Media Experiments Working – And Maintaining Journalism Soul

2019-10-04T11:59:25-04:00By |

For eons, it seems, the news media has been neck deep in the trial and error business. Since long before I left daily journalism 13 years ago, the media, mainstream newspapers in particular, were trying and failing to be something they weren’t – purveyors of celebrity gossip, click baiters, partisan hatchet sheets and worse. At every [...]

Professionalism is in the Copy Edits

2017-11-06T11:08:03-05:00By |

A recent oversight in a small Kansas newspaper reopened a common discussion this week. What was meant to be an innocent story about students getting job experience turned into an NSFW headline, all because they forgot a dash. And the Internet went crazy. Of course, for my network of journalists and media managers, this sparked a [...]

Mining Hidden News Gems in Small Town USA

2018-01-10T14:03:24-05:00By |

Summer’s road trip time for much of America. Families, cars, beaches, mountains, lakes, drive-ins, roadside joints. One of the things I absolutely adore about being on the road (other than force-feeding my children a diet of great rock music) is picking up the local newspaper wherever we stop. There’s typically a great nugget of local news [...]

Stopping Modern-Day Yellow Journalism

2018-01-10T14:03:42-05:00By |

At a time when facts and mutual respect are needed more than ever, some political donors are drafting a blueprint to expand echo chambers. On Sunday, The New York Times reported that the donor class is funneling its cash to partisan organizations with a reputation for designing viral-worthy social media content. You’ve likely seen the posts [...]

Facebook Changes Target Clickbait, Frustrates Social Media Specialists

2018-01-10T14:04:00-05:00By |

Facebook has officially joined the fray to fight against fake news and has recently announced changes to the social media platform. Public relations professionals and social media specialists in particular, should be paying close attention since Facebook will be taking a microscope to the kind of language users employ when editing article headlines and leads. Posts using clickbait-y [...]

The Element of Surprise as a PR Tactic

2018-01-10T14:04:39-05:00By |

Planning a surprise is difficult. Take, for example, a recent surprise party I planned for a friend turning 30—there was an added layer of secrecy to our conversations, as we tried to cover our tracks and avoid any suspicions. We were, after all, relying on that moment of surprise to take an ordinary celebration and make [...]

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