By my calculations, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas consume precisely three days of the calendar. But somehow it all translates into a two-month comfort-and-junk food fest, when people tend to pack on some additional pounds. (OK, I’m projecting from my own experience–it’s my seasonal pattern, anyway!) So it was with great admiration that in developing a […]
Category Archives: Public Relations
One of my favorite clients is someone who challenges me regularly to explain what I’m up to. Just today, she asked me about the placement of a news release on a user-generated website owned by the Sun-Times News Group. Why, she wondered, was the piece placed on a community page many miles from where she […]
“No good deed shall go unpunished.” I first heard that phrase from Mike Bailey, my curmudgeonly (in a classic newspaper way) former editor at The Courier News in Elgin, Ill. That’s Mike’s mug you see here to the right. I know Mike didn’t originate the phrase, nor did George Steinbrenner, the longtime (and often curmudgeonly) […]
Today I provided some copy-editing recommendations to a client who had mentioned his website, but without the “www.” part, in an advertisement. Fact: you need not type “www” into the Internet address bar to trek from one website to another. Reality: that fact notwithstanding, if you want to catch the reader’s eye, include “www.” in […]
The moment I saw my brother’s text message last night, I suspected that we had the latest media sensation on our hands. “Joe the plumber making waves in debate,” Andy wrote. At first, I thought some guy named Joe had commandeered a microphone at last night’s third and final Presidential Debate and blasted Barack Obama […]
“I don’t normally pass these types of e-mails along, but…” The “Silly Season” is upon us and so, too, are e-mail chains that begin with phrases along the lines of the one that started this post. Growing up, I learned about Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. I even enjoyed the music of Frankie Valli & […]
We live in the USA–the United States of Acronymia. What’s your initial reaction to that twist on our country’s name? LOL? See, only two sentences into this post, and I’ve dropped two acronyms on you. Lost yet? (LOL is “laugh out loud,” by the way.) One of the biggest enemies of clarity in communication is […]
One of the most rewarding aspects of my work is helping get the word out about newsworthy, interesting subjects, whether they are a client or not. So it was a thrill this morning to get word from a longtime friend, David Ackerman, about prominent mention that MSNBC.com gave a brilliant 10-minute film that he wrote […]
Last week, I offered this equation: October + Baseball=By the Numbers, as I reprised my research-and-writing role for the Daily Herald. I was hoping for a month filled with Chicago baseball. With both the Cubs and White Sox in the post-season, and the Cubs sporting the best record in the National League during the regular […]
Lately, there has been much discussion and debate on my Medill School of Journalism alumni list-serv about what constitutes “mainstream media.” Of course, the phrase is often used in the context of claims that the aforementioned nebulous institution is biased, out-of-touch and worthy of tongue-lashings from all quarters. On a related note, someone recently got […]