Forecasts and predictions are almost always wrong. That’s half the fun in making them or reading them. As much as professional economists or political wonks like to prognosticate about what the next quarter or the next election holds, the truth is, no one knows until it happens. And even though these “experts” are routinely wrong,
On 2010, Google and Not Giving Up
The blog The How to Write Shop has published a nice review of things that happened in the print and publishing world. Probably the most important item on their list is Google announcing its own online e-book store. Why? Because Google tends to dominate every market it enters. Search, e-mail, office applications, website statistics, online
Be Specific!
In a recent post on her business writing blog, Lynn Gaertner-Johnston talks about the value of giving examples: I was on a United Airlines flight from Seattle to San Francisco this week, when a flight attendant said something I had never heard before. Usually at the end of a flight, passengers hear an announcement about
Three Ways to Make Your B2B Pitch Sink and Six Tips for Making it Stick
Business to business publication editors are busy people, so it’s imperative that when internal or external public relations professionals pitch a story idea to them, they avoid certain mistakes while following some key best practices. Here are three sure ways to lose an editor’s interest right away: 1. Contact them on deadline. It’s a little
Lessons from WikiLeaks?
The recent disclosure of roughly a quarter-million classified US diplomatic files on the WikiLeaks website is certainly astonishing, and not just for the secrets that the documents reveal. What’s truly astonishing is the ease with which the information was stolen. Army intelligence analyst Pfc. Bradley Manning apparently copied the first round of documents, released last
Put Your Content onto Kindle Singles and NOOK
In my last post, I shared two exciting new offerings from the field of e-books: Amazon.com’s new Kindle Singles, aimed at works too long for magazines or too short for a traditional novel, but perfect for the e-marketplace (where size doesn’t matter), and Barnes & Noble’s new NOOKColor e-reader, which offers a tremendous variety of
Kindle, NOOK put more media in front of consumers
Recent news from two leading e-reader manufacturers shows why businesses seeking press exposure need to consider both traditional print sources as well as emerging online media. Amazon.com announced that it will begin offering “Kindle singles,” works that have traditionally been too long for feature magazine articles (less than 10,000 words) but too short for full-length
In Honor of Veteran’s Day
Some may be surprised when they realize just how much the military has contributed to the English language. What follows is a short list of commonly used words and phrases whose roots come from military origins: scuttlebutt: Today, this means rumors or gossip. It’s derived from the term scuttled butt, a barrel (butt) with a
Does the Five-Sentence E-mail Work?
Lynn Gaertner-Johnston recently posted in her Business Writing blog the following question: Does the five-sentence e-mail work? She says that a participant in a business writing program told her that he never produced e-mails longer than the magic five sentence length. To me, this sounds like Twitter, text messaging or other abbreviated, modern forms of
Five lessons from the 2010 election season
Election day is almost here, and it can’t come soon enough, can it? Democrat, Republican, independent, Whig, Tory…whatever your political preference, we’ve been bombarded by political ads on radio, TV and in print that are only slightly less annoying than they are insulting. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEINBjHHvHE[/youtube] What are the lessons to be learned for communicators, whether you’re
Cut through the Media Noise with Editorial Coverage
Attention business owners, marketing professionals, and sales executives. Adblock is not your friend. Neither are Google ads. Facebook? Only if you don’t mind competing with “If you were a reptile, what reptile would you be?” and pictures of Bob’s trip to the beach Twitter? Radio? TV? Direct mail? Cold calls? Face it—it’s hard to get
Let them eat cake?
Let them eat cake! A recent article in the Wall Street Journal on the impact of ebooks on writers, publishers and agents mixed genuine concern for the little guy with a lot of misplaced sympathy for industry fat cats. The article describes how major publishers are signing fewer authors and offering smaller advances due to
E-readers gaining a foothold, survey shows
A new Harris survey on Americans’ use of electronic book readers, or “e-readers,” reveals some interesting trends with impact for anyone who writes or publishes for a living. Overall, just eight percent of the 2,775 adults polled use an e-reader such as the Kindle or nook to read books. However, those polled who do use
New York Times Publisher: Halt the Presses?
Emma Heald writes on editorsweblog.org that Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman and publisher of the New York Times, says the paper will stop making a print version—some day. She quotes him as saying “we will stop printing the New York Times some time in the future, date TBD.” This is another story in the ongoing shift
How Language Affects How We Think
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal gave a fascinating insight into new research that shows the language we speak has profound impacts on how we conceptualize and interact with the world and other people. While scientists have long speculated this premise, there has been little research on the topic since Noam Chomsky’s work
eBooks: overtaking paper siblings?
“The paperless society” has been promised for decades, but until recently, the technologies have not existed that would make dropping pencil and paper practical. That may be changing, however. The signs are everywhere—the precipitous drop in postal mail usage, high school graduates that never learned to write in cursive…and the sudden rise in popularity of
Ebooks, simplified
It used to be so simple—just pick up a paperback and read. Of course, in the digital age, things are more complicated than that. I’ve talked about the trends in digital media, including the iPad, the extremely cool yet expensive tablet from Apple that has set the standard for innovation in media consumption. However, you
Have a point: Five tips for improving your writing
“You know when you’re telling these little stories? Here’s a good idea: have a point. It makes it so much more interesting for the listener!” —Steve Martin Planes, Trains and Automobiles Storytellers and writers have a lot in common. They both need to get a point across. The best writers not only have a point,
Civil Lawsuits: Newspapers’ New Revenue Stream?
A recent article in Wired magazine describes a new revenue source for at least one newspaper—legal settlements and court-awarded fines levied against websites that use copyrighted news stories illegally. The article describes how Steve Gibson, founder of Las Vegas-based “Righthaven,” is going after websites that have allegedly stolen content from his first and only client
Great ways to post documents online
There are many ways to store, share and even let others edit documents that your company produces or content you would like to make available for the public, clients or others. Ranging from basic HTML to the .pdf to newer platforms like Google Docs, sharing documents online is easy and is a far better way
New survey reveals women’s Facebook habits
Did you know that Trade Press Services is a women-owned business? As such, we have a special interest in how women select and consume media, especially new social media like Facebook. You can imagine that a recent survey conducted by Lightspeed Research for Oxygen Media on the Facebook habits of women 18-34 caught my eye.
National media companies get local
A recent posting by Mitch Winkel on the eMarketer blog discusses a new media trend: going “hyper-local” in an attempt to lure in consumers who have abandoned the traditional newspaper as a source for local news. Hyper-local news is content that covers a very specific, finite geographic area, often a single community or even a
Cisco introduces an iPad competitor?
Continuing our iPad analysis here at Trade Secrets, I found it interesting that networking giant Cisco has introduced an iPad clone. However, Cisco was quick to say its pad, the Cius (“see us”), is not a competitor to the iPad, but rather, a pad for the business market. The device will be out in 2011.
Media Observations
FTC to investigate Apple Since Gerri Knilan’s first post on the iPad, the Federal Trade Commisson has decided to launch an investigation into Apple’s policy of not allowing makers of competing devices to gather data from their ads on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. This data is considered indispensable, because it reveals how effective
