Blog

Welcome to the October 2020 edition of Top Conversations in Technology, where we break down which topics are leading, rising and falling each month to help technology marketers maximize relevance and adapt to changing market dynamics. In this month’s analysis, we focus on variations in news and blog citation volumes month-over-month (versus September 2020) andRead more

Technology is a fascinating, changing story but it’s not always easy to understand. That’s something to keep front-of-mind before sitting down with a reporter. The other thing to remember is that many – maybe most? – of the tech writers you’re going to meet aren’t tech experts. That doesn’t mean they can’t grasp the nuancesRead more

Every presidential election subsumes a massive percentage of the news hole. But like everything else about 2020, this one’s going to be an absolute cluster. COVID. Trump. RBG. Taxes. Protests. The Melania Tapes. And there’s more to come, no doubt. And covering it all is a media so bifurcated that CNN’s opinion desk is consideredRead more

Last month, Barron’s published an editorial by Alex Friedman and Larry Hatheway on the need for the U.S. to move toward more sustainable capitalism. They were right. For the longest time, Wall Street has been rewarding companies that put shareholder value and profits first, often at the expense of their own employees, suppliers and partners.Read more

It’s a classic PR conundrum. A disaster happens. A hurricane. A plane crash. 9/11. You have a relevant story to pitch to press – but do you? Or is doing so just plain tacky? Like never before, PR pros are asking those questions all day and every day. Plainly put, the COVID-19 outbreak is theRead more

There are times to pitch reporters during a crisis and then there are times to stay far, far away. As the world copes with the coronavirus outbreak and its social, business and policy impacts, there are very few “other” stories for the time being. Reporters don’t want to hear about whizzbang new widgets or version 3.X of your SaaSRead more

Five Tips for Executives In Search of the Right Ghost Writer I expect many tech executives must largely live in fear of ghost writers. Putting your name to someone else’s writing is a scary prospect, particularly when so many writers miss the mark. I should know. Earlier in my career, I opened an email fromRead more

Why Do So Few Break Through? When I started out in tech in the Valley, we were still producing physical clip reports using x-acto knives and Elmer’s paste. The office memo was far more commonplace than a relatively new innovation called email. There were dozens of industry publications dedicated to the burgeoning PC revolution, withRead more

It’s not easy for a b2b tech company to break through in a media environment that spends such an inordinate amount of time reporting on the big tech companies, scandals, and, well, big tech companies involved in scandals. Editorial teams continue to shrink and very few dedicate resources to product news anymore. Real-world customer stories stillRead more

I recently binge watched Amazon’s new take on Tom Clancy’s CIA-analyst-turned-field-operative, Jack Ryan (played by John Krasinksi, formerly John Halper in “The Office”). Early in episode one, when the higher-ups at the C.I.A. strongarm Ryan to strap on a SIG-Sauer P226 and hop on a plane to fight terrorists in Yemen, he delivers his takeRead more