Journalists as Buzzword Killers

A post today from Josh Gordon on words to avoid in content marketing gets to the heart of what content marketers must do: think like journalists.

In his post,  he reports on an effort by PR strategist Adam Sherk to enumerate the frequency of 98 marketing buzzwords in current press releases.  As Sherk acknowledges, he [...]

Content's Evil Twin: Advertorial

This morning, the Los Angeles Times passed yet another milestone on the road to ruin of what was once a great newspaper. When I opened it to section two (the awkwardly named “LATEXTRA”), I experienced the following sequence of thoughts:

Wow, Universal Studios burned down yesterday.
Hold on, it says “ADVERTISEMENT” above the photo.
Oh, this whole thing [...]

Wine, Roses, and Oil: PR and the Truth

Last night I happened to watch  Days of Wine and Roses, a Jack Lemmon-Lee Remick movie from 1962 that, perhaps because of the overexposed theme song, I had resisted for years.

My mistake.  It is a powerful, compelling story of an alcoholic couple whose refusal to acknowledge their alcoholism destroys their relationship. For a movie made [...]

The Great Ghost-Blogging Debate

As he does so often and so well, Mark Schaeffer has sparked yet another fascinating debate on his blog today. Reviving a topic addressed last March by Jon Buscall and Mitch Joel, he argues against their position that CEOs should not use ghost writers for their blogs. While Schaeffer agrees with them in theory, in [...]

Is B2B Ready for Corporate Journalism?

Over the weekend, one of my blog posts from several months ago provoked a comment that was simply too good to let pass unnoticed. It spelled out the feelings of many journalists when faced with the prospect of going over to the dark side, as David Meerman Scott has put it, by writing directly for [...]

Is Your Content Putting You at Risk?

For B2B companies embracing their new role as publishers, the content marketing community has produced a huge archive of valuable advice. There is at least one topic, however, that is rarely discussed: the legal risks and responsibilities of publishing.

The silence is understandable. Most of the time, the kind of publishing that [...]

Editorial Walls: The Good, the Bad, and the Virtual

A post last week in which I wrote approvingly of editorial walls provoked some discussion of the merits of the term. That discussion might have been sufficient for me if it hadn’t been for a coincidental tweet over the weekend from Josh Gordon. Without comment, he linked to an old blog post [...]