commbasics

This post is likely to piss off  a lot of people, but here goes.  The discussion regarding credibility and ethics related to sponsored-content as been civil and illuminating, and has generally reaffirmed my belief that there are now many forms of valid B2B communication, even if one believes one is morally superior to all others.  The one uncomfortable part of the discussion has been the veiled accusations of moral failure for certain individuals and organizations.  So last night I did a quick content snapshot of several publications. On one side I looked at sponsored-content sites, including New Tech Press in that category.  On the other side I looked at three sites that identify themselves as independent journalism . This is what I found.  On the independent sites, there were 40 to 50 pieces of content.  On one site, eight pieces were original and the other 42 were press releases , articles paid for by sponsors, and ads.  On the second s...

Wow.  The past few weeks have been pretty intense as I complete a white paper on Media in the 21st Century (gotta get it done because lots of people are aksing for it.) But in the past week, the conversation, from my audio interview with Kevin Morris of EE Journal has started to get a little heated.  It sort of reminds me of a scene from the movie " The Man Who Would Be King ."  As Michael Caine and Sean Connery are recruiting followers, every tribe has the same thing to say about the tribe that harrasses them. ""We don't like the people who live upstream; they keep pissing down the river on us." Nobody likes their closest competitor and it seems to be required that you blame them for serious moral turpitude .  Only the guy on top has the requirement to be magnanimous. I'm not really a competitive guy.  I have a basic moral code that makes me try to see the good in everyone and everything.  Most of the time it works...

This blog actually began in 1995 as the State of the Media Annual Report to our clients in 1995.  In 2000 as media started to contract and editorial staffs were cut, it came out twice a year, than quarterly.  Then we started this blog, Communications Basics to make distribution easier and to expand into discussions about how corporate communications was changing best practices.  In 2013 we are seeing a solidifying of the media industry around several disparate niches and have discovered how media will work for the foreseeable future. We are in the process of compiling our observations into a white paper on the State of the Media in the 21st Century.  The focus is primarily on the electronics and embedded software industry that we have served for many years, but the concepts are applicable in multiple industries. But instead of giving it away as we have in the past we are asking for something in return.  We want to talk to the people who are in...

Got a call from Rich Nass, brand director of Design News , about an important distinction within the UBM family.  Design News and it's associated conferences are not part of UBM Tech.  Rich works in the division know as UBM Canon, which was originally made up of the print properties that had been purchased a few years ago from Canon Communications , which had acquired the properties from Reed Elsevier , which previously belonged to.... Well, you get the idea, and yes it is hard to keep up with it all. Anywho... UBM Canon is not out of the print game.  Design News is still very much a print AND online enterprise with a healthy circulation (145,000) and online reach of over 300,000 and a boatload of conferences all dedicated to horizontal design industries including manufacturing, medical devices , packaging, pharma, etc. However.... Like UBM Tech, UBM Canon considers itself a "community" driven by the input of it's audience.  Rich says 75 perce...

My posts on the changes at UBM  Tech have been the most popular on this blog since I started it.  Lots of people have weighed in on whether it is good or bad (most say bad) but I've tried to remain neutral.  I'm maintaining that neutrality, especially after talking to UBM Tech CEO Paul Miller last week. Miller has said to me several times in the past couple of years that UBM is a marketing company, not a media company.  In last week's chat he took it to another level.  "UBM Tech is, effectively, out of the magazine business.  We are now running online communities." There have been several comments from people still in the media business expressing doubt that UBM properties can be considered ethical, reliable, trustworthy "real journalism ," etc.  But the answer to all of those concerns is... it's not a media company anymore.  Trying to measure the UBM business model against traditional journalism is like...

A couple of weeks ago I started talking about the changes at UBM which has opened up a torrent of comment and readership on this blog.  Almost doubling the audience.  That's good.     Kevin Morris, nice guy What's even better is that people are really talking about how journalism and Lou Covey, S*** Disturber media is changing.     To be honest, most of the comment has been negative, mostly about UBM, and mostly from competitors and former employees.  Little of that stuff was publishable and after contacting most of them, they all withdrew their comments (Yeah, I'm a nice guy).  But there were some very productive responses and a couple were from Kevin Morris, editorial director of Tech Focus Media .     I emailed Kevin directly and we made a date to talk about it face to face at the Design West Conference in San Jose.  I made my first Spreaker broadcast from it.   And away we go...   Related articles Are j...

How long can they last? Alex Wolfe is leaving UBM  Tech. Just heard it from two sources (neither of them Alex).  Don't know where he's going, but it is a major coup for whoever grabs him.  Alex has been, for a long time, a stalwart of electronics journalism.  He broke the story about the Intel Floating Point error.  He's been edior in chief of Information Week , Design News , IEEE Spectrum .  My first trip to Manhattan was specifically to meet with him, face to face, with a client because the client considered him the most important editor to meet. That's why he's risen as high as he has in the UBM organization and why his loss to them is going to be pretty devastating. The word is everyone on UBM Tech is sending out resumes if they aren't getting offers,  If you look at the EETimes masthead you see 44 editorial positions.  One (executive editor held by George Leopold) was eliminated in January. Both positions for...

Not 5 minutes after I posted I got a rumor that Brian Fuller was leaving his position at the UBM online publication EBN for a corporate position at Cadence Design. I just had it confirmed. Earlier today I posited that the latest downsizing at UBM editorial might have been a step too far and that there would be a voluntary exodus of the talent still on board. Not 5 minutes after I posted I got a rumor that Brian Fuller was leaving his position at the UBM online publication EBN for a corporate position at Cadence Design . I just had it confirmed. I also suggested that people who had been laid off in January would be approached to return and that few would take the offer.  I've learned today that several offers have been rebuffed, even from those that have not yet found permanent employment. Corporations are becoming attractive locales for displaced journalists.  Ron Wilson left UBM, voluntarily, several years ago to be editor in chief for Altera's content engine and ...

Don't get me wrong. The UBM sites produce good content ... right now. But you need people who know what good content is to produce it. I don't know, maybe that's the plan: force the content creators to go to the advertisers and then make them pay to put it on your titles. But what's to stop the advertisers from starting their own titles. Why should they pay? We've been following a string of thought regarding the changes at UBM properties. I've personally avoided making any judgement on the philosophical approach the company has taken.  It is what it is.  However, the recent round of layoffs really cut into the bone of their content development .  Calling Nic Mokhoff, Barbara Jorgenson and Bolaji Ojo redundant... even when you have all stars like Alex Wolfe, Patrick Mannion and Brian Fuller still on the team... is mindboggling to me. UBM has had a habit of cutting back far too much and then having to rehire too fast.  (I remember when Dave Burskey was...