The New York Times on "Buzzwords of 2008" -- Which will Survive & Which We Can Forget?

Check 'em out: "The Buzzwords of 2008."

You're sure to find a favorite.

Here are ones I think will last:

• Frugalista: A person who is frugal but fashionable.
• Nuke the Fridge: To ruin a movie franchise; usually attributed to the arrogance of a successful producer or director. The term was coined based on a scene in the latest Indiana Jones movie, in which the hero survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator. The term is patterned after jump the shark, coined a few years ago to refer to anything that had peaked in popularity or quality and was now on a downward slide toward ridiculousness and irrelevancy. However, I think "Jump the Shark" will be the preferred term.
• TBTF: An initialism for “too big to fail,” used to describe very large financial institutions that many believe should be protected from financial collapse. Unfortunately, this will survive long after this recession.
• DWT: Driving While Texting. You know you shouldn't do it, but it's difficult not to multitask. The situation will improve when we can do speech-to-texting. Look for that in 2010.
• Staycation: A vacation from work or school that does not involve traveling. This term will survive 2008. but it still won't be as much fun.

Here are some I don't think will survive:

• Recessionista: A person who stays fashionable during an economic downturn without spending a lot of money. Too similar, and longer way to refer to a Frugalista.
• Terrorist fist jab: A knuckle-to-knuckle fist bump. If the Obamas continue to use that gesture, expect it to be referred to by its initials: TFJ.
• Hockey Mom. Was 2008's Soccer Mom. But in the U.S., more children play soccer than plan hockey so expect to see Soccer Mom prevail as the term of choice in the next election cycle. (That's when pundits talk about demographic groups.)
• Sister Wife: A woman who shares a husband with another woman. Used by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Texas and other polygamous groups. Will retreat to the shadows unless there's another raid on a polygamist home(s).

Interestingly, I had thought buzz words were two words, but the Times considers it to be a single world.

CNN Drops "The Crawl" -- Are "Crawls" Dead...Yet?

New York Times' new media/tech reporter, Brian Stelter reports that CNN has dropped its crawl -- "the unending stream of news capsules that have inched relentlessly across the bottom of cable news programs for seven years, disappeared from CNN last Monday."

Survivors include CNBC, Fox and other cable and broadcast news programs.

Now I wish CNN would stop proclaiming everything it covers as "breaking news." Turning to CNN at random times over the past week, every story seemed to be accompanied by on-screen graphics claiming this to be "breaking news," but most were not. Brian, can you get on that, please?

Meanwhile, check out the story, "The Flipper Challenges the Crawl."

TechCrunch Proclaims "Death to the Embargo"

TechCrunch has been scooped. By PRBackTalk in June. TechCrunch recently announced Death To The Embargo, but we figured embargoes don't easily exist in the Web 2.0 world. Check out my initial post: Can PR Embargoes Survive in a Web 2.0 World?

Now it's true that TechCrunch says death to the embargo from a very different perspective. But the conclusion is the same.

The TechCrunch death-to-embargoes is another example of the growing tension between journalists and publicists (hacks vs. flacks). I've been observing online the growing frustration on both sides (latest installment: PR and the fine art of not being crazy and BadPitch), and while most don't seem to care about it, I think it's fairly obvious what's causing the tension:

• Media companies are going through the worst down cycle since 1987, and perhaps the worst time since the 1930s. The advertising-supported business model no longer works.
  
• Traditional media is also in the midst of seismic changes. We're moving to an online-only model for most newspapers and magazines -- and traditional media doesn't like it. Neither do most PR agencies because clients still want national print coverage, and don't consider online media to be important/worthwhile.
• PR agencies can't agree on metrics for online media so can't merchandise their success the way they could with circulation numbers.
• Online media distinctly works in new ways from traditional media -- and the new rules, which are evolving and not set in stone yet -- are frustrating both hacks and flacks because neither side "gets it" right now. Both sides are operating on assumptions -- like embargoes, for example -- that don't make sense to the other party. (Embargoes, and the penalties for breaking them, used to be something both hacks and flacks understood. That's no longer true.)

As PR executives, we strive to make sense of the changing media environment, and work to educate our clients based on what we see, what we read and what we hear from reporters. But it's important for PR folks to make sure we understand the culture of each channel (like blogs, Facebook or Twitter). Social media isn't a short cut, it's just a new channel. To do it right takes time, patience and understanding.

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WSJ Article Serves as Reminder: Keep Confidential Information Confidential

For all of us in PR, the headline says it all: "Husband of Partner in Financial-PR Firm Stole Information on Mergers."

Newspapers, Magazines Aren't the Only Media Facing Tough Times

Noticed I didn't ask if local broadcasting is dead -- I know it might appear that I've been fixated as of late, but it's been tough times.

In a story yesterday, "Local broadcasters scale back as advertising fades," the Boston Globe reported that local broadcast media -- TV, cable and radio -- are all expecting cutbacks in advertising revenue in 2009, and that most have made administrative and on-air cutbacks.

The article points out that 2008 was a good year due to political ads, and that post-election years are always lower -- so that this trend is not related to the mass migration of print consumers to the Internet.

But it's a reminder that the downturn is casting a wide net, and that traditional media is poised for a tough 2009. That said, until online media can adequately monetize their users, online media is going to face a tough 2009, too.

Are Tech Conferences Dead?

According to the Wall St. Journal, "R.I.P Tech Conferences." The evidence is circumstantial: Apple declined to attend MacWorld.

Apparently, Apple left a note, saying, it has been scaling back its involvement in conferences for years and that “like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers."

Tech conferences began going on life support when Comdex, once one of the biggest conferences in the world, died. CeBIT in Germany is still alive as is CES, but attendance at that show, held the first week in Jan., seems to be down.

I think that large tech conferences are like dinosaurs. They are being replaced by smaller, more focused conferences.

I don't know that in-person trade shows will be replaced by virtual conferences. Those don't seem to have caught on yet.

Webinars are popular, but have not allowed the networking that some people need to do business.

More Newspaper Cutbacks; Expect a Dozen to Be Online-Only in 2009

To the list of online-only newspapers and magazines that started with the Christian Science Monitor and U.S. News & World Report, add the Kentucky Post, and, more significantly both of Detroit's daily papers, the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News.

According to the New York Times' Richard Perez-Pena, "Detroit Newspapers May Sharply Cut Home Delivery; the wounds of both a troubled industry and a hard-hit region," both Detroit dailies will cutback the number of days they deliver their papers to home subscribers -- perhaps as much as three days each week, including Sunday, one of the most profitable days for a home delivery. The papers will also reduce the number of pages they publish that will be available at newsstands.

At this rate, we expect that in 2009, there will be a dozen newspapers that will have transitioned to an online-only business model.