to provide humanitarian support for people in Ukraine. We hope talks currently underway are successful and that peace returns to Ukraine and the Russian military returns to Russia.</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-24973355634325413452022-02-21T09:00:00.007-05:002023-03-27T21:37:38.071-04:00New Yorker Magazine Publishes First-Ever Digital Issue -- Meaning It Validates Our Trend of Fewer Printed Issues<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In our predictions for 2022, we said that traditional print publications will be cutting back on the number of print issues due to the costs involved.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We pointed to <i>Forbes </i>(used to publish 26 issues, now six), <i>Fortune </i>(24, now 14), <i>Fast Company</i> and <i>Inc.</i> (12, now six each) or <i>Bloomberg Businessweek</i> (50, now 45). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Then we found out that Gannett is stopping Saturday print editions at 136 of its newspapers nationwide.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Then we found out that Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, EatingWell, Health, Parents and People en Espanol will stop publishing print publications in April.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Now we found out that the New Yorker is touting its <a href="https://link.newyorker.com/click/26746520.150228/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubmV3eW9ya2VyLmNvbS9pbnRlcnZpZXdzLWlzc3VlLTIwMjI_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" target="_blank"><span style="color: #222222;">first digital-only issue</span></a>, saying:</span></p><blockquote><p><span style="background-color: black; color: whitesmoke; font-family: "Adobe Caslon", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 26px;">This week, in our first-ever digital issue, we bring you a collection of fresh interviews with leading figures in politics, literature, and the arts, conducted by an array of staff writers and contributors. We’ll publish new pieces each day, so we hope you return to us throughout the week.</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">They sent this in an email to subscribers who signed up for the newsletter. But not everyone who subscribes to the magazine also signed for the newsletter, so there could be a significant portion who don't know what happened to their print edition. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">One quick point about the number of issues the New Yorker is publishing this year, and that there's some doubt to how many print editions there will be. The New Yorker <i>used </i>to be a weekly, meaning 52 issues per year. If you look online, an annual subscription covers 48 issues but elsewhere, we saw that the New Yorker says it is published "weekly except for four planned combined issues, as indicated on the issue's cover, and other combined or extra issues." But other places report that the New York actually publishes 47 print issues. So that's a cutback, even if not to the degree of <i>Forbes </i>or <i>Fast Company</i>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Since the average reader of the New Yorker is aging -- its average age in 1980 was 43 and 46 in 1990 but is now 47 in 2009, it's a safe assumption that its readers are aging and probably are not expecting to have to go online to read this week's double issue. We think that some readers will be relived that there's an issue they don't have to put on a stack somewhere, unread. But others may not know that they must go online.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But the real significance of the shrinking number of print issues is that some readers -- mostly the older readers -- will be left behind without their print editions. I'm not talking about people in waiting rooms having nothing to read that week. We know that avid readers of any of the publications we've mentioned allocate time to read those magazines. They will now have to adjust how they interact with their publications. Some like to display issues on their coffee tables because having an issue of one or another of these publications may define you. (For example, although there's a significant overlap in terms of celebrity coverage, displaying a copy of <i>Vanity Fair</i> says something different from a copy of <i>People </i> or <i>Us.</i>). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Our point is that this represents a change in the way subscribers interact with these publications, and readers now have to remember to go online to access content from them. Some of the younger subscribers no doubt may always be online-only subscribers, having ditched their print editions a while back. </span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But print subscribers are going to increasingly find out that their print subscriptions do not provide them with all access to the publication -- which used to be the case as of just a few years ago. Now, print and online access require an all-access subscription so some may feel they already subscribe, and not go online. Some may decide to ditch the printed issues and just go online.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But it does mean a change in habit. And it does mean that some readers may not jump to the online editions and may decide to dump the print version because clearly there's no breaking news being reported in a print only six times a year. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We're not complaining about this, just observing this. And pointing out that this is a nation where, not too long ago that many of us could not adjust the blinking lights on our VCRs (ask your parents). We're just saying the shrinking frequency of print magazines means that subscribers are going to have to learn new reading habits to access their favorite magazines. And that publishers are going to need to figure out how to provide some way to make their remaining print editions matter and to provide readers with a reason to search for content on the publications' sites. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We're living in an attention economy, and readers may decide to focus their attention elsewhere. As we've said before, that's why the New York Times purchased Wordle and why its Spelling Bee game is one of the top touted aspects of the app.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And since this blog is part of the attention economy, thank you for reading. </span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-64061753458588944192022-02-16T09:45:00.014-05:002023-03-27T21:37:16.314-04:00The Revolving Door at Top-Tier Media<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For a publicly held telco client last March, we developed a focused media list of reporters at top-tier newspapers and magazines that we thought would be interested in a specific story based on their recent news coverage.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We pitched these reporters in the spring and continued to develop and pitch different reporters for the client. By October, we had another story that we thought might appeal to the initial set of reporters, all at name-brand traditional media like the New York Times, Fortune, and others at that level.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">What we found interesting was that of a list of fewer than 20 reporters, about 40% had left their perches to move to writing newsletters or for online sites that are not as well known and don't have the same clout or prestege.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Since we were tasked with working only with top-tier media, that raised several issues:</span></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We needed to educate the client that some reporters who write online newsletters -- whether for themselves via Substack or for newspapers (like former longtime Businessweek reporter Peter Coy, who writes a newsletter for the New York Times) -- are still very influential and must be considered. This is important because as the media shifts, we need to re-evaluate the media we follow.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We had to evaluate reporters' new outlets to determine if those outlets met the client's criteria. Honestly, we were hoping they might land at cool new publications we should be considering as top-tier. Yet, although we expected reporters to move from one top-tier media to another -- for example, leave MarketWatch or AP for WSJ (a sister publication) or Bloomberg -- many did not. They didn't even join top-tier online publications like TechCrunch, which would still have worked for our purposes. One reporter left Fortune for a gaming publication so that involved a change in what she wrote about. Was that move predicated by a love of gaming? By budget cutbacks? We always look for trends or for an understanding of what's driving change but we couldn't find a consistent or reasonable explanation. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> We had to look for replacements at those publications that might be interested in the client and its story. Interestingly, many of those positions remained unstaffed. And we're not talking about an obscure industry beat. We were looking for reporters who cover internet (but not social media) and telecommunications, which are mainstays of business sections. In some cases, other reporters picked up some of the coverage but in other cases. But we were shocked that beats did not appear to be fully covered. That would have once been unthinkable.</span></li></ol><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So we're seeing a lot of reporters leaving top-tier media -- something, again, that would have once been unthinkable. And we're seeing beats not necessarily getting the same kind of coverage. We know that the Times has been devoting more coverage to the media world itself, including social media (an area that is not appropriate or relevant for the client). </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">One conclusion is that the focus of top-tier media is on FAANG companies (do we really need to identify Facebook -- now Meta -- Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google -- now Alphabet?) and on social media as one of the more controversial and important business topics. This certainly has implications for clients that don't touch on social media. In other words, you may have an interesting client with a good story to tell, and it might be ever more difficult to find reporters who might be interested in the client.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">A second conclusion is that reporters are not immune to the Great Resignation, and have left to find new opportunities in journalism. And that means we have to identify new reporters and understand what they write about and what elements they look for when they write about an industry or a topic. This is something we've always done so that's not an issue. What does make it challenging is that it hasn't always involved as many as 40% of reporters on a relatively focused list.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Clearly we don't have all the answers but we do think it's important to ask the right questions, which include:</span></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">How should we define top-tier media in 2022? Who should be included now? Are there outlets that may no longer be as important?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Why are reporters leaving? Is it part of the Great Resignation? Is it due to budget cutbacks? What can we learn from this?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Are top-tier media changing the focus of what they're covering? If so, what are the implications for clients that do not fit into new coverage areas? </span></li></ol><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">As always, we will continue to look at the changing media world and raise questions to help get to answers that help our clients succeed with media relations.</span> </div></div><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-31246727417730637342022-02-11T09:00:00.005-05:002023-03-27T21:36:49.279-04:00One Trend We Missed -- Wordle -- and One Trend That We Got Right<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It's a little early for us to admit we missed a trend -- we usually wait until the end of the year to evaluate how we did. But we missed a big Q1 trend: <a href="https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wordle</a>, a daily online game that has caught fire since it was launched late last year. It is so popular that we're not going to describe how the game is played. Just a week or so ago, the New York Times announced it has acquired Wordle to add to its growing portfolio of games like Spelling Bee.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">What makes Wordle a trend? We play it ourselves and find the once-a-day aspect to be part of its charm. There's a site that offers access to the Wordle archive, and binging through several at a time loses the appeal. We do see articles online every day about "the best words to use" to start figuring out the word of the day. Another way to know it's a real trend: there's a minor backlash to Wordle, such as The Verge's "</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-variant-ligatures: no-contextual;"><a href="https://bit.ly/3oPTXQM" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The New York Times has changed Wordle’s solutions</a>" and the New York Post's "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-variant-ligatures: no-contextual;"><a href="https://bit.ly/34Y3MoX" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">And the Wordle backlash begins: 'Blaming this on the Americans.'</a>" </span></span></div><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-variant-ligatures: no-contextual;">According to the Post, which generally has an "America First" mindset unless it can attack the New York Times, there's a backlash outside the U.S. because Wordle uses U.S. spelling. We know it doesn't fit Wordle's five-letter words but we don't want to spoil an solutions so we'll point out that apologise -- which is how the word is spelled outside the U.S. -- would not be accepted because Wordle would be looking for apologize. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: helvetica; font-variant-ligatures: no-contextual;">According to some of us in the trend-predicting world, it's not a trend until there's a backlash so Wordle can be classified as a trend.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">One we totally missed. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We don't know if Wordle has legs as a trend but it's certainly hot right now. And what we think is clear is that we're living in an attention economy. The reason the Times spent six figures to acquire Wordle shows there's money to made for them to host Wordle. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Twenty years ago, in the dot-com era, the goal for many was to get eyeballs -- people spending time on their site. That's really what social media is all about, and why the algorithms of TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, etc. are so important and influential -- and often not in a positive or productive way.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But that's not the trend we got right. But it's related to it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">One of our trends is that publishers will move away from print editions. We love print editions, and still see the value in them. But according to the Reliable Sources Newsletter by CNN that cited a <a href="https://on.wsj.com/3oGj7RN" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wall St. Journal </a>article, six magazines that Barry Diller acquired from Meredith Corp. last year -- Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, EatingWell, Health, Parents and People en Espanol will stop publishing print publications. Their last issues will be in April.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">How did Diller's company, Dotdash Meredith frame its decision?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"<span style="color: #333333;">We have said from the beginning, buying Meredith was about buying brands, not magazines or websites,” according to the CEO. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: helvetica;">We get it. After all, in 2022, is weekly even enough updates about entertainment? Of course not.</span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: helvetica;">And Dotdash has "19 remaining print magazines," according to the Journal, including People, Better Homes & Gardens and Southern Living -- all of them major publications.</span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: helvetica;">But here's the thing -- and we'll talk more about this throughout this year.</span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: helvetica;">Some subscribers prefer the print editions. Certainly doctors' waiting rooms do. So what happens to those subscribers who prefer print? One of us used to go to a dental office with horrible Internet access -- everyone complained about it -- but for people waiting in those sorts of locations, they can't rely on their phones for distraction.</span></p><p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: helvetica;">And we think people who used to allocate time to turn the pages of Entertainment Weekly, People en Esponol and the other magazines ending their print run. The question for them and for Dotdash and other publishers considering ending their print publications is this: How will readers spend their time? Will they go online to the app or website of the publication? Will they remember to do so or just get their entertainment news elsewhere, whether print or online? Or will they shift to playing games like Wordle? </span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-35653589202806355732022-01-31T10:31:00.005-05:002022-01-31T14:48:12.404-05:00Two Trends Validated by New York Times and Boston Business Journal<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">For 2022, we issued 20 trends to celebrate our 20th anniversary -- and already two of our trends have been validated.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In <a href="https://bit.ly/3rkjfab" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">our first set of trends</a>, we said: "<span style="background-color: white; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span color="windowtext"><b>More data and bandwidth will help healthcare, but fitness trackers may not." </b>By explanation, we said:</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Boinformatics, which combines biology and computer science, will attract more media coverage. Powered by AI, bioinformatics is becoming more relevant because it collects and analyzes biological information, which will help transform the study and treatment of diseases and chronic conditions including neurological and psychiatric diseases. <b>At the same time, expect that fitness trackers will get more scrutiny in terms of their accuracy, the data they capture (which may not be the data the user actually needs) and their inability to enable users to share the information with their healthcare providers.</b></span></blockquote><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We think this isn't a necessarily intuitive prediction about fitness trackers, so we're pleased that we're already seeing confirmation of it from the New York Times.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In her article, "<span style="background-color: white; color: #121212; text-align: center;"><a href="https://nyti.ms/3APeWbs" target="_blank">I Ditched My Smart Watch, and I Don’t Regret It</a>," Lindsay Crouse, a Times opinion staffer who writes on gender, ambition and power, asked: "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Does this constant monitoring of our vital signs truly yield better health? There’s no clear answer yet. One study found that people trying to lose weight who used wearable technology to help actually </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2553448" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #326891; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: rgb(50, 104, 145); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">lost less weight</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> than their watch-free counterparts. A review in </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(19)30553-4/pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #326891; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: rgb(50, 104, 145); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">the American Journal of Medicine found</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> “little indication that wearable devices provide a benefit for health outcomes.” Another issue is that the measuring abilities of wearables are </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.digitaltrends.com/wearables/how-accurate-are-fitness-trackers/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #326891; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-color: rgb(50, 104, 145); text-decoration-style: solid; text-decoration-thickness: 1px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">imperfect for some metrics.</a>"</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The rest of the article explains why Crouse -- well, her headline succinctly explains what she did.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We expect more articles to follow in other media to explain why others are giving up their fitness tracker.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Please note: some of us at Birnbach Communications use fitness trackers like Fitbit or wear smart watches, like Apple Watch. We still use them and like them, and our interest in bioinformatics and fitness trackers is because of our work in life sciences and healthcare, not in fitness trackers. But we feel there will be a backlash against them and that some people using fitness trackers and related apps may be experiencing pandemic burnout -- much the way that demand for (and probably usage of) Peleton equipment has dropped off, too. We expect a decline in other similar exercise tech brands and apps this year. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: helvetica;">Shifting gears, in a set of business-specific trends, we said, "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://bit.ly/3reS4il" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Business magazines will publish fewer print issues</a>," and we got this somewhat correct -- but it's not just business magazines that will publish fewer print issues. It's also newspapers. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: helvetica;">According to the Boston Business Journal, "</span><a href="https://bit.ly/3HlA37x" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: helvetica;" target="_blank">Gannett to stop Saturday print editions at 136 newspapers nationwide</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: helvetica;">." The elimination of Saturday print editions starts March 5, replaced with "expanded access to online editions." Whatever "expanded access" means, exactly. We do know that -- though it's not mentioned in the BBJ article -- that Gannett has also suspended print publication for a number of local weeklies not included in the 136 papers, shifting to digital-only access. Those papers will offer news "on social media, via digital newsletters, and other platforms." </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: helvetica;">The reason for this cutback is that, even with significant consolidation (which involved substantial debt), Gannett still hasn't found a way to make newspapers sustainable, much less profitable. So they're cutting back print editions on the day that has traditionally been the lowest circulation day so this will have a somewhat limited downside, especially for younger readers who typically don't have a print subscription. (Sundays have the biggest readership.) This is a </span><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">problem, however, for older readers who tend to subscribe to the print edition, and may not want to or be able to access news online. And when a weekly paper shifts entirely online, it could cut off a significant population from keeping up with town news and events. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Unfortunately, we now think other newspaper chains will follow Gannett's lead in 2022. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">There will be a couple of additional aspects to this. Online ads generate lower fees so by ending Saturday print editions, Gannett may lose ad revenue since its losing 1/7 of its print ads. Additionally, while Gannett may be able save printing and paper costs, the chain is likely to have to continue to pay union members who typically work on Saturdays. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">That said, we think newspapers will continue to reduce their their print schedules because the consumer of the future already accesses the online edition. We think there's a real value in print editions -- there's more impact of headlines, for example, and more impact for the news organizations themselves if people can see the papers displayed on newsstands or see people reading them on buses or trains. In part it's because it helps set an agenda, and keep most people in a community talking about the same news. One reason for the polarization is that, depending on the news source you consume, you will access different news-of-the-day depending on whether you watch FOX or CNN. FOX viewers get a vastly different sense of news from CNN viewers, and that lack of common basis is one of the reasons there's such a wide chasm in the country.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">On the other hand, we don't expect print editions of newspapers or magazines to thrive, and we believe more newspapers (soon: just news) and magazines to drop their print editions entirely by the end of the decade. Online is how younger readers expect to access their news and how younger reporters expect to produce their news. It's faster, more immediate and cheaper. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We will post more about these two predictions and other validations as the year goes on. </span></p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-87004971562847968602022-01-24T09:00:00.015-05:002022-01-25T10:06:03.608-05:00TrendReport 2022: Business Edition<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> For our 20th anniversary, we decided to issue 20 predictions this year. The first five are available <a href="https://bit.ly/3rkjfab" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. The second set of five mostly dealt with <a href="https://bit.ly/3IriB1J" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">trends based on the endemic or midterm elections</a>. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Here are our final set, which focuses on business issues, though some are the result of Covid:</span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Business magazines will
publish fewer print issues</b>. This won’t get much coverage but PR and marketing
functions need to be aware that there will be fewer print issues of major
business magazines. Not long ago, new issues might hit before you had a chance
to finish the previous issue. Now, there so much time between some issues, you
might think your subscription expired to Forbes (used to publish 26 issues, now
six), <i>Fortune </i>(24, now 14), <i>Fast Company</i> and <i>Inc.</i> (12, now
six each) or <i>Bloomberg Businessweek</i> (50, now 45). Another example of
shadow inflation is that the subscription to these and other publications used
to include print and website access but now print subscriptions no longer
provide online access. <b>What this means: </b>These<b> </b>business outlets<b>
</b>are still important to an older demographic<b> </b>but their print editions
are, because of their new publishing schedules, less timely. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Companies need to
evaluate their technology, including security, and real estate needs</b>. For a brief moment,
it looked like offices were reopening but omicron put those plans on hold. Even
when offices reopen, many employees will work a few days in the office and few
days from home. <b>What this means</b>: Companies need to evaluate their
technology, including cloud and security, to enable hybrid workers to
collaborate easily and effectively. So expect more apps to connect employees
remotely, including apps that transcribe (not just record) virtual meetings and
improve how we deliver presentations. Companies also need to reassess their
office space requirements, and we expect them to scale back. We expect the
media to pay attention to the impact on the real estate market and to look at
the future of the office and how we work. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b><span color="windowtext">HR
will be seen as a competitive advantage. </span></b><span color="windowtext">Being able to<b> </b>successfully<b>
</b>manage remote teams, retain and recruit employees is more of a strategic
priority than ever, especially given the Great Resignation. We expect the media
to cover: fierce competition for talent that’s no longer limited by geography
and will require better pay and benefits, including more flexibility for
caregiving, mental health support; a positive culture (made more challenging to
communicate remotely) more diversity and more corporate social responsibility
programs; and less tolerance for toxic workplace conditions. This last point is
especially important for front-line jobs – like flight attendants, restaurant
workers, etc. – who dealt with rude and hostile costumers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>What this means: </b>Employees are
rethinking their careers and are searching for meaningful work, and companies
will need to find ways to provide that. This is particularly important for
small companies, including mom-and-pop retail and restaurants, who will find it
harder to stay in business if they can’t find and keep employees. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Future
of money is increasingly cashless</b>: More monetary transactions in 2022 will take
place using apps like Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle because they’re more convenient
because you pay with your phone – even if, like with Venmo, it’s more expensive
than cash. <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We don’t expect this to get a lot of media coverage because reporters are more likely covering other finance topics including crypto, blockchain, NFTs and FinTechs — even though we think most readers won’t fully understand blockchain and NFTs (us included). But we do expect the percentage of cashless transactions to significantly increase except for the elderly and the unbanked poor. <strong style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">What this means</strong><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;">: The big problem with going even 90% cashless is if you lose your phone or if there’s a blackout since cashless doesn’t work without electricity. Tangentially connected to the future of money because it is an alternate, but increasingly frequent, way for companies to go public, Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), essentially shell companies, will get a lot of coverage, too, but much of it will be negative. </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Streaming could mean
the end of cable and movie theaters</b>. In part due to the pandemic, streaming
services have proliferated and millions more signed up. Pundits have been
proclaiming the end of cable for a decade but it’s probably not a coincidence
that cable use declined to 50% over the last year. We also think that steaming
will further erode movie theaters’ business because with a few exceptions,
staying home to watch a movie is easier and less expensive. <b>What this means</b>:
We think the media will cover the streaming wars because there’s only so many
services that consumers can subscribe to – but we remain confident that there
won’t be any consolidation until 2023. We also expect the media to cover the
health of movie theaters and other entertainment venues; that said, we think
there’s an ongoing market for sports, live performances and that arenas and
theaters will continue to attract audiences as long as the risks for going out
into a crowd are minimized. <o:p></o:p></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Smart homes devices
will finally be able to communicate with devices from other manufacturers. </b>One of the challenges
of IoT and smart homes is that Google, Apple and Amazon’s technologies don’t
interoperate with each other. Meaning: if you have a lock that works only with
an iPhone, new owners who have an Android may need to replace the lock with an
Android-friendly app. <b>What this means: </b>Just as the media is interested
in the future of work, they’ll be interested in the future of the home. We
expect the media to look at Matter, an interoperable platform/standard to allow
devices from different manufacturers to communicate together. <o:p></o:p></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Electric cars still
have a way to go. </b>Although
President Biden’s goal is to have 50% of all cars sold by 2030 be electric,
we’re going to need significant changes in eight short years. <b>What that
means: </b>Many electric cars have a range of 300 miles but that won’t work for
long road trips, and there aren’t even enough EV charging stations in most
cities. It will also be a problem given the current shortage of automotive
semiconductors because we will certainly need more of them.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b><span color="windowtext">Getting
around cities will be slower, more complicated. </span></b><span color="windowtext">Meanwhile,
some cities are getting overrun by scooters, e-bikes and Citi Bikes, which were
intended to improve transportation solutions inside a city, as well as by more
people using delivery services to get food, groceries and other supplies,
clogging streets, bike lanes and sidewalks. And in some cities, Citi Bike racks
take up space that used to be parking spots for cars, reducing that valuable
space while cars must circle to find an open spot. <b>What this means</b>: This
is another area where infrastructure investments will be important. As for
too-many scooters, we expect cities to look at regulating the number of
scooters while promoting scooters as a sustainable alternative to using cars or
even public transportation.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b><span color="windowtext">Space
will seem a bit further in 2022. </span></b><span color="windowtext">With the exception of Bill
Gates and Warren Buffet, most of the top billionaires went into space in 2021.
We don’t think there will be additional U.S. billionaires starting their own
space companies. We do expect more space exploration by private companies,
however. <b>What this means</b>: Continued interest in the space economy that
is just taking off.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Automation
and robots will be more visible. </b>To adjust to fewer workers, more companies will
look to automate processes, using artificial intelligence (AI) and robots.
Expect more stores to offer self-checkout (if they didn’t before), which may
include AI-enabled cashierless technology. <b>What this means: </b>Once jobs
are automated, it’s hard to go back. That said, at each inflection point, some
jobs disappear – like the people who used buggy whips and those who made buggy
whips – but are replaced by other jobs.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></li></ol><p></p>
<span style="font-family: helvetica;">As always, we will evaluate how we did later on in December though we may decide to issue a midterm report in July, too. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In the meantime, let us know what think -- if you agree or disagree. Thanks for reading!</span> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-518011452755780242022-01-20T09:00:00.004-05:002022-01-20T09:00:00.211-05:00Birnbach Communications Issues Additional Trends for 2022: Endemic Edition<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We would love for the pandemic to be in the rearview mirror but it's not over by a long shot. We do expect greater uncertainty for the next year, and that the New Normal won't ever be quite the same as the Old Normal. Because it never is.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">But that doesn't mean the New Normal won't be okay. As a society, we adjust, and we believe that's a positive perspective -- we will get through this. We develop a new routine way to live, work and play.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We already issued our <a href="https://bit.ly/3rkjfab" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">main trends for 2022</a> so here are our Covid-and-Midterm Edition of trends: </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Covid uncertainty amplifies
credibility crisis. </b>Months
of evolving guidance has created distrust in the CDC, which it explains is the
result of “fast-moving science.” Unfortunately, that distrust is exacerbating
things at a time when distrust in American institutions is the highest its been
since Watergate. <b>What this means: </b>This is a problem for marketers
because the media is generally seen as less credible, across the spectrum, and
marketers use media to communicate and engage with their audiences. Further,
because the media world is increasingly polarized, companies may alienate
customers based on whether or not they advertise or boycott certain media
properties. Also, it is not easy to rebuild trust and credibility; it took the
better part of a decade to recover from Watergate mistrust, and we didn’t have
social media to contend with at that time.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b><span color="windowtext">Consumer
Price Index and inflation will get a lot of attention.</span></b> The media
will pay attention to the CPI and inflation – which are related but not the
same measure. <span color="windowtext">We also expect to hear the phrase “shadow inflation,” which
refers to when companies hold prices but reduce the net weight of packaged food
products or when travel and hospitality companies start charging for services
they used to include in the purchase price. Gas prices will especially get
coverage. <b>What this means</b>: As with supply chain, we expect inflation
will improve later in the year but it will get coverage through October since
this is likely to be a mid-term election year issue.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Because
it’s an election year, the media will pay attention to the two Americas
separated racially, economically, politically and by access to opportunities
and healthcare.</b>
Covid will continue to be the major story but because of the upcoming midterms,
we think the media will try to report on the big gaps between the haves and the
have-nots. <b>What this means: </b>We mention this not to open a political
discussion but<b> </b>because<b> </b>there’s a limited “newshole,” and it’s
important to know what reporters will be covering because it means less time or
space for them to write about your company.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Big Tech, particularly
social media, will continue to relied upon and hated</b>. There’s awareness that
social media is causing societal problems and that Congress, which for years has
held hearings to determine a solution, has not done anything more than
grandstand<b><span color="windowtext"> </span></b><span color="windowtext">rather than provide a solution. We expect ongoing media
coverage of the problems across various platforms but we don’t expect Congress
to provide a meaningful solution because too many in Congress think the answer
is to break up some of these companies as if they were traditional monopolies
or to </span>replace
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which is designed to protect
freedom of expression on the internet. <b>What this means:</b> Not much will
change.</span></li><li><b><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Infrastructure and 5G
will be important topics in 2022</span></b><span style="font-family: helvetica;">. Updating the country’s infrastructure is seen
by some as a way to make the U.S. more competitive and also improve access to
necessary services to the have-not Americans who, for example, lack access to
high-speed internet. As 3G service is discontinued, it is necessary to help
provide 5G access in parts of the country that lack high-speed access. <b>What
this means: </b>reporters will be interested in experts who can discuss what
needs to be done and how infrastructure investments can impact rural communities,
the poor, etc.</span></li></ol><p></p><p>
</p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Of these, we think the Covid uncertainty will have the longest-lasting impact although none of these is really a short-term trend. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We have another 10 trends -- for a total of 20 to mark our 20th anniversary -- to roll out over the next few days. Let us know if you agree or disagree.</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-82288398209649733632022-01-14T14:46:00.006-05:002022-01-21T21:19:30.638-05:00Birnbach Communications Issues Key Media, Business and Tech Predictions for 2022: Trends in supply chain, healthcare, infrastructure and cybersecurity will dominate media landscape<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we're issuing our 20<span style="font-size: 13.3333px;">th</span> annual list of top media and
marketing trends for 2022.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
</p><p class="Body" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span color="windowtext"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Here
are four of the agency’s top predictions for 2022:</span></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>Supply chain issues will be at the forefront of corporate
communications</b>.
The state of the nation’s supply chain will continue to receive coverage, until
it becomes more reliable – probably in 2023. Understocked shelves will remain an
issue due to scarcity of truck drivers, raw materials and semiconductors, and
due to pent-up demand. <b>The implications: </b>Companies that effectively
address<b> </b>supply chain<b> </b>issues can gain<b> </b>competitive
advantage. They need to regularly communicate with customers about when they
expect supplies to get back to normal, otherwise, consumers may try a new brand
and not look back.</span></li><li><b style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -0.25in;">Infrastructure
investments and smart cities will spur sustainable tech. </b><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -0.25in;">Beyond much-needed
investments in ailing bridges and roads, look for cities to improve their
tech infrastructure as they develop plans to revitalize themselves. </span><b style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -0.25in;">The
implications: </b><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -0.25in;">Cities will look more at smart and sustainable
technologies, like more electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, solutions
to manage food and package deliveries, intelligent traffic light systems
that can adjust to traffic conditions, devices improving energy efficiency,
and systems to improve safety, as well as smart sensors to gather data
about pollution and other environmental data.</span></li><li><b style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span color="windowtext">More data and bandwidth will help
healthcare, but fitness trackers may not. </span></b><span color="windowtext" style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -0.25in;">In addition to the
ongoing focus of healthcare reporters on COVID-19 this year, bioinformatics,
which combines biology and computer science, will attract more media coverage.
Powered by AI, bioinformatics is becoming more relevant because it collects and
analyzes biological information, which will help transform the study and treatment
of diseases and chronic conditions including neurological and psychiatric diseases. At the same time, expect that fitness
trackers will get more scrutiny in terms of their accuracy, the data they
capture (which may not be the data the user actually needs) and their inability
to enable users to share the information with their healthcare providers.<b> The
implications</b>: Bioinformatics companies will have more opportunities to
inform the public about the timeliness and significance of their technology,
while companies selling fitness trackers need to be prepared to address the issues
that might arise about their offerings.</span></li><li><b style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span color="windowtext">Cybersecurity will continue to dominate
the media as companies search for solutions. </span></b><span color="windowtext" style="font-family: helvetica; text-indent: -0.25in;">The<b> </b>increase in
the number of hybrid<b> </b>employees<b> </b>opens new security risks, and
companies will need to establish new solutions for users accessing their
networks remotely. <b>The implications: </b>Ransomware and other
cyber-disruptions won’t go away this year so expect ongoing media coverage in
2022, especially involving government agencies and big companies with access to
lots of personal data.</span></li></ol><p></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: center;">For our 20</span><sup style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: center;">th</sup><span style="font-family: helvetica; text-align: center;">
anniversary, we identified 20 trends. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The
complete list, including 16 additional predictions, will be rolled out on our blog, </span><a href="http://blog.birnbachcom.com" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: helvetica;" target="_blank">PRBackTalk</a><span style="font-family: helvetica;">.</span></p><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></b><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-19357242304853779362021-12-21T09:30:00.001-05:002021-12-21T09:30:00.234-05:00Track Report 2021: Which trends we got right, which ones we didn't <p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Every year, we issue a set of trends and predictions for the upcoming year and -- unlike most prognosticators, we evaluate how we did at the end end of the year.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Which is now.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">So here's a look at our <a href="https://bit.ly/3bTOH8q" target="_blank">top predictions for 2021</a>:</span></p><ol start="1" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>We will all become more aware
of supply chains. </b>We were right about this. Supply chains became a front-page story everywhere. Until 2020, supply chains were a trade story, a topic non-trade publications rarely touched but this year, <i>The New York Times </i>made supply chain a focus for economics reporter Peter S. Goodman. Supply chain issues will continue into 2022, especially if Omicrom or subsequent variants continue, which seems likely. <b>Grade: A.</b> </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>The workplace of the future
will be your home. </b>We said that "a significant percentage of employees will choose to continue
to work from home – which has propelled some to move to cheaper, less
dense neighborhoods. Companies will have to rethink HR, recruiting and
team building as well as reconfigure workflow, collaboration, and customer
support to address the realities of the new workplace." So far, as many companies are halting return to the office initiatives, our prediction that work from home would continue into 2022 seems correct. We did not predict the Great Resignation, in which people resigned to pursue something else but we believe we were right that companies need to rethink, still, workflow, collaboration, teams (actual teams, not Microsoft's Team software). <o:p></o:p><b>Grade: A.</b></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Cities will need to reimagine
downtown business districts.</b> We continue to see underoccupied buildings and empty storefronts. We continue to think that "local hospitality businesses and
retailers need to focus on delivering customer experience, not just
commodity service" and that "to overcome stories about closures and stagnation,
stimulate the local economy and give people a reason to visit, cities will
need to revitalize downtown areas by expanding cultural activities." The problem is: we're not seeing much movement or coverage about rethinking downtowns. We think this is a critical issue that should get more attention. We hope this gets more attention in 2022. From a media coverage, however, this did not generate the proverbial ink we think this topic deserves. <b>Grade: B.</b> <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Telepresence, industrial
robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) will get more attention. </b>Companies did experiment with video conferencing solutions like Zoom and Microsoft Teams and others but we did not see as much about telepresence as we thought. Same with industrial robotics. That doesn't mean that telepresence and industrial robotics did not gain strength in 2021 but we didn't see much evidence in news coverage. We did see tremendous interest in AI, however. Overall, from a media perspective, we overstated this trend. <b>Grade: B</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Telehealth becomes a preferred
option, not an alternative</b>. We said "Telehealth will become the preferred option, particularly for therapy or
appointments that don’t require hands-on treatment." Subsequently, we heard that medical insurance companies scaled back coverage for telehealth appointments. We said we expected "to see
stories on the delivery of healthcare to those who don’t have access to
telehealth and whether patients will get the same level of care and
attention via virtual sessions as they do with in-person visits," and we did not see much of that. One reason: the continued focus of the ongoing shapeshifting Covid virus. That said, we think telehealth is a great option, and we expect to see some of the coverage about the delivery of health care to occur in 2022. <b>Grade: B-.</b> <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Big Tech’s role will be
scrutinized. </b>Not surprisingly, this was a big story throughout the year. <b>Grade: A.</b></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>The streaming wars will
continue with no real losers.</b> We said we thought that streaming services launched by networks trying to
optimize their content will continue because streaming is a way to monetize their content library. One of the new services we didn't expect to like but do because of its quirky old library is Pluto TV; it's a free, ad-supported service leveraging CBS and Paramount's content. While the streaming wars did not get as much attention as we expected, there was a lot of attention to various offerings on many services, and always a lot of interest in Netflix's business. And we were right when we said that the contraction of non-network-based services
(Crackle and Tubi, for example) won’t happen in 2021 -- but could happen
within 24 months. <b>Grade: A</b>.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>In a post-truth
era, media polarization will continue and media credibility will decline. </b>Things got worse in 2021 in terms of media polarization, and we wish we were wrong about this. We expect this will continue, especially on the anniversary of the Jan. 6th insurrection -- we saw on Twitter today that there are people disputing that characterization despite the video, despite the sentencing of perpetrators who pled guilty -- and any ongoing investigation into what led up to that day. We also said that we expected "the phrase post-truth to
be used quite often in articles that look at the current lack of unity
inside the U.S.," and we think that was right, too. <b>Please note: for the purposes of this blog, we're not interested in the politics or the drivers of polarization. The reason we're interested in media polarization is that it makes marketers job much harder, and credibility more challenging to achieve, because ads placed on one network may be construed as an endorsement of the media property's perceived political perspective, whether FOX or MSNBC, so companies need to find a way to dance around this issue.</b> <b>Grade: A.</b> <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>The news flow
won’t diminish in the first half of the year. </b>We said, "we expect the news flow
to continue at its current levels through the fall due to the ongoing
pandemic, its impact on the economy and continued volatile political
situation. We also expect Doomscrolling will drop off but not fade
away in 2021." We have some some media engagement by readers to be on the decline this year but the amount of news has not diminished, and we're still doomscrolling as much as we had hoped to break that habit. <b>Grade: A.</b></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b style="font-family: helvetica;">From a business
perspective, the media sector will face a challenging year</b><span style="font-family: helvetica;">. This is a problem for advertisers and publicists because newspapers are publishing issues with fewer pages <b>despite the crazy amount of news flow</b>. We've seen coverage of SPACs and Alden's relentless mission to purchase storied news organizations only to decimate newsrooms, diminishing the role these media play in their hometown communities. <b>Grade: A.</b></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"><b>More newsrooms will be
shuttered. </b>Another prediction we would prefer to have gotten wrong. <b>Grade: B+</b>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>Substack won’t
save most reporters.</b> We said, "An email newsletter platform
designed to enable reporters to turn readers into paying subscribers, Substack
has lured dozens of prominent reporters with the claim of a better
business model for journalists to control their destiny and make money." Some reporters have indeed done well on Substack. Long-time <i>Bloomberg Businessweek </i>economics reporter has an interesting column in the New York Times. But others -- like former <i>New York Times </i>privacy project reporter Charlie Warzel -- left for Substack and then jumped ship to the <i>Atlantic. </i>We think newsletters may help media properties reach readers interested in a specific perspective but we don't think it will make it easier for reporters to make gobs of money. We see newsletters as this year's podcast. Many people have them, enjoy producing them, but most aren't making money solely from their newsletter or podcast. We believe we got this right. <b>Grade: A.</b> </span></li></ol><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Overall, we got an A- for this year's TrendReport. We are working on our predictions for 2022. Stay tuned!</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-71817231278484051552021-06-21T09:30:00.001-04:002021-06-21T09:30:00.209-04:00What We Can Learn by Looking at Past Predictions<p>We were cleaning up our office last year, sorting through paper files if you can believe it, when we saw a document entitled "Social Media Predictions 2009" -- a simpler age, or so it seems from a near-post-pandemic period.</p><p>So we thought it would be fun to see what some of those predictions were, from the perspective of being able to determine if that future ever arrived.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>They were talking about Web 2.0 back then. The prediction was that social media would bring about a "culture of rapid response." That certainly seems like that occurred. Social media spreads news -- accurate or not -- much more rapidly, often scooping traditional news sources. We do now expect quick response when we post a complaint about a service or product. That was from David Armano, then with Logic + Emotion.</li><li>One prediction said that in 2009, marketers would move from assigning "responsibility for social media strategy to the most logical person in the communication team" to allowing the most passionate individual from any division to lead social media efforts." Even now, that sounds like a smart move. But the reality is that social media marketing is often handed off to the youngest team member, based on the hope that they understand this social media thing better than Boomer bosses.</li><li>That same prediction also said marketers would go from reaching "out to the biggest bloggers you could find" in 2008 to targeting "the most relevant bloggers for your campaign, (offering) them something of value and build relationships." Again, interesting idea. But we've seen clients who want to reach the biggest bloggers and podcasters (something that wasn't a thing back then) and shy away from those who are passionate but don't have broad reach. Influence can't always be measured by reach, and podcasters often don't have (or prefer not to share) metrics, the way traditional media does. We think it makes sense to target relevant bloggers and podcasters even if they don't have huge numbers but it's important to justify the executive's time or else walk away from the opportunity.</li><li>Another prediction was that "2009 will also be the year we rediscover the appeal of 'live intimacy,'" live conversations with online consumers and also that we will "see more companies doling out good old fashioned hand-written notes and letters" based on the premise that "intimacy touches emotion." We think that was a swing and a miss. Not that hand-written notes and letters might not break through the clutter -- we think they would. But it takes time, special talent and more time, to be able to hand-write notes to customers.</li><li>One pundit said "TV will be a big focus, because viewership in aggregate is actually going up." Perhaps it did. But more than a decade later, TV viewership even of once-major events like the Oscars and the Super Bowl, are in decline.</li><li>Chris Brogan had two interesting predictions. He said there would be a rise in Velvet Rope Social Networks -- sites that "aren't 'come one, come all.'" We don't think that's entirely true but Clubhouse certainly fits that. He also said there would be "Lots of Consolidation and Shuttering." He was right about that, too. For a client interested in reaching regional business-oriented podcasters as well as national innovation-based podcasts, we found that many ideal podcasters stopped production as recently as 2020 but there were tons of reasonable podcasts that ceased production in the three years prior. </li><li>One prediction was that while clients "are eager to explore the benefits of social media engagement, (many) are absolutely terrified of the potential downsides...The tipping point has not only not been reached could still tilt away from social media if negatives outweigh positive examples." We think it would be interesting to return to a world before social media mattered, where companies could walk away from social media. But that's not the world we live in. So most companies, even complex B2Bs, do need to find a way to engage via social media.</li><li>Ann Handley of MarkteingProfs said that companies will increasingly craft content. That's certainly true. With traditional media shrinking (as it has for much of the past decade), companies must generate their own content.</li><li>Scott Monty, then at Ford, had a couple of accurate predictions, including: "Twitter will continue to achieve legitimacy." It certainly has. He also said, "Online video will come into its own." That also became true and I don't think it was so obvious back in 2008. </li><li>Other predictions:</li><ul><li>Google would buy Twitter.</li><li>"Blogger outreach from PR pros will get better, but not much." We think this one from Jason Falls, is accurate.</li><li>Better metrics. That may have come true but we still need better, more accurate and faster metrics.</li><li>eCommerce will go social by allowing "consumers to use the critiques from people they don't know." </li><li>"People will rally to support companies they love when hard times hits." We think this prediction from Andy Sernovitz came true.</li><li>"We finally settle the debate over whether PR or Marketing 'owns' social media." Sorry, we did not. Although we've seen PR functions integrated into Marketing, which means Marketing probably does 'own' social media after all.</li><li>One pundit said that "After much election season talk about Obama's social media presidency,'" many will "realize that his win had less to do with his innovative use of social media than we'd thought." Well, that may have been true. But we did see how Trump's use of social media was vital to his visibility and reach. </li></ul></ul>The conclusions included: "We understand the technologies but need to employ them with a human empathy" and that measurement and relevance are key to success. That still seems to be the case. We guess this is a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same.<p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-81128995057398135572021-05-26T09:30:00.053-04:002021-05-26T09:30:00.228-04:00Bloomberg Businessweek Validates Our Supply Chain Prediction<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> Back in January -- which, like so much of our time during the pandemic, seems like ages ago -- we issued our annual set of predictions. This year, among our predictions, we said that "<a href="https://bit.ly/3bTOH8q" target="_blank">We will all become more aware of supply chains</a>." </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> There have been many other articles about supply chain issues -- like we're running low on semiconductors in part because of strong demand for cars and running low of sheetrock because of a rise in the number of renovations -- but Bloomberg Businessweek described what's going on as Fear of Running Out (FORO). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It's worth checking out the <a href="https://bloom.bg/34ebEyZ" target="_blank">Bloomberg article</a> because this is likely to affect all of us. We have several new clients this year, and we've already been asking them how they will prepare for possible supply chain shortages. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It's an issue that businesses need to prepare for because their suppliers may be already affected.</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878145139485098250.post-6182734277021271722021-01-19T09:30:00.011-05:002021-01-19T09:40:44.693-05:006 Additional Media Trends for 2021<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Of course the biggest story in 2021 will continue to be COVID-19 pandemic, the rollout of vaccines, the reopening of businesses, gathering at sporting events, holidays, family celebrations and getting back to normal.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Though we're not sure what "getting back to normal" will actually look like.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">We do know that reporters, who had to adjust to covering the impact of the pandemic on their particular beats, will continue to cover both their beat areas and the pandemic. For example, sports reporters continue to cover games, trades, etc. while also reporting on games cancelled because of athletes who tested positive. What might be different is that they're testing positive to COVID, not to steroids. (As compared to a decade or so ago when steroid use in baseball was a big problem.)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In this post, we will look at six additional trends we think will be important this year. If they look familiar from 2020, they are. These are long-term trends affecting the media world, and are important to note because they address the daily circumstances that affect reporters. With an understanding of some of the variables reporters contend with can help when pitching stories to the media, developing marketing campaigns with media outlets, etc. </span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.25in;"></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>In a post-truth era, media polarization will
continue and media credibility will decline. </b>For years now, Americans have been
living in a post-truth era – in which there’s a lack of shared, objective
facts. Unfortunately, the growing distrust of the media and the chasm between
media bubbles will get worse in 2021, especially on social media. This is bad
for business because it exacerbates polarization and diminishes the credibility
of all media outlets – making it harder for marketers to reach broad population
segments while making it easier to unintentionally alienate parts of the
population. <b>Bonus thought</b>: we expect the phrase post-truth to be used quite often in articles that look at the current lack of unity inside the U.S., fueled by social media and conspiracy theories and the immediate past administration. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>The news flow won’t diminish in the first half
of the year. </b>The
chaos of news over the past few years boosted engagement with news sources as
people tried to keep up and make sense of it all. Despite a change to a
presumably more-disciplined/boring administration, we expect the news flow to
continue at its current levels through the fall due to the ongoing pandemic,
its impact on the economy and continued volatile political situation. We also
expect Doomscrolling will drop off but not fade away in 2021. The
implication for marketers is that it may be hard to get the attention of
reporters and producers as well as from consumers while they continue to be
distracted by the latest developments.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>From a business perspective, the media sector
will face a challenging year</b>. Although we’re confident about demand for
news will stay steady, we know demand by itself has not been the panacea for
the media. In broadcast news, there’s a battle for viewers between Fox versus
NewsMax and OAN plus a possible new threat if Donald Trump launches or buys a
media property. Meanwhile, among newspapers and magazines, the New York Times,
Wall St. Journal and Washington Post, and People are doing well, but the rest
haven’t found a sustainable business model, especially because retail
advertising has dropped due to COVID. Keep in mind: despite the strong demand
for news, thousands of newsroom positions were cut in 2020, especially at local
media, and that, sadly, will continue in 2021.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b><span style="border: none;">More newsrooms will be shuttered. </span></b><span style="border: none;">Since the start of the pandemic, most reporters
have been working remotely so some companies have decided to save money by
shuttering physical </span>newsrooms including New
York Daily News, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, and other big papers, much
less at smaller, regional papers. That’s not a good thing because we feel there
is real value in training junior staffers, which becomes harder when they’re
working remotely from mentors. It also makes it harder for PR functions because
it’s much harder to call reporters when they’re working from home, and have
given up or rarely check their office voicemail.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>There are fewer reporters working, but it seems like there's more news than ever. </b>Especially at local media, which increasingly seem understaffed, reporters are overwhelmed. They have to file more stories with fewer resources and less time between in which to develop stories. In years past, they would have had time to talk to the executive and get an original quote and add some insight into the announcement. We're not blaming reporters -- we blame the economics that have resulted in the layoffs of tens of thousands reporters over the last few years. Given smaller staffs, there's just not enough time to interview every executive. At some outlets, reporters are told they must file a certain number of stories per day. And when they're done with a story, they need to cross-promote it via social media. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Substack won’t save most <a>reporters</a></b><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">.</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> An email newsletter platform designed to enable reporters to turn readers into paying subscribers, Substack has lured dozens of prominent reporters with the claim of a better business model for journalists to control their destiny and make money. Some, like historian Heather Cox Richardson, have thousands of paying subscribers and generate significant money via their Substack newsletter. But it’s not a solution that will scale and save the industry or even help most reporters. For PR professionals, it will mean evaluating new media targets and explaining to clients why a Substack newsletter represents a worthwhile opportunity.</span></span></li></ol><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">All these issues still remain in force in 2021, and PR functions need to be aware of them in order to be successful in dealing with the media.</span></div><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9465780256449604";
/* 728x90, created 3/28/09 */
google_ad_slot = "6929874911";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
//-->
<script async custom-element="amp-ad" src="https://cdn.ampproject.org/v0/amp-ad-0.1.js"></script></div>Norman Birnbachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05964900498679420101noreply@blogger.com0